New: Rep. Clay Higgins—who built his brand on law and order—has been in a motorcycle group run by a former fellow cop convicted of incest.

A teenage relative accused Higgins' friend of abusing her for 4 years. Higgins knew that, the friend told me.

motherjones.com/politics/2024/… Higgins' brand has centered on law and order from the start.

But both Higgins and three former fellows cops close to him have been accused of severe misconduct by law enforcement.

New: Santos' 2022 campaign reported receiving more than $45,000 from relatives in Queens.

One of those relatives, who was recorded as giving $5,800, told me at their apartment yesterday that they did not make any donation to Santos. w/ @DavidCornDC

motherjones.com/politics/2023/… Last week, we found more than a dozen 2020 Santos donors whose identities could not be confirmed. Many were listed at addresses that don't exist.

For 2022, the Santos campaign reported receiving nearly $80,000 from relatives of Santos and treasurer Nancy Marks.

New: We've identified more than a dozen top donors to Santos' 2020 campaign who do not seem to exist.

I also spoke to a friend of Santos' who says he did not give the $2,800 donation attributed to him.

motherjones.com/politics/2023/… A retiree named Stephen Berger at an address on Brandt Road in Brawley, CA, was listed as giving $2,500.

William Brandt and his wife have lived at that home for at least two decades. He did not donate to Santos, nor does he know Stephen Berger.

I got all the emails Blake Masters sent to his Stanford vegetarian co-op from 2005 to 2007.

They show him calling democracy a "miserably peculiar American diety" and plugging a Hans-Hermann Hoppe article that called for the "abdication of democracy."
motherjones.com/politics/2022/… The article from Hoppe called for the "abdication of democracy" followed by a new "natural order" under which a "nobilitas naturalis" reigned supreme.

New: My profile of Peter Thiel protégé and US Senate candidate Blake Masters. The story is based on interviews with more than a dozen people who’ve known Masters, old emails and blog posts, screenshots from a chat server for top donors, and much more. motherjones.com/politics/2022/… A decade ago, Masters started posting class notes for a course Thiel was teaching at Stanford. The notes on Masters’ Tumblr went viral. He’s been in the billionaire’s orbit ever since.

New: I spoke to two whistleblowers about what it was like to work at an ICE detention center as a private prison company's reckless response to COVID-19 endangered the lives of staff and people in detention.

motherjones.com/politics/2020/… Many things they said will stick with me.

One confirmed something I saw happen in real time to Raúl Luna: People hospitalized with COVID-19 were sometimes blocked from calling their families, who had no idea where they were.

ICE has confirmed that Onoval Perez, a 51-year-old Mexican man, died Sunday in ICE custody at a hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.

He entered ICE custody on June 15 after being released from a federal prison. He tested positive on July 2. ice.gov/news/releases/… ICE's statements have a way of reducing people who die in custody to their criminal history.

Perez was released from prison and emphasized what he described as good conduct in a motion to reduce his sentence that was granted by a federal judge in 2015. Via PACER:

New: The Government Accountability Project posted reports from whistleblowers at Louisiana's Richwood ICE detention center.

One says staff were told to crank the AC to “freeze [detainees] out” so they could pass temperature checks and be deported. bit.ly/30acQ3V It was part of a pattern of deporting people who'd tested positive or had COVID-19 symptoms.

"LaSalle and Richwood medical ordered a whistleblower to write down a made-up temperature on the medical transfer summary."

On March 16, ICE refused to release Óscar López Acosta, despite his diabetes. After Covid got into the Morrow County jail, ICE abruptly let López out without testing him.

His symptoms appeared days later. He died on Sunday.

motherjones.com/politics/2020/… Last week, Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejía became the first person to die after getting Covid in ICE custody.

López's widow, attorneys, and advocates believe López is the second. “This infection is on ICE’s hands,” an ACLU of Ohio attorney told me.

It's really been an incredibly impressive week of immigration reporting.

This from @aurabogado's horrifying and dogged investigation will stick with me: "For the family, this isn’t separation. For them, these children were disappeared."
revealnews.org/article/the-di… @aurabogado In another instance of gross mistreatment of children in US custody, @hannahdreier exposed how ICE is turning information children provide to therapists while in ORR custody against them in a wrenching profile of Kevin Euceda. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…

ICE has confirmed the death in its custody of Roylan Hernández Diáz. The suspected cause of death is self-inflicted strangulation.

A source says a second person, a gay man who told me yesterday he'd been suicidal, tried to hang himself this morning. ice.gov/news/releases/… Hernández's widow told me this morning that Roylan never mentioned self-harm, but said he felt hopeless when they last spoke on October 9.

Hernández and his wife, who are from Cuba, legally entered the country together in May to seek asylum.

An immigration judge threatened to have a dog bite a two-year-old Guatemalan boy appearing before him, according to an affidavit submitted to the Justice Department in 2016.

In August, he was promoted to hear immigration appeals.
motherjones.com/politics/2019/… The threats and yelling terrified people in the courtroom.

The observer who wrote the affidavit, which was investigated and not disputed by DOJ, told me, “The women and children that day—I will never forget—left court hysterically crying, almost all of them."

1/ If you’re confused about reports that the government lost track of 1,475 migrant children. Here a few facts that should hopefully help. 2/ First, this is distinct from the Trump administration’s plans to prosecute unauthorized border crossers, which leads to parents being prosecuted and families being separated.