Ann Garcia
@anngarcia.bsky.social
Attorney at the National Immigration Project @nipnlg.bsky.social
Reposted by Ann Garcia
During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.
It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’
During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.
It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
After her hearing at 26 Federal Plaza, a woman was detained and escorted toward the stairwell. Her husband, confused and in shock, was guided toward the exit. Minutes later, he broke down in the elevator. They entered together, but he left alone. This happens here daily. #ICE
September 11, 2025 at 9:25 PM
After her hearing at 26 Federal Plaza, a woman was detained and escorted toward the stairwell. Her husband, confused and in shock, was guided toward the exit. Minutes later, he broke down in the elevator. They entered together, but he left alone. This happens here daily. #ICE
It's hard to think of a workplace raid more perverse than this. One of the contract firefighters put it well:
“You risked your life out here to save the community,” the firefighter said. “This is how they treat us.”
“You risked your life out here to save the community,” the firefighter said. “This is how they treat us.”
🚨Border Patrol arrested two firefighters who were actively fighting a wildfire at the time.
When the other members of the crew asked for a chance to say goodbye, a Border Patrol agent told the crew member “you need to get the f*ck out of here. I’m going to make you leave.”
When the other members of the crew asked for a chance to say goodbye, a Border Patrol agent told the crew member “you need to get the f*ck out of here. I’m going to make you leave.”
August 28, 2025 at 3:04 AM
It's hard to think of a workplace raid more perverse than this. One of the contract firefighters put it well:
“You risked your life out here to save the community,” the firefighter said. “This is how they treat us.”
“You risked your life out here to save the community,” the firefighter said. “This is how they treat us.”
Reposted by Ann Garcia
"Pedro Hernández, a Cuban man ICE detained during a routine check-in in July, was hospitalized during the strike. He continues to refuse food." wearemitu.com/wearemitu/ne...
Hunger Strike at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Enters 11th Day as Detainees Protest Inhumane Conditions
Detainees at Alligator Alcatraz are starving to be heard, while officials deny the hunger strike is even happening.
wearemitu.com
August 5, 2025 at 4:42 AM
"Pedro Hernández, a Cuban man ICE detained during a routine check-in in July, was hospitalized during the strike. He continues to refuse food." wearemitu.com/wearemitu/ne...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
🚨 We just filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after ICE unlawfully deported two families, including three U.S. citizen children, to Honduras.
ICE denied them due process. We’re demanding accountability.
Read more: nipnlg.org/news/press-r...
ICE denied them due process. We’re demanding accountability.
Read more: nipnlg.org/news/press-r...
July 31, 2025 at 11:19 PM
🚨 We just filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after ICE unlawfully deported two families, including three U.S. citizen children, to Honduras.
ICE denied them due process. We’re demanding accountability.
Read more: nipnlg.org/news/press-r...
ICE denied them due process. We’re demanding accountability.
Read more: nipnlg.org/news/press-r...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
Great piece on Alexandria LA as an ICE Air hub. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
How Louisiana Built Trump’s Busiest ICE Deportation Hub (Gift Article)
ICE wants to make immigration enforcement as efficient as FedEx or Amazon. Louisiana was poised for this moment.
www.nytimes.com
July 31, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Great piece on Alexandria LA as an ICE Air hub. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
This week, I wrote about Ingrid Mejia, a Guatemalan egg farmworker who spent more than four months in ICE detention after a traffic misdemeanor, while her 3-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, was stuck in foster care. www.reuters.com/world/us/an-...
An American toddler in foster care, a mom in ICE detention
A brief jail sentence turned into over four months in an immigration detention cell for the mother and an extended stay in foster care for son
www.reuters.com
July 27, 2025 at 5:54 PM
This week, I wrote about Ingrid Mejia, a Guatemalan egg farmworker who spent more than four months in ICE detention after a traffic misdemeanor, while her 3-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, was stuck in foster care. www.reuters.com/world/us/an-...
Memoria - Verdad - Justicia
How 36 Mayan Women in Guatemala Came Together to Prosecute Their Attackers
Systematically assaulted during Guatemala’s civil war, 36 Mayan women made a final bid for justice.
www.nytimes.com
July 26, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Memoria - Verdad - Justicia
Reposted by Ann Garcia
This new policy basically means all immigrants have no due process rights and can be detained indefinitely. Once again like the student detentions and like CECOT, the Trump administration is using immigration detention, which both parties built up, as a testing ground for its authoritarianism...
Exclusive: The Trump administration has declared that immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court, according to documents reviewed by The Post.
ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings
A memo from ICE’s acting director instructs officers to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 15, 2025 at 4:04 AM
This new policy basically means all immigrants have no due process rights and can be detained indefinitely. Once again like the student detentions and like CECOT, the Trump administration is using immigration detention, which both parties built up, as a testing ground for its authoritarianism...
This is a great thread by @jonfeinberg.bsky.social and something we've been thinking about a lot. For immigration lawyers trying to wrap their heads around FTCA, see our FAQ, which we're working on updating: nipnlg.org/work/resourc...
July 3, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This is a great thread by @jonfeinberg.bsky.social and something we've been thinking about a lot. For immigration lawyers trying to wrap their heads around FTCA, see our FAQ, which we're working on updating: nipnlg.org/work/resourc...
Read on the same day:
“[Mr. Abrego Garcia] suffered ‘severe beatings,’ sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture at the hands of his jailers.”
BIA: “The substandard prison conditions referenced … which may include severe overcrowding and lack of food, do not amount to torture …"
“[Mr. Abrego Garcia] suffered ‘severe beatings,’ sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture at the hands of his jailers.”
BIA: “The substandard prison conditions referenced … which may include severe overcrowding and lack of food, do not amount to torture …"
July 3, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Read on the same day:
“[Mr. Abrego Garcia] suffered ‘severe beatings,’ sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture at the hands of his jailers.”
BIA: “The substandard prison conditions referenced … which may include severe overcrowding and lack of food, do not amount to torture …"
“[Mr. Abrego Garcia] suffered ‘severe beatings,’ sleep deprivation, malnutrition and other forms of torture at the hands of his jailers.”
BIA: “The substandard prison conditions referenced … which may include severe overcrowding and lack of food, do not amount to torture …"
ICE is detaining noncitizens in immigration court buildings and subjecting them to expedited removal after dismissal of their removal proceedings by ICE counsel. Our new Practice Alert from @nipnlg.bsky.social explains what steps practitioners can take to protect clients. nipnlg.org/work/resourc...
Practice Alert: Protecting Noncitizens From Expedited Removal and Immigration Court Arrests
Beginning in May 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been arresting noncitizens in or around immigration court buildings and subjecting them to expedited removal, following dismissal o...
nipnlg.org
May 29, 2025 at 9:11 PM
ICE is detaining noncitizens in immigration court buildings and subjecting them to expedited removal after dismissal of their removal proceedings by ICE counsel. Our new Practice Alert from @nipnlg.bsky.social explains what steps practitioners can take to protect clients. nipnlg.org/work/resourc...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
"Everyone's afraid that there’s going to come a point in time where you don’t know where one agency stops & the next begins," said the former ombudsman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for immigrant kids, about its growing collaboration w/ ICE
www.propublica.org/article/offi...
www.propublica.org/article/offi...
An Agency Tasked With Protecting Immigrant Children Is Becoming an Enforcement Arm, Current and Former Staffers Say
The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s welfare mission appears to be undergoing a stark transformation as President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up deportation numbers, current and former officials told P...
www.propublica.org
May 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
"Everyone's afraid that there’s going to come a point in time where you don’t know where one agency stops & the next begins," said the former ombudsman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for immigrant kids, about its growing collaboration w/ ICE
www.propublica.org/article/offi...
www.propublica.org/article/offi...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
Here's @detentionwatchnetwork.org and local groups statement on ICE's arrest of Mayor Baraka
www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/re...
www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/re...
May 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Here's @detentionwatchnetwork.org and local groups statement on ICE's arrest of Mayor Baraka
www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/re...
www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/re...
How a band of lawyers who met and collaborated during Trump’s family separation crisis came back together to fight for asylum seekers who’d been disappeared to El Salvador 7 years later.
Thank you @jonathanblitzer.bsky.social for shedding light on the struggle to keep these men’s cases alive.
Thank you @jonathanblitzer.bsky.social for shedding light on the struggle to keep these men’s cases alive.
What does it mean to represent a ghost in court? My latest at @newyorker.com: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Trump’s Deportees to El Salvador Are Now “Ghosts” in U.S. Courts
Even as the Administration refuses to reveal the names of those it has deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a network of lawyers and advocates is fighting to keep their cases alive.
www.newyorker.com
May 2, 2025 at 1:34 PM
How a band of lawyers who met and collaborated during Trump’s family separation crisis came back together to fight for asylum seekers who’d been disappeared to El Salvador 7 years later.
Thank you @jonathanblitzer.bsky.social for shedding light on the struggle to keep these men’s cases alive.
Thank you @jonathanblitzer.bsky.social for shedding light on the struggle to keep these men’s cases alive.
Damn, this is just excellent reporting
When Texas began arresting migrants for trespassing in '21, many paid hefty bails to get out of jail.
The problem? Instead of releasing them, TX handed them over to ICE.
I spent a year investigating how one county made up to $1.7 million by taking bail from deported migrants.
Via @nytimes.com:
The problem? Instead of releasing them, TX handed them over to ICE.
I spent a year investigating how one county made up to $1.7 million by taking bail from deported migrants.
Via @nytimes.com:
How One Texas County Has Profited Off of Migrant Deportations
Kinney County, along Texas’ border with Mexico, collected some $1.7 million in bail from migrants who were deported before they could make their court appearances. The money was never returned.
www.nytimes.com
May 2, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Damn, this is just excellent reporting
My @nipnlg.bsky.social colleagues who filed this family's habeas petition and motion to stop ICE from unlawfully detaining and then removing this U.S. citizen child are my absolute heroes. And along with them, the village of organizers and advocates who dropped everything to help.
NEW: A federal judge raised alarm Friday that the Trump administration appeared to have deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with "no meaningful process" — even as her father was fighting to keep her in the country.
Details w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2025/04...
Details w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2025/04...
April 26, 2025 at 3:32 AM
My @nipnlg.bsky.social colleagues who filed this family's habeas petition and motion to stop ICE from unlawfully detaining and then removing this U.S. citizen child are my absolute heroes. And along with them, the village of organizers and advocates who dropped everything to help.
Reposted by Ann Garcia
SO proud of the outcome in this case we @nipnlg.bsky.social litigated on behalf of the most wonderful human beings and the amazing outcome we were able to achieve.
NEW: In a SCATHING decision, Judge Briones of the Western District of Texas absolutely SAVAGED the government over this case, tearing to shreds ICE’s hearsay “evidence” that this husband and wife were in Tren de Aragua as “completely and wholly unsubstantiated” — and ordered their immediate release!
April 26, 2025 at 1:54 AM
SO proud of the outcome in this case we @nipnlg.bsky.social litigated on behalf of the most wonderful human beings and the amazing outcome we were able to achieve.
This is why we fight for due process for all
BREAKING: Trump admin says it mistakenly deported a Maryland father who had *withholding of removal* back to El Salvador on March 15. Govt told court Monday it won't bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back. "What.The.Fuck..." one govt attorney told me. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com
An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison
The Trump administration says it mistakenly deported an immigrant with protected status but that courts are powerless to order his return.
www.theatlantic.com
April 1, 2025 at 8:18 PM
This is why we fight for due process for all
Reposted by Ann Garcia
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport 238 Venezuelans to a brutal Salvadoran prison. They were accused of being gangsters, but couldnt see the evidence against them. This is the story of one—Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay make-up artist, who is innocent: www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
The Makeup Artist Donald Trump Deported Under the Alien Enemies Act
The President has invoked the law to send Venezuelans to prison in El Salvador without due process—and, in many cases, under false pretenses.
www.newyorker.com
April 1, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport 238 Venezuelans to a brutal Salvadoran prison. They were accused of being gangsters, but couldnt see the evidence against them. This is the story of one—Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay make-up artist, who is innocent: www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
NEW: In Chicago, a sanctuary city, immigration rights advocates say ICE has unlawfully picked up at least 22 migrants, creating warrants after some had already been detained.
By @vernalcoleman.bsky.social
By @vernalcoleman.bsky.social
Under Pressure From Trump, ICE Is Pushing Legal Boundaries
Confrontations with judges are grabbing attention, but more quietly a pattern of questionable arrests shows the extent to which the administration is willing to test norms and laws.
propub.li
March 25, 2025 at 1:10 PM
NEW: In Chicago, a sanctuary city, immigration rights advocates say ICE has unlawfully picked up at least 22 migrants, creating warrants after some had already been detained.
By @vernalcoleman.bsky.social
By @vernalcoleman.bsky.social
Reposted by Ann Garcia
I don’t see how, unless our entire profession stands shoulder-to-shoulder in unity, we successfully push back against this effort to break our profession and our democracy.
Cowering & compromising won’t work. He is attacking us for the success of our work.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Cowering & compromising won’t work. He is attacking us for the success of our work.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court
MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SUBJECT: Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court Lawyers
www.whitehouse.gov
March 22, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I don’t see how, unless our entire profession stands shoulder-to-shoulder in unity, we successfully push back against this effort to break our profession and our democracy.
Cowering & compromising won’t work. He is attacking us for the success of our work.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Cowering & compromising won’t work. He is attacking us for the success of our work.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Reposted by Ann Garcia
Asylum seeker with work permit. Detained by ICE during check in. “Friends [and] neighbors … wrote letters about him being a good and up-standing person … to present at [scheduled] hearing” that never occurred. Disappeared from NC. Flown on illegal transports last weekend. Found on list leaked Thurs.
Quick summary about the case of a young Venezuelan sent to El Salvador's prison presumed to be part of the Tren de Aragua gang without any proof or due process.
theimmigrationlab.org/blog/f/disap...
theimmigrationlab.org/blog/f/disap...
March 22, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Asylum seeker with work permit. Detained by ICE during check in. “Friends [and] neighbors … wrote letters about him being a good and up-standing person … to present at [scheduled] hearing” that never occurred. Disappeared from NC. Flown on illegal transports last weekend. Found on list leaked Thurs.
Reposted by Ann Garcia
The Trump admin is again prioritizing criminal prosecutions against people for entering or reentering the U.S. w/o permission, with Congress poised to divert billions of dollars to supercharge prosecutions and profits of private prison companies. New explainer here:
New Explainer: The Waste and Severe Harm of Immigration Prosecutions
The Trump administration has ordered the prioritization of federal prosecutions for immigration-related offenses, including for simply entering the United States or reentering after removal without pe...
immigrantjustice.org
March 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM
The Trump admin is again prioritizing criminal prosecutions against people for entering or reentering the U.S. w/o permission, with Congress poised to divert billions of dollars to supercharge prosecutions and profits of private prison companies. New explainer here:
What's up with the federal law that criminalizes smuggling, transporting, concealing, harboring, encouraging or inducing someone to enter or stay in the United States without authorization, you ask? My colleague @salvarezjones.bsky.social explains. nipnlg.org/work/resourc...
What is Section 1324? Understanding the Federal Crimes of Smuggling, Transporting, Concealing, Harboring, Encouraging or Inducing.
This resource explains Section 1324, the federal law that criminalizes smuggling, transporting, concealing, harboring, encouraging or inducing someone to enter or stay in the United States without aut...
nipnlg.org
February 1, 2025 at 12:44 AM
What's up with the federal law that criminalizes smuggling, transporting, concealing, harboring, encouraging or inducing someone to enter or stay in the United States without authorization, you ask? My colleague @salvarezjones.bsky.social explains. nipnlg.org/work/resourc...