Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
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reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
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Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Commenting generally on immigration law and policy. Retweets =/= endorsements, views are my own.
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reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Of course, as the lawyer for GEO reminded the Justices, this is about a very real-world issue; the fact that lawyers have been successful in throwing sand in the deportation machine's gears is bad for their profit and thus bad for ICE.

The merits of one of those cases may go to the Court next year.
And, as a result, you know, the government and GEO cite the Nwauzor case in the Ninth Circuit, where the State of Washington sought to impose its minimum wage law on GEO's operation of the Voluntary Work Program. The Ninth Circuit said that was A-okay. Cert petition coming. But the -- the government in the meantime suspended, as Judge Bumatay noted in dissent from denial, suspended the operation of the Voluntary Work Program at that facility. The point here is that it's not strictly monetary, Justice Barrett. This also goes to the operation of policy. That is determination that having a Voluntary Work Program that reduces idleness and encourages, you know, cooperation and -- and reduces disciplinary incidents is a good penological policy, has been suspended at that facility exclusively because of the crushing liability that's coming for the contractors.
November 11, 2025 at 12:57 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
In the end, only Justice Alito came in with a first question that took GEO's side, suggesting GEO had a good policy argument that lawsuits against it should be treated like lawsuits against ICE itself.

But even his heart didn't really seem into it. By the end he almost sounded defensive.
JUSTICE ALITO: Well, when GEO is doing exactly what government officials can do and generally have done, running facilities like this, so imagine you had brought these claims against ICE and specific ICE officials. ICE and the officials could raise sovereign immunity, they could raise qualified immunity and Westphal active immunity. And if the district court denied any of those, then they could get an interlocutory appeal. So why shouldn't the rule be the same for GEO? Don't the considerations that justify interlocutory appeal when the suit is against a government official also justify an interlocutory appeal here? JUSTICE ALITO: All right. Well, what how about the policy? Why isn't the policy the same -- policy considerations the same here? MS. BENNETT: Sure. So what -- what Filarsky and what Mitchell say are the policy considerations that specifically justify the immunity from suit is the consideration of wanting government employees to show initiative in the face of unclear law. That is why you would get qualified immunity. That is not why you get Yearsley. Yearsley, in fact, is precisely the opposite of JUSTICE ALITO: But it's not really -- the -- the justification for qualified immunity is not just that you want government officials to be able to take bold action. It's that you don't want them to be -- to have to bear the burdens of litigation which can be quite substantial when it may well be that they didn't do -- and they didn't -- they didn't do anything that was unjustified based on what they knew. So why doesn't that apply just as well here? USTICE ALITO: Well, I mean, policy is a dirty word, but isn't something similar to policy what is going on in Mitchell and in the other cases where we have said there's a right not to be -- there's a right not to trial unless a certain requirement is met? MS. BENNETT: I absolutely agree with that, Your Honor. And Mitchell was before Congress passed a statute enabling the court to create new categories of interlocutory orders through rule-making and interpret the final decision through rule-making.
November 11, 2025 at 12:48 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Justices Kagan and Jackson also expressed very clear skepticism for GEO's argument, both making it clear on their first questions they believed GEO was trying to invent a brand new immunity out of thin air.
JUSTICE JACKSON: Why isn't Yearsley better understood as a defense than an immunity? MR. DRAYE: Yes. Well, the Court has consistently said that it's an immunity and an immunity from suit. And the rationales that this Court and others have given for it is because of the relationship to the sovereign. So it's not just -- JUSTICE JACKSON: But, usually, the sovereign can't delegate or give away their immunity. I thought the immunity really is unique to the sovereign. That's the essence of it. JUSTICE KAGAN: Mr. Draye, when -- when your client claims this Yearsley protection, is your client saying I satisfied the Yearsley criteria and -- and -- and that shows that I did nothing wrong? Or is your client saying I satisfied the Yearsley criteria; that means that even though I did something wrong, it was, in fact -- you know, I am, in fact, protected from legal consequences? RAYE: The latter. So -- so, in fact, immunities are only useful when they protect -- same thing with defenses JUSTICE KAGAN: See, I -- well, go ahead. Explain to me why it's the latter, because it seems to me that the Yearsley criteria suggests that you're saying the former. In other words, when somebody says, look, I did only what the government authorized by way of a lawful authorization, what I'm really saying is so how could I have done anything wrong?
November 11, 2025 at 12:40 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Justice Sotomayor's first question pushed GEO on how they were stretching the precedent to create a new kind of immunity (one which they claimed had actually been there the whole time!).

She made the obvious point: if the government pays someone to break the law, why should the company be immune?
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: I'm sorry, you're skipping a big step. Yearsley was never an immunity case not because it was after trial but because the issue in Yearsley was who was responsible for the taking. And what we said is the agent was not responsible; it was the government. He was acting at the government's direction. The government can take. So sue the government. All right? That's what we said in Yearsley. The fact that we've inartfully called it an immunity, it's really a question of relief from liability. That's all Yearsley was about, was saying you, the agent, is not liable, the principal is liable. So I don't know why the reliance on or even claiming this is an immunity defense. But putting that aside, you're taking a step further. You're taking what the Yearsley Court said it was, is the government -- was what the government did lawful? Congress can pass a law that permits the government to send texts to 16-year-olds, but if it passes a law that says our military, no one can send a text, including our military, then I don't think the -- that the military giving an order to its contractor to do it gives the contractor immunity. It may give it a defense to liability. I'm not sure what that defense was -- would be because Yearsley said you have to be following a lawful government order. But I -- I -- this is circular to me.
November 11, 2025 at 12:37 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The first time Justice Barrett asked a question, it was to push back against GEO's policy arguments, asking why contractors couldn't just price litigation risk into their contracts?

GEO's lawyer claimed that would be illegal. The government, when it was up, basically went "Huh? No it's not."
JUSTICE BARRETT: But couldn't you negotiate for that in your contract with the government, that they cover your litigation expenses? MR. DRAYE: No. I wish we could. So the Antideficiency Act, of course, prevents us from having an open-ended indemnification. FAR 31.205 prevents any number of litigation costs from being built in. This is a fixed-price contract, as all of these are. JUSTICE BARRETT: Well, couldn't you fix that into the price of the contract? MR. DRAYE: No, because the FARs exclude -- it's a very fair question. The FARs exclude these litigation expenses. And if we were to put them in as sort of, like, overhead or something, that would be a false claim and would expose us to suit under the False Claims Act. So there again, although it is a real problem for -- for GEO and other contract - JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: -- you mentioned -- your friend on the other side mentioned the False Claims Act. That's not a concern? MR. JOSHI: I'm not entirely sure why it would be a False Claims Act violation -- violation to say in a contract here are overhead costs and, government, you can accept our bid or not. JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: Okay. Well, I'm sure that will be used in the future then, that representation. (Laughter.) MR. JOSHI: Well, I just -- I'm just not sure what Mr. Draye is referring to, to be -- to be honest. You know, in my own
November 11, 2025 at 12:31 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The first time Justice Kavanaugh chimed in, it was also to express skepticism. Here's the first thing he asked GEO's lawyer.
JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: Why -- why is the government on the other side from you then? I mean, that seems like a big -- MR. DRAYE: It's a good question. JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: -- a big -- big hurdle. And it's -- and it's been that way.
November 11, 2025 at 12:27 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The biggest problem for GEO is that their whole theory was a biiiig overstretch -- so much so that even the Trump administration wasn't on their side. The Solicitor General argued that GEO Group was wrong.

The first very question GEO's lawyer got was clear skepticism from Justice Thomas.
JUSTICE THOMAS: Could you cite the -- show us the language in Yearsley that indicates that -- this immunity from suit and also the basis for that? I thought Yearsley was just a -- seemed to be -- it's a short opinion, but it seemed to be more about the fact that there was a takings claim that there was -- which had gone to the court of claims and that -- certainly, that Yearsley, the construction company, could not effect a taking? MR. DRAYE: So Yearsley itself arises after trial, so the Court doesn't have to engage the ability not to endure a suit.
November 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
GEO was sued under forced labor laws for operating ICE's "Voluntary Work Program," which pays $1 per day to people held in ICE detention who "voluntarily" cook, clean, and maintain a facility (which cuts GEO's costs). They wanted immunity because ICE authorized it. Here's how GEO's lawyer started.
MR. DRAYE: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court: The government can act only through agents, either employees or non-employee contractors, and the common law draws no distinction between public servants and private individuals engaged in public service. That makes sense. Contractors following the government's instructions are immune from suit for the same reason government employees are immune. That is, they are doing the sovereign's work.
November 11, 2025 at 12:17 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Welp, that’s the Senate side of the shutdown over, it seems.
Leigh Ann Caldwell @LACaldwelIDC - CR through Jan 30 - A vote on a ACA bill by a December date certain, on a bill of Dems choosing - Minibus which includes reversal of shutdown RIFs and back pay and protections against them happening in the future + SNAP is funded through fiscal year 26 2/ Sens. Shaheen, Hassan, and King led the negotiations over the past five, which intensified over the weekend. I'm told about 10 Democrats are expected to back it
November 9, 2025 at 11:48 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
This was required as part of a Day One executive order. Took them a while to get them operationalized it seems.
Sec. 6. Federal Homeland Security Task Forces. (a) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action to jointly establish Homeland Security Task Forces (HSTFs) in all States nationwide. (b) The composition of each HSTF shall be subject to the direction of the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, but shall include representation from any other Federal agencies with law enforcement officers, or agencies with the ability to provide logistics, intelligence, and operational support to the HSTFs, and shall also include representation from relevant State and local law enforcement agencies. The heads of all Federal agencies shall take all appropriate action to provide support to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that the HSTFs fulfill the objectives in subsection (c) of this section, and any other lawful purpose that fulfills the policy objectives of this order. (c) The objective of each HSTF is to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States, dismantle cross-border human smuggling and trafficking networks, end the scourge of human smuggling and trafficking, with a particular focus on such offenses involving children, and ensure the use of all available law enforcement tools to faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States. (d) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action to provide an operational command center to coordinate the activities of the HSTFs and provide such support as they may require, and shall also take all appropriate action to provide supervisory direction to their activities as may be required.
November 6, 2025 at 11:42 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
I just deleted this post, as @SeidelContent has clarified that Bovino was referring to Los Angeles, not Chicago. I think it’s still absurd for Bovino to be saying that, but don’t want to mislead.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Gregory Bovino is on tape telling Border Patrol agents "This is OUR fucking city." Bovino grew up in North Carolina. Until January he was Border Patrol Chief for the El Centro sector in California. To my knowledge, he never lived or even worked in Chicago. Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social • 1d 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 6, 2025 at 9:07 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
My favorite professor in college, who I credit to no small extent for me ending up in law school, wrote this great book on the jury and how important it is.
Book cover: “We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy,” by Jeffrey Abramson.
November 6, 2025 at 8:19 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Wild for Helen Andrews to hand-wave this stuff as "half-clad pin-ups":

- Outright porn posted on the walls at multiple worksites
- Penthouses and Playboys shared publicly to be read at work
- Management allowed nude women calendars but barred political ones

It's good that this is now unacceptable!
19. JSI has never distributed nor tolerated the distribution of a calendar or calendars with pictures of nude or partially nude men. Ahlwardt stated that he has never seen a picture of a nude man at JSI and would be surprised to see one. Ahlwardt Depo. at 100-01. Lovett said that he would probably throw such a calendar in the trash. Lovett Depo. at 18-20. Welding foreman Fred Turner noted it was accepted at the shipyards for vendors to supply calendars of nude women, but he had never known of a vendor distributing a calendar of nude men and, if one did so, he would think the "son of a bitch" was "queer." Turner Depo. at 52-53. 20. JSI employees are encouraged to request permission to post most kinds of materials; however, prior approval by the company is not required for the posting of advertising calendars with pictures of nude or partially nude women. JSI management has denied employees' requests to post political materials, advertisements and commercial materials. 21. Bringing magazines and newspapers on the job is prohibited, 6 T.T. at 139-42, but male JSI employees read pornographic magazines in the workplace without apparent sanctions, see 7 T.T. at 215-23 (testimony of Roy Wingate regarding Robinson's complaint about coworker reading pornographic magazine on the job). Although JSI employees are discouraged by management from reading on the job, they are not prohibited from tearing sexually suggestive or explicit pictures of women out of such magazines and displaying them on the workplace walls at JSI. Kiedrowski Depo. at 76-77; see also Leach Depo. at 19-21, 26 (Playboy and Penthouse magazines in desk drawers in shipfitting shop and trailer office; Leach showed them to other men in the fab shop); McMillan Depo. at 46-47 (magazines showing nude women kept in storeroom and transportation department for JSI male employees to read). 22. Management employees from the very top down condoned these displays; often they had their own pictures. McIlwain, for example… 24. Robinson's testimony provides a vivid description of a visual assault on the sensibilities of female workers at JSI that did not relent during working hours. She credibly testified that the pervasiveness of the pictures left her unable to recount every example, but those pictures which she did describe illustrate the extent of this aspect of the work environment at JSI. She testified to seeing in the period prior to April 4, 1984, the three hundredth day prior to the filing of her EEOC charge: (a) a picture of a woman, breasts and pubic area exposed, inside a drydock area in 1977 or 1978. 1 T.T. at 104. (b) a picture of a nude Black woman, pubic area exposed to reveal her labia, seen in the public locker room. 1 T.T. at 105. (c) drawings and graffiti on the walls, including a drawing depicting a frontal view of a nude female torso with the words "USDA Choice" written on it, at the Commercial Yard in the late 1970's or early 1980's, in an area where Robinson was assigned to work. 1 T.T. at 112-13. (d) a picture of a woman's pubic area with a meat spatula pressed on it, observed on a wall next to the sheetmetal shop at Mayport in the late 1970's. 1 T.T. at 113. (e) centerfold-style pictures in the Mayport Yard toolroom trailer, which Robinson saw daily in the necessary course of her work for over one month in the late 1970s. 1 T.T. at 105-08. Neal McCormick, a toolroom worker from 1975 to 1980, verified that the toolroom personnel had indeed displayed pictures of nude women "of the Playboy centerfold variety" during the time he worked there. 8 T.T. at 66-67. (f) pictures of nude or partially nude women in the fab shop lockers at the Commercial Yard in 1978 through 1980. 1 T.T. at 110-11. (g) a pornographic magazine handed to Robinson by a male coworker in front of other coworkers in the early 1980s. 1 T.T. at 110-11. (h) a magazine containing pictures of nude and partially nude women in the possession of a pipefitter, in 1980, who was reading it in the engine room of a ship. 2 T.T. at 17. (i) pictures in the shipfitters' shop at the Commercial Yard, in 1983, observed by Robinson while she was walking to the welding shop, including a frontal nude with a shaved pubic area and corseted nude with her breasts and buttocks area exposed. 1 T.T. at 120-21. Robinson complained to John Robinson, the quarterman on the third shift in the shipfitting department, about the second picture; he took it down that night and she never saw the picture again. Id. (j) a picture of a woman with her breasts exposed, on the outside of a shack on a ship in the Commercial Yard. 2 T.T. *1496 at 10. Robinson enlisted the assistance of union vice-president Leroy Yeomans to have the picture removed. 6 T.T. at 221-22, 228-29. It was removed within a day or two. 25. Robinson's testimony concerning visual harassment in the period commencing April 4, 1984, includes: (a) a picture of a nude woman with long blonde hair wearing high heels and holding a whip, waved around by a coworker, Freddie Dixon, in 1984, in an enclosed area where Robinson and approximately six men were working. 1 T.T. at 114-20. Robinson testified she felt particularly targeted by this action because she has long blonde hair and works with a welding tool known as a whip. Id. at 114. Dixon admitted that he had indeed waved the picture around for other male employees to see, but denied that he intended to target or offend Robinson. 7 T.T. at 150. In fact, Dixon claimed that he was unaware that Robinson was in the area and that he was unaware that Robinson was a blonde. Id. at 149-51. The Court does not find his denials credible; the evidence more readily supports the conclusion that Dixon intended to offend Robinson, or acted with such disregard for her that the harassment could be equated with intent. (b) calendars posted in the pipe shop in the Commercial Yard, in 1983 or 1984, including a picture in which a nude woman was bending over with her buttocks and genitals exposed to view. 1 T.T. at 121-22. (Joint Exh. No. 1 was admitted as illustrative of this type of calendar. It is a Whilden Valve and Gauge calendar for 1984. The naked breasts or buttocks of each model are exposed in every month; the pubic areas also are visible on the models featured in April and September. Several of the pictures are suggestive of sexually submissive behavior.) Robinson testified that she observed at least three pictures posted in the pipe shop. Id. Although this was not Robinson's usual work area, she was in that shop with a leaderman to find the pipe shop leaderman to clarify a work matter. Id. at 122. (c) a picture of a nude woman with long blond hair sitting in front of a mirror brushing her hair, in a storage area on a ship. 1 T.T. at 123. Robinson mentioned to ei…
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Finally, Judge Gettleman addresses significant accusations about ICE's process, including that ICE is falsely coercing people into deportations, that people's locations were not entered in the public locator system, and that people were told to sign documents they couldn't read.
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: 13. Upon arrival at Broadview or as soon thereafter is possible, all Detainees shall be listed on the Locator Online Detainee Locator System of ICE that accurately identifies the location of each Detainee; 14. Defendants shall not misrepresent the contents of any papers they provide to Detainees; 15. Any papers defendants provide to Detainees should include an accompanying Spanish translation, and defendants shall allow Detainees reasonable time and opportunity to read and understand the papers. This order shall remain in effect until November 19, 2025. This matter is set for status hearing on November 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m.
November 5, 2025 at 11:54 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Next, Judge Gettleman addresses concerns about legal access, ordering ICE to let people call their lawyer (the same right people arrested for a crime have), as well as access to confidential legal phone calls and visitation space, access to a list of pro bono lawyers, and interpretation.
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: *** 10. Defendants shall provide telephone services for each Detainee to communicate with the Detainee’s counsel in private and without cost; 11. Defendants shall ensure that all attorney-client communications are carried out in a manner to protect the attorney-client privilege between the Detainee and the Detainee’s counsel; 12. All Detainees must be provided upon arrival or as soon thereafter is possible with a list of pro bono attorneys in English and Spanish, and provide interpreter services as necessary, as set forth in the Byers Declaration [ECF 38];
November 5, 2025 at 11:48 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Judge Gettleman also ordered ICE to provide people their medicine, and to create a system where family members can bring a prescription to someone who needs it.

Multiple people had said that they didn't get their meds for days (this is a common problem in jails, I'll note).
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: *** 9. Defendants shall provide each Detainee with prescribed medication that was within Detainee’s possession when arrested, along with any prescribed medications dropped off by family members or the Detainee’s counsel for the use of the Detainee. Defendants shall also provide any storage requirements for medications;
November 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
ICE must also ensure that people get adequate food and water, including three full meals a day, plus access to water.

People testified that ICE sometimes gave out only bread, or just 1-2 sandwiches a day, and people would get 3 small water bottles a day and nothing else.
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: 7. Defendants shall provide each Detainee with at least three full meals per day that meet the U.S. recommended dietary allowances; 8. Defendants shall provide each Detainee with a bottle of potable water with each meal and bottled water upon request free of charge;
November 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Next, ICE must provide the most basic requirements of personal hygiene.
- People have to be given soap, toilet paper, and toothbrushes.
- If held for multiple days, people get a right to a shower.
- ICE has to clean the toilets, so people aren't constantly exposed to filth.
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: Each Detainee shall be furnished with adequate supplies of soap, towels, toilet paper, oral hygiene products (including toothbrushes and toothpaste) and menstrual products for women Detainees; 5. Defendants shall provide showers for each Detainee at least every other day; 6. Defendants shall provide clean toilet facilities;
November 5, 2025 at 11:38 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Judge Gettleman's order addresses most of the "serious conditions" shown by testimony from immigrants and citizens detained at the ICE facility.

First, basic stuff: people can't be made to sleep on cold concrete floors for days at a time, cells must be cleaned, and overcrowding must be managed.
Each of the defendants, including their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of the foregoing who receive actual notice of this Order, by personal service or otherwise, are ordered and enjoined, pending further order of court, as follows: 1. Defendants shall provide all persons detained at Broadview (“Detainee” or “Detainees”) overnight in any hold room, cell, or other space (collectively referred to as a “Hold Room”) with a clean bedding mat and bedding with sufficient space to sleep; 2. Each Hold Room must be cleaned at least twice each day; 3. Each Hold Room must be furnished with a clock that prominently displays the time and date;
November 5, 2025 at 11:34 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
NEW: Judge Gettleman just ordered ICE to improve "serious conditions" inside its Broadview facility in Chicago.

Yesterday, people testified in court that they were crammed into overcrowded and filthy cells for days, with little access to lawyers, and pressured into deportation.
TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER This matter came before the court on plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order. On November 4, 2025, the court heard argument and considered the written filings by both sides, along with testimony presented by plaintiffs. Based on the record currently before it, the court finds that plaintiffs and members of the putative class have suffered, and are likely to suffer, irreparable harm absent the temporary relief granted herein, that they are likely to prevail on the merits of their claims, that the balance of the equities tips in their favor, and that the public interest lies in issuing a temporary restraining order to address the serious conditions demonstrated to exist at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) Broadview, Illinois facility (“Broadview”). Consequently, it is hereby ordered as follows:
November 5, 2025 at 11:19 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
“Idle facility activations” mostly refers to CoreCivic bringing unused private prisons online — to be used by ICE.

In 2023, California stopped using a massive prison which CoreCivic had built in the California desert in the 90s. It sat empty until August. Now it’s ICE’s largest jail.
KQED THE CALIFORNIA REPORT Facility In California City Expected To Be State's Largest Migrant Detention Center By Keith Mizuguchi Jul 2, 2025 A photo of a large complex of buildings in the Mojave desert. It looks desolate. It is a large prison. Underneath the photo is this caption from KQED: Exterior of a shuttered 2,500-bed prison in California City, which is expected to be transformed into the state's largest immigrant detention center. (Saul Gonzalez/The California Report)
November 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Decision Desk’s tracker of the AG race is an interesting sight!
VA Attorney General Election Pulse. The “Chance to Win” graph shows GOP candidate Jason Miyares leading with early, rising to a 75% chance to win around 7:40 pm, then suddenly dropping down to around 32% chance to win. Similarly, the projected vote share graph had, as of around 7:40, Miyares winning with about 52%, then around 7:50 pm the two candidates switch places and now the Democrat Jay Jones is predicted to win 50.7% of the vote.
November 5, 2025 at 12:56 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Deleted a previous version of this post which said all DPS officers will get 287(g) authority, which requires them to go through a training first. That may not be the case, as DPS hasn’t yet said how they’ll operationalize this.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinm... • 18m BIG shift. Every state trooper in Texas now has direct authority to make immigration arrests, same as an ICE or Border Patrol officer.
November 5, 2025 at 12:03 AM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
One man who's been in the United States here for 20 years, and whose wife and kids live here, even says he was physically threatened into signing his own deportation, with the ICE officer threatening to physically hurt him if he didn't sign the paper, or even grab his hands and "sign" for him.
15. Another male staff member told me that I had no right to be here, or words to that effect. He told me that I had to sign the paperwork. I did not know what the paperwork was, but the staff member told me I had to sign for voluntary deportation. The staff member did not translate the document for me. I did not understand it because I do not read English. 16. The man said he would press on my head with his hands, which had rings on them, if I did not sign. I saw the man press on other individuals' heads when they refused to sign the paperwork, while another staff member grabbed their hands to force them to sign the paper. I felt as if I had no choice but to sign the paperwork. 17. I have been in the country for twenty years and my wife and children are here, so I wanted to fight for my rights. But I was given no choice but to sign, so with tears in my eyes, I signed the paperwork.
November 4, 2025 at 10:40 PM
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
The declarations keep coming back to the ways in which the awful conditions themselves were used to coerce deportations.

Here, one lawyer describes how his client, who had a work permit, US citizen children, and a strong case for relief, was coerced into giving up his case.
7. But the conditions inside the Broadview Detention Center were so inhumane that he couldn't bear it. He described people being carried out on stretchers; he wasn't sure whether they were alive or dead. Detainees were not allowed to drink water. The air was thick and suffocating. He said people were gasping for breath, and he saw some going into cardiac arrest. 8. Officers threatened him repeatedly to sign his own voluntary deportation. They used an ICE agent as a "translator" to lie about what the document said. He didn't have his glasses and couldn't read the document, but he was terrified he'd be next to collapse from the unbearably thick air and lack of access to water, leaving his children an orphan since their mother passed away earlier this year. He signed under duress on Thursday, October 16, 2025, after being held at Broadview since Sunday, October 12, 2025. They told him, "You have no rights here," and, "if you don't sign, you'll stay in jail for fifteen years." 9. By the time he signed on Thursday, October 16, 2025, I had already filed my attorney appearance, and a court date was already set for a bond/custody hearing. He told the ICE agents he had a lawyer. But by the afternoon, he was already on the other side of the border.
November 4, 2025 at 10:39 PM