Patrick Smith
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pksmid.bsky.social
Patrick Smith
@pksmid.bsky.social
1.4K followers 500 following 110 posts
Co-host of Say More with Mary Dixon
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Patrick Smith
davidjroth.bsky.social
Rest in peace to one of the great bloggers and the de facto mayor of Philadelphia. It was my honor and pleasure to work with him. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...
Dan McQuade, 1983–2026 | Defector
Dan McQuade, our friend and colleague, died this week at the age of 43. He is survived by his wife and young son. At the end of 2024, Dan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. The news of his diag...
defector.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
jbendery.bsky.social
Ramos’ mother addressed his deteriorating health earlier this week:

“Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality,” she told MPR News on Monday. “He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.”
January 28, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social
Eric Lee @EricLeeAtty X.com ICE has put the Dilley center on lockdown, denying children the right to leave their rooms to go outside, even for medical appointments. Dozens of guards reportedly pushing detainees trying to assert their rights. 9:22 AM • 1/28/26. 901
January 28, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
wolfpointaudio.bsky.social
We’re live!
Introducing Wolf Point Media, a new podcast production collaborative based in Chicago. As podcast audiences grow & opportunities in this field shrink, we’re launching a new model based on collaboration, craft, and community. 🎙️🔥

👉 Follow. Share. Connect with us.

wolfpoint.media
January 28, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
ilhanmn.bsky.social
I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.

I don’t let bullies win.

Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.
January 28, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
emilyflitter.bsky.social
ICE deported a 5-year-old US citizen to Honduras, where she had never been, after holding her & her mother in a hotel room 80 miles from home for several days and not allowing them access to a lawyer www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Five-year-old deported to Honduras despite being US citizen is latest child victim of Trump crackdown
Mother whose visa application was pending says she will send girl back to US soon accompanied by another relative
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
jonseidel.bsky.social
The @chicago.suntimes.com has now posted a public tracker of federal criminal cases tied to Operation Midway Blitz, with a small update: We've now tied 32 defendants to the campaign.

The bottom line remains: 15 cleared and no one convicted, so far: chicago.suntimes.com/2026/tracker...
Tracking every known federal prosecution in Chicago tied to Trump’s immigration blitz
Every known federal prosecution in Chicago tied to Trump’s immigration blitz
chicago.suntimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
royalpratt.bsky.social
These are all the times Gregory Bovino tweeted at me
www.reddit.com/r/chicago/s/...
From the chicago community on Reddit: These are all the times Gregory Bovino tweeted at me
Explore this post and more from the chicago community
www.reddit.com
January 27, 2026 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
veryimportant.lawyer
This is what my timeline feels like when you people try to rehabilitate nu-metal
ruralindexing.bsky.social Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 14d
Nickelback Redemption Center
Independence, IA
January 26, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting. 2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value. 3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE. 4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on. 5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle." 6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground. 7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack. 8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video. 9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk. 10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun. 11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him. 12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes. 13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. 14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him. 15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1. 16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground. 17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building. 18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values. I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct. Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.
January 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
fack.bsky.social
There's a prison revolt at a concentration camp in Texas in solidarity with Minneapolis:
21 minutes ago Jazmine Ulloa Hundreds of immigrant mothers and children detained at a South Texas facility on Saturday protested the killing of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis, chanting "Let me out" and "Libertad," or "Liberty," according to an immigration lawyer who witnessed the demonstration. Eric Lee, the lawyer, said he had been waiting for his client in the visitation area of the family detention center in Dilley, Tex., when detention officials abruptly asked him to leave. Once outside, he peered through a chain-link fence and saw hundreds of women and children walking out of the facility and chanting in protest. Lee said his client later told him on the phone that he and other detainees were outraged over the latest killing in Minneapolis and the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy from Ecuador detained with his father in Minneapolis and sent to Texas.
January 24, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
jeffrueter.bsky.social
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
January 25, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
dimitridrekonja.bsky.social
Alex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now
Alex Pretti from his early days working at the VA
January 24, 2026 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
whstancil.bsky.social
The share of Americans who disapprove of ICE tactics in polls: 60+ percent

New York Times: “it’s really too complicated to say whether Americans approve of ICE killing Renee Good or not”
January 24, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
paleofuture.bsky.social
“…despite a judge ordering the toddler’s release.”
January 23, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
jackjenkins.me
As clergy pray, arrests begin
January 23, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
jonseidel.bsky.social
Federal jury rejects Bovino murder plot after attorney calls on it to 'stop the overreaching government'

UPDATED @chicago.suntimes.com story on today's not guilty verdict in the Bovino murder-for-hire trial: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Federal jury rejects Bovino murder plot after attorney calls on it to 'stop the overreaching government'
It took jurors roughly three hours to acquit Juan Espinoza Martinez of a murder-for-hire aimed at U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, the face of Operation Midway Blitz.
chicago.suntimes.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
shannonheffernan.bsky.social
The 5-year-old arrested by ICE In Minnesota is detained at Dilley. We reported on conditions there in the below article.

Parents said the food was contaminated with mold and worms & that children were so under so much stress that they were hitting their own faces & wetting themselves.
themarshallproject.org The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · Dec 17
Analysis by The Marshall Project of ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project found that the Trump administration’s revival of family detention has swept thousands of children into ICE custody. At least 3,800 children under 18, including 20 infants, have been booked since Trump took office.
ICE Threw Thousands of Kids in Detention, Many For Longer Than Court-Prescribed Limit
Former immigration staffers argue ICE is choosing to detain families for prolonged periods to speed deportations and compel them to leave.
www.themarshallproject.org
January 22, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
fernandez.house.gov
I’m a NO on today’s ICE funding bill.

We must hold them accountable for this terror campaign.
January 22, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
newsjennifer.bsky.social
This is Liam Ramos. The five year old that ICE took from a Minneapolis school and sent BY HIMSELF WITHOUT HIS FAMILY to a detention facility in Texas. There are monsters among us and they are wearing masks, carrying guns, and work for the US government.
Liam Ramos bring taken by ice Liam Ramos sxhool picture
January 22, 2026 at 12:41 AM
pksmid.bsky.social
Trying to think of a good way to describe the people doing this and the people who support it.
discosaurus.bsky.social Disco @discosaurus.bsky.social · 7d
This picture making the rounds on reddit, Columbia Heights. I'm not OK.
Kid in a hat and backpack, maybe 5, getting detained
January 22, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
ramirez.house.gov
I am introducing the Melt ICE Act to end funding for immigrant detention and monitoring.

We have seen the danger in infusing resources into DHS’s abuses of power. Funding for ICE is fuel for human suffering.

It’s time to start melting ICE.
January 21, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
amreports.bsky.social
An observer arrested in Suth Minneapolis. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Several agents hold a person down and sprays them with pepper spray.
January 21, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Patrick Smith
apnews.com
Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a U.S. citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.
US citizen says ICE removed him from his Minnesota home in his underwear after warrantless search
Federal immigration agents have detained a U.S. citizen in Minnesota at gunpoint without a warrant. That's according to ChongLy “Scott” Thao, who says agents forced open his door, entered with guns drawn and led him outside in his underwear in freezing conditions.
bit.ly
January 20, 2026 at 1:40 PM