Chris Nehls
@nehls.bsky.social
Senior advisor @americalabs Congressional reform, democracy, civic tech. US History PhD. 3x Wahoo. Back from Japan. Let’s Go Mets. 🏀. wants to know the exact dimensions of hell
Reposted by Chris Nehls
now this is fucking thinking like an appropriator.
speaking as a federal bureaucrat, do you know how many completely fucking absurd rules there are making it next to impossible to do our jobs? how many forms I have to file to hire anyone? put a few dozen of those restrictions on ICE...
speaking as a federal bureaucrat, do you know how many completely fucking absurd rules there are making it next to impossible to do our jobs? how many forms I have to file to hire anyone? put a few dozen of those restrictions on ICE...
"Whoops sorry guys, we've upped your training requirements to 30 months. You'll have to pay your recruits full salary during that time too. We're not going to budget any money for that but you can draw from the already allocated money in the BBB."
The job right now isn't to advocate for more training, or body cams or QR codes or whatever because those things will be effective in their own right. It's to advocate for those things because it will bleed ICE's slush-fund white.
January 30, 2026 at 3:51 AM
now this is fucking thinking like an appropriator.
speaking as a federal bureaucrat, do you know how many completely fucking absurd rules there are making it next to impossible to do our jobs? how many forms I have to file to hire anyone? put a few dozen of those restrictions on ICE...
speaking as a federal bureaucrat, do you know how many completely fucking absurd rules there are making it next to impossible to do our jobs? how many forms I have to file to hire anyone? put a few dozen of those restrictions on ICE...
Reposted by Chris Nehls
I keep coming back to this clip as a symbol of the Democratic Party’s challenges. Murphy correctly says ICE “is not about safety or immigration, but a pretext for Trump to take over.”
Given this fact, Democratic leadership’s reform and fund plan makes no sense.
Given this fact, Democratic leadership’s reform and fund plan makes no sense.
Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.
Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.
Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.
January 29, 2026 at 5:08 PM
I keep coming back to this clip as a symbol of the Democratic Party’s challenges. Murphy correctly says ICE “is not about safety or immigration, but a pretext for Trump to take over.”
Given this fact, Democratic leadership’s reform and fund plan makes no sense.
Given this fact, Democratic leadership’s reform and fund plan makes no sense.
Reposted by Chris Nehls
America has a taste for means-testing safety net policies, and not investing in state capacity to manage the resulting complexity. We focus a lot on how this makes life harder for clients, but it also creates the conditions where private actors who offer to solve this problem can extract rents.
January 29, 2026 at 2:16 PM
America has a taste for means-testing safety net policies, and not investing in state capacity to manage the resulting complexity. We focus a lot on how this makes life harder for clients, but it also creates the conditions where private actors who offer to solve this problem can extract rents.
Reposted by Chris Nehls
Dug out and got to the Worst Whole Foods (Pentagon City) and they store music played Bobby Brown’s track from Ghostbusters II.
January 27, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Dug out and got to the Worst Whole Foods (Pentagon City) and they store music played Bobby Brown’s track from Ghostbusters II.
Freezing temps in Florida on the 40th anniversary of the Challenger explosion is dank.
I had a snow day in CT in 1986
I had a snow day in CT in 1986
January 27, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Freezing temps in Florida on the 40th anniversary of the Challenger explosion is dank.
I had a snow day in CT in 1986
I had a snow day in CT in 1986
These places are domestic Abu Ghraibs and the Dems need to incorporate open oversight/monitoring into their plan, not just what happens on the streets. DHS has been keeping members of Congress out as policy, illegally.
January 27, 2026 at 4:11 PM
These places are domestic Abu Ghraibs and the Dems need to incorporate open oversight/monitoring into their plan, not just what happens on the streets. DHS has been keeping members of Congress out as policy, illegally.
by one of my wife's relatives about the immediate aftermath of the Pretti murder. What really stands out -- ICE/CBP gave no orders to the crowd assembled, just silently started firing tear gas at everyone. This idea of comply and you are safe is bullshit. Force is on their terms
Dara's Guide to Handling Reality
Minneapolis, tear gas, mourning our heroes, and resolve
deardara.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:06 PM
by one of my wife's relatives about the immediate aftermath of the Pretti murder. What really stands out -- ICE/CBP gave no orders to the crowd assembled, just silently started firing tear gas at everyone. This idea of comply and you are safe is bullshit. Force is on their terms
Reposted by Chris Nehls
Reposted by Chris Nehls
Okay I think I've mapped out ICE politics as of Monday night
January 27, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Okay I think I've mapped out ICE politics as of Monday night
what the hell is that first sentence?
January 26, 2026 at 4:47 PM
what the hell is that first sentence?
Reposted by Chris Nehls
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
January 26, 2026 at 1:07 PM
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
We're apparently headed for an ICE-related shutdown that's a lot more politically complicated than the last. The latest First Branch Forecast
ICE Storm
Senate Democrats chose action in the wake of another death in Minneapolis. But how will Congress as a whole respond?
open.substack.com
January 26, 2026 at 1:45 PM
We're apparently headed for an ICE-related shutdown that's a lot more politically complicated than the last. The latest First Branch Forecast
Oh, boy
Wrote this paragraph 17 days ago, about the killing of Renee Good.
January 26, 2026 at 3:57 AM
Oh, boy
Potomac Yard can get tough
January 26, 2026 at 3:55 AM
Potomac Yard can get tough
fun fact about me is I've had multiple bylines in the Washington Post sports section. The fall of the Star-Ledger sports page was crushing for me, but this is bad
January 26, 2026 at 3:10 AM
fun fact about me is I've had multiple bylines in the Washington Post sports section. The fall of the Star-Ledger sports page was crushing for me, but this is bad
Sleet, winter’s killjoy
January 25, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Sleet, winter’s killjoy
Reposted by Chris Nehls
I was a sensitive kid. I loved cats. I had OCD, undiagnosed.
When I was 9, a fraternity brother tortured a cat to death in my hometown. The details even now are beyond imagination. archive.is/xdmUL
I was traumatized for years from reading the news story.
The torturer? Now the head of the NRA.
When I was 9, a fraternity brother tortured a cat to death in my hometown. The details even now are beyond imagination. archive.is/xdmUL
I was traumatized for years from reading the news story.
The torturer? Now the head of the NRA.
January 25, 2026 at 4:55 AM
I was a sensitive kid. I loved cats. I had OCD, undiagnosed.
When I was 9, a fraternity brother tortured a cat to death in my hometown. The details even now are beyond imagination. archive.is/xdmUL
I was traumatized for years from reading the news story.
The torturer? Now the head of the NRA.
When I was 9, a fraternity brother tortured a cat to death in my hometown. The details even now are beyond imagination. archive.is/xdmUL
I was traumatized for years from reading the news story.
The torturer? Now the head of the NRA.
“Guardrails” and “accountability” mean nothing to such people but that’s what Senate Dems are going to do a partial shutdown to demand. They’ve had a year to call out Miller’s paramilitaries for what they are - which DHS tweets constantly! - and have a week to come up with an actual plan
People might argue that ICE is not recruiting quality agents.
But I would insist that they are in fact successfully recruiting the exact sort of person needed to carry out the mission: reactionary, angry, violent people who don’t believe in democracy.
www.ms.now/opinion/ice-...
But I would insist that they are in fact successfully recruiting the exact sort of person needed to carry out the mission: reactionary, angry, violent people who don’t believe in democracy.
www.ms.now/opinion/ice-...
Opinion | ICE's violence is no accident
Alan Elrod: The killing of a woman by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis was the raw application of Trumpist authoritarianism.
www.ms.now
January 25, 2026 at 7:44 AM
“Guardrails” and “accountability” mean nothing to such people but that’s what Senate Dems are going to do a partial shutdown to demand. They’ve had a year to call out Miller’s paramilitaries for what they are - which DHS tweets constantly! - and have a week to come up with an actual plan
Reposted by Chris Nehls
It’s like how the January 6 insurrectionists broadly remembered are the violent ones or those who shit on desks and that let the 147 Republican elected members of Congress who voted to reject a free and fair election off the hook. This is a multi-level attack and needs to be recognized as such.
January 25, 2026 at 2:51 AM
It’s like how the January 6 insurrectionists broadly remembered are the violent ones or those who shit on desks and that let the 147 Republican elected members of Congress who voted to reject a free and fair election off the hook. This is a multi-level attack and needs to be recognized as such.
Reposted by Chris Nehls
One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!
January 24, 2026 at 9:29 PM
One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!
Gotta go.
January 24, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Gotta go.
And this is why you don’t approve the FSGG approps bill. Defund the White House first.
January 24, 2026 at 7:31 PM
And this is why you don’t approve the FSGG approps bill. Defund the White House first.