“Do you want the voluntary departure?” an immigration judge asked one 15-year-old boy who was in court alone.

“‘Yes, that’s fine,’ he replied. It was unclear if the boy knew that meant he was giving up on obtaining legal immigration status and agreeing to leave the country.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:

For years, the federal government has helped secure lawyers for minors who arrive at the southern border.

But a contract dispute instigated by the Trump adminstration has forced many children to face immigration judges on their own.

#AbuseofPowerWatch

New #AbuseOfPowerWatch newsletter:

This administration is testing the limits of its power at every level, from targeting elected officials to detaining religious leaders and continuing to inflict violence in our communities.

Follow @abuseofpowerwatch.bsky.social for the latest.

“There’s no bigger betrayal to our soldiers than to use their trust in a program … and ultimately use it to destroy their families while they’re serving our country and putting their lives on the line,” Martinez said. “You’re stabbing your own soldiers in the back.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:

Alex Martinez, her attorney “suspects that the government has been using Parole in Place to gather information for immigration-enforcement purposes—the opposite of what military recruits are led to believe.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

“Each such use, whether part of a formal or informal arrangement or no arrangement at all, gives ICE a launching point for operations that have…terrorized local communities,” the letter says, “& risks placing your property, your employees, & your customers at the center of that.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊:

"The letter comes just over a week after ICE officers shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican immigrant, in Marble Hill, blocks away from a Target parking lot that local officials say ICE officers had been recently using as a staging ground.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

The DA "sought to download data from the ICE vehicle while it was still at the scene, but an agent drove the car away. Driving the car may have automatically erased critical data, said Teare, who led the district attorney’s office’s vehicular crimes division for several years.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:

The ICE agent who ran over Miguel Parra Hernández has been placed on administrative leave, DHS says.

The Houston DA “told NBC News that it’s ‘pretty obvious’ from videos his office has collected, including drone video, that ICE intentionally hit and ran over Parra …”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

Earlier this week, protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center to demand his release.

“You should not be in solitary confinement with a bullet in your neck after you’ve been shot with your child in the car,” said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊:

Oscar Belgal, shot by ICE while his five-year-old child was in the backseat, still has bullet lodged in neck, attorneys say.

“… he is only being given ibuprofen for the pain.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

"The hunger strike is the latest controversy at the Charlton County facility, which is run by The GEO Group and, despite numerous complaints about unsafe conditions, is expanding to become the largest ICE detention center in the nation.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐀:

Approximately 500 people in a Georgia immigration detention camp are on a hunger strike, protesting conditions at the facility as well as what they say are violations of asylum protocols by US authorities, according to family members and legal representatives.

#AbuseofPowerWatch

“The district said it noticed a sharp decline in Haitian student enrollment this summer, around the time changes to Haitian #TPS took effect …"

"Haiti's TPS designation was terminated by the Trump Administration effective July 27 …”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀:

Orange County Public Schools has more than 8,000 fewer students this October than it did a year ago.

District data shows students classified as immigrants account for more than half, with the largest drops among students from Venezuela and Haiti.

#AbuseofPowerWatch

“Earlier in October, ICE adopted new rules for traffic stops, including ensuring that vehicles are equipped with lights and sirens to let the public know they are law enforcement vehicles, although it did not mandate their use.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

“Bruno said he told her that he fled because he did not know who was in the dark-colored vehicle.”

“The ICE vehicle, she added, was not using a siren or displaying flashing lights.”

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍, 𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐒:

Miguel Parra-Hernandez, whose leg was broken in multiple places after being run over by ICE, has never met the person the mass deportation agents were allegedly pursuing, his representatives say.

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋:

GAO released a new report that recommended "automated camera activation”.

"The agency rejected the recommendation, saying that using cameras that automatically activate when an officer pulls their weapon or activates a car siren could risk privacy concerns."

#AbuseofPowerWatch

📍 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀:

"A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled against a California law requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to show visible identification, a final ruling after the law was previously put on hold." #AbuseofPowerWatch