Chris Gelardi
@chrisgelardi.bsky.social
Exasperated journalist investigating the criminal-legal system for @nysfocus.bsky.social. Also The Intercept, The Nation, many more. He/him. Send tips ⬇️
https://linktr.ee/chrisgelardi
https://linktr.ee/chrisgelardi
*New: State prison officials are putting forth "absurd" legal arguments and deceiving a court about conditions on the inside, advocates and incarcerated people allege.
"It is so plainly wrong that it strikes me as a bad faith, intentional misrepresentation."
nysfocus.com/2025/11/13/n...
"It is so plainly wrong that it strikes me as a bad faith, intentional misrepresentation."
nysfocus.com/2025/11/13/n...
Prison Agency Seeks to Dramatically Narrow Solitary Confinement Law
Prison officials are using a novel legal reading of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act to argue that it doesn’t apply to units where most people are…
nysfocus.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:13 PM
*New: State prison officials are putting forth "absurd" legal arguments and deceiving a court about conditions on the inside, advocates and incarcerated people allege.
"It is so plainly wrong that it strikes me as a bad faith, intentional misrepresentation."
nysfocus.com/2025/11/13/n...
"It is so plainly wrong that it strikes me as a bad faith, intentional misrepresentation."
nysfocus.com/2025/11/13/n...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
⚠️ Breaking: Hochul administration approves 3x rejected, Trump-backed NESE pipeline, the first of its kind in New York in at least a decade.
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/11/07/n...
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/11/07/n...
New York Approves Trump-Backed Gas Pipeline
The Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline had been rejected by environmental regulators three times but was revived this spring after talks between Hochul…
nysfocus.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:07 PM
⚠️ Breaking: Hochul administration approves 3x rejected, Trump-backed NESE pipeline, the first of its kind in New York in at least a decade.
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/11/07/n...
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/11/07/n...
Some rare happy news: A Trump-appointed federal judge ordered ICE to release a New York teenager with protected status. He returned home last night after three months in a Louisiana detention center.
nysfocus.com/2025/11/01/i...
nysfocus.com/2025/11/01/i...
New York Teen Returns Home After Judge Rules His ICE Detention Illegal
After nearly three months behind bars, Carlos Guerra Leon spent an extra night in a Louisiana detention center after officers and local ICE officials said…
nysfocus.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Some rare happy news: A Trump-appointed federal judge ordered ICE to release a New York teenager with protected status. He returned home last night after three months in a Louisiana detention center.
nysfocus.com/2025/11/01/i...
nysfocus.com/2025/11/01/i...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
ICE is planning to offer private sector bounty hunters cash bonuses for quickly tracking down the home addresses of immigrants across the US, according to a DHS document I reviewed. ICE encourages potential contractors to use "all technology systems available.” theintercept.com/2025/10/31/i...
ICE Plans Cash Rewards for Private Bounty Hunters to Locate and Track Immigrants
Companies hired by ICE would be given bundles of information on 10,000 immigrants at a time to locate.
theintercept.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:06 AM
ICE is planning to offer private sector bounty hunters cash bonuses for quickly tracking down the home addresses of immigrants across the US, according to a DHS document I reviewed. ICE encourages potential contractors to use "all technology systems available.” theintercept.com/2025/10/31/i...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
cool cool cool cool cool
October 30, 2025 at 12:26 PM
cool cool cool cool cool
Everything is under control, lawyers for the state prison system told a judge last week.
That’s news to thousands of incarcerated people, who remain living under various degrees of lockdown eight months after a guard strike led to chaos.
For @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/10/30/n...
That’s news to thousands of incarcerated people, who remain living under various degrees of lockdown eight months after a guard strike led to chaos.
For @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/10/30/n...
‘This Place Is a Circus’: Eight Months Since a Guard Strike, State…
Many incarcerated New Yorkers say the new normal is endless lock-in.
nysfocus.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Everything is under control, lawyers for the state prison system told a judge last week.
That’s news to thousands of incarcerated people, who remain living under various degrees of lockdown eight months after a guard strike led to chaos.
For @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/10/30/n...
That’s news to thousands of incarcerated people, who remain living under various degrees of lockdown eight months after a guard strike led to chaos.
For @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/10/30/n...
Homeland Security has started sending $5,000 fines to unaccompanied kids. It's one of many anti-immigration financial pressure tactics established under the OBBB.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
Homeland Security Is Billing Immigrant Kids $5,000
The Trump administration is slapping unaccompanied teenagers with fees for crossing the border.
nysfocus.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Homeland Security has started sending $5,000 fines to unaccompanied kids. It's one of many anti-immigration financial pressure tactics established under the OBBB.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
⚠️ Breaking: A state judge has ruled that New York is violating its climate law.
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/n...
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/n...
New York Is Violating Its Flagship Climate Law, Judge Rules
The law required a state agency to issue major regulations more than a year and a half ago, and it had no excuse not to, the court found.
nysfocus.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:42 PM
⚠️ Breaking: A state judge has ruled that New York is violating its climate law.
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/n...
Story: nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/n...
Scoop from Isabelle Taft: The Department of Homeland Security has sent unaccompanied immigrant teenagers $5,000 fines for illegally entering the United States.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
Homeland Security Is Billing Immigrant Kids $5,000
The Trump administration is slapping unaccompanied teenagers with fees for crossing the border.
nysfocus.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Scoop from Isabelle Taft: The Department of Homeland Security has sent unaccompanied immigrant teenagers $5,000 fines for illegally entering the United States.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
nysfocus.com/2025/10/24/b...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
Trump: "I don't think we're gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just gonna kill people... Okay? We're gonna kill them. They're gonna be, like, dead."
October 23, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Trump: "I don't think we're gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just gonna kill people... Okay? We're gonna kill them. They're gonna be, like, dead."
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
Italian Americans, wrote @chrisgelardi.bsky.social in 2020, should be at the forefront of confronting Christopher Columbus idolatry. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
It’s Time for Italian Americans to Give Up on Columbus
For over a century, Italians have mythologized the genocidal explorer to gain access to American whiteness.
www.thenation.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Italian Americans, wrote @chrisgelardi.bsky.social in 2020, should be at the forefront of confronting Christopher Columbus idolatry. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
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 Chris Gelardi
The ICE detention center near Buffalo has banned book deliveries, New York Focus has learned.
One advocate says almost all the material at the facility is in English.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/08/b...
One advocate says almost all the material at the facility is in English.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/08/b...
New York’s Biggest ICE Detention Center Bans Book Deliveries
Rejected books include a Spanish-English dictionary, a Spanish translation of a George R.R. Martin novel, and "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage…
nysfocus.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:45 PM
The ICE detention center near Buffalo has banned book deliveries, New York Focus has learned.
One advocate says almost all the material at the facility is in English.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/08/b...
One advocate says almost all the material at the facility is in English.
nysfocus.com/2025/10/08/b...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
Still thinking about this by the way paragraph in the Sun Times piece on the apartment building raid. Full story: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
October 2, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Still thinking about this by the way paragraph in the Sun Times piece on the apartment building raid. Full story: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
My friend who owns a tortillería in Chicago
October 1, 2025 at 2:40 AM
My friend who owns a tortillería in Chicago
New York state helped hundreds of asylum seeker families leave crowded NYC shelters to find housing and jobs upstate. Now, some of them have been swept up in Trump’s deportation dragnet.
New from Isabelle Taft in @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/29/m...
New from Isabelle Taft in @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/29/m...
New York Spent Millions to Resettle Them. Trump Is Deporting Them.
The Migrant Relocation Assistance Program helped families leave crowded shelters and put down roots. Trump’s immigration crackdown is upending that.
nysfocus.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:25 PM
New York state helped hundreds of asylum seeker families leave crowded NYC shelters to find housing and jobs upstate. Now, some of them have been swept up in Trump’s deportation dragnet.
New from Isabelle Taft in @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/29/m...
New from Isabelle Taft in @nysfocus.bsky.social:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/29/m...
New York’s jails and prisons are facing numerous crises. Someone should tell the State Commission of Correction.
nysfocus.com/2025/09/25/s...
nysfocus.com/2025/09/25/s...
Five Sleepy Minutes With New York’s Jail Watchdog
Jails and prisons across the state are facing many crises. Someone should tell the Commission of Correction.
nysfocus.com
September 25, 2025 at 4:26 PM
New York’s jails and prisons are facing numerous crises. Someone should tell the State Commission of Correction.
nysfocus.com/2025/09/25/s...
nysfocus.com/2025/09/25/s...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
130 immigration judges have been fired or forced out since Trump took office, a figure which doesn't even include the count of those who have retired or quit (quite a few). The Trump admin is systematically moving to kill a fair day in court for immigrants facing removal.
Union Says Trump Has Fired More Immigration Judges
From @law360.bsky.social
The govt has fired at least 16 judges without cause in recent days, adding to the dozens of judges who have left or been fired
"The firings bring up to 130 the number of immigration judges that have been fired...
From @law360.bsky.social
The govt has fired at least 16 judges without cause in recent days, adding to the dozens of judges who have left or been fired
"The firings bring up to 130 the number of immigration judges that have been fired...
Union Says Trump Has Fired More Immigration Judges - Law360
The union that represents the judges who hear immigration cases said the government has fired at least 16 judges without cause in recent days, adding to the dozens of judges who have left or been fire...
www.law360.com
September 25, 2025 at 12:56 PM
130 immigration judges have been fired or forced out since Trump took office, a figure which doesn't even include the count of those who have retired or quit (quite a few). The Trump admin is systematically moving to kill a fair day in court for immigrants facing removal.
It finally happened. I stepped on a rat while running.
September 24, 2025 at 12:42 AM
It finally happened. I stepped on a rat while running.
"Where is our governor?"
Eleven state legislators were arrested at a Manhattan federal building while protesting ICE. The legislature ended this year's session without taking up flagship immigration protection bills.
From Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/19/l...
Eleven state legislators were arrested at a Manhattan federal building while protesting ICE. The legislature ended this year's session without taking up flagship immigration protection bills.
From Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/19/l...
‘We Must Escalate’: Arrested Legislators Call Out ICE and Albany
Three months after the state legislature ended session without passing immigration protections, 15 elected officials faced down arrest to protest ICE and…
nysfocus.com
September 19, 2025 at 12:37 PM
"Where is our governor?"
Eleven state legislators were arrested at a Manhattan federal building while protesting ICE. The legislature ended this year's session without taking up flagship immigration protection bills.
From Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/19/l...
Eleven state legislators were arrested at a Manhattan federal building while protesting ICE. The legislature ended this year's session without taking up flagship immigration protection bills.
From Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/19/l...
New York doens't allow private immigration detention, and the state has only one ICE-run detention center, so the feds are seeking to expand their use of county jails. Sheriffs are obliging.
From @juliarock.bsky.social and Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/16/i...
From @juliarock.bsky.social and Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/16/i...
ICE Detentions in New York County Jails Have Exploded
So far this year, the state's county jails have held six times more people for federal immigration authorities than they did in all of 2024.
nysfocus.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:04 PM
New York doens't allow private immigration detention, and the state has only one ICE-run detention center, so the feds are seeking to expand their use of county jails. Sheriffs are obliging.
From @juliarock.bsky.social and Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/16/i...
From @juliarock.bsky.social and Isabelle Taft:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/16/i...
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
Anyway are we gonna keep talking about how we found out today that Trump sent Navy SEALS to North Korea to plant a listening device but instead they panicked and murdered a bunch of random fishermen or is that just gonna get memory holed
September 6, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Anyway are we gonna keep talking about how we found out today that Trump sent Navy SEALS to North Korea to plant a listening device but instead they panicked and murdered a bunch of random fishermen or is that just gonna get memory holed
I'm incredibly excited to welcome Isabelle Taft as @nysfocus.bsky.social's immigration reporter. She's a dogged journalist who is going to rock it during these dark, eventful times.
Her first piece is up today, give it a read:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/04/t...
And send tips: isabelle@nysfocus.com
Her first piece is up today, give it a read:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/04/t...
And send tips: isabelle@nysfocus.com
Young New York Immigrants at Risk After Trump Ends Protections
New Yorkers are suing to reverse a Trump administration policy change that has upended the futures of tens of thousands of young immigrants.
nysfocus.com
September 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
I'm incredibly excited to welcome Isabelle Taft as @nysfocus.bsky.social's immigration reporter. She's a dogged journalist who is going to rock it during these dark, eventful times.
Her first piece is up today, give it a read:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/04/t...
And send tips: isabelle@nysfocus.com
Her first piece is up today, give it a read:
nysfocus.com/2025/09/04/t...
And send tips: isabelle@nysfocus.com
Reposted by Chris Gelardi
More crucial work from @chrisgelardi.bsky.social on the fallout from prison guards’ wildcat strike in the spring. As staffing woes continue, local jails are holding thousands of people meant to be in prison — 10x the level at the beginning of this year. nysfocus.com/2025/09/02/c...
![CHART: The State-Ready Jail Backlog
[Across all jails, shows the number of “state-ready” people in local jails increase from 234 in January to 2473 in June, then decrease slightly in July to 2234]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:64drjustsrvsrcl2a2n2jnyf/bafkreidrtxb5xbks5i5pujdzsagmaufbdpkq7ktjrjj3rzsjdqzisnpoyy@jpeg)
September 3, 2025 at 4:10 PM
More crucial work from @chrisgelardi.bsky.social on the fallout from prison guards’ wildcat strike in the spring. As staffing woes continue, local jails are holding thousands of people meant to be in prison — 10x the level at the beginning of this year. nysfocus.com/2025/09/02/c...