Gabriella Sanchez
banner
gesanchez.bsky.social
Gabriella Sanchez
@gesanchez.bsky.social
Fronteriza! Migration and Security researcher at @Georgetown University. Critical border studies; high risk migration facilitation and criminalization; smuggling & trafficking. Tacos & Shawarma. Former @mpc-eui.bsky.social and @diis.dk.
Today, in Copenhagen!
November 11, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
ICE claims assaults on its officers are up sharply since June. There's no public evidence that number is true.
White House claims "more than 1,000%" rise in assaults on ICE agents, data says otherwise
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers claim assaults on their officers are up sharply since June. There's no public evidence that number is true.
n.pr
October 10, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’”

It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.
ICE agents raid South Shore apartments; Trump says Chicago could become military training ground
ICE agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.
abc7chicago.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
📣Call for applications: Dialogues on Mobility, Surveillance & Resistance JAN 26–30, 26 Tijuana, Mexico
Organized by International Migration Institute & University of Amsterdam's Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area.
Apply by SEP 25. Funding available! www.migrationinstitute.org/imi-archive/...
September 19, 2025 at 6:08 AM
📣Call for applications: Dialogues on Mobility, Surveillance & Resistance JAN 26–30, 26 Tijuana, Mexico
Organized by International Migration Institute & University of Amsterdam's Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area.
Apply by SEP 25. Funding available! www.migrationinstitute.org/imi-archive/...
September 19, 2025 at 6:08 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
🚨 New publication out!
Together with @linavosyliute.bsky.social, we examine the EU’s risk of falling into a far-right trap in the negotiations on the Return Regulation.
📄 Published as an open-access Policy Brief by @birmm.bsky.social l — free to read & share!

zenodo.org/records/1696...
The EU's Return Regulation: Negotiating on the Basis of Evidence, not Narratives
zenodo.org
September 4, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Full access to the story here: archive.li/2025.09.08-0...
archive.li
September 9, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Frontex doesn't like to hear its 'voluntary' interviews of people arriving at Europe's shores being described as covert 'interrogations'. Why? Because it has no legal mandate to interrogate and criminalise migrants.

Yet, that is precisely what's happening in Spain.

elpais.com/espana/2025-...
Enfrentamiento entre España y Frontex: dudas sobre el uso de los datos que se obtienen de los migrantes
Documentos internos a los que ha tenido acceso EL PAÍS revelan tensiones entre la agencia de la UE y las autoridades españolas por las entrevistas a los recién llegados
elpais.com
September 9, 2025 at 8:54 AM
July 17, 2025 at 1:08 PM
On June 11, ICE and police in Baton Rouge, raided 9 massage parlors, detaining 10 Chinese women, their names and whereabouts unreleased. They disappeared into ICE’s sprawling detention system. Not a single migrant rights organization has called for their release. truthout.org/articles/sex...
Sex Workers Are Being Abducted by ICE — and Abandoned by Respectability Politics
Sex workers targeted by ICE need the migrant justice movement’s full solidarity.
truthout.org
July 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Here is how #Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people’s personal data with #Europol

Investigation conducted by Solomon, the French newspaper Le Monde, the Spanish newspaper El País, and the German outlet Netzpolitik.

wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...
Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol
Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...
wearesolomon.com
July 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Cross-border investigation: @lemonde.fr, @elpais.com, and @netzpolitik.org reveal how, between 2016 and 2023, @frontex.bsky.social illegally transferred the personal data of over 13,000 people to Europol.

Published by @wearesolomon.bsky.social 👇

wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...
Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol
Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...
wearesolomon.com
July 8, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Important investigation from @elpais.com on how migrants and activists were treated as criminals by Frontex and Europol. “My whole life was in that police file... They wanted to portray me as promiscuous, a lesbian, using morality to make me look suspicious,” says Helena Maleno, a Spanish activist.
July 8, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Serious questions about evasion of accountability arise, too. FOI documents reveal that senior EU officials had coordinated to misled MEPs about the scale of unlawful Frontex-Europol data transfers during a hearing that followed our earlier investigation: balkaninsight.com/2022/07/07/e...
EU’s Frontex Tripped in Its Plan for ‘Intrusive’ Surveillance of Migrants
Frontex and the European Commission sidelined their own data protection watchdogs in pursuing a much-criticised expansion of “intrusive” data collection from migrants and refugees to feed into Europol...
balkaninsight.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
For @gesanchez.bsky.social - leading expert on smuggling - 'EU agencies often justify harvesting personal data from migrants by claiming it is necessary to combat sophisticated...smuggling networks. This creates the illusion that the data is actually reliable or useful. We know it's neither.'
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Our investigation reveals that prominent human rights defenders, who have faced lengthy criminal investigations in Spain and Greece - including @helenamaleno.bsky.social and @aegeanboatreport.bsky.social - have also landed in Frontex & Europol databases.

www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decod...
Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with European police
In the name of combating migrant smugglers, the European Union's border surveillance agency spent years collecting information on migrants and civil society activists deemed 'suspect,' before passing ...
www.lemonde.fr
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Between 2016-2023, Frontex unlawfully shared the personal data of more than 13,000 'suspects' with Europol, via supposedly 'voluntary' debriefing interviews with newly arrived migrants that lack basic legal safeguards - branded by experts as 'covert interrogations'.

elpais.com/internaciona...
Frontex transfirió durante años ilegalmente a Europol datos de migrantes y activistas
Una investigación de varios medios, entre ellos EL PAÍS, revela que la agencia europea de fronteras facilitó a la entidad policial información indiscriminada de miles de personas a partir de entrevist...
elpais.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
For years, human rights advocates have warned of the criminalisation of migrants & activists at Europe’s borders.
With @balkanizator.bsky.social & @lolahierro.bsky.social we shed light on the opaque role of Frontex and Europol in drawing thousands into this dragnet.
wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...
Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol
Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...
wearesolomon.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
The criminalisation of solidarity is an incredible worrying element of the EU's response to migrant smuggling.

We went deep on this issues with @gesanchez.bsky.social , @bramfrouws.bsky.social and @bernd-parusel.bsky.social in this seminar hosted by @sieps.bsky.social

sieps.se/en/seminars/...
July 8, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Con @balkanizator.bsky.social y @stavinoha.bsky.social publico hoy esta investigación en @elpais.com acerca de las prácticas ilícitas de @frontex.bsky.social en la obtención y el manejo de datos personales de migrantes y activistas. elpais.com/internaciona...
Frontex transfirió durante años ilegalmente a Europol datos de migrantes y activistas
Una investigación de varios medios, entre ellos EL PAÍS, revela que la agencia europea de fronteras facilitó a la entidad policial información indiscriminada de miles de personas a partir de entrevist...
elpais.com
July 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Following a complaint by civil society organisations, we opened an inquiry into @ec.europa.eu decision not to carry out an impact assessment on two legislative proposals to counter migrant smuggling.

As a first step, we have asked the EC a set of questions.

www.ombudsman.europa.eu/news-documen...
June 25, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Missed our recent @sieps.bsky.social webinar on migrant smuggling and the EU’s counter-smuggling policies, with @gesanchez.bsky.social, @bramfrouws.bsky.social & @svaroschi.bsky.social?
There is now a recording you can watch! 👇 sieps.se/en/seminars/...
Assessing the EU’s response to the smuggling of migrants
sieps.se
June 25, 2025 at 8:33 AM
📢📢📢Join @svaroschi.bsky.social , @bramfrouws.bsky.social, @bernd-parusel.bsky.social for a conversation on the #facilitationproposal and its implications, next 17 June at 15.00 CET.
The European Commission has proposed new legislation to fight the smuggling of migrants. Researcher Gabriella Sanchez has critically examined the proposal in a recent SIEPS analysis.

In a webinar on 17 June, she will present her findings alongside expert commentators from policy and academia.
Assessing the EU’s response to the smuggling of migrants
sieps.se
June 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Gabriella Sanchez
Next deportation stop- Nepal.
June 8, 2025 at 2:37 PM