Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Commenting generally on immigration law and policy. Retweets =/= endorsements, views are my own.

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 2:49 AM

It’s not good!

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 2:12 AM

This doesn’t make me angry, but it does surprise me that it is apparently possible to exist on X today so far outside of the horrorscape that you might genuinely believe it’s not there. Perhaps the Musk algorithm has indeed gone down a bit. But let me tell you, X is *not* a cheerful place.

The culture on X today is remarkably friendly and inclusive. It is a cheerful place. That cheerfulness is another differentiator. If you believe the world is falling apart and doomed only to get worse, that our obvious and real problems cannot be surmounted, X is not the platform for you. If you think the world is full of fun and amazing people and things, that humanity's defining feature is our collective ability to solve any problem, that the only time better to be alive than today is tomorrow, it might be.

Without any fanfare -perhaps to avoid his ire -X has de-Musked its algorithm. I stopped visiting at all when the algorithm there was putting Musk's own tweets into my timeline, every time I checked, despite the fact that I never followed him. But they don't do that anymore. I don't see much politics of any kind in my timeline, and what I do see is from accounts I chose to follow.
I see tech (including a lot of interesting breaking news), sports (including a lot of interesting videos and stats), and stupid stuff that's actually funny. My only problem with X now is that I do have to pay attention to avoid wasting time when I visit.

@zeddary.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 6:35 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

Hegseth broke the news about live streaming an execution to a MAGA propagandist who has 14/88 tweets and once hired Atomwaffen members (who were at Charlottesville and friendly with the Tree of Life shooter) to help him harass the family and neighbors of a Jewish murder victim.

driftglass@driftglass.bsky.socialOct 10, 2026, 3:59 AM

"Jon Ossoff, my advice to him is, if you start calling your political opponents Nazis, maybe it's time to shut up. That's just not what we do here in this country." -- David Brooks, this evening. Remember, Brooks still gets very handsomely rewarded by the fossilized media for saying shit like this

@shipwreck75.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 10:28 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

Further to the statement issued by the GACA regarding the treacherous attack that targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on the afternoon of Sunday, 11 October 2026, the Authority reported that the attack resulted in the death of a resident of Pakistani nationality,

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 10:27 PM

The @houstonchronicle.com posted this video and it's pretty jarring. No matter that he was fleeing, law enforcement officers may not use deadly force on someone who poses no significant risk of death or serious injury to others.

Deliberately hitting someone with a car is a use of deadly force.

@shipwreck75.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 5:46 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

A crude oil supertanker exploded after hitting a naval mine while attempting to leave the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Sunday.

@shipwreck75.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 6:41 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

The Houthis claim responsibility for four attacks on Saudi Arabia in the past 24 hours. These include the deadly attack on King Khalid International Airport yesterday, attacks on Aramco’s Shedgum gas facility & Tanajib oil refinery, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.-i24

@adamserwer.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 1:45 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

After years of championing "free speech," Texas lawmakers have enabled a dramatic rise of censorship in Texas universities, banning concepts, canceling courses and closing departments seen as "woke," and even using AI bots as censors. All in the name of freedom. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

In other professors’ syllabi, the bot flagged the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Angels in America by Tony Kushner, essays by the Mexican American MacArthur genius grant recipient Sandra Cisneros, and materials related to a class about the Holocaust (that professor was told to drop material regarding Nazi persecution of LGBTQ people).

Putting aside the ideological slant of the new rules, the bot, like many large language models, seems to “hallucinate,” or make mistakes. The AAUP lawsuit lists texts banned for their “sex-based ecofeminist framework” and “gendered ecofeminist frameworks.” These phrases might sound persuasively like academese, but the academics behind the lawsuit had never heard of them; these concepts “do not exist,” the complaint says. Matthew Pehl, a history professor at Tech, told me that he knew several people who’d received reports from the system that were “plainly written by an AI that had hallucinated content or confused content from one class to another.”

@unavaleable.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 12:47 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

"Your fault, you deserve it." is some crazy work

@rparloff.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 1:08 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

Anatomy of how John Solomon “presents known information as revelations and omit[s] key context," releasing it into right-wing echo-chamber. By @nytimes.com's @charliesavage.bsky.social .
1/2
www.nytimes.com/2026/10/11/u...

nytimes.comHow the White House Manufactured a Narrative About a Trump Aide’s Call Logs (Gift Article)A release of selected records from the classified documents inquiry is a case study in how omitting context can create political ammunition.

@andycraig.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 9:26 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

It's already illegal. Congress banned it near-unanimously in 2022. That law allows the ban to be lifted only if Russia withdraws from Ukraine. He's simply breaking the law that's already on the books.

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.socialOct 10, 2026, 9:23 PM

Republican US Rep Brian Fitzgerald tweets that he will introduce a bill to block purchases of Russian oil. Don Bacon (R-Neb) tweets that he will co-sponsor. Obviously this won’t happen during campaigning recess (and Trump could veto anyway) but interesting push-back on Trump.

@documentedny.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 10:02 AMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

"We are living through one of the most intense periods of immigration enforcement in American history." In a new monthly column, Austin Kocher explores the impact of rising immigration enforcement.

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 11:17 PM

The DOJ beclowns itself again.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.socialOct 10, 2026, 11:15 PM

BREAKING NYT: The Trump Justice Department is investigating whether the major television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox — violated federal antitrust laws when the group briefly suspended their pooled coverage of Trump, according to six people with knowledge of the department's action.

nytimes.comJustice Dept. Is Investigating TV Networks Over Trump Pool CoverageMajor TV networks were notified on Friday that the department was looking into whether they violated antitrust laws when they suspended pool coverage of President Trump.

@gabrielmalor.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 8:18 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

5th Cir. issues a rare Saturday order. Holds that the Supreme Court's stay in D.V.D. forecloses a stay of removal for a Senegalese man with witholding of removal to Senegal who DHS intends to immediately deport to Sierra Leone.

www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

Separately, the Supreme Court has effectively ratified third-country removal of the sort that Gakou faces when it granted certiorari in a case raising the issue while still explicitly permitting the government to continue with third-country removals unabated pending full resolution on the merits. See DHS v. D.V.D., Nos. 26-426, 26A406 (U.S. Sept. 29, 2026) (per curiam). As a result, Gakou’s claim to an injunction against his removal to a country besides Senegal is unavailing and cannot be used to support the stay he currently seeks. Because Gakou has not demonstrated any meaningful probability of success on the merits, he is not entitled to a stay. The emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is DENIED.

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 10:45 PM

I cannot wait for this.

@shipwreck75.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 10:18 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

So, today alone: 12 killed and more than 300 wounded by the Houthis; Iran warned ships away from the UAE; a ship was hit by a projectile off the UAE coast; and multiple drones and missiles targeted airports in Saudi Arabia. Sure we will get a Truth Social later about how they are dying to negotiate.

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 10:17 PM

The Houthi attack on Riyadh's major airport today apparently killed an American. We'll see how Trump responds.

@shipwreck75.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 8:40 PMReposted by @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

The Iran-backed Houthi militia attacked an international airport in the Saudi capital on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 50, according to three officials briefed on the strike, which came as the war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis sharply escalates.-NYT

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 8:22 PM

Deliberately hidden amongst the other text, though. And plenty of videos don’t have any such watermark.

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 8:19 PM

Yes, that’s a big part of it, agreed. And the movement is just uncanny enough to raise my hackles. But those tells are going away, fast.

Older posts