My 3-year-old keeps me humble.
When asked what his mom (an ER doc) does: “Mommy goes to the hospital and fixes owies.”
And his dad? “baba...talks on the phone upstairs.”
Nice.
NEW: The 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody had a 104.9 fever on 5/16, the day before she died, according to CBP.
On the day she died - May 17 - a nurse practitioner denied 3 or 4 requests for an ambulance or for a hospital visit, per CBP.
On Wednesday, Dianne received a call. It was her fiance, dialing her from a chicken plant in a nearby Miss. town. He told her ICE was there.
His voice trembling, he said: “Take care of my kids.”
My story on how one family was separated in a major ICE op:
Immigrants held in ICE jails received medical care so bad it resulted in 2 preventable surgeries, inc. an 8-yr-old who had to have part of his forehead removed, & contributed to 4 deaths, according to a complaint from a whistleblower.
My investigation:
NEW: ICE investigators issued a subpoena this week demanding BuzzFeed News identify its sources — an extraordinary attempt by the government to interfere with a news outlet acting under the protections of the First Amendment.
NEW: BuzzFeed News spoke w/ 8 DHS & DOJ officials who who called the Stephen Miller emails “sickening” and “proof” that Miller has been steering a racist immigration policy under President Trump, among other things.
Story:
BREAKING: USCIS officials emailed asylum officers tonight informing them that an asylum directive issued by Ken Cuccinelli in July was "no longer operative" given the court's decision that he was unlawfully appointed.
Yale Law Dean says that nearly every faculty member volunteered to teach international students in person in light of ICE policy.
“One of my colleagues told me that he would teach outside in the snow if he needed to.”
NEW: DOJ IG releases report on the zero tolerance policy -- aka the family separation policy -- finding that the Attorney General was the driving force behind it, failed to prepare for it, and that Jeff Sessions knew it would lead to children being separated from their fams.
DHS reports that there are under 400 unaccompanied children in border custody as of Monday -- that's the lowest total I've seen in quite some time. There were more than 5,000 children in CBP custody in March.
BREAKING: The Biden administration will allow more than 70,000 Afghans in the US to apply for temporary protected status, shielding them from deportation and allowing them to obtain work permits months after the Taliban took over their home country.
Story soon.
NEW: BuzzFeed News has obtained thousands of pages of documents from internal investigations of deaths of immigrants held in ICE custody.
We are releasing all of the case files that have been turned over.
NEW: The DHS response to protests in PDX has disturbed & angered many employees, who called the deployment of the federal force an unusual maneuver that could do long term damage to the agency’s reputation.
From conversations today with 17 DHS employees:
NEW: The Los Angeles Times obtained photos of a coin that says “Haitian Invasion” w/ crossed swords and the words “U.S. Border Patrol."
On the other side it says: “Whipping ass since 1924" w/ an image of a Haitian migrant fleeing BP.
CBP investigating.
SCOOP: Email sent from the DOJ to all immigration court employees this week included a link to a post on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs."
SCOOP- Sec. Mayorkas told CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus this week to resign or be fired by President Biden, according to Magnus in a statement to me.
Story coming for me soon.
NEW: A 30-year-old man died in ICE custody Sunday, according to a source w knowledge of the matter. He had crossed the border after being returned under the Remain in Mexico Program.
I've asked ICE for comment.
SCOOP: ICE spokesman resigned because he believed the Trump administration falsely said 800 people eluded arrest due to Oakland Mayor Schaaf's warning. Details here:
BREAKING: A 22-year-old Guatemalan woman who passed her initial asylum screening and was in detention for several months died in ICE custody at a Texas hospital on Sunday, according to a source.
This is the 8th death in ICE custody since October.
NEW: The US will become just one of just four countries (including Iran) to charge asylum-seekers a fee to apply for protections
“The idea of charging people who are fleeing and not helping if they don't pay up is disgusting,” one asylum officer told me.
My brother Alireza Aleaziz died Saturday. He was 36. Ali suffered through countless challenges during his life, including many hospital visits, but his joy for life never wavered and he touched everyone he came across.
"Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa rally on January 30 show Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event."
Senate/House Dems send letter to ICE & DHS on recent international student policy, urging the agency to withdraw the guidance & calling it "cruel and unconscionable."
Letter signed by
@SenWarren
,
@AOC
& many other prominent Democrats.
NEW: A 44-year-old Mexican man died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Georgia on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Story:
SCOOP: The Biden administration will grant more than 100,000 Haitians in the US the opportunity to gain Temporary Protected Status, shielding them from deportation and allowing them to obtain work permits, according to a DHS doc.
SCOOP: ICE accidentally posted the names, birthdates, nationalities & locations of more than 6K immigrants who claimed to be fleeing torture and persecution to its website Monday.
ICE took down the info after it was up for 5 hours & is investigating.
Spoke w/ an asylum officer tonight who told me: “I think it’s illegal that they closed the border. We cannot decide when we can close the border if there’s no state of emergency. For a couple dozen asylum seekers? That was not an emergency that should justify closing the border."
USCIS employee on seeing naturalization ceremony during RNC:
“It sickened me to my core to watch that spectacle given every directive this administration has taken from day one to demonize immigrant communities, including naturalized ones.”
BREAKING: The acting leader of ICE abruptly resigned on Wednesday, just two weeks into the job after the agency’s previous director also stepped down unexpectedly in December, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
More upheaval at DHS.
The Biden administration is continuing to make progress in relieving the high level of overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities — there are now around 1,400 kids in CBP custody.
Down from 5,300 in March.
Unprecedented: ICE is launching billboards in Pennsylvania with the faces of immigrants who have been released by local police departments under so-called sanctuary policies.
NEW: Border officials confirm that the 8-year-old girl who died this week had been in custody over a week.
On the day she died, her mother brought her to the medical unit of the BP facility 3 separate times.
NEW: A 39-year-old British man died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Saturday — the fifth person to do so since October, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Eight people died in ICE custody during the 2019 fiscal year.
Today is my last day at BuzzFeed News. It has been such a thrill to work here over the last 4 years.
I’ll be joining the LA Times at the end of the month covering immigration alongside the incredibly talented journalists there. Can’t wait!
Here’s acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf telling CBP commissioner Mark Morgan that I’m not a “real journalist” after Morgan sent him my story on DHS officials concerned about Portland:
I know firsthand the impact journalism can have on families.
In the 90s, an Oregonian reporter profiled my parent’s immigration saga. Because of the story, senators got involved. Now my parents are US citizens.
I was 8 at the time and knew then I wanted to be a journalist.
BREAKING: A 32-year-old US citizen who was arrested by Border Patrol agents has died in custody, according to a statement from CBP to congressional officials on Wed.
Border officials said the man had been picked up in an “illegal smuggling incident.”
Scoop - The Biden administration on Monday granted more than 100K Haitians living in the United States the chance to apply for work permits and protection from deportation to their home country, which has been devastated by an earthquake, disease outbreaks, & widespread violence
"BuzzFeed News emphatically rejects any requests for information about possible sources and methods of our reporting,” said BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Mark Schoofs.
BREAKING: Judge Tipton blocks the Biden administration's 100 day deportation moratorium.
Big initial loss for the Biden administration as it moves forward with its immigration policies.
On her way out of the school, she saw one girl looking confused, not knowing where to go because her parents had been arrested too.
“They were crying. They were shocked. They’re just worried,” Dianne said of her fiance’s children. “I’m just trying to stay strong for them."
“This is embarrassing for ICE. I think it is a weak effort to intimidate the press,” said John Sandweg, former acting director of the agency. “When you’re trying to intimidate the press, you cross a line. It is something that the agency should never do.”
BREAKING: The Biden administration is planning to stop the use of a Trump-era policy that forced migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico after a Supreme Court ruling said the government could unwind the program, according to two US government officials.
Story soon.
Teachers opened up the only elementary school in a rural Nebraska town hit by an ICE raid so children whose parents were caught had a place to go.
One teacher took home a 4-month-old baby & her 7-year-old sister whose parents were arrested.
Story:
NEW: An immigration judge was removed from a case and replaced w/ a judge who would order the man in the case deported, a move that smacks of judicial interference by the Trump admin, according to a letter signed by a group of retired judges this week.
Exciting personal news: I’m joining the New York Times to cover immigration and the Department of Homeland Security.
Please email me for my Signal number or to send tips/story ideas!
NEW: The Trump administration introduced a new policy Monday that would penalize immigrants who use public benefits, such as food stamps and housing vouchers, by potentially denying them green cards.
The policy will go into place in 62 days.
NEW: DHS officials have been directed to strike words such as “alien” and “illegal alien” from communications with the public when referring to people who aren’t US citizens in an effort by the Biden administration to recast immigration terminology.
CONFIRMED: Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is resigning effecting 11:59 p.m. tonight. Wolf tells staff that the decision is due to court rulings.
Several federal courts have found his appointment illegal.
“You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time. Any such disclosure will impede this investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal law," it also states.
“This is an absolute crisis,”
@AOC
says of COVID-19 cases in ICE custody. “We cannot allow for this type of humanitarian crisis to happen on our soil in the United States of America.”
BuzzFeed News spoke with the one of the detainees who tested positive:
The subpoena appears to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to track down the identities of people who provide information to news outlets.
CONFIRMED:
Six hours later, ICE confirms my report of the 30-year-old Honduran man who died in ICE custody. Statement below. Story coming.
Congressional officials were notified of the death hours after my report this morning.
.
@SenSchumer
: "I urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to immediately put a stop to these expulsions...We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws."
SCOOP: US immigration officials, including asylum and refugee officers, were told Thursday that they would be fired for leaking information to the media, according to an email sent to staff and...LEAKED to BuzzFeed News.
Dianne’s fiance is father to three children, ages 13, 15, and 19, with his ex-wife who was also undocumented and worked at a separate food plant in the area.
Not long after Dianne’s phone call with her fiance she found out that the kids’ mother was also arrested.
Lots of new details here:
--cameras in the facility were not working
--medical personnel "failed to document numerous medical encounters, emergency antipyretic interventions, and administrations of medicine"
--BP staff were not aware she had sickle cell anemia, per CBP
Administrators at one local Miss. school district told me that a shelter was set up at an elementary school in case any children went home and found that their parents were arrested.
Bus drivers were told to monitor each drop off to make sure someone was home.
NEW: BuzzFeed News has obtained documents -- including a draft presidential proclamation -- that show the Trump administration has been preparing to expand the travel ban.
Story:
SCOOP: The Trump administration wants to expand its DNA testing program by enabling CBP officials to extract genetic material from undocumented immigrants in its custody, according to a draft policy obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Story:
A senior DHS official to me on children being denied asylum if they cross illegally: “It is almost like a punch in the gut. Like, wow, you’ve really gone this far to affect children? And it’s just like, have we sunk this low? That’s my feeling."
NEW: ICE confirms it has stopped deportation flights to Ukraine.
“Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis occurring in Ukraine, ICE has paused repatriation flights to Ukraine. ICE will continue to monitor the ongoing situation and make operational changes as necessary.”
BREAKING: A 72-year-old Canadian man who had tested positive for COVID—19 died in ICE custody at a Virginia hospital on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge.
This is the 17th in custody death this fiscal year, which ends on Sep. 30.
Last FY, there were 8 deaths.
NEW: BuzzFeed News is publishing a draft DHS report that details how border officials apparently pressured asylum officers to deny immigrants entry.
To protect sources, BuzzFeed News has retyped the draft to resemble the original.
SCOOP: Immigrants who were forced by former president Donald Trump to wait in Mexico while they tried to gain asylum will soon start being allowed to enter the US at certain ports as the Biden administration attempts to wind down the controversial policy.
The whistleblower reported that three people had died in ICE lockup after receiving inadequate medical treatment or oversight, and said official reports on a fourth person’s death were “very misleading.” One man died from meningitis following “grossly negligent” care.
Dianne, who requested her last name not be used for fear of consequences for her fiance, sped to the local school where she saw adults coming to pick up children whose parents had been arrested.Some weren’t able to retrieve kids bc they hadn’t been listed as authorized guardians.
BREAKING: A 27-year-old Honduran man died Wednesday after being jailed at a detention center that holds families for ICE in Texas, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
This is the 9th death in ICE custody since October.
Luis Cartagena, a pastor in Morton, Mississippi, said he witnessed ICE agents surround the local chicken processing plant. “It looked like an invasion in a war,” he said.
Cartegna said the operation had already traumatized the Latino community.
“People are terrified,” he said.
NEW: A 61-year-old man died in ICE custody from COVID-19 more than 2 months after a judge ordered his release from prison, saying his ability to defend himself from death from the virus would be “substantially diminished” while locked up, records show.
The allegations appear in a DHS memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News, containing reports of detainees being given incorrect meds, suffering from delays in treating withdrawal symptoms, & one who was allowed to become so mentally unstable he lacerated his own penis & required surgery.
Dreamer Juan Plascencia messages me.
He's 29 & a social studies teacher in Las Vegas:
"Absolutely shocked. Amazed. A lot of emotions. As a history teacher I teach about days like this. DACA is here to stay and our humanity is validated."
STORY: A federal judge in Washington DC ruled Sunday that Ken Cuccinelli, the head of USCIS, had not been lawfully appointed to his job and a policy directive speeding up initial screenings of immigrants seeking asylum during his tenure should be voided.
Here is what a former sr ICE official said about this report:
“This is significant & very damning. It blows up a lot of the ICE responses to allegations of poor medical care & about how it provides ‘the highest care of detainees.’ This makes that seem pretty false, which it is.”
NEW: Nearly a dozen immigrants arrested by ICE were kept in solitary confinement for more than 2 months, including 2 people who were isolated for more than 300 days, according to a draft Department of Homeland Security IG report obtained by BuzzFeed News.
SCOOP: .
@SenFeinstein
&
@KamalaHarris
are calling for an investigation into the resignation of an ICE spokesman who quit because he believed Trump admin officials falsely said 800 people eluded arrest due to Oakland Mayor Schaaf's warning of a sweep
NEW: The Biden administration is officially scrapping the Trump-era citizenship test and going back to the 2008 version, confirming
@BuzzFeedNews
reporting 2 weeks ago —>
SCOOP: DHS attorneys dropped an "aggravated felony" charge against 21 Savage in immigration court yesterday. DHS is only proceeding on his "visa overstay."
“They had to,” his attorney said. “It didn’t exist,” he said of any felony conviction. “They didn’t do their homework."
NEW: An arm of the DOJ regularly sent summaries and links to articles from an online white nationalist publication over the last year, a BuzzFeed News investigation has found.
Story w/
@RMac18
&
@jsvine
"He called the Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, who is Black, “a gap-toothed wildebeest” and referred to former President Barack Obama as a “Muslim savage.”
John Sandweg, former director of ICE, said the operation would have a long term impact on the immigrant community.
“This is a high profile way to send a message and to create more fear in immigrant communities about ICE and about their ability to live and work in this country."
According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent court employees a link to a blog post from VDare in its morning news briefing earlier this week that included anti-semetic attacks on judges.
BREAKING: A 34-year-old Mexican man died while in the custody of ICE at an Ohio hospital Thursday, according to a source familiar.
The death marks the 7th while in ICE custody during the 2020 fiscal year — one short of the number of deaths in FY 2019.
Prosecutions of employers and owners of companies who knowingly hire undocumented workers can be rare. Researchers at the University of Syracuse found that in the 12 months before March, just 11 employers had been prosecuted.