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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Senior Fellow @immcouncil. Tweeting on immigration policy and data. Formerly immigration lawyer with @IJCorps. Views my own, retweets =/= endorsements.
14 subscribers
Jul 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
ALSO NEW: A federal judge in Tennessee just granted Abrego Garcia release on bond with conditions, finding that the DOJ did NOT meet its burden to prove that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or such a danger to the community that release must be denied even with conditions. Image Judge Crenshaw in Tennessee finds that the government has failed to meet its burden to prove that Mr. Abrego Garcia is so dangerous that no conditions could justify his release, and therefore upholds the magistrate judge's decision granting release on bond with conditions. Image
Jul 22 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
AWFUL scenario. Border Patrol agents raided a car wash and arrested a DACA recipient working there. He has a REAL ID, but they didn't even let him show his ID, they just grabbed him and threw him in a van.

He was then detained for a MONTH before getting bond. Image It's literally in the first paragraph of the excerpt: no.
Jul 19 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
CRAZY story. An 82-year-old from Chile lost his green card. In June, he went to pick up a new one from @USCIS. While there, he was handcuffed and detained by ICE.

An unknown caller then told family she could help, then later said he’d died. But now he’s turned up in Guatemala! Image This story raises a TON of questions for @DHSgov:

- Why was this lawful permanent resident detained when picking up a replacement green card? He has no criminal record.
- Why was he not in the ICE detainee locator system?
- How did he end up in Guatemala?
- Who called family? Image
Image
Jul 19 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Andry Hernández Romero, the innocent make-up artist imprisoned without trial for 4 months in El Salvador by the Trump admin, is FREE.

He was wrongfully accused of being a gang member because of his “mom” and “dad” tattoos, and illegally sent to El Salvador without due process. Image Maduro has indicated that the men will not be immediately detained.

This story has been a major public relations talking point for his government. They are saying that they “rescued” the men in CECOT, so for now they’ll all have public relations on their side.
Jul 17 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
🚨NEW. A horror story emerges from hacked flight logs of the March 15 flight to El Salvador to be imprisoned without trial: mass disappearances.

The data reveals DOZENS of people on the flight whose names were never disclosed before. All may still be locked up there today. Image This new story from @404mediaco provides the first public confirmation of the identity of some of the people who were disappeared by the Trump admin on March 15. In some cases, families knew they were there because they saw their loved one in pictures — but had NO confirmation. Image
Jul 13 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: @MiamiHerald confirms that 1/3 of the people sent to the Everglades Detention Camp have NO CRIMINAL RECORD, making clear that federal and state officials LIED about who would be detained there.

Of those who do have charges, many have low-level traffic offenses. Image That is FALSE. What you posted below is the criminal charge for improper entry, the act of entering without inspection.

*Entry* is distinct from presence. After all, visa overstays entered legally, but are present unlawfully. The Supreme Court is clear; presence is not a crime. Image
Jul 7 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
NEW: the Trump admin has moved to terminate TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua, covering over 50,000 people

Both of these designations date back to 1999, meaning Trump wants to strip legal status from people who have had a background check every 18 months for the last 26 years. Image That is not how ANYTHING works. You cannot just apply to become a citizen! There is no “line” that people can get in.

To learn the basics of the US immigration system, check out our fact sheet: americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/how… x.com/ldsanty/status…
Jul 3 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined. Here is the funding for immigration enforcement in the bill, to be spent through September 30, 2029.

- $74.9 billion for ICE detention and removal
- $65.6 billion for CBP infrastructure, hiring, tech
- $10 billion DHS slush fund
- $3.5 billion for state enforcement

And more! Image
Jul 1 • 35 tweets • 14 min read
Literal cages. Not even metaphorical ones. Literal ones. For those curious, those white things hanging from the ceiling are ventilation and air conditioning (which is seemingly not turned on where the picture was taken). If you count from the foreground, you can see one actively in use 7 down; it's inflated. Air comes out of the holes.
Jun 28 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If the bill passes, it could make ICE the nation’s largest jailer, with more funding for detention than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons. It would give ICE enough money to have more officers on board than the entire FBI.

This alone could transform American society forever. If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:

- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring
- And more
Jun 24 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
NEW: Erez Reuveni, the DOJ lawyer fired for his honesty in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, tells Congress that Emil Bove suggested the DOJ respond to any court orders blocking the CECOT deportations with "fuck you."

He also says DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign lied to Judge Boasberg. Bove then made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated. Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts "fuck you” and ignore any such court order. Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room. Mr. Reuveni and others were quickly ushered out of the room. Notwithstanding Bove's directive, Mr. Reuveni left the meeting understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders.21 - Mr.... Reuveni accuses Drew Ensign, the DOJ lawyer appearing for the Trump admin in the Alien Enemies Act case, of lying to Judge Boasberg on March 15 when he said he didn't know planes were taking off.

He says Ensign was at a meeting the day before when the flight were planned! Image
Jun 23 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases.

This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country. Today the GOP justices on the Supreme Court endorsed migrants being sold into slavery.

They'll claim otherwise, but that's the reality — today's decision permits Trump to send people from countries around the world to any global hellhole that accepts a U.S. financial incentive. Image
Jun 13 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
This funding would make ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the history of the United States, with greater detention capacity than the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons.

It would reshape society, making federal arrests a daily fact of life in every single community. Image
Jun 7 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The U.S. government is “demanding” that people stop using certain political rhetoric.

That is appalling. The government cannot order people not to speak in ways they don’t like. Exactly. Threats against judges are up dramatically, and come after DHS and ICE itself have made appalling and prejudicial comments about judges.
Jun 1 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
What infuriates me so much about this operation is that it is literally punishing people for following the rules and showing up to their court hearings. It is so toxic to the basic concept of following the rules. ICE itself is effectively encouraging people to violate the law. Exactly. People can understand intuitively why this is wrong.

It also literally erases a fair day in court. That’s the entire point of the operation.
May 22 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
🚨ICE arrests continued today at immigration courts nationwide. People showing up for court are being handcuffed in the hallways by ICE officers with lists of names, after ICE prosecutors move to dismiss the case.

Here's what those officers looked in Seattle as they, per @KUOW. Image Stories are coming in from around the country about these arrests, which have occurred in LA, Miami, SF, Phoenix, Seattle, NYC, Chicago, and other places with immigration courts.

The goal of the Trump admin's efforts are to erase the right to see a judge.
kuow.org/stories/ice-ag…
May 21 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
NEW: ICE confirms that it is deporting someone to South Sudan, putting a link to an upcoming press conference on YouTube.

A hearing in Massachusetts begins in an hour. The judge ordered ICE not to transfer custody of a Vietnamese man believed to be on that flight to South Sudan. Image The link is here. Chief DHS propagandist Tricia McLaughlin is talking now, beginning by emphasizing the serious criminal conduct of the people it has reportedly sent to South Sudan (murder and rape). She says South Sudan agreed to take them. youtube.com/live/p2U8Eh1VF…
May 21 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
🚨UPDATE: In a late-night court hearing, the Trump admin says that it deported the Burmese man to Burma, but is REFUSING to say where they deported the Vietnamese man, claiming it’s classified!

The judge ordered ICE to tell everyone involved they may face criminal contempt. Image
Image The @nytimes has more details, as they apparently got a reporter in the hearing.

There is reportedly another hearing scheduled for tomorrow morning at 11:00 as a continuation. It seems unlikely Judge Murphy will rule tonight.

nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/…
May 20 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
🚨According to litigators, ICE just put a dozen men on a flight to SOUTH SUDAN, a country which is on the brink of civil war, in direct defiance of a court order requiring ICE to give people an opportunity to raise objections before being sent to a country not their own. Image Litigators filed an emergency request for a restraining order to halt the flight from taking off or, if it's already in the air, to turn it around.

Citing the Supreme Court's decision on the Alien Enemies Act, they emphasize that people on the flight were denied due process. Image
May 18 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The Director of the FBI is openly lying to the American public about Canada being a major source of fentanyl.

In the first three months of 2025, a grand total of 1.35 lbs of fentanyl was seized by border officials at our border with Canada — 0.06% of total seizures. In the last 39 months, Customs and Border Protection seized 71,313 pounds of fentanyl. Of that amount:

- 69,373 lbs were seized near the Mexican border.
- 1,864 lbs were seized in an interior area (at a port or airport).
- 85 lbs were seized near the Canadian border.
May 16 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
🚨🚨Supreme Court rebukes Trump admin for shoving Venezuelans onto planes with little notice: "Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster." Image The Supreme Court also rebukes the Fifth Circuit for refusing to act on the ACLU's emergency request, emphasizing that the facts on the ground showed that planes were set to take off -- thus making Judge Hendrix' failure to act at the District Court level an appealable order. Image