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vimiller.bsky.social
Violet Miller
@vimiller.bsky.social
2.7K followers 680 following 560 posts
reporter @chicago.suntimes.com
union member @cstguild.bsky.social
drummer, mediocre shortstop
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vimiller.bsky.social
Violet Miller @vimiller.bsky.social · 10d
Federal agents fired pepper balls after detaining two people in Albany Park Friday morning as the immigration blitz in Chicago continued through Halloween.

“It’s actually horrifying. ... It happens so fast. You prepare, but then you don’t know what to do.”

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
A federal agent in camouflage puts his knee on a man's sternum as he detains him in a navy-colored shirt Friday in the 3200 block of West Lawrence Avenue. Protesters with their phones out confront federal agents in green and camouflage fatigues after they detained two men in the 3200 block of West Lawrence Avenue Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. A federal agent in military fatigues fires a pepper ball gun at the ground near protesters and reporters Friday in the 3200 block of West Lawrence Avenue. A uniformed Chicago police officer urges protesters back onto the sidewalk after they were standing in front of the vehicles of federal agents, who had just detained two people and fired pepper balls in the 3200 block of West Lawrence Avenue Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
Reposted by Violet Miller
aljazeera.com
Since the ceasefire took effect one month ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622.
How many times has Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire? Here are the numbers
Since the ceasefire took effect one month ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 242 Palestinians and injured 622.
bit.ly
November 11, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jonseidel.bsky.social
From @vanessalop.bsky.social: He worked hard to give me a home. ICE took his: How I lost my father to deportation

chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2...
He worked hard to give me a home. ICE took his: How I lost my father to deportation
Deportation has taken away the father I once knew and given me back a person I no longer recognize.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
rainesford.bsky.social
As the Trump admin creates more chaos over funding SNAP benefits, uncertainty is taking a toll. Young people I spoke to while reporting described how profoundly stressful the chaos is: "Uncertainty over SNAP delays “builds this anxiety of, ‘Well, if this is going to be taken away, what else is?’”
More Young People Will Go Hungry Without SNAP
“We’re trying to make it, but it’s been hard.”
www.teenvogue.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM
vimiller.bsky.social
Rafael Veraza was trying to leave a Sam’s Club parking lot when a federal agent drove alongside a line of cars, spraying chemical irritants occupants of the vehicles through open windows — including his 1-year-old daughter, Ariana.

“My daughter didn’t have to go through this."
1-year-old, pepper sprayed by federal agent in Cicero: 'My daughter didn't have to go through this'
Video shows federal agents spraying chemical irritants from a moving vehicle at a line of cars waiting to leave a Cicero Sam's Club on Saturday morning. The action appears to violate a judge's restric...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
chicago.suntimes.com
This has been Ingrid Guanume’s chaotic routine since her husband, Brayan Plata, was detained by federal immigration agents while working a landscaping job in north suburban Skokie Wednesday afternoon.
After ICE detained her husband, Albany Park mom juggles care for 3 kids, including son with autism, newborn
chicago.suntimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by Violet Miller
kissphoria.bsky.social
Was very honored to be included in OutSmart Magazine, one of Houston's oldest LGBTQ magazines, as part of their Pride In Media series. I love Houston and I am honored to cover LGBTQ+ issues and people in Texas. www.outsmartmagazine.com/2025/11/gwen...
Chron Reporter Gwen Howerton Stays Rooted in the State She Calls Home
After finding her voice in College Station and Houston, culture reporter Gwen Howerton continues to tell stories that humanize Texas’ LGBTQ community amid political backlash and change.
www.outsmartmagazine.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jonseidel.bsky.social
Magistrate judge plans visit to ICE Broadview facility amid lawsuit over conditions

From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Magistrate judge plans visit to ICE Broadview facility amid lawsuit over conditions
The visit has been tentatively planned for Thursday morning, and details will be sorted out early next week.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
ckubzansky.bsky.social
After @mandophotos.bsky.social photographed federal agents pointing rifles at 26th/Lawndale yesterday, I inquired with DHS about what threat had prompted them to pull weapons on a busy commercial strip (pictured). This is the response I got from a representative of the United States government.
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
djbyrnes1.bsky.social
New: Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustin Zamacona, two men formerly held at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, and now the named plaintiffs in a federal class action alleging inhumane treatment at the facility, are being released from federal custody per a successful habeas petition.
Image text of an order from District Judge Sara Ellis, ordering the release of Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustin Zamacona on a habeas petition. The men are the class representative plaintiffs in a federal class action challenging inhumane conditions at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, and until today were being held at Chicago's Metro Correctional Center. District Judge Sara Ellis found their detention violated due process. Image text of an order from District Judge Sara Ellis, ordering the release of Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustin Zamacona on a habeas petition. The men are the class representative plaintiffs in a federal class action challenging inhumane conditions at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, and until today were being held at Chicago's Metro Correctional Center. District Judge Sara Ellis found their detention violated due process. Image text of an order from District Judge Sara Ellis, ordering the release of Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustin Zamacona on a habeas petition. The men are the class representative plaintiffs in a federal class action challenging inhumane conditions at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, and until today were being held at Chicago's Metro Correctional Center. District Judge Sara Ellis found their detention violated due process. Image text of an order from District Judge Sara Ellis, ordering the release of Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustin Zamacona on a habeas petition. The men are the class representative plaintiffs in a federal class action challenging inhumane conditions at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, and until today were being held at Chicago's Metro Correctional Center. District Judge Sara Ellis found their detention violated due process.
November 7, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jael.bsky.social
Did you know a former White House climate advisor flipped a GOP stronghold in Virginia by running entirely on putting a stop to more AI data centers?

For @heatmap.news I profiled John McAuliff and a campaign that will be a roadmap for all future anti-AI politicians moving forward.
This Virginia Election Was a Warning for Data Centers
John McAuliff ran his campaign almost entirely on data centers — and won.
heatmap.news
November 7, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jonseidel.bsky.social
Good afternoon. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman is presiding over a remote status hearing that just began over conditions inside the ICE facility in Broadview.
November 7, 2025 at 6:47 PM
vimiller.bsky.social
Full body cam footage here:
November 7, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
katelynburns.com
"biological pronouns" is an insane phrase
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4d
BREAKING: The Sixth Circuit, in a 10-7 en banc decision, holds that an Ohio school district's anti-bullying policy that requires students to use children's preferred pronouns is likely unconstitutional on these facts.

Judge Murphy, a Trump appointee, writes the court's decision.
OPINION MURPHY, Circuit Judge. An Ohio public school district bars its students from referring to transgender and nonbinary classmates using the pronouns that match their biological sex if the classmates prefer to go by different pronouns. The plaintiff in this case has parent and student members who believe that a person's sex is immutable. The members want to express this view by using biological pronouns. And they believe that they would convey a falsehood —that a person's gender is fluid—if they use preferred pronouns. So the plaintiff challenged the school district's speech ban on behalf of its members under the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause. This case about pronouns pits two important interests against each other. On the one hand, the school district has prohibited speech (biological pronouns) that expresses a message on a matter of pressing public concern. And because the district requires other speech (preferred pronouns) that expresses a competing view, it has discriminated based on its students' viewpoints. Its approach thus raises serious free-speech concerns. On the other hand, the school district rightly responds that it has a duty to protect all students- including transgender and nonbinary students— from bullying and harassment. And this protection, while necessarily restricting speech, does not violate the Free Speech Clause. So which of these competing concerns should prevail in this case? The Supreme Court's cases provide a clear answer. A school district may not restrict personal speech on matters of public concern unless the speech would "materially and substantially disrupt" school activities or infringe the legal "rights of others" in the school community. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 513 (1969). In this case's current posture, the school district has fallen far short of meeting this demanding standard. It introduced no evidence that the use of biological pronouns would disrupt school functions or qualify as harassment under Ohio law. Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or offensive just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights. The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view. We thus reverse and remand Case: 23-3630 Document: 253-2 Filed: 11/06/2025 Page: 4 No. 23-3630 Defending Educ. v. Olentangy Loc. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., et al. Page 4 for the entry of an appropriately tailored preliminary injunction barring the district from punishing students for the commonplace use of biological pronouns. Yet nothing we say here forecloses the district from enforcing its anti-harassment policies against the abuse of transgender students just as it enforces those policies against the abuse of all other students.
November 7, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Reposted by Violet Miller
ericumansky.bsky.social
DHS stopped automatically archiving officials’ text messages.

Now to save messages — as law requires— officials gotta…

-take a screenshot.
-send it to their work computer
-run the file through a program there
-repeat

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
The policy expects officials to first take screenshots of the text messages on their work phones, send it to their work email, download it on their work computers and then run a program that would recognize the text to store it in searchable formats,
November 7, 2025 at 12:32 PM
vimiller.bsky.social
An officer first noticed agent Guillermo Diaz-Torres sleeping in his car at an intersection and knocked on the vehicle to get his attention. He then drove into a tree line nearby.

“Got off shift, I came here,” he said to another officer. “You guys have a checkpoint. This doesn’t look good.”
ICE agent facing DUI in Oak Brook after driving into tree line: 'This doesn't look good'
Guillermo Diaz-Torres told police he couldn't account for the 90-minute period after his shift ended at the controversial ICE processing facility in Broadview and when the crash occurred, per the repo...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jael.bsky.social
my latest: i spent weeks investigating how frustrations about data centers were about to swallow american politics…

…and then the 2025 election happened, proving the electoral impacts are already here.

read and share my deep dive on the bipartisan AI techlash shaping our elections before our eyes!
The Data Center Backlash Is Swallowing American Politics
Activists on both the left and the right are pushing back against rampant AI development.
heatmap.news
November 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
mulchy.bsky.social
new: at least 26 unhoused chicagoans have been abducted since the start of "operation midway blitz."

the full scope of people disappeared is likely much larger but is obscured by heavy criminalization, social stigma, and fewer eyes and phones around to bear witness.

via @katieprout.bsky.social
Many unhoused Chicagoans uncounted among the disappeared - Chicago Reader
The Latino Union of Chicago, via its Adopt a Corner initiative, organizes patrols to watch for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents at intersections and landmarks wh...
chicagoreader.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
condeunion.bsky.social
Breaking News: Late last night Conde Nast illegally fired 4 union organizers who asked company execs to explain the downsizing of Teen Vogue and continued layoffs. We’ve filed a grievance.
Statement from The NewsGuild of New York and Condé United on illegal firing of four union leaders who demanded answers about this week’s layoffs at Teen Vogue, other brands Late Wednesday night, Condé Nast’s VP of Labor Relations notified the Guild that the Company was immediately terminating four Condé United leaders for engaging in the protected concerted activity of gathering in their 1 World Trade Center office to demand answers on this week’s abrupt layoffs at multiple brands including WIRED and the consolidation at Teen Vogue. These egregious terminations are a flagrant breach of the Just Cause terms of our contract and an unprecedented violation of their federally protected rights as union members to participate in a collective action. Through these illegal terminations, Condé Nast management is attempting to intimidate and silence our members' advocacy for the courageous cultural and political journalism of Teen Vogue, as well as diverting attention away from the obvious lack of corporate leadership at the company. Condé United members illegally fired are: Alma Avalle: Writer, digital producer at Bon Appetit; NewsGuild of New York first vice president, trans activist, and union leader Jake Lahut: Wired senior reporter covering the Trump White House Jasper Lo: Senior fact checker at The New Yorker and US Army veteran: outgoing first vice chair of The New Yorker Union Ben Dewey: Videographer at Condé Nast Entertainment, former vice chair of the CNE unit “Management’s attempt at union-busting, using intimidation and grossly illegal tactics to try to suppress protected union activity, will not stand,” said Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York. “The NewsGuild of New York has zero tolerance for bad bosses who harass, target and disrespect our fellow Guild members. We represent nearly 6,000 media workers across the tri-state area and we stand firmly in solidarity, ready to fight for the rights of our members illegally fired from their jobs at …
November 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
vimiller.bsky.social
i'll be on @wbez.org this morning at 9am going over yesterday's daycare detainment, the impending court decision on feds' use of crowd weapons (and the Broadview TRO), a judge ruling against the Trump admin’s conditions for transportation funds and a new suit over loan relief for public servants.
November 6, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jonseidel.bsky.social
Lawyers play a video that was played for Bovino. In it, he tells agents "everybody fucking gets it if they touch you."

"This is OUR fucking city," Bovino tells them.
November 5, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
jonseidel.bsky.social
'It's a disgrace': Chicagoans describe jarring encounters with feds as judge prepares to rule on 'blitz'

From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
'It's a disgrace': Chicagoans describe jarring encounters with feds as judge prepares to rule on 'blitz'
U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino testified on video that the use of force by federal agents in Chicago has been “more than exemplary," but also said he would have used more tear gas in Litt...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:39 AM
vimiller.bsky.social
Our cover story today:
Chicago Sun-Times newspaper with pictures of a woman being detained by masked federal agents as well as a picture of parents from the school and clergy gathered at an earlier press conference. The text reads: Day Care Despair Parents, staff react with horror after alderperson says federal agents dragged teacher out of Spanish immersion center in North Center before going on room-to-room search with children present. CINDY HERNANDEZ AND VIOLET MILLER REPORT, PAGE 6
November 6, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Violet Miller
tylerplariviere.bsky.social
PHOTOS: 'Yo tengo papeles': Teacher detained by immigration agents in North Center day care

READ MORE HERE: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Hundreds of community members, parents, and elected officials attend a rally at Northcenter Town Square, in support of “Ms. Diana” an educator who was detained by federal law enforcement officers at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St this morning, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times Maria Guzman, mother of two children how attend Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center wipes tears from her face after a rally at Northcenter Town Square, in support of “Ms. Diana” an educator who was detained by federal law enforcement officers at the daycare this morning, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times Hundreds of community members, parents, and elected officials attend a rally at Northcenter Town Square, in support of “Ms. Diana” an educator who was detained by federal law enforcement officers at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St this morning, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times Hundreds of community members, parents, and elected officials attend a rally at Northcenter Town Square, in support of “Ms. Diana” an educator who was detained by federal law enforcement officers at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St this morning, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
November 6, 2025 at 3:14 AM
vimiller.bsky.social
At a Wednesday evening rally, 47th Ward Ald Matt Martin said parents from the school arranged legal rep for Ms. Diana, though they were unsure where she had been taken.

“There cannot be a reformist mindset for this agency... We need to call for the abolition of ICE," said State Sen. Mike Simmons.
'Yo tengo papeles': Teacher detained by immigration agents in North Center day care
Video purportedly showed two federal agents pulling the woman out of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St. about 7 Wednesday morning.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:19 AM
vimiller.bsky.social
Tyler and I are out here at the rally where the crowd has about doubled since this first post. Easily 400+ people.

Group is chanting “no hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here.”
tylerplariviere.bsky.social Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere @tylerplariviere.bsky.social · 5d
Here at Northcenter Town Square where 100-200 community members including families and young children are rallying after a teacher was taken by federal law enforcement from a local daycare this morning.
November 6, 2025 at 12:39 AM