Brian Dolinar
@bdolinar.bsky.social
Abolition journalist, educator, scholar of the Depression era.
My follow up from a @truthout.org article earlier this year @ ICE warehouses. BD "For me, this is 100 percent a victory for grassroots groups," said William Angus who fought the ICE warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey. truthout.org/articles/com...
Community Activism Forced Federal Government to Abandon Plans for ICE Warehouses
Activists are now watching to see whether the Trump administration will instead further privatize immigration detention.
truthout.org
Important read from the prolific and visionary @victorialaw.bsky.social BD
Gia Valentina is spending this Pride weekend in isolation in a men's prison. Earlier this month, the PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) Accommodation Committee denied her request to be transferred to NJ's women's prison.
Women detained at Delaney Hall have launched a new wave of hunger and labor strike despite mass transfers and violent retaliation for strikers. They’re demanding the release of vulnerable, new (competent) hospital staff, functioning AC, and more: www.lahuelga.com/delaneystrik...
Delaney Hall: Demands from the women on hunger and labor strike
lahuelga.com
A Substack about collaborations and report back from the "Bridging The Gap" conference in Chicago this past weekend. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/a-call-for...
A Call For Help From A Friend At Logan Women’s Prison
Bleeding Behind Bars Collaboration w/ Vikki Law
briandolinar.substack.com
Great collab w/ @victorialaw.bsky.social in this piece for @truthout.org following up on a call from my friend Mishunda at Logan women's prison in Illinois. BD
My latest for @truthout.org (co-written w @bdolinar.bsky.social) looks at the grim realities of menstruation behind bars (even in states w laws that provide free fem hygiene products in jails & prisons)
A growing national movement for menstrual equity is calling on prisons to ensure menstrual products are freely available for people who menstruate behind bars. theappeal.org/prison-menst...
Bleeding Behind Bars Is Extra Grim When Prisons Fail to Offer Menstrual Products
Twenty-two states have laws requiring prisons to provide free menstrual products, but not all of them do.
theappeal.org
🚫🧊 NOT AN ICE FLIGHT 🏫🏃 That's the Indiana Hoosiers Track team, flying to Nebraska for the Big Ten Championship on a GlobalX jet (N837VA). This is the same plane that took Kilmar Abrego Garcia in chains to the CECOT prison in El Salvador 👀
My delve into weirdos like Stepen Miller and more. "Be afraid, be very afraid." BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/what-ive-b...
What I’ve Been Reading: Books on Right-Wing White Populism
Understanding Trump-ism from Stephen Miller to Melania.
briandolinar.substack.com
Police drones are used to chase Black youth across campus and spy on “unruly” protesters, as I found in my recent survey of local police for @smilepolitely.com www.smilepolitely.com/opinion/dron...
Drones over C-U: Urbana should pass police surveillance ordinance - Opinion
For more than a year, Urbana city council has been debating a police surveillance ordinance requiring that police share with council when they are purchasing high-tech tools. The idea came about after criticism of Urbana’s ...
smilepolitely.com
Campus labor coalition launches "ICE OUT" campaign. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/campus-lab...
Campus Labor Coalition Launches “ICE OUT” Campaign with Press Conference at Willard Airport
As the men’s basketball team played in the Final Four, a speak out against the University of Illinois’ flights with GlobalX.
briandolinar.substack.com
Angie Martin recounted the 2024 death of her fiancé George Christopher at the Champaign County jail. "We still miss him," she said. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/fiance-of-...
I got on the bus for an amazing tour of the Underground Railroad in Urbana-Champaign with Angela Rivers and Barbara Suggs-Mason. Check out my write up! BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/bus-tour-o...
Bus Tour of Underground Railroad in Champaign County
Get to the Urbana Free Library if you can by this Sunday to see an Underground Railroad exhibit before it’s closed!
briandolinar.substack.com
By analyzing records obtained by @deportationdata.org, I found that the total number of people who have experienced ICE detention in the first 9 months of the Trump admin amounts to the population of a mid-sized city.
ICE detention remains almost completely opaque to the public. So this is essential reporting. @mattshuham.bsky.social and @jessicaschulberg.bsky.social spoke with a man who got paroled out of CA state corrections but was then sent straight to California City. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
My report back from a trip to St. Louis to meet @austinkocher.com and my friends from Abide in Love in Missouri. BD “I make the distinction that what’s happening is [...] a whole suite of novel and creatively cruel new strategies that we’ve never seen before." -- Austin Kocher
Organizing Against the Arrest-to-Deportation Pipeline
Immigration data scientist Austin Kocher talks with activists in St. Louis.
briandolinar.substack.com
As ICE seeks to turn commercial warehouses across the country into massive detention centers, communities are fighting back, @bdolinar.bsky.social reports: theappeal.org/ice-wants-to...
“My ‘crime’ is leaving my country, Honduras, to be able to give a better life to my children and my parents,” Mary wrote. Read more at my Substack: briandolinar.substack.com/p/the-limits...
The Limits Of Sanctuary Laws In Illinois
The only “crime” Mary committed was trying to provide her children with a better future.
briandolinar.substack.com
On gentrification and Trump-type anti-homeless types in Champaign. BD www.smilepolitely.com/opinion/cham...
Champaign’s attempt to criminalize homelessness fails after swift public outcry - Opinion
On December 2, 2025, after two and a half hours of public comment from some 40 community members, Champaign city council voted 9-0 against an ordinance banning public camping, with Mayor Deb Feinen ad...
smilepolitely.com
Read about what I've been reading about. BD "For me Tupac’s life is a story about the arc of Black revolution from the 1960s to the present." briandolinar.substack.com/p/what-ive-b...
What I’ve Been Reading: Hip Hop History Lessons
My winter hibernation reading list.
briandolinar.substack.com
An update on my many outstanding FOIAs and ideas for #2026 BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/fun-with-f...
Fun With FOIAs! An Update On My Ongoing Investigations
The Midwest is my beat. Support independent journalism.
briandolinar.substack.com
My latest for Truthout on local organizers resisting ICE #chingalamigra BD
Local communities resist ICE by reaching inside jails and building networks of support.
Watch a four-minute video of our AT&T rally in Champaign #AbolishICE BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/crushing-i...
Crushing ICE: Champaign-Urbana Shuts Down AT&T For A Day
Champaign-Urbana participated in a statewide protest on Sunday, November 16, to expose AT&T which is providing the digital infrastructure for Trump’s deportation machine.
briandolinar.substack.com
My write up on Julio Cucul-Bol's sentencing, political pawns, and cats. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/guatemalan...
Guatemalan Man at the Center of Trump’s “Midway Blitz” Sentenced
A 30-year sentence for Julio Cucul-Bol but pro-Trump father says it’s not enough
briandolinar.substack.com
Going to the courthouse is always a learning experience. Read about my friend Shonda who was in court in Cook County this week. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/going-to-c...
Going to Court for Freedom
My first trip to the Cook County Criminal Courts building
briandolinar.substack.com
Through a FOIA request, I obtained 29 immigration detainers sent to the Champaign County jail. Read more at my Substack. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/wanted-imm...
Wanted: Immigration Detainers Sent to the Champaign County jail
A records requests produced a list of 29 local immigrants under the threat of arrest.
briandolinar.substack.com
Read immigrant stories unique to those living in Champaign-Urbana. Thanks to my neighbor Greg Springer for sharing. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/stories-fr...
Stories from the C-U Immigrant Community
Collected by my neighbor Greg Springer, I'm publishing the stories here.
briandolinar.substack.com
Trump's "Midway Blitz is connected to my hometown Urbana, and some more updates at my recent Substack. BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/survival-a...
Survival and Resilience
Some updates of local immigration defense work
briandolinar.substack.com
I went on a road trip to find my lost great-uncle who died in the coal mines of SE Kansas. Read more at my Substack! BD briandolinar.substack.com/p/digging-up...
Digging Up the History of My Immigrant Family
The search for my great-uncle who died in the coal mines of Southeast Kansas.
briandolinar.substack.com
Check out my article mapping ICE detention & resistance in the Midwest for @truthout.org @silkys13.bsky.social #AbolishICE BD truthout.org/articles/a-f...
A Fight Is Brewing in the Midwest Over Immigrant Mass Detention
As ICE expands its presence across the Midwest, activists fight the reopening of private prisons to jail migrants.
truthout.org