In the latest web exclusive, Contingencies spoke with Justene Hill Edwards, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia, about her new book, “Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedmen’s Bank.” Read more: bit.ly/3CxY9Pm

There's no doubt that border crossings are down, but this 93% figure is deceptive; it likely includes "encounters" at ports of entry where people were using the CBP One app process to legally enter. Ending that system unilaterally dropped border "encounters" by 1,450 a day.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Rubio says El Salvador has offered to accept US deportees of any nationality as well as violent American criminals.

Tribal Leaders, Tribal Orgs, Indigenous peoples around the world. Reach out. We will listen. nature.com/articles/d4158…

#USNORTHCOM announces JTF Headquarters and intelligence support assignments as part of protecting the territorial integrity of the United States with CBP. Click here for more: northcom.mil/Newsroom/Press…

Justice for Greenwood released a 14-point reparations plan today that calls for direct payments, land back, a hospital in north Tulsa and more. New Mayor Monroe Nichols told me in a statement he supports implementing "significant elements" of the plan. theblackwallsttimes.com/2025/02/04/pro…

Starting in a few minutes, the House Oversight Committee will be holding a hearing with mayors of several cities which have policies limiting the use of local law enforcement resources to help ICE. I'll be live-tweeting the hearing at this thread. Follow along here!

Maria Torres Wedding & my latest work in Politics, Groups, & Identities Special Issue on Civically Engaged Research. Political accompaniment is a powerful avenue for action, especially when political systems, higher education, & NGOs fall short. A timely issue for immigrants tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

"No law requires H.H.S. to publicly report the deaths of unaccompanied children in its care, and there’s reason to doubt that the agency will do so voluntarily." Herrera points out what so few know. Took a while, but I've built a database of migrant children's deaths in custody.

March reading

🚨 Holy crap. Marco Rubio is seemingly purporting to exempt nearly all immigration regulations and policy, along with things like export controls, trade rules, and more, from notice and comment rulemaking requirements. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-04116.pdf

Here's the "Alien Enemies Act" flights timeline I've been keeping up, updated 5:25pm eastern. Doesn't look good for "the White House official’s claim," per Axios, "that the admin had ignored the ruling but not defied it, because it came too late." See adamisacson.com/timeline-of-wh…

This will be in tomorrow's Border Update but deserves its own separate post: Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all. Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-tr…

Reporters: STOP WRITING VENEZUELAN NATIONALS WERE DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR. Deportation is a specific legal process, one these men didn't go through. When we describe what happened as deportation, we fail to convey just how unprecedented this situation truly is. Do better.

NEW: ACLU obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide," confirming all it takes to be sent to rot in prison in El Salvador is 1) having a tattoo an ICE officer says is a "gang tattoo" and 2) displaying "logos," "symbols," or clothes an ICE officer says are gang signs.