Nick Schwellenbach
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schwellenbach.bsky.social
Nick Schwellenbach
@schwellenbach.bsky.social
2.2K followers 870 following 530 posts
I'm an investigative journalist at POGO: https://www.pogo.org/about/people/nick-schwellenbach

Signal: @schwellenbach.27
Encrypted email: schwellenbach@protonmail.com

Substack: https://districtofcorruption.substack.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
schwellenbach.bsky.social
@warren.senate.gov & eight other lawmakers decry "a 'gold rush' for private contractors that provide immigration detention, surveillance, and deportation services" that have "close ties to high-level Trump administration officials"

www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
December 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
This passage:
December 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 12:05 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
There were lots of stories late last week on the text messages by Border Patrol agent Charlie Exum who shot a woman five times in Chicago last month

I haven't seen anyone post the text messages themselves

Here they are:

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
November 13, 2025 at 2:29 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
Sensing a pattern yet?
October 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
It's interesting that Trump's OMB is attacking IGs and the Council of IGs, saying some IGs have "lied to the public" in a comment to the Wash Post. Yet Trump appointed & left in place an IG that repeatedly misled Congress, according to a federal investigation: www.pogo.org/investigatio...
September 30, 2025 at 6:07 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
The council of inspectors general says in a letter to Congress about being defunded that it hosts websites for 28 watchdog offices - incl. for the VA, DOJ, and IRS inspectors general. Those websites' #whistleblower hotlines could go dark

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
September 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
“These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career,” said Paul Chavez, litigation and advocacy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice in Florida

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/u...
June 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
"Why are people collecting food being killed just because they stepped out of line, or because some commander doesn't like that they're cutting in? Why have we reached a point where a teenager is willing to risk his life just to pull a sack of rice off a truck?"

archive.is/3LjoW
June 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
Hey, I know the author of that @pogo.org investigation!!
June 25, 2025 at 12:29 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
A big reason why we’re in the situation we’re in is Congress isn’t standing up for its institutional interests in a bipartisan way

wapo.st/4eavWMJ
June 21, 2025 at 9:51 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
🚨BREAKING: Top House Homeland Security Democrats led by @benniethompson.bsky.social launch probe of ICE deportation flights contractor CSI Aviation and its subcontractors citing reporting by @pogo.org & @propublica.org
May 29, 2025 at 1:19 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
We posted all the records we obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and created a searchable table, which also denotes which OPM officials have been linked to DOGE and have worked for Elon Musk -- with links to the officials' resumes

8/x
May 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
On an investor call today, ICE's largest contractor GEO Group said it is ready to transport up to *a half million people* a year with its partner, CSI Aviation

1/x

seekingalpha.com/article/4783...
May 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
A December 2024 CRCL record that DHS pulled from its website reveals a previously unreported investigation about Border Patrol agents in Arizona. The agents allegedly “chemically restrained [a detainee] with a forcible injection of Ketamine.”

www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
On October 11, 2024, CRCL received anonymous information alleging excessive force involvingCBP. The allegation described an incident that occurred at an unnamed Border Patrol stationwithin the Tucson Sector in late December 2023. Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) allegedlyextracted a subject from a cell, of which he was the sole occupant, after he had removed hisclothing and covered the cell floor with water and food. The allegation stated that BPAs(b) (6) extracted the subject from the cell, handcuffed him, and then chemically restrained him with aforcible injection of Ketamine. Following the alleged forcible sedation, the complainant furtheralleged that BPAs secured the subject to a gurney, placed the gurney in the back seat of a non-medical Border Patrol vehicle and transported him approximately two hours to another CBPfacility.
April 21, 2025 at 1:34 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
Among the 160+ CRCL records are many that describe abuses & problems with ICE detention centers in Louisiana, an epicenter of the Trump administration's deportation & detention efforts.

Here's what one 2024 record says:

www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
BackgroundBetween October 2017 and December 2022, CRCL received over 200 allegations regarding the care andtreatment of noncitizens in and the conditions of ICE detention facilities within the New Orleans Area ofResponsibility (NOL AOR). During that time, CRCL completed nine onsite investigations at NOL AORfacilities, six visits in July 2021 to review conditions at facilities, four virtual onsite investigationsthroughout fiscal year 2022, and two investigations in December 2022 to assess ICE’s implementation ofpreviously issued recommendations. This prior work involved allegations related to use of force,inadequate medical care, threats of exposure to COVID-19, noncompliance with ICE’s PandemicResponse Requirements, excessive bond amounts, unsanitary conditions and poor working conditions,abusive treatment of hunger strikers, improper use of segregation, fabrication of documents, sexual abuse,unsafe release practices, spoiled or expired food, restrictions on legal access, and racial discrimination.Based upon these investigations focused on individual facilities, CRCL initiated a broad investigation todetermine whether the allegations indicated a systemic oversight issue within the NOL AOR. InvestigationIn addition to reviewing CRCL’s prior investigatory work in the NOL AOR, CRCL conducted interviewsof staff at ICE Headquarters and NOL AOR and spoke with stakeholders in Louisiana. CRCL foundsystemic concerns across four facilities: Jackson Parish Correctional Center, Allen Parish Public SafetyComplex, South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, and Adams County Detention Center potentiallyindicating the need for intervention at the ICE AOR level. These systemic concerns included the provisionof critical services to noncitizens while in medical isolation and quarantine, language access, mentalhealth documentation, suicide prevention and intervention training, and chemical control training.
April 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
So Kash Patel is repeatedly flying on government jets to see his 26-year-old country singer girlfriend in Nashville

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/u...
April 20, 2025 at 9:58 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
Inside Man?

A top ICE official played a role in sidelining a Biden-era effort to reduce reliance on and use of GEO's surveillance technology.

That ICE official then became a GEO Group executive last fall

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/t...
In 2022, as Geo Group’s digital monitoring business ballooned, some Biden administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security questioned the cost and effectiveness of the tracking program. The D.H.S. officials met to draft a plan to change it, including standards for assessing each immigrant’s risk of committing a crime or fleeing and what surveillance that merited, said six people familiar with the conversations who requested anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations. The officials wanted to break up the contract into three parts to solicit new bids, the people said. Around the same time, D.H.S. tech workers were asked to develop cheaper alternatives to Geo Group. ​The moves threatened Geo Group’s involvement in the monitoring program, with major financial implications for its bottom line. The company began lobbying to disrupt the plans, according to agency officials and Capitol Hill staff members. Conservatives and some career ICE officials joined in. Thomas D. Homan, who was then working for a conservative immigration group and is now Mr. Trump’s border czar, wrote a Breitbart editorial attacking the plans and the midlevel Biden administration official responsible for them. A conservative group created a website dedicated to attacking the official. Daniel Bible, ICE’s head of enforcement and removal operations at the time, also stalled the changes by ordering lengthy reviews and delaying approvals, two people said. Last year, he joined Geo Group as an executive. He did not respond to a message for comment. The efforts eventually died and plans to develop cheaper alternatives to Geo Group’s tech never went beyond testing.
April 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
Some insights in this Washington Post article (gift link):

wapo.st/41ZBJk0

10/x
April 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
8/x Today's Wall Street Journal:
April 5, 2025 at 10:52 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
It came to light after the 2003 invasion that the G.W. Bush administration had not adequately planned for what would happen after taking over - and that the plans it had were based on very rosy assumptions

www.rand.org/content/dam/...

7/x
April 5, 2025 at 10:43 AM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
For months, Musk has been gleefully talking about firing federal workers off en masse and saying we all need to be willing to suffer economically. But then he's complaining on Fox about Tesla's stock price.
March 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
March 29, 2025 at 12:51 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
If the administration wants to put me on some of these text threads, it’s welcome to!
March 24, 2025 at 11:37 PM
schwellenbach.bsky.social
I wish this was the only thing I could focus on right now:

www.texasmonthly.com/food/ultimat...
March 21, 2025 at 8:27 PM