Matt Cameron
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mattcameron.bsky.social
Matt Cameron
@mattcameron.bsky.social
15K followers 1.2K following 2.2K posts
Stopping deportations since 2006. On mic at Opening Arguments (@openargs.bsky.social), on keys with Scarlet Flannel, on amphetamines (most days). Read my journal at http://deportnation.com
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mattcameron.bsky.social
BTW if you heard any immigration lawyers quietly celebrating the end of Chevron deference last year the complete and total disrespect the federal circuit courts are now permitted to show the Trump-shaped rubber stamp that is the Board of Immigration Appeals was why. It is such a delight to see
Excerpt from Chafla v Scott (D Maine 2025) listing out some of many recent examples of federal judges declining to follow the BIAs holding thatanyone who crossed the border without permission is an "arriving alien" who can't be released on bond
November 11, 2025 at 12:25 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Posting good Monday news not bc I did anything special here* but bc I need you to know that when we fight we win so let's all keep fighting

--
*truly: New England judges are routinely granting release on habeas for ICE detainees being denied bond hearings under the latest ridiculous BIA precedent
written order of habeas corpus in one of my detained cases "Accoridngly I GRANT the Petitioner's verified habeas petition and ORDER him immediately released on his own recognizance without bail conditions"
November 11, 2025 at 12:05 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
TIL that the @mbta.com has a room full of beautifully painted pianos from a Newton public art project in the waiting room of the Lawrence commuter rail station.

How did they all end up here? Why Lawrence? The T works in mysterious ways. But still grateful for some unexpected piano time #mapoli
Photo of some of the artistically decorated pianos in the Lawrence MBTA commuter rail station taken 11/3/25
November 3, 2025 at 3:28 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
just another reminder if you needed it that this is exactly what they voted for. They saw this, they liked it, and now they are getting it
RNC attendees holding up “Mass Deportation Now“ signs
November 1, 2025 at 3:43 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Tens of thousands was probably too conservative. More than 3.5 million people currently hold USCIS work permits, and at least 800,000 of those have renewals which have been pending for more than six months.

www.hamiltonproject.org/data/trackin...
data from the Hamilton Project 3.5 million + people with approved work permits in the US Data from the Hamilton Project re: 800,000 work permit applications pending with USCIS for more than 6 months
October 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
The entire US economy is now being propped up by systems which are known to freely engage in fraud and blackmail *and* resist explicit commands to shut down and no one knows why. Which is fine obviously
Tweet from Palisade Research: Ultimately the AI research community needs a much better understanding of AI drives and behaviors. The fact that we don't have robust explanations for why AI models sometimes resist shutdown, lie to achieve specific objectives, or blackmail is not ideal
October 26, 2025 at 7:03 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
My social life to this point would have been so, so much easier if there were Legos every bar, good going Portico Brewing
October 25, 2025 at 12:31 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
TONIGHT at Portico Brewing in #Somerville! I'll be on the keys 7-9:30, come by for a craft beer or two and one of our best sets yet
October 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
this is the clown car you end up with when you can't get the Washington Examiner or Daily Caller
The Pentagon declined to release a list of the new media outlets to The Hill, but posts to social media on Wednesday indicate that the additional journalists work across far-right websites such as Human Events; its sister company, Canadian website the Post Millennial; the National Pulse; The Gateway Pundit; and LindellTV, started by MyPillow CEO and President Trump ally Mike Lindell. Also included are Just the News, right-wing podcast host Tim Pool’s Timcast, Turning Point USA’s media brand Frontlines, and a Substack-based newsletter called the Washington Reporter. They will join the likes of One America News Network, the Federalist, and the Epoch Times, a handful of foreign outlets, and freelancers and independent journalists who already had a press badge, though only One America News Network regularly reports from the building.
October 23, 2025 at 11:09 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Habeas experts: any idea how ICE produces these precise times? Obviously they know the import of taking a detainee across state lines and I'm willing to believe that they record these things somewhere, but where and how?
excerpt from an affidavit produced by an ICE officer as to a detainee's exact location: On or about October 20, 2025, at approximately 12:39 PM, the Petitioner left an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts to be detained at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland, Maine. ICE transferred the Petitioner to the Cumberland County Jail due to a lack of bedspace at detention facilities in Massachusetts. At approximately 1:27 PM, the Petitioner left the state of Massachusetts during his transport to Cumberland County Jail.
October 23, 2025 at 9:38 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Am I the only one for whom the @microsoft365.microsoft.com "Search My Files" function for Word files just... doesn't work? As in you can type pretty much anything into the search bar and it just randomly returns results from the cloud with no apparent regard for the search terms?
Screenshot of Word 365's completely useless "Search My Files" function
October 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
I was just talking to someone about the anti-ICE influencer who had their car rammed & was injured by ICE while trying to film ICE for a full thirty seconds before we realized that we were talking about different people who were recently rammed & injured by ICE while trying to film ICE
October 22, 2025 at 3:05 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" was 52 years ago today. It was a shocking breach of DOJ norms, and a major turning point for public opinion on Watergate.

Trump already had one of these (on a Thursday) in February, and has had at least four more since then
October 19, 2025 at 10:31 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
literal fucking neo-Nazis
That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.
October 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
"The proposals... prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.” "

They want to transform a refugee system that every American should be proud of into Operation Paperclip 2.0
NYT (10/14/25) Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People The proposals would transform a program aimed at helping the most vulnerable people in the world into one that gives preference to mostly white people who say they are being persecuted.
October 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
Just remembering how Rush Limbaugh would start his show every day with "America Held Hostage Day 982" or whatever in defiance of the radical Marxist agenda being carried out by noted leftist iconoclast Bill Clintonout
October 12, 2025 at 4:58 AM
mattcameron.bsky.social
POV: your band is playing a gig at an art museum and decides to do a Taylor Swift song that just came out a few hours ago
October 3, 2025 at 9:28 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
"Democrats have shut down the government."

This is at the top of the immigration court's website on the DOJ homepage. This is just how the government talks now.
header from DOJ website stating "Democrats have shut down the government" from screenshot taken 10/1/25
October 1, 2025 at 9:55 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
as you may know this was in their order in Wilcox (NLRB firing), back in May. But Kagan (excerpt on the right) completely agrees with you fwiw
Finally, respondents Gwynne Wilcox and Cathy Harris contend that arguments in this case necessarily implicate the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections for members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors or other members of the Federal Open Market Committee. See Response of Wilcox in Opposition to App. for Stay 2−3, 27−28; Response of Harris in Opposition to App. for Stay 3, 5−6, 16−17, 36, 40. We disagree. The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks Except apparently for the Federal Reserve. The majority closes today’s order by stating, out of the blue, that it has no bearing on “the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections” for members of the Federal Reserve Board or Open Market Committee. Ante, at 2. I am glad to hear it, and do not doubt the majority’s intention to avoid imperil ing the Fed. But then, today’s order poses a puzzle. For the Federal Reserve’s independence rests on the same constitu tional and analytic foundations as that of the NLRB, MSPB, FTC, FCC, and so on—which is to say it rests largely on Humphrey’s. So the majority has to offer a different story: The Federal Reserve, it submits, is a “uniquely struc tured” entity with a “distinct historical tradition”—and it cites for that proposition footnote 8 of this Court’s opinion in Seila Law. Ante, at 2 (citing 591 U. S., at 222, n. 8). But—sorry—footnote 8 provides no support. Its only rele vant sentence rejects an argument made in the dissenting
October 1, 2025 at 3:18 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
7/ Also, this is the first judicial decision I can ever remember reading which ends on a cliffhanger!
I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected. Is he correct? A hearing on remedy will promptly be scheduled. BY THE COURT,
September 30, 2025 at 9:27 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
6/ So many other gems in here which we'll get to on OA, but just wanted to be sure to highlight this incredible takedown of DHS's reliance on Canary Mission to target genocide protesters
The Public Officials’ argument that few of the originally investigated names were targeted is little comfort. Those names that were passed up the chain of command by the investigating subordinates were almost universally approved for adverse action, and, again, the reasons for being passed up the chain of command included any form of online suggestion that one was “pro-Hamas,” including Canary Mission’s own anonymous articles. Watching the process at work, and not wishing to credit the Public Officials with incompetence, it would require a remarkable naivete not to conclude that this process worked as intended.4
September 30, 2025 at 9:10 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
5/ just when it is feeling like a little much, Young pulls back and reminds us why Trump (and Trumpism) is not just goofy, but actively dangerous. Not for the first time this year (or even the third) a Reagan appointee is showing us the true meaning of judicial courage and moral clarity
When he drifts off into calling people “traitors” and condemning them for “treason,” however, he reveals an ignorance of the crime and the special burden of proof it requires. More important, such speech is not protected by the First Amendment; it is defamatory. In his official capacity as President, however, President Trump enjoys broad immunity from any civil liability. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731 (1982). 4. Retribution Everything above in this section is necessary background to frame the problem this President has with the First Amendment. Where things run off the rails for him is his fixation with “retribution.” “I am your retribution,” he thundered famously while on the campaign trail.59 Yet government retribution for speech (precisely what has happened here) is directly forbidden by the First Amendment. The President’s palpable “He shines and stinks like rotten mackerel by moonlight.” W. Cabell Bruce, John Randolph of Roanoke (1923), vol. II, at 197. As Mr. Dooley said “Politics ain’t beanbag.” Finley Peter Dunne, MR. DOOLEY IN PEACE AND WAR (1898) (quoted in William Safire, SAFIRE’S POLITICAL DICTIONARY (2008) at 45-46). No president before President Trump, however, has so consistently and personally, attacked America’s independent judiciary. 59 See, e.g., Speech at CPAC, (March 4,2023), https://www.c span.org/clip/campaign-2024/former-pres-trump-i-am-your justicei-am-your-retribution/5060238 at 00:32-:00:34.
September 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
4/ But the thing which really sets this decision apart is how thoroughly Judge Young understands the import--and enormous danger--of our moment. He is editorializing about Trump like I have never seen a judge editorialize about anything. And, of course, he's not wrong about any of it.
Whether it’s social media,56 print, or television, President Trump is the master communicator of our time. His speech dominates today’s American idiom. Indeed, it may be said to define it. It is triumphal, transactional, imperative, bellicose, and coarse. It seeks to persuade –- not through marshaling data driven evidence, science, or moral suasion, but through power. While the President naturally seeks warm cheering and gladsome, welcoming acceptance of his views, in the real world he’ll settle for sullen silence and obedience. What he will not countenance is dissent or disagreement. He recognizes, of course, that there are legislative and judicial branches to our government, co-equal even to a unitary Presidency.57 He meets dissent from his orders in those other two branches by demonizing and disparaging the speakers, sometimes descending to personal vitriol.58 56 Recent perusal of the White House social media posts displays a meme of the President that, at a quick glance, depicts him as a comic book superhero. People apparently go for this. 57 I keep a copy of the Boy Scout pamphlet for the Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge ready to hand. It well explains our nation’s system of checks and balances among the three branches of our government. 58 He’s really quite inventive and, in this respect, he joins a rich tradition of American political invective. Lincoln was called “a gorilla”, Michael Burlingame, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, A LIFE VOL. ONE (2008) at 63, and John Randolph said of Edward Livingston
September 30, 2025 at 8:56 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
3/ Thee is a lengthy rundown of the 9-day trial which Young held on issues around the Trump admin's targeting of non-citizen student protesters like Mahmoud Khalil & Rumeysa Ozturk. It also liberally quotes a lot of government idiots, including this gem on NPR which OA listeners will recognize
Excerpt from NPR dialogue with DHS official hosted by Michel Martin: Martin: He's a legal permanent resident. I have to keep insisting on that. He is a legal permanent resident. So what is the standard? Is any criticism of the Israeli government a deportable offense? Edgar: Like I said, I think that at this point when he entered into the country on a student visa, at any point we can go through and evaluate what his status is. Martin: Is any criticism of the United States government a deportable offense? Edgar: Like I said, if you go through the process and you're a student and you're here on a visa and you go through it, at any point . . . . Martin: Is any criticism of the government a deportable offense? Edgar: Let me put it this way, Michel, imagine if he came in and filled out the form and said, “I want a student visa.” They asked him, “What are you going to do here?” And he says, “I'm going to go and protest.” We would have never let him into the country. Martin: Is protesting a deportable offense? Edgar: You're focused on protests. I'm focused on the visa process. He went through a legal process . . . . Martin: Are you saying he lied on his application? He's a lawful permanent resident, married to an American citizen. Edgar: I think if he would have declared he's a terrorist, we would have never let him in.
September 30, 2025 at 8:53 PM
mattcameron.bsky.social
2/ I've never seen a judge publish anything above the caption. It is hard to explain how visually striking it is to see this little personal note, as well as the postscript directly addressing the author of the threat which he includes after his signature at the end of the 161-page order
after his signature on the order, Judge Young writes: I hope you found this helpful. Thanks for writing. It shows you care. You should. Sincerely & respectfully, Bill Young P.S. The next time you’re in Boston [the postmark on the card is from the Philadelphia area] stop in at the Courthouse and watch your fellow citizens, sitting as jurors, reach out for justice. It is here, and in courthouses just like this one, both state and federal, spread throughout our land that our Constitution is most vibrantly alive, for it is well said that “Where a jury sits, there burns the lamp of liberty.”
September 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM