Immigration Oregon Woman Says ICE Broke Out Her Car Windows and Detained Her for Filming Them The First Amendment protects filming the police, but Berenice Garcia-Hernandez says she was dragged out of her car and detained for nearly seven hours for snapping photos of ICE agents. C.J. Ciaramella | 11.12.2025 3:49 PM
Criminal Justice D.C. Jury Acquits 'Sandwich Guy' of Assaulting Federal Agent A jury found Sean Dunn, who went viral in August for throwing a Subway sandwich at a Border Patrol officer, not guilty. C.J. Ciaramella | 11.6.2025 3:55 PM
Immigration A Portland Family Says Their Dad Was Wrongly Arrested by ICE. Now He's Lost in Immigration Detention. For the past two weeks, Juan Barbosa Gomez has been in federal immigration detention, but he doesn't show up on ICE's online detainee locator. His family says he has valid work permit and no criminal record. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.30.2025 3:30 PM
Transparency Florida Scrubs Arrests of U.S. Citizens From Immigration Enforcement Data After the Miami New Times asked why nearly two dozen U.S. citizens showed up on a Florida immigration enforcement dashboard, those numbers disappeared. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.24.2025 12:23 PM
First Amendment A D.C. Man Was Arrested for Mocking National Guard Troops with Star Wars' 'Imperial March.' Now He's Suing. Sam O'Hara went viral for playing "The Imperial March" behind groups of National Guard soldiers in D.C. He also says it led to him being illegally detained. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.23.2025 12:15 PM
Homeland security Homeland Security Won't Stop Lying About Who Immigration Enforcers Are Arresting In case after case, Homeland Security's Public Affairs Office releases incorrect information about arrests carried out by federal immigration officers. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.22.2025 6:30 AM
Police Abuse Video Shows Federal Agents Arresting a Chicago Journalist. They Now Say She Threw Objects at Their Vehicle. The arrest comes less than a day after a federal judge ordered federal law enforcement to stop impeding reporters and protesters. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.10.2025 5:20 PM
Criminal Justice Texas Court Blocks Execution of Robert Roberson in Landmark 'Shaken Baby' Case Roberson has been saved again from becoming the first person to be executed based on disputed evidence of Abusive Head Trauma, formerly called "shaken baby syndrome." C.J. Ciaramella | 10.9.2025 12:58 PM
Donald Trump Trump Calls for Arrest of Chicago Mayor and Illinois Gov. Pritzker As Illinois resists the federal immigration blitz, the Trump administration ups the ante on authoritarian rhetoric. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.8.2025 1:15 PM
Government secrecy Alligator Alcatraz Was Built on Secrecy, Expansive Emergency Powers, and an Unprecedented State Power Grab Shadowy deals and unilateral powers created Florida's notorious immigration detention camp. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.7.2025 12:30 PM
Culture War Texas and Florida Have Become National Models for Using the Police State To Wage Culture War Battles From library books to abortion, gender, and even food, the culture war is now feeding the police state. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.6.2025 6:00 AM
Fourth Amendment ICE Arrested a U.S. Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He's Suing. “I got arrested twice for being a Latino working in construction,” says Leo Garcia Venegas, the lead plaintiff in a new lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice challenging warrantless ICE raids on construction sites. C.J. Ciaramella | 10.1.2025 9:44 AM
Free Speech Why Did a Florida Sheriff Accuse a Group of Fishing Guides of Inciting Threats Against Public Officials? The Hendry County Sheriff accused Captains for Clean Water of "fuel[ing] hostility and provok[ng] violent rhetoric," but a free speech advocacy group says they were well within the First Amendment. C.J. Ciaramella | 9.25.2025 12:00 PM
Government Spending Florida Applies for Federal Reimbursement for 'Alligator Alcatraz' Costs Despite Court Warning Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised that the federal government would reimburse the state for the costs of "Alligator Alcatraz," but doing so would make the detention facility subject to environmental reviews Florida ignored. C.J. Ciaramella | 9.13.2025 7:00 AM
Crime What the Messages on the Bullets of Charlie Kirk's Assassin Mean The phrases are a mix of anti-fascist sentiments and irony-poisoned internet memes. C.J. Ciaramella | 9.12.2025 2:48 PM
Second Amendment Major Gun-Rights Groups Oppose the Trump Administration's Idea To Ban Trans People From Owning Guns The NRA says it won't support "any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process." C.J. Ciaramella | 9.6.2025 12:12 PM
Civil Asset Forfeiture An Alaska Man's $95,000 Plane Was Seized Over a 6-Pack of Beer. Now He's Taking His Case to the Supreme Court. Alaska has been trying to seize Ken Jouppi's Cessna for 13 years over a misdemeanor crime. C.J. Ciaramella | 9.2.2025 4:44 PM
Criminal Justice Looks Like We Found a Ham Sandwich a Grand Jury Won't Indict A federal grand jury reportedly refused to indict Sean Dunn for hurling a hoagie at a federal law enforcement officer. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.27.2025 11:15 AM
D.C. D.C. Residents Are Right To Protest Unconstitutional Police Roadblocks Checkpoints for general crime control are illegal and smack of a police state. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.15.2025 2:57 PM
Immigration The Human Rights Crisis in ICE Detention Centers Reports of human rights abuses are piling up as the number of people in immigrant detention reaches all-time highs. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.15.2025 11:00 AM
Immigration CBP Is Deporting Cruise Ship Crew Over Child Pornography Allegations Without Evidence Advocacy groups say more than 100 cruise ship crew members have been deported in recent months, and they're not being shown the evidence against them or given any due process. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.13.2025 4:59 PM
Travel 6 U.S. Travel Destinations in the Middle of Nowhere From under the sea to the Rocky Mountains. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.10.2025 6:00 AM
Jeffrey Epstein Why Ghislaine Maxwell's Transfer to a Minimum-Security Prison Camp Stinks Sex offenders are supposed to be ineligible for minimum-security federal prison camps, but the rule was waived for Maxwell. C.J. Ciaramella | 8.6.2025 3:07 PM
Immigration Woman Who Died of Heart Disease in ICE Custody Reportedly Told Son She Wasn't Allowed to See Doctor for Chest Pains Questions about the death of Marie Blaise at a South Florida ICE detention center have lingered since she collapsed in April. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.30.2025 5:37 PM
Crime Trump Administration Takes Credit for Crime Drop It Previously Denied Existed The Department of Homeland Security is boasting that its mass deportation program is responsible for a major drop in crime. That's unlikely for several reasons. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.29.2025 2:17 PM
Transparency Court Rules New York State Police Must Disclose Officer Names in Misconduct Records The New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York State Police have been fighting for years over misconduct records that the state legislature made public in 2020. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.24.2025 1:11 PM
Transparency 'Alligator Alcatraz' Contracts Disappeared From a Florida State Database A state official says the contracts contained "proprietary information," so they were scrubbed and replaced with bare-bones summaries. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.22.2025 3:58 PM
Immigration Report Alleges Degrading Treatment and Medical Neglect at South Florida ICE Detention Centers One former ICE detainee says he and a group of men were forced to kneel with their hands tied behind their backs and eat "like dogs." C.J. Ciaramella | 7.21.2025 3:30 PM
Immigration 'Alligator Alcatraz' Detainees Say in New Lawsuit They're Being Denied Access to Their Attorneys The lawsuit says attorneys have been repeatedly turned away from the detention camp and had virtual meetings mysteriously canceled. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.17.2025 3:30 PM
Immigration Lawyers and Families Report Squalid Conditions and Lack of Legal Access at Alligator Alcatraz Numerous accounts of lack of showers, overflowing toilets, and inability to meet with lawyers are emerging from the detention center in the middle of the Everglades. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.16.2025 3:22 PM
Free Speech Immigrant Rights Group Says Its Billboards Opposing Alligator Alcatraz Were Taken Down Under Political Pressure The Florida Immigrant Coalition's new billboards were restored less than a day after being taken down, but why were they removed in the first place? C.J. Ciaramella | 7.16.2025 12:50 PM
Immigration Hundreds of 'Alligator Alcatraz' Detainees Don't Have Criminal Records Trump said the prison camp would hold "some of the most vicious people on the planet," but a list obtained by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Tribune shows otherwise. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.14.2025 4:00 PM
Transparency Arizona Just Created, Then Defunded, an Independent Watchdog for Its Troubled Prison System Criminal justice reform advocates are still hopeful the office can secure outside funding and bring much-needed transparency to Arizona's prisons. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.11.2025 1:18 PM
Criminal Justice A Federal Inmate Had a Limb Partially Amputated After Being Kept in Restraints for 2 Days An inspector general report found there were no limits on how long federal inmates could be kept in restraint chairs or strapped to beds. C.J. Ciaramella | 7.2.2025 2:12 PM
LGBT Judge Dismisses Case Against Trans Woman Who Tried To Challenge Florida's Bathroom Law Marcy Rheintgen was the first person to be arrested for trying to challenge Florida's bathroom bill. The case against her has been tossed out. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.27.2025 2:43 PM
War on Drugs Using the National Guard in DEA Raids Is the Worst Kind of Drug War Mission Creep The deployment of National Guard soldiers on a DEA drug raid is a serious test of whether the Posse Comitatus Act means something or not. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.26.2025 5:17 PM
First Amendment A Judge's Order Freeing Mahmoud Khalil Is Yet Another Loss for the Trump Administration's Immigration Agenda A federal judge didn't buy the Trump administration's claims about why it was keeping Khalil in an federal immigration detention center. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.20.2025 4:41 PM
Free Press A Popular Spanish-Language Journalist Is in ICE Custody After Being Arrested at an Atlanta Protest Mario Guevara built a following covering immigration arrests around Atlanta. Press freedom groups say police frivolously arrested him while he was covering a "No Kings" protest. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.19.2025 2:50 PM
Free Speech Las Vegas Police Arrest TikTok Livestreamers and Tell Them 'You Should've Shut Your Mouth' "You need to learn the rules," an officer says. "You run your mouth at me. Now you're on your face." C.J. Ciaramella | 6.16.2025 5:41 PM
Immigration Trump's Immigrant Removals Aren't Technically Deportations. So What Are They? Deportation means expelling an alien back to their home country for violating immigration law. Many of the Trump administration's actions don't meet that definition. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.16.2025 6:00 AM
Black Markets Review: Schedule I Is a Multiplayer Co-op Black Market Econ Simulator A spiritual successor to the Drug Wars game that proliferated on high school graphing calculators C.J. Ciaramella | 6.13.2025 6:00 AM
Police Abuse Police Target Dozens of Reporters During L.A. Anti-ICE Protests Press freedom groups say they're alarmed by the dozens of clearly identified cases of reporters being targeted by police during the protests. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.12.2025 4:00 PM
Congress Marsha Blackburn Wants Secret Police Sen. Blackburn introduced a bill this week that would make it a crime to publish the name of a federal law enforcement officer. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.6.2025 3:55 PM
Civil Asset Forfeiture Ex–Hialeah Police Chief Arrested for Skimming at Least $600,000 in Cash From Drug Funds State investigators say millions went missing from two narcotics funds controlled by former Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez, including seized cash from drug investigations. C.J. Ciaramella | 6.3.2025 1:36 PM
Immigration Civil Rights Groups Say Immigrants Are Being Denied Legal Access at Detention Centers Reason confirmed reports of dysfunction and violence at one of those detention centers earlier this week. C.J. Ciaramella | 5.30.2025 1:16 PM
Police Abuse Trump Deletes Database Containing Over 5,000 Police Misconduct Incidents It's a reversal from his first term, when Trump himself ordered the creation of a database tracking excessive use of force. C.J. Ciaramella | 5.29.2025 6:00 AM
Immigration Overcrowding and Dysfunction Produced a Quiet Riot at a Miami Federal Prison Holding ICE Detainees Half the elevators at Federal Detention Center Miami are broken. Immigrant detainees are kept on lockdown, and lawyers can barely reach their clients. C.J. Ciaramella | 5.27.2025 2:42 PM
Animal Rights Cocaine Hippos, Monkey Copyrights, and a Horse Named Justice: The Debate Over Animal Personhood Are human courts the best venue to protect wild animals? C.J. Ciaramella | 5.24.2025 6:00 AM
