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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.
16 subscribers
Feb 5 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after March 9 unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case. Image The Trump admin is ALSO changing the rules so that rather than 30 days to file a Notice of Appeal, people will now only have 10 days in most cases.

That's just 10 days to find $1,000 and appellate counsel for an appeal the government says it will likely automatically deny! Image
Feb 3 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
This is a LIE. The most recent Haitian TPS grants began in August 2021, after President Moïse was assassinated by mercenaries, plunging Haiti into chaos. Thousands were killed in an earthquake two weeks later.

Since then, it’s been redesignated twice as the situation worsened. Only about 1 in 7 people with Haitian TPS were protected in 2010 or 2011 after the earthquake. The Obama admin extended TPS for those ~50,000 people in 2012, 2014, and 2015, given the slow recovery. Here's Judge Reyes summarizing it.

In 2017, the Trump admin tried to end it. Image
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Feb 3 • 20 tweets • 9 min read
NEW: Judge Reyes blocks the Trump admin from ending Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians granted protection in the years following the assassination of President Moïse in July 2021.

She begins with a comparison: President Washington versus Kristi Noem. Image Judge Reyes begins by explaining who the plaintiffs are: not "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies" as Kristi Noem suggested.

They are a neuroscientist, a software engineer, a laboratory assistant, a registered nurse, and an economics major. All were facing deportation. Image
Jan 30 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
BIG news from Bloomberg, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* some commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.

This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — the literal warehousing of people in converted buildings. Image ICE has already spent $172 million to purchase two warehouses, one in Hagerstown, MD and one in Surprise, AZ.

ICE will then have to pay more to convert them into makeshift detention camps. Leaked reports suggest each of these two warehouses will hold 1,500 people each. Image
Jan 21 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth. Image ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.

It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo! Image
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Jan 18 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Noem's claim is FALSE. Here is ICE's own data on the detention population among those arrested by ICE:

- 43% no criminal record (up from 6% last January)
- 29% one or more prior conviction*
- 28% one or more pending charge

*two most common are traffic and immigration offenses Image Noem was confused by the question and defaulted to a different claim ICE makes; that 70% of people *arrested* by ICE have a prior criminal record or pending charges (also way down from January 2025).

As I've documented, that hasn't been true for MONTHS. Image
Jan 13 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
HOLY CRAP. A real scandal; ICE sent a job offer to @LauraJedeed even though:

- A quick Google search would reveal who she was
- She hadn’t completed basic background check paperwork
- She should have failed the drug test

Signs of a total breakdown in the recruitment process. Image Link to the article here, which lays out the entire shocking story; a full-blown job offer was extended despite @LauraJedeed never completing any of the required paperwork.
Dec 25, 2025 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
There is nothing more inimical to the principles that our country was founded on than a government official declaring that due process should be tossed aside.

Everyone is entitled to due process. Everyone. We thought it so important we wrote it into the Constitution TWICE. Of course the Constitution doesn’t spell out what “due process” means in every context. It doesn’t do that for ANY process. That’s why we have laws passed by Congress and judicial precedent.

And in this context, there are laws, rules, and regulations that must be followed.
Dec 8, 2025 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
In every single major immigration raid so far, the MAJORITY of people arrested by DHS officers have no criminal record whatsoever — not even any traffic violations or misdemeanors.

In Washington, DC, it was 84% of all those arrested. In Los Angeles, 57%. In Illinois, 66%. Image That is simply not true. Not only is being undocumented not a crime, but to have a criminal record requires someone to have been arrested for an offense in the past.
Dec 7, 2025 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
This is FALSE. As the Supreme Court spelled out very clearly 125 years ago, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” refers to three categories of exceptions, two ancient and one uniquely American.

- Children of diplomats
- Children of occupying soldiers
- Native Americans Image Mr. Wong’s parents were ineligible for citizenship in a way today’s permanent residents are not. And the Court was clear that the 14th Amendment codified the ancient rule of birthright citizenship.

Also, Trump’s EO claims to bar citizenship even for children of ppl here legally.
Dec 3, 2025 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Obviously I have little sympathy for this guy, given his offenses. But I do want to explain why it is that this man was still in the country and not deported under any previous admin, including the first Trump admin.

In short - because for 50+ years, Cuba refused deportations. Florida's sex offender registry says that Mr. Milian has two convictions relating to a single court case from 1996. So he's been deportable for at least 29 years.

But from 1965 to 2017, Cuba refused to accept any deportations of people who were inside the United States. Period. Image
Nov 20, 2025 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.

I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here. Image On October 28, @DHSGov claimed that days earlier "rioters" had "shot at agents with commercial artillery shell fireworks," thus forcing agents to deploy tear gas and riot munitions.

Judge Ellis reviewed the video. This was completely false. The explosions were DHS's flashbangs! Image
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Nov 4, 2025 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Rep. Jayapal is correct -- it is not a crime to be undocumented. Here's the Supreme Court saying as much.

Plus, less than 10% of the undocumented population has a removal order, and would only be chargeable if they had willfully disobeyed it, and many don't know they have one. Image As for 8 USC 1325, illegal entry applies only to the undocumented population that crossed illegally, meaning visa overstays or people who came via humanitarian parole commit no crime -- and the statute of limitations is 5 years, so most people couldn't even be criminally charged.
Nov 4, 2025 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
🧵Today a federal judge is looking into horrific conditions inside ICE holding cells in Chicago, which until January were for stays under 12 hours absent exceptional circumstances.

People are now held for days — and ICE uses the threat of longer stays to get deportation orders. Image The excerpts I'm posting are taken from over a dozen sworn declarations submitted in a lawsuit seeking to force ICE to improve conditions. I'll link to the docket at the end of the thread.

One thing comes through clearly in these declarations: the cells are FILTHY. Image
Oct 28, 2025 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
🚨HUGE moment. ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Greg Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse. The first to report on the purge tonight was @Anna_Giaritelli. ICE's leadership is going to be heavily replaced/augmented with Border Patrol leadership.

These are different agencies with different missions and different tactics. It will be chaotic.
Oct 21, 2025 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Hey @DHSGov: if you want me and other nonpartisan experts to trust your numbers, publish the data! The moment you took office you STOPPED publishing monthly data on immigration enforcement.

There hasn't been a single normal ICE arrest data release since inauguration! Image Since I have your attention, here are the datasets you STOPPED publishing:

1. The monthly Immigration Enforcement tables: no update since January: ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigra…
2. The quarterly ICE arrest data: no update since January. ice.gov/statistics
x.com/DHSgov/status/…
Oct 21, 2025 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
🚨This is FALSE. The characterization of this report is MADE UP. The Texas investigation found 2,274 “potential noncitizens” on the voter rolls out of over 18 million (0.01%).

AT NO POINT does the investigation say any of these “potential noncitizens” are “illegal immigrants.” Image This MASSIVE ERROR appears to come from Fox News not realizing that “potential noncitizen” is not a synonym “illegal immigrant.”

Here is the ENTIRE press release from the Texas Secretary of State. Note that AT NO POINT does she say that those flagged are “illegal immigrants.” Image
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Oct 13, 2025 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
This makes NO SENSE. A 13-year-old was arrested by local police for unknown reasons, and then turned over to ICE, which is detaining him far away from his mother — who is going through immigration court, has an asylum application on file, and is legally authorized to work. Image Important context from @TriciaOhio that I'm posting in the interest of fairness. I do not automatically trust it given that she has made multiple inaccurate claims in the past (including even yesterday). IF true, it would at least provide an explanation.
Oct 10, 2025 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
UPDATE: Judge Perry’s opinion blocking the Texas National Guard deployment in Chicago is out!

She begins with Alexander Hamilton’s rejection of a “preposterous” idea that the Constitution lets a President deploy a State’s militia to a different State for political retribution. Image Judge Perry spends four pages going over the history of the debates around the Constitution as to the proper relationship of the President to a state militia, especially after overthrowing the British, who had maintained standing armies in the colonies against their wishes. Image
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Oct 5, 2025 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Stephen Miller has now declared this Trump-appointed judge an insurrectionist.

To emphasize, the judge painstakingly examined all the protest happening in Portland before Trump activated the Guard. She noted that there hadn't been any violence at a protest since mid-July. Image Here's how Judge Immergut summarized the last two and a half months of protests at the ICE facility in Portland; they "generally were limited to fewer than 30 people and were 'largely sedate.'"

Stephen Miller's efforts to claim insurrection in this decision is pure propaganda. Image
Oct 3, 2025 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Unanimous First Circuit takes pains to emphasize that this was an incredibly easy case to decide, despite writing a very long opinion knocking down every ridiculous argument the Trump admin made. Image Sorry, you think it’s “activism” to interpret the Constitution in the way that it has been consistently interpreted for the last 125+ years?

Including by the Supreme Court itself, which has in multiple cases said that children of undocumented immigrants are citizens by birth?