This Week On ICE

Team TWOI
  • 5.0 (2)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Weekly

A weekly podcast covering the latest developments of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, hosted by journalists Kelly Kimball and Matthew Kendrick. thisweekonice.substack.com

  1. 2d ago

    ICE detention hunger strikes spread, sanctuary cities under pressure, and 1A freedoms put to question outside Delaney Hall

    In this week’s episode, we welcome back OG co-host Matthew Kendrick after a month away. It was such a pleasure bringing in LA-based investigative journalist Ben Camacho into the fold as temporary co-host. Throughout that time, Ben and co-host Kelly Kimball discussed the possibility of ICE’s presence at World Cup matches across the U.S., what historic highs of ICE detention deaths say about the condition of facilities nationwide, the end to fast-track ICE agent trainings, and the re-opening of asylum cases at the U.S. southern border. Ben, you will be missed! We have so much to talk about this week. Let’s get into it. The top line: What transpired outside Delaney Hall, and what it says about the state of first-amendment protections today. Tensions between ICE and demonstrators soared over the weekend as a peaceful demonstration that began in solidarity with a labor and hunger strike led by 300 Delaney Hall detainees quickly evolved into a standoff between protesters and NJ State Troopers after New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill called troopers in to take control of security in the immediate area surrounding the facility. Support This Week on ICE Podcast  “Once state troopers stepped in [on May 29], First Amendment rights were heavily policed, and this is where protesters and members of the press have said that the access to the First Amendment was really put to question.” —Kelly During this time, state police in riot gear and on horseback pushed protesters away from the facility, creating scenes reminiscent of recent crackdowns in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis. In the same window, Newark’s mayor imposed a curfew (later lifted on Tuesday), the FBI raided a long-standing community triage center that had supported families visiting detained loved ones. This week, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the New Jersey Attorney General filed suit against the GEO Group, which owns Delaney Hall, calling for the facility to be shut down. We also talked about the strange way state troopers attempted to sort out “credentialed” press from demonstrators, and how that underscores fraught debates in the courts about what makes a journalist and what doesn’t. Support This Week on ICE Podcast Also on our radar: The Trump administration’s new challenge to sanctuary cities could backfire. The Trump administration is threatening to withdraw Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from major U.S. airports located in “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which are cities, counties or entire states that have policies that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Should this happen, it would effectively shut down international arrivals at these hubs. In fact, seven out of the ten busiest airports for international travel are located in jurisdictions that could be targeted by DHS, which together accounted for 70 percent of international passengers in 2024 (the latest year for which data is available). “It's difficult to overrate the severeness of this disruption. The air travel system is so interconnected, and there's just no precedent for this kind of action.” — Matt But despite the Trump administration’s attempt to bully local governments through lawsuits and threats, the law protects sanctuary policies. Namely, the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which says the federal government can't commandeer state and local officials to carry out their policies.  “But let's be clear, I don't think the administration is filing all of these lawsuits because they have any expectation of winning. This is a political tool. … Even though they know they will not win in the court of law, but they'll win in the court of public opinion. When these lawsuits fail because they're meritless, they'll just blame liberal activists, judges, and Democratic governors in states and cities across the country.” — Matt Share This Week On ICE Podcast And Finally: An interview exclusive with Wali Khan, who is a photojournalist that has tracked the Delaney Hall hunger strikes since day 1. Independent photojournalist Wali Khan (left) and This Week on ICE co-host Kelly Kimball on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Wali Khan is an independent documentary filmmaker and photojournalist who has been documenting the ongoing protests outside of Delaney Hall since before the start of the hunger and labor strike that began on May 22. He sat down with Kelly to talk about what he has seen on the ground, and how it compares to other flashpoints he’s seen amid Trump’s protracted immigrant detention campaign. “There is a tendency to mythologize the struggle. To say that we are showing up for our neighbors, that this resistance is noble. We have to look at it through a material lens. … Functionally, nothing has changed about the immigration system or the enforcement at Delaney Hall. … As a journalist, I think it's important for me to document all this violence, but … I really worry that Americans could get used to this, and that they will start seeing migrants as a number.” — Wali That’s it for us this week. Keep sending us your questions, comments, or tips to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, stay safe, look out for your neighbors, and we’ll see you next time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    38 min

  2. May 29

    We need to talk about Delaney Hall.

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. Major moves happened this week, so before we get into our official run of show, here’s a quick rundown of the latest: Alligator Alcatraz will be officially dismantled by early June, per a Tuesday report by the New York Times. The closure follows a year of intense legal challenges, controversial operational costs, and allegations of inhumane conditions. The 1,400 people currently detained at the facility are expected to be moved in the coming weeks. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday that former private prison firm executive Dave Venturella will become the new acting ICE director beginning June 1. He will succeed Todd Lyons, who is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector at the end of this month. And finally, a new wave of ICE deployments has officially begun, with the agency deploying about 330 agents to cities in more than 40 states, plus Puerto Rico, to bolster existing immigration enforcement. We have even more to share. Let’s dive in. The top line: What the 2026 Border Security Expo in Phoenix says about future DHS activity The big story out of Phoenix? How the U.S. government plans to act on its reclassification of major cartels like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel as global terrorist entities. That label has blown open a Pandora’s box of new counterterrorism authorities, beefed-up sanctions, expanded surveillance, and a growing military role in fighting these groups. Expected, sure. But here’s where it gets interesting. DHS isn’t just redefining who counts as a terrorist organization abroad. It’s quietly redrawing the lines at home, too. The FBI’s FY2027 budget request from March asks Congress for roughly $166 million to go after entities engaged in so-called “anti-American activities.” The expo’s fixation on a sweeping, ever-expanding terrorism umbrella makes that budget line hard to ignore. “This is what they’re designating as anti-American activity: anything that is anti-capitalist, anything that is anti-Christian, anyone who behaves in extremist ways on migration, race, and gender. … The FBI’s new designation of terrorism is particularly worrisome, because what human rights experts are warning is that expressing beliefs even as banal as a critique of capitalism can now be considered a precursor for domestic terrorist activity. And they now want a multi-million dollar budget directed toward this.” — Kelly Also on our radar: Deaths in ICE detention facilities are on track toward historic highs Deaths in ICE detention facilities across the country have hit grim milestones this month. On May 1, a Cuban man identified as 33-year-old Denny Adan González, died inside the privately run Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, becoming the 18th person to die this year in the custody of ICE, and the fifth death believed to be by suicide, according to Physicians for Human Rights, which warned of a pattern of “increasing suicides” in these facilities. “We’re five months into 2026 already, and we have 18 deaths – that’s one death every six and a half days. If the pace holds through December, we’ll see about 56 deaths by the end of the year. Last year was the deadliest year for ICE detention in over a couple decades… We’re on track to nearly double that stat that we saw last year.”— Ben Plus: An interview exclusive with James Cordero, a water drop coordinator for Al Otro Lado Ben sat down with James to talk about what it’s like to hike into the California desert every week to leave water and food for people crossing the border, how ramped up enforcement has pushed migration routes into more remote and deadly terrain, and what happens when you find someone out there who did not make it. “Way too many people are dying while they're trying to cross into the United States, and every year temperatures keep getting hotter and hotter, colder and colder, depending on the season. It is a dangerous journey. And the more surveillance, the more border walls, more militarization on the border, it just keeps pushing people into further and further dangerous areas. … I have a death kit inside my backpack at all times, because you never know what you’re going to come across.” — James That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time. — Kelly, Matt and Ben This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    40 min

  3. May 22

    The team meticulously tracking ICE deportations to third countries

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. Major moves happened this week, so before we get into our official run of show, here’s a quick rundown of the latest: Alligator Alcatraz will be officially dismantled by early June, per a Tuesday report by the New York Times. The closure follows a year of intense legal challenges, controversial operational costs, and allegations of inhumane conditions. The 1,400 people currently detained at the facility are expected to be moved in the coming weeks. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday that former private prison firm executive Dave Venturella will become the new acting ICE director beginning June 1. He will succeed Todd Lyons, who is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector at the end of this month. And finally, a new wave of ICE deployments has officially begun, with the agency deploying about 330 agents to cities in more than 40 states, plus Puerto Rico, to bolster existing immigration enforcement. We have even more to share. Let’s dive in. The top line: What the 2026 Border Security Expo in Phoenix says about future DHS activity The big story out of Phoenix? How the U.S. government plans to act on its reclassification of major cartels like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel as global terrorist entities. That label has blown open a Pandora’s box of new counterterrorism authorities, beefed-up sanctions, expanded surveillance, and a growing military role in fighting these groups. Expected, sure. But here’s where it gets interesting. DHS isn’t just redefining who counts as a terrorist organization abroad. It’s quietly redrawing the lines at home, too. The FBI’s FY2027 budget request from March asks Congress for roughly $166 million to go after entities engaged in so-called “anti-American activities.” The expo’s fixation on a sweeping, ever-expanding terrorism umbrella makes that budget line hard to ignore. “This is what they’re designating as anti-American activity: anything that is anti-capitalist, anything that is anti-Christian, anyone who behaves in extremist ways on migration, race, and gender. … The FBI’s new designation of terrorism is particularly worrisome, because what human rights experts are warning is that expressing beliefs even as banal as a critique of capitalism can now be considered a precursor for domestic terrorist activity. And they now want a multi-million dollar budget directed toward this.” — Kelly Also on our radar: Deaths in ICE detention facilities are on track toward historic highs Deaths in ICE detention facilities across the country have hit grim milestones this month. On May 1, a Cuban man identified as 33-year-old Denny Adan González, died inside the privately run Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, becoming the 18th person to die this year in the custody of ICE, and the fifth death believed to be by suicide, according to Physicians for Human Rights, which warned of a pattern of “increasing suicides” in these facilities. “We’re five months into 2026 already, and we have 18 deaths – that’s one death every six and a half days. If the pace holds through December, we’ll see about 56 deaths by the end of the year. Last year was the deadliest year for ICE detention in over a couple decades… We’re on track to nearly double that stat that we saw last year.”— Ben Plus: An interview exclusive with James Cordero, a water drop coordinator for Al Otro Lado Ben sat down with James to talk about what it’s like to hike into the California desert every week to leave water and food for people crossing the border, how ramped up enforcement has pushed migration routes into more remote and deadly terrain, and what happens when you find someone out there who did not make it. “Way too many people are dying while they're trying to cross into the United States, and every year temperatures keep getting hotter and hotter, colder and colder, depending on the season. It is a dangerous journey. And the more surveillance, the more border walls, more militarization on the border, it just keeps pushing people into further and further dangerous areas. … I have a death kit inside my backpack at all times, because you never know what you’re going to come across.” — James That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time. — Kelly, Matt and Ben This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    41 min

  4. May 16

    He leaves water for migrants at the southern border and carries a "death kit."

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. Major moves happened this week, so before we get into our official run of show, here’s a quick rundown of the latest: Alligator Alcatraz will be officially dismantled by early June, per a Tuesday report by the New York Times. The closure follows a year of intense legal challenges, controversial operational costs, and allegations of inhumane conditions. The 1,400 people currently detained at the facility are expected to be moved in the coming weeks. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday that former private prison firm executive Dave Venturella will become the new acting ICE director beginning June 1. He will succeed Todd Lyons, who is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector at the end of this month. And finally, a new wave of ICE deployments has officially begun, with the agency deploying about 330 agents to cities in more than 40 states, plus Puerto Rico, to bolster existing immigration enforcement. We have even more to share. Let’s dive in. The top line: What the 2026 Border Security Expo in Phoenix says about future DHS activity The big story out of Phoenix? How the U.S. government plans to act on its reclassification of major cartels like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel as global terrorist entities. That label has blown open a Pandora’s box of new counterterrorism authorities, beefed-up sanctions, expanded surveillance, and a growing military role in fighting these groups. Expected, sure. But here’s where it gets interesting. DHS isn’t just redefining who counts as a terrorist organization abroad. It’s quietly redrawing the lines at home, too. The FBI’s FY2027 budget request from March asks Congress for roughly $166 million to go after entities engaged in so-called “anti-American activities.” The expo’s fixation on a sweeping, ever-expanding terrorism umbrella makes that budget line hard to ignore. “This is what they’re designating as anti-American activity: anything that is anti-capitalist, anything that is anti-Christian, anyone who behaves in extremist ways on migration, race, and gender. … The FBI’s new designation of terrorism is particularly worrisome, because what human rights experts are warning is that expressing beliefs even as banal as a critique of capitalism can now be considered a precursor for domestic terrorist activity. And they now want a multi-million dollar budget directed toward this.” — Kelly Also on our radar: Deaths in ICE detention facilities are on track toward historic highs Deaths in ICE detention facilities across the country have hit grim milestones this month. On May 1, a Cuban man identified as 33-year-old Denny Adan González, died inside the privately run Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, becoming the 18th person to die this year in the custody of ICE, and the fifth death believed to be by suicide, according to Physicians for Human Rights, which warned of a pattern of “increasing suicides” in these facilities. “We’re five months into 2026 already, and we have 18 deaths – that’s one death every six and a half days. If the pace holds through December, we’ll see about 56 deaths by the end of the year. Last year was the deadliest year for ICE detention in over a couple decades… We’re on track to nearly double that stat that we saw last year.”— Ben Plus: An interview exclusive with James Cordero, a water drop coordinator for Al Otro Lado Ben sat down with James to talk about what it’s like to hike into the California desert every week to leave water and food for people crossing the border, how ramped up enforcement has pushed migration routes into more remote and deadly terrain, and what happens when you find someone out there who did not make it. “Way too many people are dying while they're trying to cross into the United States, and every year temperatures keep getting hotter and hotter, colder and colder, depending on the season. It is a dangerous journey. And the more surveillance, the more border walls, more militarization on the border, it just keeps pushing people into further and further dangerous areas. … I have a death kit inside my backpack at all times, because you never know what you’re going to come across.” — James That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time. — Kelly, Matt and Ben This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    38 min

  5. May 8

    No more fast-track ICE trainings, landlords weaponize ICE against tenants, and U.S. border migration developments

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. While we were recording this week’s episode, news broke that the Trump Administration is in talks to shut down the Florida Everglades ICE Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz. These talks are still preliminary, with DHS officials having said it has become too expensive to keep operating the center, which at one point burned $1.2 million taxpayer dollars per day. It’s also a facility that continues to be mired in federal reimbursement delays. Meanwhile, The U.S. State Department announced yesterday it will begin revoking the U.S. passports of those who owe $100,000 or more in unpaid child support. The revocations will begin today and will apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, per the State Department. Moving forward, this revocation program will expand to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support, which could encompass many more thousands of people, officials told the Associated Press. There’s much more to tell you. Let’s get into it. The top line: The Trump Administration has announced an end to fast-track ICE agent trainings. Yesterday, POLITICO broke the news that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will overhaul its training program for immigration agents, including restoring training that had been axed amid a rush to put thousands of agents on the streets. This comes amid a year defined by controversial ICE crackdowns in major U.S. cities, as well as a massive dip in approval ratings for the Trump administration across party lines. “During the partial government shutdown, there were negotiations that were made on Capitol Hill. I should highlight that the wanting to reform how ICE is trained was a bipartisan issue. A major push from the Democrats, for sure, but overall a lot of the lawmakers saw that there needed to be a change to reel in ICE,” — Ben So, what will this mean for arrests, raids and detentions going forward? For this, we look toward Border Czar Tom Homan: While speaking at The Border Security Expo on Thursday, Homan said during opening remarks: "If you think last year's historic number is good, wait till next year and we have 10,000 more agents on the border. You ain't seen s*** yet." Meanwhile, DHS is still working to increase ICE detention capacity. Homan quite famously said last year that these detention facilities are going to be “Amazon Prime, but for human beings.” This is the same man who also said, “We’re gonna flood the zone” with ICE agents to increase arrests just this week. While it remains to be seen what the scope and content of these trainings will look like moving forward, Homan’s language hasn’t shifted, indicating that we may continue to see highly consequential ICE raids and detentions in the future. Also on our radar: Landlords are allegedly using the threat of ICE arrests by harass immigrant tenants In late April, the New York-based news site Documented reported that New York City landlords are allegedly using ICE threats to intimidate immigrant tenants, according to various advocacy organizations and elected officials who testified at a joint oversight hearing of a City Council committees on Housing and Immigration. But this isn’t the only instance of this. Kelly dove into how, across major cities in America, some landlords are weaponizing ICE against their tenants, with some landlords even facing criminal charges for harassment. She also explained the ways some cities are fighting back to protect renters from having this happen to them. “To be sure, there are several laws protecting immigrant tenants. In New York, you can’t retaliate against a tenant for reporting housing issues. Yet advocates say immigration enforcement is regularly used against immigrant tenants who report landlords for bad conditions. And these are only the reported issues. For every reported issue, there are countless more that fall into the shadows.”— Kelly Plus: An interview exclusive with Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh of the Migration Policy Institute Putzel-Kavanaugh’s specialty is on migration along the U.S. Mexico Border. She has spent years conducting field research and humanitarian work with migrants. During her chat with Matt, she explained how asylum seekers and migrants have felt the impact of the administration’s actions over the past year. “When we see that immigration has become a sort of ‘all-of-government’ problem’ we mean every-step-of-the-way government — not just federal government, but down to the state level. It’s sort of a new phenomenon that has been growing for years, ” — Colleen That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time. — Kelly, Matt and Ben This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    30 min

  6. May 1

    New Asylum Ruling Shakes Trump Policy, an Adelanto Transparency Battle, and 1k+ Afghans in Limbo

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. This week, we’re tracking several consequential developments in U.S. immigration policy made in the last week. We’re also diving even deeper into the unprecedented dilemma for Afghan allies stranded at a way-station in Doha, Qatar. Plus: We’ve brought on our new co-host for a little bit while Matt is traveling — Ben Camacho. Welcome, Ben! We’re so glad you’re here. Let’s get started. The top line: Trump’s suspension of asylum cases at the U.S. southern border is illegal, per a recent federal appeals court decision. Here’s what that means: Since January 2025, the Trump administration shut down migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the U.S. southern border, preventing hundreds of thousands of families from pleading their legal case to enter the U.S. after facing violence, persecution, or severely limited opportunity in their home country. That may be over. “There has been zero processing of asylum cases at the U.S. southern border since Inauguration Day. But, basically, [the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit] said that the President can't circumvent immigration law. Go figure.”— Kelly But there’s another update at the border wall: An Indigenous community centered in Tecate, Baja California, claims construction, excavation, and even detonations have begun near the community’s sacred Cerro Cuchumá, which is protected by a long-standing agreement with the U.S. government that prohibits development in the area. Despite the site’s designation in the National Register of Historic Places, and despite this week’s federal appeals court decision, border wall construction is moving full speed ahead at a key crossing point that once saw as many as 200 to 300 migrants monthly. “One of the reasons that Matt and I founded this podcast was to track the ways in which norms are being subverted: When it comes to the Trump Administration, in every way that is possible, rule of law has been atrophied. Rule of Law is a suggestion. In this case, they are impeding on an agreement made in the 90s between the U.S. and a community that has existed before modern borders were even in place.” — Kelly Also on our radar: Adelanto ICE Processing Center may be forced to unseal documents surrounding a violent use-of-force incident. Ben gives us the latest: In June of 2020, Adelanto ICE Processing Center — which is owned by GEO Group —reportedly used chemical agents on detainees protesting facility conditions, and then allegedly denied them adequate medical care. Now, members of the press, including the groups Public Justice, The First Amendment Coalition, The Southlander (which is Ben’s newsroom), and LA Public Press just won a “motion to intervene,” allowing them to ask to unseal confidential court records and demand transparency around how this federally contracted detention center operates. What have been the defining markers of these partnerships between the Trump Administration and private prison companies like GEO Group? — Kelly It’s money, money, money. ICE detention centers and prisons are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Just last year GEO Group and CoreCivic, which is another private prison company, received over $2 billion from the federal government. These agreements are [on the receiving end of] ICE raids, courthouse arrests, brutalities, summary executions of U.S. citizens. It’s a industry of violence that is fueled by violence, and people at the top are getting paid by it,” — Ben A key hearing on the motion to unseal Adelanto’s documents is set for May 18. Stick with us, and we’ll provide updates as they come. Plus: ICE can’t automatically detain those they arrest, per another federal appeals court decision — for now. Ricardo Cunha, a Brazilian national, lived in Massachusetts for over 20 years before being detained by ICE last year. He sought release on bond while his immigration case processed, but the federal government argued that anyone detained during immigration raids could be held without bond or hearings. Advocates have warned that such a policy strips away due process and allows authorities to detain individuals arbitrarily, with little oversight or accountability. “What this equates to is mandatory, indefinite detention for anyone who gets taken by ICE. And I think that’s what’s at the heart of this case, ” — Ben On Your Way Out: We dive deeper into what may become of Afghan allies stranded in Qatar. Last fall, Trump halted a key U.S. resettlement program that resettled 190,000 Afghans who helped the American war effort in Afghanistan. Today, 1100 of these allies have been in limbo at a way-station run by the State Department in Doha, Qatar. Fast forward to today: Trump is in talks to force these allies to choose between two impossible choices: Get deported back to Afghanistan, where they face near-certain death and violent persecution by the Taliban for their services to the U.S. military, or get deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The real kicker is that this program did not just come out of thin air. The program [built on top of] existing, vetted, lawful immigration pathways that were created by Congress, some that were even forged during the first Trump administration,” — Kelly So, where are we at right now? The State Department has declined to provide any updated so far. But what we do know is that the advocacy group Afghan Evac is working on an emergency bill to protect these allies in Doha, Qatar. As for the camp in Qatar, it is reportedly slated for closure in the near future. At a press conference hosted by Afghan Evac last week, Kelly clocked a bold argument made by Major General Paul Eaton, who is a former United States Army officer who commanded the operations to train Iraqi troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom: “[Major General Eaton] argued this is a very bad strategy. We’re basically broke our promise to Afghan allies. And if, in the future, we start another war, which, under this administration is pretty likely, and we need allies on the front lines to protect our troops, they’re going to look toward what what happened to Afghan allies, and wonder, ‘will that happen to us?’ So now this becomes a national security issue, which is the very thing the Trump administration has said they’re trying to prevent by deporting Afghan allies to DRC,” — Kelly That’s all for now. Keep sending your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time. — Kelly and Ben This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    33 min

  7. Apr 24

    The $140B GOP ICE Funding Bill, Afghan Ally Deportation Fears, and a CA Court Ruling on ICE Showing ID

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. Kelly and I are still out-of-office this week. So, for this week’s episode, we’re featuring the most important highlights from two great guests we’ve had on the show. Before we get to it, here’s a rundown of this week’s developments involving ICE and the U.S. immigration crackdown 👇 — Matt Republicans in the Senate passed a bill in the wee hours of Thursday morning that could send up to $140 billion in funding to ICE and Border Patrol without Democratic support — enough to fund those departments through the rest of Trump’s term. GOP Senators are attempting to circumvent the need to woo at least seven Democrats by using a budget reconciliation process, but it won’t be easy. Republican Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski crossed party lines to vote against the package, and the arcane rules of the reconciliation process means a final bill won’t be ready to pass until June 1 at the earliest. It also doesn’t necessarily mean the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown will end any sooner, as the House has yet to vote on a similar reconciliation bill meant to restore funding to the rest of that department. Also on Thursday, NBC reported that DHS has instructed ICE to limit some of its most aggressive detention tactics, including entering homes without judicial warrants and detaining targets during immigration court proceedings. The rollback is part of a larger pattern under new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is attempting to sharply contrast himself with the bombastic style of his predecessor, Kristi Noem. President Trump is reportedly considering forcing Afghans who worked with the U.S. military during its twenty-year occupation of their home country to choose between being deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo or repatriated to Afghanistan, where they will almost certainly be tortured and killed. The DRC is hardly a safer option: at least 600,000 people live as refugees and over six million have been internally displaced due to a complex ongoing conflict in the eastern provinces. Lawmakers from both parties have instead urged the president to restore a program he blocked which allowed Afghans to settle in the U.S. after an extensive security vetting. On Tuesday, the U.S. issued sanction against casinos and individuals associated with the Cartel del Noreste, a Mexican criminal group previously designated a terrorist organization. The particular Cartel’s territory abuts the southern tip of Texas, and the sanctioned individuals are believed to be deeply involved in human smuggling. It’s worth noting that a CNBC poll taken April 15-19 found that 51% of registered voters approve of Trump’s handling of the southern border, one of the few policy areas where he is not underwater. Finally, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law that would have forced ICE agents to display ID while on duty Wednesday. Though the 9th Circuit is habitually skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal maneuvers on migration, the court found California’s attempt to directly regulate federal agents violated the supremacy clause of the Constitution. The finding could limit attempts by other states to impose similar requirements on ICE agents operating within their borders. Now, onto the best of our guests. Stick with us: #1: A targeted attack on one of the world’s most vulnerable diaspora communities. Trisha Mukherjee joined us to break down her investigation into a proposed Trump administration ban on remittances sent from the United States to Haiti — announced not through any formal policy channel, but via a DHS social media post on March 2nd. She went line-by-line through the post’s claims and found that essentially none of them held up. The $6.1 billion figure? Inflated beyond what World Bank data supports. The characterization of Haitian immigrants as illegal? Flatly inaccurate — most arrived under Temporary Protected Status, granted precisely because Haiti is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. (By comparison, the U.S. sends over $60 billion in remittances to Mexico annually and over $120 billion to India — Haiti doesn’t even crack the top ten recipient countries.) “This is just meant to instill fear. It’s meant to make Haitians not feel welcome.” — Trisha Mukherjee Mukherjee introduced us to one of her sources: Joanne, a 30-year-old Haitian doctor who fled her neighborhood in Port-au-Prince in the middle of the night after gunshots and armed gangs tore through her street — and who was only able to complete medical school because family members in New York City sent money back from their own after-tax earnings. It’s the kind of story that puts a human face on what an abstract policy debate actually costs. “Plain and simple, there’s a real risk of their family members starving. Just because accessing food is already so difficult.” — Trisha Mukherjee #2: Inside one of the nation’s largest — and most troubled — immigration detention centers. Ryanne Mena has been on the Adelanto ICE Processing Center beat for months — and what she’s hearing from inside is alarming. Detainees describe waiting weeks for medical appointments, only to be handed ibuprofen. Flies in the shower walls. Spoiled vegetables. Water with a smell they can’t identify and are afraid to drink. Adelanto, which sits just outside Los Angeles, can hold nearly 2,000 people across its east and west facilities, and is operated by The GEO Group — one of the country’s largest private prison companies, which donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s 2024 campaign and subsequently secured over a billion dollars in federal detention contracts. The facility was down to just three detainees under a COVID-era court order at the start of 2025; that order was lifted, and by mid-February the population had surged to roughly 1,800. “Many of them have told me that they’re afraid they’re going to die there.” — Ryanne Mena Five people have died at Adelanto since September — including José Guadalupe Ramos Solano, a Mexican national. The Mexican government has since filed an amicus brief in support of a federal class action lawsuit against the facility and raised the matter with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — the first time, Mena says, she has ever seen a foreign nation intervene in the conditions of an American immigration detention center. Introducing Ben Camacho For the next few weeks we are honored to have investigative journalist Ben Camacho filling in for Matt while he’s visiting his old stomping grounds in China. Ben’s reporting helped expose a police gang and forced the city of Glendale to cancel a contract with ICE, and the Los Angeles Press Club honored his documentary “The Blue Hand” with the Charles M. Rappleye Investigative Journalism Award. He’s already got some great stories and interviews in the works for you all, so stay tuned. That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    30 min
  8. What our top guests reveal about the reality of the U.S. immigration crackdown

    Apr 17

    What our top guests reveal about the reality of the U.S. immigration crackdown

    Welcome back to This Week on ICE. This week, we are both out of office - but it doesn’t mean we’re out of pocket. Matt and I are taking this time to feature highlights from our best guest interviews. Before we get to it, though, here’s a rundown of this week’s developments involving ICE and the U.S. immigration crackdown 👇 — Kelly Over the weekend — Costa Rica received the first group of migrants from other countries deported from the ​United States. So far, the Trump administration has sent 15,000 people to unfamiliar, “third country” nations, with more still to come. Last week, we explained the ballooning “third country” apparatus and talked about the cadre of African countries beginning to receive U.S. immigrants. On Tuesday — an appeals court ordered a federal judge to end an investigation into probable criminal contempt by U.S. officials who deported Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last year. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney, called the ruling “a blow to the rule of law.” On Wednesday — in a court declaration, immigration lawyer Katherine Blankenship said some detainees in Alligator Alcatraz were taunted, threatened, then beaten and pepper-sprayed by ICE agents. Phone services, which are required to be available to detainees 24-7, were cut off the day these alleged beatings occurred. Also on Wednesday — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum ordered Mexican consular personnel to conduct daily visits to ICE facilities following an escalation of deaths of Mexican citizens caught up in Trump’s mass deportation agenda. On Thursday — for the first time, Minnesota authorities have charged an ICE agent with a felony following Operation Metro Surge. The officer, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for pointing a gun at two civilians in their car. Also on Thursday — The House passed legislation to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, preventing them from legal limbo - for now. The bill is now up to vote in the Senate and, should it pass, it would require DHS to designate Haiti for TPS for three years. This week — ICE reported the 16th immigrant detainee death this year. By comparison, last year, it announced 33 deaths, the most in over two decades. In the entirety of 2024, there were 11. An NBC investigation released Wednesday revealed that ICE has quietly reduced what details about these deaths are made public. Now, onto the best of our guests. Stick with us: #1: The expert whose research proves immigrants help the U.S. economy even more than native citizens in many contexts. “We found that over the last 30 years, immigrants of all types, legal and illegal, have reduced the deficits at the federal, state and local level by about 14 and a half trillion dollars.” — David Bier The Cato Institute’s David Bier, our first-ever guest on the pod, spoke with us about a first-of-its-kind study he conducted that sheds light on the essential economic power engine that is the U.S. immigrant population. He’s the consumate DC wonk, consistently fact-checking inaccuracies pedaled by U.S. President Trump and using empirical evidence to poke holes in Trumps immigration crackdown promises. (For one, his research has proven that Trump has actually reduced legal entry into the United States more than illegal entry. “By keeping out immigrants, not redesigning a better legal immigration system, and deporting people… we likely have already hit [a point of population decline], given the amount of deportations and how low illegal immigration is. We’re heading to negative territory quite rapidly under this administration.” — David Bier #2: The immigration lawyer who helped a detained man and his asylum-seeking partner arrange a wedding in the back room of an ICE field office. “We were in this awful position of, do we fight for the asylum case … or do we go with voluntary departure? We can maybe prevent [this client] from getting detained and tortured in [their] home country. It is just an awful choice to have to make.” — Robin Nice Robin Nice, an immigration attorney and partner at McHaffey & Nice in Boston, opened up about the kinds of cases she has dealt with amid the black box of ICE detention activities. She told us that even citizens and lawful permanent residents can be wrongly detained, sometimes even just for “a day while they figure it out,” which she called a massive violation of rights and due process. In the case of her two recently married clients, the husband ultimately accepted voluntary departure while still in ICE custody. After the wedding, he was swiftly transferred from Plymouth, MA, where he was married, to a processing center in Texas and is set to return to his home country in Central America. “It was just me, the pastor, the couple, and then these two ICE people, just like, in the doorway watching. They were allowed to hug afterwards and give a smooch afterwards, and then he went back to detention, and that’s that.” — Robin Nice That’s all for now. Keep sending us your questions, comments and thoughts to thisweekonice@gmail.com. Catch you next time! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisweekonice.substack.com

    25 min
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About

A weekly podcast covering the latest developments of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, hosted by journalists Kelly Kimball and Matthew Kendrick. thisweekonice.substack.com

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