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Saira Hussain

@sairahussain.bsky.social
148 followers 120 following 5 posts

Senior Staff Attorney at EFF focused on racial and immigrant justice, surveillance, & tech. Asian Law Caucus alum. Baker & dessert aficionado. Views my own.

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Reposted by Saira Hussain
brian nam-sonenstein @bson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
ICE cannot do what it’s doing without local law enforcement. They need their manpower and infrastructure. That means if you want to stop ICE you are going to have to confront police collaboration and police power. I’m sorry but progressive hopes of avoiding this conflict are a recipe for failure.
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
to be clear, the admin is alleged to have deported AT LEAST 25,447 individuals TO COUNTRIES THAT ARE NOT THEIR OWN with, evidently, ZERO PROTECTIONS. this is a scandal and crime of historic proportions.
forbiddenstories.org
The Deportation Project Map
Between 2025 and August 2026, the Trump administration deported over 25,000 people to countries other than their country of origin. Very few of these removals were publicly announced by the US. The De...
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 16/09/2026
“We don’t actually know if [automated license plate readers are] functioning in the way that they’re supposed to in terms of helping public safety, but we do know that they are definitely invading people’s privacy,” EFF’s @sairahussain.bsky.social told @lancasteronline.bsky.social.
lancasteronline.com
Lancaster County lawmakers support regulating Flock cameras
Across Lancaster County, video cameras are recording the license plates of passing cars, along with their vehicle make, model and paint color, and storing that information in searchable databases.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 14/09/2026
“You’re not going to be able to stop this mass surveillance technology by moving to another vendor,” EFF’s @sairahussain.bsky.social told @theverge.com. “The only thing that is going to solve this whole problem is not relying on this technology.”
theverge.com
What happens after a town de-Flocks
Flock is just one piece of the mass surveillance puzzle.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 04/09/2026
I was in a public space that had a TV news channel on ("news"), and it was one of those useless "here's a white lady in court" stories where they do 24/7 coverage for a few weeks, and I genuinely wonder: how do we get them to do the same coverage of our gov murdering people in international waters?
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 26/08/2026
EFF’s position is that ALPR mass surveillance—the indiscriminate, continuous collection and retention of location data on every driver, regardless of suspicion—should not exist. Because it nonetheless does, EFF also urges courts and state legislatures to impose strict, enforceable restrictions.
eff.org
EFF's Policy Position on ALPR Surveillance: Eliminate It and Reduce Its Harms
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) build a searchable map of everywhere a driver goes, fed into databases that police, ICE, and private vendors can query after the fact. Networked across a city, ...
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Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 14/07/2026
Breaking: A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an immigration policy targeting noncitizen researchers, advocates, fact-checkers, and trust and safety workers based on their work. knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...
knightcolumbia.org
Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 14/07/2026
Cities across the nation are re-evaluating whether to allow mass surveillance by Flock ALPR cameras. Want to find out whether your local police are using Flock to scan for immigrants targeted by ICE? EFF tells you how. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
eff.org
Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants?
When a car passes an automated license plate reader (ALPR), its plate is captured and instantly compared against a list of vehicles that police are actively looking for or that police have identified
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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The most elegant tense in English, the Law Enforcement Exonerative
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 25/06/2026
When a license plate is captured by an automated license plate reader (ALPR), it’s instantly compared against a list of vehicles that the police are actively looking for, known as a “hotlist.” EFF has learned that one of these hotlists targets immigrants on behalf of ICE. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
eff.org
Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants?
When a car passes an automated license plate reader (ALPR), its plate is captured and instantly compared against a list of vehicles that police are actively looking for or that police have identified
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Saira Hussain @sairahussain.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I'm so excited for this!
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Mario Trujillo @mariotrujillo.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Meta’s conclusion that it can avoid scrutiny by releasing a privacy invasive product during a time of political crisis is craven and morally bankrupt. It is also dead wrong. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
eff.org
Seven Billion Reasons for Facebook to Abandon its Face Recognition Plans
Meta’s analysis that it can avoid scrutiny by releasing a privacy invasive product during a time of political crisis is craven and morally bankrupt. It is also dead wrong.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
reminds of that old bible story of how people were hungry and jesus conjured himself a security detail bsky.app/profile/carl...
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Saira Hussain @sairahussain.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
👋 We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
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Sean Marotta @smmarotta.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
"Although the law is clear, deep-state actors in the federal government have for decades" thwarted me, I will write in my next brief.
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
If nothing else today, I got USA Today to print my analogy of the significance of ICE administrative warrants. www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
The guy genuinely gave a shit. And the empathy vampires murdered him for it.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Literally 10 days ago, Hoeven introduced a bill to make concealed carry easier across the nation to help "law-abiding citizens to more freely exercise their Second Amendment rights." www.hoeven.senate.gov/news/news-re...
01.14.25
Hoeven Helps Introduce Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act
Legislation Would Allow Concealed Carry Permits to Be Used Across State Lines, Subject to State & Local Laws
WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven helped introduce the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, legislation sponsored by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state to exercise those rights in any other state that allows concealed carry. Importantly, the bill protects state sovereignty by not establishing a national standard for concealed carry, instead treating concealed-carry permits similarly to state-issued drivers’ licenses, allowing them to be used across state lines while still requiring individuals to abide by that state’s laws. Hoeven has cosponsored this legislation every session of Congress since 2015.

          “This legislation empowers law-abiding citizens to more freely exercise their Second Amendment rights when traveling across state lines,” said Senator Hoeven. “Under our bill, individuals that have been granted a concealed carry permit in their home state will be able to use that permit in any other state that allows concealed carry, making it easier to travel while still respecting laws passed on the state level.”
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
New: Alex Pretti, the man killed by the Trump-Vance mob of agents was an outdoorsmen, a mountain biker, an ICU nurse who "would go out of his way to help," say Veterans Affairs colleagues. Cheerful. Funny. Gentle. And still, per sources, Trump officials are urging staff to call him a "terrorist."
zeteo.com
DHS Shooting Victim in Minneapolis Was a ‘Sweet’ and ‘Principled Person’
Zeteo spoke with two doctors who worked with Alex Pretti, a nurse who is the latest victim of Trump’s violent invasion of Minnesota.
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
The official policy of the government of the United States of America is that they will murder anyone they want, that they will tell any lie necessary to justify that murder, and that no one who resists them has any rights they are bound to respect. /1
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Osita Nwanevu @ositanwanevu.com · 24/01/2026
We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.
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Matt McDermott @mattmfm.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
ICE is now responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis this year.
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 24/01/2026
in trying to understand what makes ICE and CBP so dangerous right now, it is tempting to imagine some new lack of training or experience or professionalism—and not grapple with the truth that a white nationalist movement has put more power and force behind their existing mission
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Bill Childs @billchilds.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
“Federal agents briefly detained our reporter at the scene, who says he was tackled to the ground and had a gun put in his face.”
bringmethenews.com
BREAKING: Federal agent shoots man in south Minneapolis
A Bring Me The News reporter was near the scene, and recorded multiple gunshots.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Rapid responders still out there, tracking ICE. In spite of everything, even now. Heroes
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
I am trying not to post on these events in this state of mind but: I hope people understand what the observers are doing is brave and dangerous.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure

4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: 
a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency.

b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I would argue that the case for dismantling ICE has, at this point, virtually nothing to do with larger questions of immigration enforcement and reform, it's just clearly incompatible with a free and democratic society to maintain a secret police force with sweeping and arbitrary authority.
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Bill Corbett @billcorbett.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
People not in Minnesota: please read this excellent summary of what life is like in Minneapolis since the murderous scum ICE swarmed here. And more are on their way. By local reporter / writer / bike dude / legend @dbrauer.net .
Text: “A friend said those of us who live in Minneapolis should write about what's going on here for folks who live elsewhere. You need to know that whether you're a Republican, Independent or Democrat, the Constitution is being violated by our federal government. This is not about catching criminals, or even deporting people. It is about punishing an entire state, including
citizens, for not supporting the president. Everyone in my part of Minneapolis is affected. On our streets, ICE is stopping people of color and demanding their papers. In America. US citizens do not have to prove citizenship to ICE. Yet people are being intimidated, some cases beaten up and detained, for requiring ICE to follow the law. ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter homes. Yet there are documented cases of them
ignoring the law - violating a bedrock constitutional principle. Americans of color are staying home, afraid to go to work, school, to grocery shop, or fill their cars with gas. This isn't just "illegals" or immigrants with valid work permits, it is citizens who have had their cars rammed by ICE for merely looking Hispanic. Businesses are closing. Schools are 50 percent full. When they are open, fascists are calling in bomb threats because the
president decided to make us a meme. After a daycare teacher with a valid work permit (through 2030) was snatched from her workplace, parents (and grandparents) have had to organize to watch their SCHOOLS, to make sure conditional rights are observed. This is being repeated throughout Minnesota. Imagine trying to do your job or live you life while also taking volunteer shifts to make sure the federal
government doesn't act extrajudicially.
Because of ICE's documented abuses, neighbors have organized to monitor federal actions. This observation is legal, as long as it doesn't interfere with a valid action. Yet since ICE killed Renee Good, they are increasingly stopping this observation, breaking car windows and …”
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William C. @williamcson.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Once you understand that you're dealing with murderous liars, you stop entertaining what they say as possibly credible and legitimate. The fight against them is about stopping them from terrorizing and killing by any means, not winning debates about your reality versus theirs.
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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 03/10/2025
Putting aside Kilmar Ábrego García’s fate in immigration court, which is not a real court: He has been winning at every step of the federal judiciary, in a maze of criminal and civil cases, and that’s why the Trump administration is throwing everything at him. This streak continues in Tennessee:
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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
If I were JD Vance, I would consider whether God is perhaps sending me some fairly specific messages
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Always remember that Brad Karp decided it wasn’t worth standing up for the rule of law when his firm of Paul Weiss was targeted. Never forget it, not for a minute.
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Howell drips with disdain for the firms who capitulated to the White House and says of those who resisted "will be the models lauded when this period of American history is written." ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
JUST IN: Judge HOWELL rules forcefully in favor of Perkins Coie against Trump's punitive executive order, comparing him to a Shakespearean character who famously called to "kill all the lawyers" in order to amass power. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
I’ve watched too many of these raids to count. This one is one of the most infuriating in recent memory. Appropriate that we learn about it on the same day SCOTUS hears oral arguments for a case that may remove the last remaining way to hold federal agents accountable for this kind of terror.
kfor.com
'We're citizens!': Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren't suspects
A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings – even though they were …
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Saira Hussain @sairahussain.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Let's call this out for what it is: a kidnapping. This is every parent's worst nightmare.
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Adam Steinbaugh @adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Massachusetts federal court will allow @aaup.bsky.social First Amendment challenge to Trump administration's unwritten policy targeting noncitizen "speech that could be construed as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel" to move forward. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 24/04/2025
US citizens aren't legally required to carry citizenship documents, but “the law is divorced from reality,” EFF’s Saira Hussain told @huffpost.com - the practical reality is that DHS, CBP, and ICE “may not necessarily be following case law at the moment.”
huffpost.com
You Don't Have To Carry Proof Of U.S. Citizenship. But Amid ICE Detainments, You Might Want To.
Just last week, a U.S. citizen was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
this is, by definition, not an "immigration crackdown"
AXIOS Trump administration officials are suggesting their immigration crackdown could expand to
include deporting convicted U.S. citizens and charging anyone — not just immigrants - who
criticizes Trump's policies.
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
This drives me mad. If polls say voters don’t disapprove of disappearing people to gulags, then the voters are fucked up and need to be persuaded or shamed into decency. You can’t just treat a view like that as an unshakeable given. There’s no modus vivendi with a fundamentally indecent electorate.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
How are things going with respect to the discovery before Judge Xinis in Abrego García? Well, the government describes as a “false premise” that it “has been ordered to facilitate Abrego García’s release.” (That’s *literally* what #SCOTUS held.) pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/84/578815/09...
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Almost every line of this story would have been simply unbelievable a few months ago: —Pioneering cancer researcher; —*Arrested* at airport in Boston; —Now indefinite ICE detention in Louisiana; —"Crime": not declaring some frog-embryo samples for research. Read it. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
New images could change cancer diagnostics, but ICE detained the Harvard scientist who analyzes them
Without scientist Kseniia Petrova’s expertise, no one can fully unlock the data’s potential, putting crucial advancements in early cancer detection at risk.
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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 22/04/2025
Mahmoud Khalil's baby arrives: "My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/n...
nytimes.com
Mahmoud Khalil’s Son Arrives After ICE Refuses to Let Him Attend Birth (Gift Article)
Mr. Khalil, a permanent resident detained in Louisiana, had requested a monitored furlough for the birth. His request was denied in less than an hour.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Last week, DHS and Secretary Noem's staff and spokespeople suggested that because Mr. Abrego Garcia had $1,100 in cash on him when arrested outside Home Depot seeking day labor, that was strong evidence that he was a member of MS-13. I guess that raises a similar question about her $3,000.
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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
The Bush administration disappeared people too, sent them to a different gulag at Gitmo and other black sites, kidnapped people off the street of Milan, tortured them, in the name of "a different kind of war." We didn't come close to holding them accountable. We're seeing the cost of that now.
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
INCREDIBLE opinion by Wilkinson refusing to stay Judge Xinis's orders in the Abrego Garcia case, condemning DOJ's arguments as "shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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