Esther Kaplan
@estherbrooklyn.bsky.social
Journo. Oaklandside & Cityside, formerly Business Insider, Reveal, Type Investigations, The Nation.
This whole thread, from a newly minted immigration attorney in Minnesota.
I had a pregnant client who was experiencing abdominal cramping for three days and was deprived of medical care. When we interceded, she was punished.
A first grader snatched two days after surgery denied wound care.
A client who developed a large painful cyst but was ignored.
25/
A first grader snatched two days after surgery denied wound care.
A client who developed a large painful cyst but was ignored.
25/
February 12, 2026 at 6:43 AM
This whole thread, from a newly minted immigration attorney in Minnesota.
14-year-old soccer player just watching the last “12 minutes” of the half waiting for Bad Bunny to come on:
“Did someone make up football while they were drunk?”
“Did someone make up football while they were drunk?”
February 9, 2026 at 1:09 AM
14-year-old soccer player just watching the last “12 minutes” of the half waiting for Bad Bunny to come on:
“Did someone make up football while they were drunk?”
“Did someone make up football while they were drunk?”
So at almost 9pm some lowly White House staffer took over Trump’s Truth Social account to post a racist meme?
www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
February 6, 2026 at 6:41 PM
So at almost 9pm some lowly White House staffer took over Trump’s Truth Social account to post a racist meme?
www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
Federal agents left behind “death cards” after capturing immigrants in Eagle County, Colorado, recalling a practice by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War
theintercept.com/2026/02/03/i...
theintercept.com/2026/02/03/i...
Federal Agents Left Behind “Death Cards” After Capturing Immigrants
ICE agents dropped customized ace of spades playing cards, recalling a practice by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.
theintercept.com
February 5, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Federal agents left behind “death cards” after capturing immigrants in Eagle County, Colorado, recalling a practice by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War
theintercept.com/2026/02/03/i...
theintercept.com/2026/02/03/i...
I'm just stuck on the fact that what Bezos spent on his wedding could keep all 300 reporters employed for a year.
February 5, 2026 at 5:39 AM
I'm just stuck on the fact that what Bezos spent on his wedding could keep all 300 reporters employed for a year.
It increasingly seems our elected officials are the only ones unaware of what time it is.
Wild thread from last night’s city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona
Wild thread from last night’s city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona
Nobody is accepting the mayor and council’s weak statement, excuses that the deal is done, and that they had no knowledge of the purchase — They’ve been repeatedly called failures to the community and speakers keep recommending ways the City can take actionable steps to stop this concentration camp.
February 4, 2026 at 5:50 PM
It increasingly seems our elected officials are the only ones unaware of what time it is.
Wild thread from last night’s city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona
Wild thread from last night’s city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona
February 4, 2026 at 4:17 PM
This is the way to use a magazine.
Today, as Gaza continues to be stuck in a bloody limbo, we are turning our website over to Gaza and its people in an initiative we are calling “A Day for Gaza.” There will be no pieces published on our website today that do not come directly from Gaza.
A Day for Gaza
Today, The Nation is turning over its website exclusively to stories from Gaza and its people. This is why.
www.thenation.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:38 AM
This is the way to use a magazine.
It's quite amazing, after all that we've witnessed, that there's still such intense institutional resistance to naming things by their names. open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
How Human Rights Watch Killed a Report Calling Israel’s Denial of Palestinians’ Right of Return a Crime Against Humanity
The Israel-Palestine director at Human Rights Watch resigned over the decision to spike the report, which had been approved by HRW’s legal team.
open.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:21 AM
It's quite amazing, after all that we've witnessed, that there's still such intense institutional resistance to naming things by their names. open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
So Congress gave this agency $650 billion extra last year and we’re not even allowed to know where its agents are deployed?
The two Border Patrol agents who killed Alex Pretti were from Texas. I was curious where the other agents in Minneapolis were from, so I looked it up.
Turns out, it's a secret. www.pbump.net/o/where-are-...
Turns out, it's a secret. www.pbump.net/o/where-are-...
Where are ICE and Border Patrol agents coming from?
The duty stations of nearly every ICE and CBP officer is redacted in OPM data.
www.pbump.net
February 3, 2026 at 4:51 AM
So Congress gave this agency $650 billion extra last year and we’re not even allowed to know where its agents are deployed?
So many of these cruelties
Woman with legal status taken from her family home in St Paul by ICE, flown to Texas, held for two weeks before being ordered released by a judge. She lost her job. She's afraid to go outside because agents keep coming to her home.
www.kare11.com/article/news...
www.kare11.com/article/news...
After ICE release St. Paul woman, she says agents keep returning to her home
Thi Dua Vang legally came to the U.S. two years ago. So when ICE showed up, she thought it must have been a mistake.
www.kare11.com
February 3, 2026 at 3:23 AM
So many of these cruelties
Statement from 45 news organizations, including Cityside, on the unconstitutional Don Lemon and Georgia Fort arrests media.freedom.press/media/docume...
February 2, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Statement from 45 news organizations, including Cityside, on the unconstitutional Don Lemon and Georgia Fort arrests media.freedom.press/media/docume...
Another secret memo guiding ICE agents to work around the Fourth Amendment in defiance of a district court judge's temporary restraining order
Scoop: Federal agents were told this week that they have broader power to arrest people without a warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo reviewed by The New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
ICE Expands Power of Agents to Arrest People Without Warrants
www.nytimes.com
January 31, 2026 at 4:11 AM
Another secret memo guiding ICE agents to work around the Fourth Amendment in defiance of a district court judge's temporary restraining order
"When [principals] Sherk and Kuhlman entered the building with the boys, they said they saw other children being held there.
'They have cartoons on the television for all the kids that are coming in there and waiting — a box of books on the floor for the kids that are in there,' said Sherk."
'They have cartoons on the television for all the kids that are coming in there and waiting — a box of books on the floor for the kids that are in there,' said Sherk."
“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” principal Jason Kuhlman said about the second grader and fifth grader.
‘I don’t have words’: 2 more kids from Liam Ramos’ Columbia Heights school taken into ICE custody
The children were taken into ICE custody after their mother was detained at a court appointment. School leaders say the mother asked them to bring the kids to the detention center because there were n...
www.mprnews.org
January 30, 2026 at 5:38 AM
"When [principals] Sherk and Kuhlman entered the building with the boys, they said they saw other children being held there.
'They have cartoons on the television for all the kids that are coming in there and waiting — a box of books on the floor for the kids that are in there,' said Sherk."
'They have cartoons on the television for all the kids that are coming in there and waiting — a box of books on the floor for the kids that are in there,' said Sherk."
Meet the $711,000-a-year Oakland cop.
And no, he's not alone.
58 officers in Oakland took in more than $100K each in overtime in a single year.
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
And no, he's not alone.
58 officers in Oakland took in more than $100K each in overtime in a single year.
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
One Oakland police officer made $490,000 in overtime. The city can’t find records detailing much of what he did
One OPD officer logged 5,242 total working hours, racking up $490,000 in overtime pay. If he worked more than half of the time in a calendar year, why can't the city tell us what he did?
oaklandside.org
January 30, 2026 at 2:39 AM
Meet the $711,000-a-year Oakland cop.
And no, he's not alone.
58 officers in Oakland took in more than $100K each in overtime in a single year.
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
And no, he's not alone.
58 officers in Oakland took in more than $100K each in overtime in a single year.
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
When even someone from the Family Research Council is saying this:
“We don’t need guys in masks breaking down people’s doors to take American citizens out of their homes. This is what people think of when they think of fascism. It confirms their worst fears.”
washingtonstand.com/article/crac...
“We don’t need guys in masks breaking down people’s doors to take American citizens out of their homes. This is what people think of when they think of fascism. It confirms their worst fears.”
washingtonstand.com/article/crac...
Cracks in Trump’s ICE Start to Show with Evangelicals, Hispanics
President Trump may be as used to the hot seat as he is to a weekend in Mar-a-Lago, but the furor over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) feels different
washingtonstand.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:08 PM
When even someone from the Family Research Council is saying this:
“We don’t need guys in masks breaking down people’s doors to take American citizens out of their homes. This is what people think of when they think of fascism. It confirms their worst fears.”
washingtonstand.com/article/crac...
“We don’t need guys in masks breaking down people’s doors to take American citizens out of their homes. This is what people think of when they think of fascism. It confirms their worst fears.”
washingtonstand.com/article/crac...
Bush-appointed district court judge Patrick Schiltz: “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
An extraordinary document. Read it.
“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. … ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. … ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
January 29, 2026 at 2:05 AM
Bush-appointed district court judge Patrick Schiltz: “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
Reposted by Esther Kaplan
I know all eyes are on Minneapolis, but there's a fast-approaching nightmare in Springfield, Ohio.
Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3.
Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.
Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3.
Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.
January 28, 2026 at 11:38 PM
I know all eyes are on Minneapolis, but there's a fast-approaching nightmare in Springfield, Ohio.
Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3.
Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.
Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3.
Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.
So Dan and Jane, suburban white grandparents in Minnesota, now see ICE as "the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo boys. They've given them uniforms and let them run wild."
January 28, 2026 at 7:07 AM
So Dan and Jane, suburban white grandparents in Minnesota, now see ICE as "the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo boys. They've given them uniforms and let them run wild."
Every day, a new kind of cruelty
Maher Tarabishi, who has been detained by ICE since October, was the primary caretaker of his disabled adult child, Wael.
On Jan. 23, Wael died from complications related to Pompe disease, a rare genetic condition.
ICE has now denied Maher’s request to attend his funeral, his attorney says.
On Jan. 23, Wael died from complications related to Pompe disease, a rare genetic condition.
ICE has now denied Maher’s request to attend his funeral, his attorney says.
ICE Denies Detainee's Request to Attend His Son's Funeral, Attorney Says
Maher Tarabishi was the primary caretaker of his son, Wael Tarabishi, 30, who died on Friday, Jan. 23, from complications related to Pompe disease.
people.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:58 AM
Every day, a new kind of cruelty
Interesting strategy, though is 50% a bit low? www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/01/27/b...
Bay Area assemblyman introduces bill that would tax 50% of profits from private ICE detention centers in California
The bill, AB1633, is aimed at limiting the profits of the detention centers, which take in hundreds of millions of dollars annually throughout the state.
www.eastbaytimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Interesting strategy, though is 50% a bit low? www.eastbaytimes.com/2026/01/27/b...
Reposted by Esther Kaplan
To avoid the possibility Holocaust remembrance might lead to empathy for migrants, Trump's antisemitism envoy claims Anne Frank "was in Amsterdam legally."
In reality, Margot Frank received a summons to go to a labor camp on July 5, 1942. After ignoring this call, they were in Amsterdam illegally.
In reality, Margot Frank received a summons to go to a labor camp on July 5, 1942. After ignoring this call, they were in Amsterdam illegally.
January 27, 2026 at 3:28 PM
To avoid the possibility Holocaust remembrance might lead to empathy for migrants, Trump's antisemitism envoy claims Anne Frank "was in Amsterdam legally."
In reality, Margot Frank received a summons to go to a labor camp on July 5, 1942. After ignoring this call, they were in Amsterdam illegally.
In reality, Margot Frank received a summons to go to a labor camp on July 5, 1942. After ignoring this call, they were in Amsterdam illegally.
Arresting the people who feed them, the people who house them
JUST IN: ICE agents in Minnesota arrested an employee at the St. Louis Park Homewood Suites — where they were staying to help carry out Operation Metro Surge.
A federal judge just ordered the man's release.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A federal judge just ordered the man's release.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 25, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Arresting the people who feed them, the people who house them
Quite the little aside in this NYT story about eugenicists stealing NIH data to create pseudoscience about race
January 25, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Quite the little aside in this NYT story about eugenicists stealing NIH data to create pseudoscience about race