Gillian Brockell
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gbrockell.bsky.social
Gillian Brockell
@gbrockell.bsky.social
I track ICE flights and third-country removals. Recent words in The American Prospect, Zeteo, Rolling Stone. Former WaPo (sigh), former flight attendant.

Signal: gbrockell.44
https://hardghistory.ghost.io/

PFP: Angelina Grimké
Pinned
NEW: The private jet that flew 10 shackled migrants to an Eswatini prison last weekend is owned by Israeli-American billionaires with close ties to Trump.

It’s oligarchs all the way down.

My first for @zeteo.com:

zeteo.com/p/this-famil...
This was a whole subgenre of my work at Retropolis.
looking up the source of quotes, whether for a book or a video script, is great for figuring out when a quote everyone "knows" and has repeated for ages is actually just weird bullshit someone else made up
December 26, 2025 at 3:18 PM
A normal person: This public figure I liked is in the Epstein files, I’m so disappointed.

Tech bro: This public figure I liked is in the Epstein files, I wish my robot were a time machine so I could join them.
tech bros trying to convince everyone epstein is cool is so telling and interesting
December 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Tim Walz's daughter, Hope Walz, is a treasure.
December 26, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Our supposedly Christian president has deported Christian families who face persecution, torture and death to Iran multiple times this year and as recently as December 7.
Merry Christmas!

The President of Peace just bombed Nigeria.
December 25, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Christmas morning 2025.

ICE loading abductees in chains on a plane headed to a concentration camp.
December 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
At this point I can only presume people are sticking things up their rectum to get on this list.
December 25, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
December 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
This is well worth reading, as well as the beautifully written hardghistory article.

hardghistory.ghost.io/lgbtq-people...
Hey, if you are generally supportive of trans people and self-determination but don’t necessarily know much about it, let me explain something that a trans friend & roommate explained to me in 2004.

This is why health care for trans kids is so important.
December 25, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
NEW: A variety of military and intelligence contractors have already signed on to help ICE's immigrant bounty hunter program. A review of procurement data shows 10 companies stand to make up to *ONE BILLION* dollars from the program by 2027. theintercept.com/2025/12/23/i...
10 Companies Have Already Made $1 Million as ICE Bounty Hunters. We Found Them.
And they stand to make millions more in cash bonuses for surveilling and tracking immigrants in service of ICE’s deportation machine.
theintercept.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Hey, if you are generally supportive of trans people and self-determination but don’t necessarily know much about it, let me explain something that a trans friend & roommate explained to me in 2004.

This is why health care for trans kids is so important.
December 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
So like some very large camps where human beings will be concentrated?
December 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Another case of a judge ordering ICE not to deport someone, and ICE doing it anyway. This time a US citizen, with a Maryland birth certificate & immunization records.

Her family has not heard from her.

May everyone at DHS have the Christmas they inflicted on her.
www.newsweek.com/ice-detains-...
ICE detains woman whose lawyer insists is US citizen. DHS says she isn't
Federal agents arrested Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales on her way home in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.newsweek.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Wait, also, did the lawyer writing this not understand what Higgins was saying? Because right now this read like “Higgins said X was true. In fact, it was.”
The only thing more insane than Matt Taibbi suing Eoin Higgins is Matt suing him for comparing him to Bari Weiss
December 24, 2025 at 12:56 AM
FWIW, here's the link to the file. Notice the 2020 caller also accused someone with ties to the Clintons of trying frame someone else of the Oklahoma City bombing.

And I did newspapers.com searches of the time and place and found no reports of young woman's death.

www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
December 24, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Y'all. I've never even seen let alone done coke*, and even I can tell he's probably on coke.

*yes, I am in addiction recovery and I've never seen or done coke. what can I say, I'm a fucking unicorn. :-)
yeah I mean it’s genuinely sad that the “reasonable old school” Republican (who Dems eagerly and unanimously voted to confirm) is out here doing pressers blatantly geeked out coke and it’s not subtle
December 23, 2025 at 11:26 PM
NO ONE understands ICE Air's planning and routing better than @jjindc.bsky.social, not even the ghouls who work at ICE Air Ops. His new ICECAST is super informative and could be helpful for local groups. Please make sure your local rapid response and immigration attorneys aware of them!
🧊✈️ The ICECAST – December 23

Forecasting ICE flights on Tuesday:

Newark – Richmond – Detroit – Jacksonville – Minneapolis – Omaha – Denver – Las Vegas – Seattle

👉 PLUS - What was Avelo thinking?

👀 Watch, Comment, Like & Subscribe youtube.com/shorts/g1_II...
The ICECAST – December 23, 2025
YouTube video by JJ in DC
youtube.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
In the last 31 days, since November 22, 2025, 15 ICE deportation flights have loaded at MSP.

Based on the number of DHS/ICE vehicles that have served each flight, and several direct passenger counts, I estimate that a total of 500 or so of our neighbors have been deported in this time frame.
December 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
I’m still listening to this but already it is such a good conversation.
Are big newsrooms getting better at crediting independent journalists?

@jasonkoebler.bsky.social compares notes with @marisakabas.bsky.social, founder of thehandbasket.co, on landing huge scoops as indie journalists and dealing with mainstream media.

Listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73s...
December 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
ICE killed an Eritrean Imam in one of their concentration camps this week. Can you imagine if it was a pastor?The dovetailing of #Islamophobia and immigration cruelty is because white Christian nationalism is our stated public policy. It really pisses me off. We have to fight it with all we’ve got.
December 22, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Decades of deference to the almighty dollar is why we’re in desperate straits. It explains the rise of homelessness, gambling, addiction, crumbling infrastructure, white nationalism… the myriad of societal ills dooming humanity. Money hoarding is killing us. And politicians are trying to maintain it
December 23, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
Late-breaking contender for headline of the year from @status.news and @nataliekorach.bsky.social.
December 23, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Late-breaking contender for headline of the year from @status.news and @nataliekorach.bsky.social.
December 23, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should have torture camps for people with criminal records either.
December 23, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by Gillian Brockell
I kept seeing people use the word samizdat to refer to the Canadian sourcing of the 60 Minutes report on CECOT pulled by Bari Weiss. Here's the definition from Merriam-Webster:
December 23, 2025 at 2:41 AM