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sarahpierce.bsky.social

@sarahpierce.bsky.social
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Democrats should embrace angel families. Republicans will keep pushing the sanctuary narrative. Democrats need a better answer: frame participation policies around public safety & hold this Admin accountable for its MANY failures to keep communities safe. www.thirdway.org/memo/democra...
thirdway.org
Democrats Need a New Approach to Sanctuary Cities
Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Last week, I testified at a sanctuary cities hearing where two grieving "angel" parents asked Democrats to care. We should. That doesn’t mean accepting Trump’s anti-immigrant story. It means honoring every victim, examining failures, & fixing what's actually wrong www.thirdway.org/memo/democra...
thirdway.org
Democrats Need a New Approach to Sanctuary Cities
Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Trump & Republicans aren't just pouring money into ICE. They're shifting the focus of law enforcement. That doesn't just increase immigration enforcement. It distorts the mission of our public safety infrastructure. See more in this brilliant & important op-ed: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
usatoday.com
When law enforcement takes on immigration, our safety is the cost | Opinion
President Donald Trump signed a $70 billion funding bill, pushing law enforcement into immigration enforcement. But this is more than a budget story.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Yesterday I testified on sanctuary policies. The parents who also testified deserved a serious debate about public safety & a functioning immigration system. Instead, Republicans used the hearing to mislead & defend an admin chasing deportation numbers over safety. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXqx...
youtube.com
TW's Sarah Pierce Testifies at House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Sanctuary Cities
YouTube video by ThirdWayVideo
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
More! Trump is defunding the police: thirdway.org/memo/trumps-... The Trump admin is making policing more difficult: thirdway.org/memo/how-the... DOJ's ideological hijacking of public safety grants: thirdway.org/memo/dojs-id...
thirdway.org
Trump’s Covert Cuts to Law Enforcement
Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
A real pro-police agenda would deliver resources, strengthen trust, support local departments, & keep politics out of public safety funding. This week it is more relevant than ever for Dems to press the admin on the many ways they're prioritizing politics over public safety.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
For the few grants that are going out the door, the admin is weighing them down with unrelated ideological conditions. Conditions include DEI, vaccines, gender, immigration, and even protection of public monuments.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Rings of defunding, huh? And further, DOJ has terminated HUNDREDS of grants. Terminated grants include funding tied to reducing rural crime, improving officer wellness, police training, anti-terrorism training, rural violent crime reduction, and gun violence prevention.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
🚨 This week is Police Week — a fitting time to examine this admin's utter failure to support police & public safety. To start, the majority of DOJ public safety funds from FY25—LAST YEAR—still have not been granted. That's delays for police departments, prosecutors, & more.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Read the full letter here: www.gallego.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
gallego.senate.gov
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Also great work by @gallego.senate.gov & 29 Dem senators drawing attention to this issue. The Senators say it best: "This diversion represents...a stunning abdication of the basic responsibilities of the executive branch to the American people, and a direct threat to the security of...the country."
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Greg resists facism @gregwalk.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Read this.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
I’m incredibly proud of the four former USCIS civil servants who joined me on this op-ed, and the dozens more who contributed. We want a fair, lawful immigration — for families, workers, students, and employers — read the full op-ed & share your thoughts. www.newsweek.com/former-uscis...
newsweek.com
Former USCIS Officials: There Is a Quiet Immigration Crisis No One Is Watching | Opinion
What is at stake is this nation’s ability to manage immigration in a way that is consistent with its laws.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The damage inflicted by this administration endangers whether we can have an immigration system that works — one that reflects our laws and our ideals.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The damage we’re describing won’t disappear after an election. It lingers in the battered and reoriented workforce— through backlogs, wrongful denials, and a system no one trusts anymore.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
That matters — not just for people waiting years for green cards, work permits, or family reunification — but for U.S. citizens, businesses, universities, and our economy. A hollowed-out USCIS doesn’t make America safer — it makes the system slower, harsher, and more unpredictable.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
USCIS is no longer functioning as the agency Congress created — one that administers the lawful immigration system. Instead, it’s increasingly enforcement-oriented, politicized, and opaque.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Collectively, we spent 84 years inside USCIS, across 6 administrations. What we’re seeing now is not normal. We are witnessing a quiet crisis in the legal immigration system—the deterioration of the very agency that is supposed to make immigration work fairly and predictably.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
I wrote out all that I was seeing and what started as my own experience quickly became something shared by dozens of former USCIS colleagues — all alarmed at the same thing. This op-ed is the result of that collective voice: www.newsweek.com/former-uscis...
newsweek.com
Former USCIS Officials: There Is a Quiet Immigration Crisis No One Is Watching | Opinion
What is at stake is this nation’s ability to manage immigration in a way that is consistent with its laws.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Last April, I left @uscisgov.bsky.social heartbroken by how career civil servants were treated — and honestly terrified for what that meant for America’s legal immigration system. What I saw inside wasn’t normal — and I couldn’t unsee it.
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Reposted by Sarah Pierce
America's Voice @americasvoice.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
“The single biggest difference between this version of the Trump administration and the last one is the shift from the border to the interior of the country.” @sarahpierce.bsky.social details how the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
We need USCIS focused on integrity, speed, and fairness—not political theater. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Crackdown in Wake of Shooting Blocks Legal Pathways for Migrants
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
From the inside & out, USCIS is being pushed away from its Congressionally-mandated mission and into immigration enforcement As I told NYT, when USCIS is used for rapid-response enforcement or mass “re-vetting,” everyone loses—families, employers, & the system’s credibility.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Because why would you show up for court and risk being arrested and taken into custody, just for trying to apply for lawful status? The data is available here: www.justice.gov/eoir/workloa...
justice.gov
Workload and Adjudication Statistics
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
New data shows the Trump administration's attack on due process is working exactly as intended... In FY25, in absentia removal orders (those handed down when a noncitizen fails to show up for immigration court) increased by 40% overall & by more than 160% for asylum applicants.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
“Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” - Charles Tiefer
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
The National Sheriff's Association's statement: sheriffs.org/sites/defaul... Another article on the poaching efforts, some of which have included DIRECT EMAILS to officers with cash incentives: www.governing.com/management-a...
governing.com
ICE Is Poaching Local Officers, Angering Some Police Chiefs and Sheriffs
A new ICE hiring drive with big signing bonuses is pulling state and local talent into federal jobs, straining departments already struggling to retain staff.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
The National Sheriff's Association pushback was biting: "[T]his list has not only violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement, but it also has the potential to strain the relationship between Sheriffs and the White House"
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Effective immigration enforcement depends on cooperation with local police — not conflict. Yet this administration keeps undermining that partnership: first with a bogus “sanctuary list" it deleted after sheriffs pushed back. Now by poaching police to quickly fill ICE’s ranks.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
@repgabevasquez.bsky.social with a great pro-law enforcement message against ICE's recent tactics: www.abqjournal.com/opinion/arti...
abqjournal.com
OPINION: On New Mexico's border, ICE's raids are making us less safe
If you log onto social media today, you’ll see a horrifying reel of ICE’s increasingly brutal immigration enforcement tactics.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
"In Albuquerque and elsewhere, ICE has attempted to recruit officers from local law enforcement, a desperate move local police chiefs rightly warn will compromise local public safety. Diverting local officers from investigating violent crimes... does nothing to make our streets safer."
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
For a smart look at both history and policy: 📰 NYT Magazine: “Trump, Sanctuary Cities & States’ Rights” nytimes.com/2025/10/17/m... 💡 My Third Way memo: “Sanctuary Isn’t What You Think" thirdway.org/memo/sanctua...
nytimes.com
What Trump’s War on Sanctuary Cities Is Really About
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
That's what I explored in my @thirdway.bsky.social memo: EVERY jurisdiction participates in federal immigration enforcement, but each tailors how to protect trust and keep people safe amid Washington’s overreach.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
In so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, police aren’t blocking ICE. They’re deciding how much to help, weighing public safety needs and limited resources — the same calculation any responsible department makes.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
The piece shows this tension isn’t new — it’s part of a long fight over who controls enforcement: Washington or local officials on the ground who know their communities best.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
“Sanctuary cities” aren’t lawless — they’re practical. Local police are balancing safety and resources while D.C. plays politics. NYT Magazine's latest backs up what I argued for @thirdway.bsky.social: sanctuary policies are about smart governance, not defiance.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Homeland Security Investigations has played a leading role in combatting human trafficking, but President Trump re-wrote the agency’s mission on day 1 to focus instead on his deportation quota. This is not an administration that is serious about public safety. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/a...
nytimes.com
Kristi Noem Says ICE Will Be ‘All Over’ the Super Bowl
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Human trafficking spikes at events like the Super Bowl. Yet this admin is deploying ICE to arrest “illegal aliens” in response to a halftime performance. They’ve pulled officers who fight trafficking to instead do civil immigration enforcement—a perfect snapshot of their broken priorities.
Screen shot of a NY Times article entitled “Kristi Noem says ICE will be ‘all over’ the Super Bowl”
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Excited to share my first piece with @thirdway.bsky.social: breaking down what “sanctuary” really means—and why the Trump admin’s narrative doesn’t match reality. Spoiler: every jurisdiction in America helps ICE. Here’s the real story ⬇️
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 03/10/2025
NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.
projects.propublica.org
Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.
ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...
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Reposted by Sarah Pierce
Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Shelters that house unaccompanied minors are bracing for "Freaky Friday," the start of an ICE operation that will first issue letters to children, seeking to pressure them to return to the countries they've fled in exchange for a cash payment. If they decline, their parents will be targeted by ICE.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
This is horrific. The harder it gets for the Trump admin to reach their arrest & deportation quotas, the more ruthless their pressure for self-deportation will get. This time? They’re trying to get kids to self-deport.
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Melissa Ryan @melissaryan.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
I always pay attention to what stories People Magazine and other consumer media outlets cover. That's how you can tell that something has broken through the usual political and news bubbles. This horrific Chicago story has broken through. people.com/ice-agents-o...
people.com
ICE Agents Rappel from Helicopter in Overnight Chicago Raid, Dragging Kids from Beds to U-Hauls
Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 30, federal agents from different agencies raided an apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, pulling men, women and children — some of them allegedly naked — from ...
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Democrats should just start carrying Cava bags everywhere. Nonstop.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
This is a great piece throughout, but these are the numbers that will continue to live rent-free in my head: "In 2017, [Homan] declared assets totaling a maximum of just $250,000 on his ethics disclosures... By 2025, his net worth had grown to between $3 million to $9 million..."
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Even before the $45 billion for detention money started leaving the government, Trump officials were already self-dealing. When contract bidders hire someone with direct ties to the border czar to ‘help win work,’ that’s not innovation — it’s corruption.
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Anjali Enjeti @anjalienjeti.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
My god. “Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”
chicago.suntimes.com
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.
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Reposted by Sarah Pierce
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion. Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.
"It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face," Fisher said. "They asked my name and my date of birth and asked me, did I have any warrants? And I told them, 'No, 'Ididn't."
Fisher said she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Bottom line—Sanctuary is a misnomer. These jurisdictions are engaged in thoughtful, locally tailored participation designed to protect safety, resources, & trust—they shouldn't be subject to political theater. Read my first piece with @thirdway.bsky.social here: www.thirdway.org/memo/sanctua...
thirdway.org
Third Way
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Sarah Pierce @sarahpierce.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
This piece reframes the debate: ⚖️ The question isn’t whether “sanctuaries” enforce immigration law—they do The real question: Why does the admin shame jurisdictions that set reasonable limits on the time they divert from public safety priorities to carry out the fed gov's job?
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