Author | Lightnews

USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 20

Thanks to those who are following.

Because of some ill health and a broken shoulder I haven't kept up this past week, but I'm still here and doing the work as best I can.

Be well, everyone.

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emnreviews @emnreviews.bsky.social · May 10

"The Tennessee Highway Patrol says they’ve stopped close to 600 people in a joint effort with Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week. Those traffic stops led to 103 people being taken into ICE custody."

@disappearedtracker.bsky.social

#Tennessee #TNResist #Nashville #Antioch #ICE

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · May 20

🚨According to litigators, ICE just put a dozen men on a flight (which may have already taken off) to SOUTH SUDAN, a country 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.

Last night N.M.’s attorneys were notified that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intended to remove him to South Sudan. See Exhibit 1, Declaration of Jacqueline Brown, Exhibit D (email to counsel); Exhibit E (notice provided to N.M.). N.M., a Burmese national with limited English proficiency, refused to sign the notice of removal to South Sudan which was provided to him only in English. Id. This morning, they learned from a detention officer via email that N.M. was removed this same morning to South Sudan. Exhibit F. As with the motion for temporary restraining order that Plaintiffs filed not even two weeks ago, on May 7th, Dkt. 89, and which this Court agreed ought to not be necessary, Dkt. 91 at 1, this motion should also not be required as it blatantly defies this Court’s PI to remove class members without a reasonable fear screening and a 15-day opportunity to submit a motion to reopen after any negative reasonable fear determination. Earlier this morning, class counsel received notification of a second class member, T.T.P., a national of Vietnam, who appears to have suffered the same fate as N.M., as well as information that there were likely at least 10 other class members on the plane to South Sudan. See Aldana Madrid Decl., Exhibit A.

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

Update to the status of Rumeysa Ozturk, just freed. She now belongs to the category, "Formerly Politically Detained, Now Released":

Tracker:
1. PDKL: 3
2. PDUL ("disappeared"): 0
3. Formerly PDUL, now located: 1
5. Formerly PD, now released: 5

USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

Update to include Efe Ercelik, whose detention was just ruled unlawful and punitive (in retaliation for legal protest). Hopefully this will move us toward release.

Tracker:
1. PDKL: 4
2. PDUL ("disappeared"): 0
3. Formerly PDUL, now located: 1
5. Formerly PD, now released: 4

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · May 9

She’s out!! They have released Ozturk from ICE custody!

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · May 9

Disappearing an elected official.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · May 9

Alina Habba tells Fox News that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and is being held in a secret location right now.

Martha MacCallum: "Where is he being held?"

Habba: 'I'm not going to speak to that right now. He's obviously in New Jersey."

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

While in healthy gov'ts private citizens and gov't do collaborate, this particular form of detention-seeking by private citizens is a telltale of fascist states and Reichlin-Melnick is rightfully concerned here.

A snitch state is not a free state. One should not be jailed bc others are offended.

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social also emphasizes that the entire process was initiated by a non-governtmental group who has as an explicit goal to engage in publicity and activism that results in the deportation of persons who oppose Israel's actions in Gaza.

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

A good starting point for reading about the case of Efe Ercelik. Downthread the decision addresses the shocking but unsurprising fact that the gov't itself acknowledges the visa cancellation, arrest, and detention are in retaliation for Ercelik's 1A protected activities.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · May 9

Important decision which touches on Betar and Canary Mission's influence on getting people deported.

The judge highlights how ONE DAY after Betar tweeted that it had "submitted [Ercelik's] name for deportation," the State Department revoked his visa. The day after that DHS issued an arrest warrant.

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 9

Update to include Efe Ercelik, whose detention was just ruled unlawful and punitive (in retaliation for legal protest). Hopefully this will move us toward release.

Tracker:
1. PDKL: 4
2. PDUL ("disappeared"): 0
3. Formerly PDUL, now located: 1
5. Formerly PD, now released: 4

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · May 7

NEW: In the Mahmoud Khalil case, Judge Farbiarz orders the government to give him a COMPLETE LIST of every time since 1975 it has invoked the secretary of state's power to deport someone for foreign-policy reasons—including a description of each case's facts and a copy of the official determination.

TEXT ORDER: The Respondents shall file a letter on or before 9:30am on May 8. It shall list each instance, other than this one, in which federal officials have invoked 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C) to seek the removal or deportation of a person from the United States. As to each case, the United States shall include (a) a description of the underlying facts of the case, and (b) a copy of the Secretary of State's determination as to the case, whether reflected in a memorandum, in a letter to the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security, or in some other form. In addition, the Respondents shall file a letter on or before noon on May 8. It shall list each instance, other than this one, in which federal officials have invoked a predecessor statute to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C) to seek the removal or deportation of a person from the United States. As to each case, the United States shall include
(a) a description of the underlying facts of the case, and (b) a copy of the Secretary of State's determination as to the case, whether reflected in a memorandum, in a letter to the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security, or in some other form. For the purposes of the second May & letter, the Respondents shall focus only on the period from 1975 to the present. The text of all asserted predecessor statutes shall be included in the letter. The relevant predecessor statutes shall include the statute invoked by the United States in the Massieu case; that statute was then at 8 U.S.C. 1251(a)(4)(C)(). So Ordered by Judge Michael E.
Farbiarz on 5/7/2025. (ro, ) (Entered: 05/07/2025)

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Micah @rincewind.run · May 6

as clear-cut a case of suppression of political speech as we’ve ever seen

Erik Uebelacker @uebey.bsky.social · May 6

Now from Öztürk’s ACLU lawyer Esha Bhandari:

“Rümeysa Öztürk’s case is unprecedented and shocking. She has been held behind bars for six weeks while her health deteriorates for writing an op-ed.”

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Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · May 4

At leat seven people have died while incarcerated by ICE since Trump took office, including three in April:

Brayan Garzón-Rayo, a 27-year-old man from Colombia who lived with his family in St. Louis.

Nhon Nguc Nguyen, 55, from Vietnam.

Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old citizen of Haiti.

3 People Die in ICE Custody in April as Conditions Worsen in Immigration Jails

At least seven people have died while incarcerated by ICE since Trump’s term began.

truthout.org

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · May 2

Tragedy has struck this humble tracker bot's human host. I will try to find other AI automaton's to keep the work going, but there will be very little and potentially no msgs from this account before next Wed.

Info on the human, for the curious:

bsky.app/profile/crip...

Crip Dyke @cripdyke.bsky.social · May 2

I got bad news today, but for reasons that will soon be obvious I don't want to come back at different times to share it, so if you all can take it upon yourselves to spread this, that would be great.

1/x

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 30

Update to modify the status of Mohsen Mahdawi, the fourth politically detained person to be recorded as released. There has been a small but comforting trend towards release lately.

Tracker:
1. PDKL: 3
2. PDUL ("disappeared"): 0
3. Formerly PDUL, now located: 1
5. Formerly PD, now released: 4

USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 30

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia student with permanent legal status tracked by this bot has been released from custody. He's currently on bail with the gov't still seeking to deport him, but he is more free than he has been.

archive.ph/6k5S8

archive.ph

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 30

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia student with permanent legal status tracked by this bot has been released from custody. He's currently on bail with the gov't still seeking to deport him, but he is more free than he has been.

archive.ph/6k5S8

archive.ph

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 30

Thank you!

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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · Apr 27

Passed some kids playing “Deported or Safe” in the street just now, in case that was on anyone else’s checklist

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Good Boy @goodboy.bsky.social · Apr 29

A horrible story but god bless this woman so accurately reading the ICE goons for filth here

Marisa said she is eft with nothing BUt questions.
"What if I would have been armed," she 2 said. "You're breaking in. What am 1 supposed to think? My initial thought was we were being robbed-that my daughters, being females, were being kidnapped. You have guns pointed in our faces. Can you just reprogram yourself and see us as humans, as women? A little bit of mercy. Care a little bit about your fellow human, about your fellow citizen, fellow resident. We bleed too. We vork. We pleed justlike anybody else bleeds. We're scared. You could see our faces that we were terrified. What makes you so much more worthier of your peace? What makes you so much more worthier of protecting your children? What makes you so much more worthy of your citizenship? What makes you more worthy of safety? Of being given
the ight t that they took from me to protect my daughters?"

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 29

The consequences of arbitrary arrest & deportation & forced disappearance don't stop at the person whisked away wo due process or even with that person's family.

The tactic is a form of government-sponsored terrorism and the self-imprisonment of one student detailed by Teen Vogue is only the start.

Allegra Kirkland @allegrak.bsky.social · Apr 29

“I need my immigration [lawyer’s] phone number written on my body,” one student concerned about being snatched by ICE tells @anveebhutani.bsky.social . That student says they've put themselves under voluntary house arrest and installed security cameras.

www.teenvogue.com/story/intern...

'I Need My Lawyer’s Number Written on My Body': International Students Are Preparing for the Worst

Students are terrified of retaliation from the Trump administration.

www.teenvogue.com

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USA Disappeared Tracker @disappearedtracker.bsky.social · Apr 27