Judge orders release of #PortlandME teen from #ICE facility after 6 months

PORTLAND (WGME) – "A Portland teen who has been held in a Texas ICE facility for more than six months is reportedly set to be released by Friday.

That's according to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who traveled to the facility this week to demand that ICE release 19-year-old #OliviaAndre .

[...]

"She is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was a first-year nursing student in Portland when she was taken into custody.

"#DHS previously said Andre is in the United States illegally but didn’t explain why the rest of her family was released and she wasn't.

"Pingree called the conditions at the facility inhumane, and Andre's lawyer says her physical and mental wellbeing deteriorated from not having access to clean drinking water, palatable food and appropriate medical care.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/judge-orders-release-of-portland-teen-from-ice-facility-after-6-months/ar-AA22zjF4

#USPol #MainePol #DefundDHS #DefundICE #ICESucks

Longtime Immigration Court Interpreter Arrested by ICE at South #Texas Airport

The state’s only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a #Raymondville #DetentionCenter. She’s lived in America for 35 years.

by Gaige Davila
April 15, 2026, 8:54 AM, CDT

"Last month, Meenu Batra, 53, who has lived in the South Texas border colonia of Laguna Heights since 2002, was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case. She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide, where she’s contracted to help people making their way through the immigration court system, just as she did for herself 35 years ago when she immigrated from India to New Jersey before settling in Texas.

"She planned to meet with her adult children in Austin after the Wisconsin trip, the only difference she foresaw in an otherwise typical trip. Her routine for years included flying from either Harlingen or Brownsville to far-flung parts of the country where South Asian immigrants needed language access. For this trip, the flight was out of Harlingen.

"But, around 5 p.m. on March 17, Batra was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) agents after passing through security at Harlingen International Airport. In a sworn deposition that was filed as part of a petition for habeas corpus—a legal request to be released on the grounds that the detention is unlawful—Batra said the people who arrested her did not have visible badges nor were they wearing uniforms. One of those agents had asked Batra if she knew she was in the country illegally and that she had a deportation order. She replied that her work authorization status, which she applied for regularly after being granted a legal status called withholding of removal by a New Jersey immigration judge decades ago, was good for another four years.

" 'That doesn’t mean you can be here forever,' the agent replied. Two more plainclothes agents would join the two that detained her, bringing her down the escalator and to the front of the airport."

Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/immigration-court-interpreter-arrested-ice-south-texas-airport/

#USPol #HumanRightsViolations #Disappeared #Orwellian #ICESucks

A #Redditor Criticized #ICE. #Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a #SecretGrandJury.

An ICE summons to get the user’s identity failed. Advocates worry the move to a grand jury signals an escalation of the war on #dissent.

By Ryan Devereaux, April 10, 2026

"Social media giant #Reddit has been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal effort to unmask anonymous online critics of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

"According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month.

"Attorneys for the Reddit user say their client’s posts and their anonymity are squarely protected under the #FirstAmendment and that ICE’s use of a grand jury marks a disturbing escalation for the agency after seeing its previous efforts to investigate political speech quashed in court. The subpoena was issued by federal prosecutors in the capital after ICE’s effort to identify the same user failed in a Northern California federal court. (The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington declined to comment on the case.)"

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/ckM2Z

#USPol #CriminalizingDissent #ICESucks #Authoritarianism

How to Keep ICE Agents Out of Your Phone at the Airport

If you’re traveling, follow these digital security practices to keep federal authorities from getting into your phone.

Nikita Mazurov
March 25 2026

"With Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to more than a dozen airports across the U.S. and border device searches growing increasingly common, it’s more important than ever to consider your digital security before you travel.

"The risks are real. Customs and Border Protection agents have the authority to examine travelers’ devices. In June, for instance, federal agents denied a Norwegian tourist entry to the U.S. after looking through his phone. (Authorities claim they turned him away for admitted drug use; he says it was over a meme depicting Vice President JD Vance as a bald baby.)

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement have already started targeting travelers, with agents in plain clothes forcefully detaining a mother in front of her young daughter at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday after a tip from the Transportation Security Administration.

"If you’re flying, take these steps to reduce the likelihood that your sensitive information is compromised at the airport."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/25/ice-airports-phone-security-privacy-safety/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/1M5qw

#USPol #Airports #ICESucks #DefundICE #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #TravelSafely

Boy, you know things are topsy-turvy when #RandPaul is the voice of reason! smh

"Paul calls Mullin a liar with anger management problems who lacks the temperament to lead the troubled Homeland Security Department that is at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

" 'Tell it to the world why you believe I deserved to be assaulted,' Paul said on Wednesday as he gaveled the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to order.

" 'Explain to the American people why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and border patrol agents.' "

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/rand-paul-markwayne-mullin-dhs-confirmation-hearing-6c05a260b9f2fa4d730749213b3f4663?

#USPol #MarkWayneMullin #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #ICESucks #DefundCBP

😡 FFS! So, now the city has decided to close the shelter?!! Will they open it in a more central location? Or just let unhoused folks freeze to death!!! Way to go, #Maine's biggest city!!! Oh, and the asylum seekers are too afraid to stay there! #FuckICE!!!

'Numbers have certainly declined': #PortlandME to close shelter for #AsylumSeekers [and homeless people who need shelter during freezing temperatures]

by Max Williams, WGME
Wed, March 18, 2026

Excerpt: "The city also needs to develop a gameplan for a #WarmingShelter by next winter, as this location served as the city’s only #OvernightShelter.

"Allicia Santamore has been living on the streets of Portland for eight years and considers the shelter to be a lifeline.

" 'The warming shelter is awesome for people to sit when its six o'clock in the morning and you got no place to go. You can't stay in your tent no more, it’s f------ freezing,' Santamore said.

"The city says they are talking with Maine DHHS about what to do, but they say it all comes down to funding."

Full article:
https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-housing-crisis-numbers-have-certainly-declined-portland-to-close-shelter-for-asylum-seekers-immigration-warming-homelessness

cc: @bob , @sr_rss

#Homeless #MainePol #Houseless #ICESucks #DefundICE

How a Tiny, Inexperienced Firm Landed a $1.3 Billion #Detention Deal To hold 5,000 human beings.

by Samantha Michaels, November+December 2025 Issue

Excerpt: "When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract this summer to build and operate a new tent city #detention center in #Texas, it made headlines, and not just because the facility, located at the #FortBliss Army base, was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the country. The company that won the job, #AcquisitionLogistics, was so small it operated out of a single-family home in #RichmondVA. Almost nobody had heard of it. 'A random house…just won $1.26 billion from #ICE,' wrote the New Republic.

"Whereas many companies with ICE contracts had long histories with immigrant detention, including private prison giants such as GEO Group, Acquisition Logistics had no prior experience in incarceration. Previously, its biggest federal contract was $16 million, and CEO #KenWagner is circling retirement at 77. Over the summer, the company’s website was inaccessible to the public, with the header 'Site maintenance in progress.' Archived screenshots showed the firm specializes in supply chain management. Could it safely operate a 5,000-bed detention facility?"

Read more:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/acquisition-logistics-ice-fort-bliss-detention-center-billion-dollar-contract/

#USPol #CampEastMontana #ICEDetentionCenters #Immigrants #HumanRights #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #AbolishCBP #DetentionFacility #DetentionCenters

#Secrecy seems to be the hallmark of both #DetentionCenters and #Datacenters! Sneaky, sneaky...!

Mystery surrounds #RichmondVA-area home tied to firm behind $1.2B Army #Texas tent-camp contract

By: The Associated Press
Posted 3:36 PM, Aug 28, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — "When President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to build and operate what it says will become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex, it didn’t turn to a large government contractor or even a firm that specializes in private prisons.

Instead, it handed the project on a military base to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a small business that has no listed experience running a correction facility and had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million. The company also lacks a functioning website and lists as its address a modest home in suburban Virginia owned by a 77-year-old retired Navy flight officer."
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/mystery-surrounds-richmond-area-home-aug-28-2025

#USPol #HistoryRepeats #TrumpSucks #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishCBP #AbolishDHS #Shameful #Fascism #DetentionCenters #HumanRights #WeKnowWhereYouLive #InternmentCamp #CampEastMontana #Texas #ICE #ICEDetention

A ‘Shameful’ Legacy: #Texas Has Officially Opened an #ICE #DetentionFacility at Site of #WWII #InternmentCamp

#CampEastMontana is now the largest #immigrant detention facility in U.S. history, but it’s just one of 19 sites that will add a total of 37,649 new beds for ICE detainment — a 105% increase in the state’s capacity.

by Leslie Rangel August 18, 2025

Excerpt: "In #ElPaso on Sunday, the #Trump Administration opened the doors to Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention facility in the country’s history. It reportedly cost $1.2 billion under a U.S. Defense Department contract.

"The new facility is at Fort Bliss, one of five sites where Texas held detainees of #Japanese descent, as well as immigrants from #Germany and #Italy — including #AmericanBorn civilians — during #WorldWarII, according to the National Parks Service and The El Paso Times."

Read more
https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/18/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/

#USPol #HistoryRepeats #TrumpSucks #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishCBP` #AbolishDHS #Shameful #Fascism #DetentionCenters #HumanRights