This is the reported $100,000 fee on Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows foreign students to remain for a couple years in post-graduate employment. The fee would devastate the program, making the US even less desirable as a destination for the world's best and brightest.

Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 5h ago

White House is planning to announce “a large new tax on international students who stay to work in the US after graduation”.

the best part of all of this is that Ossoff just opened the door. He never said anything beyond "travel with Natalie." They're the ones who wandered in like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · 3d ago

the play here is to make ossoff defensive by calling him sexist, something liberals care about but they don't. The problem is, they *used* to pretend to care and now they're like "let's rip up anti-discrimination law, repeal the 19th and force most women to be homemakers" bsky.app/profile/matt...

It sounds like he (or the genAI that drafted this piece) fundamentally misunderstands writing as a tool for conveying ideas. What good writing does is *clarify thought*. Can you be a "thought leader" (shudder) without that process?

I think it's key to understanding their worldview that they imagine a world not *without* immigrants, but one in which immigrants' inferiority is permanently asserted and they become a subservient caste. All these people worship the Gulf States.

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · 5d ago

What is the right-wing vision for a world where immigrants have been deported and public services cut? Care and other services would dry up. The return of living in squalor for those beyond working age? The workhouse? The pauper’s grave?

Honestly, being an opinion columnist is pretty much “witchcraft” (as the term is being pejoratively misused here) WITHOUT data.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 6d ago

Erstwhile humanities scholar (I personally love the humanities) and current anti-higher ed propagandist for the right Tyler Austin Harper has now decided his position is that “entire fields of the social sciences” are “functionally fake” and “basically witchcraft with Data.”

I think part of the pundit crack-up has been that they missed the big call of their lifetimes about which was the bigger threat to America: wokeness or authoritarianism. And rather than admitting that, they are doubling down on wokeness, while ignoring an authoritarianism that does not threaten them

Sam Ulmschneider@samulmschneider.bsky.social · last wk.

Normally I just appreciatively read @jamellebouie.net 's columns-sharable video content just isn't my bag. But this is a very, very, very trenchant piece of commentary that captures a lot of how I increasingly understand the disjunction between the commentary environment and on-the-ground politics.

This is a good example of something that is entirely political (the government dislikes higher ed and foreign people) and has large economic impacts but will get less attention than "woke one" from our pundit class.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · last wk.

There will probably be far fewer foreign students on college campuses nationwide this fall following the Trump administration’s crackdown on international visas. A new report predicts international enrollment will decrease by 9.5 percent this fall.

The Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin is a really great example of why America needs to switch to ranked-choice voting in primaries. As of now it looks like the winner of the race will prevail with <40% of the vote! No good reason not to switch ahead of 2028.

This is absolutely WILD. Here's the dashboard video posted by @fritschner.bsky.social. Fast forward to about 1 minute. An ICE officer jumps out of a van and pulls a gun on this woman immediately before lying and claiming she "almost ran us over." *profanity warning if watching in public.

Aaron Fritschner@fritschner.bsky.social · last wk.

Video of an ICE agent pulling a gun on a wife and mother, who is a US citizen born and raised in the area, near Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia yesterday. Chillingly, they claimed she “almost ran them over” until she told them she had video proving that was a lie.

@miblogestublog.bsky.social

depths of wikipedia@depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 2w ago

not to be confused with quesadilla

Lie. Biden definitely wasn't "maxxing out" on "illegal immigration." Immigration activists denounced his policy as too draconian, and Dems tried to pass a hawkish immigration bill. Similar point re: Starmer. NYT thinks the op-ed page is for publishing lies, at least if the lies are right-wing. 6/x

Just causally referencing Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt, as if it's unremarkable conventional wisdom, the typical basis of a political worldview. And very positive about right-wing populism. And (elsewhere, not in this column) pines for an American Orban. But, you know, not sure where he stands. 9/x

“The proposed award comes after legal service providers across the country have said that the administration has withheld $65 million in overdue fees from the previous contract, alleging it is an attempt to force them to turn over confidential information about the migrant children they represent.”

Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · 2w ago

“The Trump administration is set to award a multimillion-dollar contract to a small Texas law firm without immigration expertise to provide legal representation for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in government custody during immigration proceedings.” abcnews.com/US/small-tex...

They got people dying in camps now and they’re happy about it. bsky.app/profile/joho...

Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 3w ago

These guys are freaking out over their own imaginations again.

The El Paso-based immigration legal aid group Estrella del Paso announced yesterday that they were shutting down their unaccompanied minors defense program. Their decision comes as the contract for the defenses of over 20,000 kids who arrived in the U.S. without legal guardians ends. My story:

Migrant children lose legal aid as El Paso program shuts down

Estrella del Paso is shutting down its defense program for unaccompanied minors as a federal contract ends.

elpasotimes.com

For five years, @marcelaturati.bsky.social, Eliezer Budasoff and Thelma Gómez Durán have investigated forced labour camps run by drug cartels in Mexico's Sierra Tarahumara mountains. This is an edited, abridged excerpt of their shocking report

I was pulling photos from Getty Images today and this one took my breath away for a second. "Plain clothed federal agents pursue a man through the lobby of the Hennepin County Government Center before tackling and arresting him Tuesday, February 10, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minn."

“If immigration hadn't picked up my brother, my sister-in-law would still be alive, and the children wouldn't be going through this sorrow,” he said. “Unfortunately, immigration — the [U.S.] government — doesn't see that. It makes no difference to them.” www.stlpr.org/law-order/20...

Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations

The couple’s 14-month-old daughter was found crying beside her mother’s body in a sugarcane field last week, according to Guatemalan authorities and media.

stlpr.org

@palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social you might find this particularly disturbing/enraging

Adam Sawyer@adamjst.bsky.social · 4w ago

“If immigration hadn't picked up my brother, my sister-in-law would still be alive, and the children wouldn't be going through this sorrow,” he said. “Unfortunately, immigration — the [U.S.] government — doesn't see that. It makes no difference to them.” www.stlpr.org/law-order/20...

After ICE shot and killed Lorenzo Araujo, the FBI leaked to Fox News a claim that he was found with possible meth in the van. His family said it was a total falsehood; it was a bag of salt to be used to make an electrolyte drink. And they were right. It was not drugs.

I'm not a Christian, but as a Jewish person, one of the things I have always appreciated about Christianity is the imagining of God's quite literally suicidal empathy for God's own creation.

The Amish Anglo-Catholic@amishcatholic.bsky.social · last mo.

In case anyone missed it, Bishop Coughlin just released a screed defending Gad Saad

This is the first main part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act kicking in. The second part, restricting Medicaid, is timed to happen after the midterms.

Andrew Russeth@russeth.bsky.social · last mo.

"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...

Actual faculty getting silenced and fired for their work from the right, and the big issue for a whole bunch of the commentariat is whether there is political discrimination against imagined faculty.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar has introduced legislation to protect Mount Cristo Rey from the Trump administration's plans to use eminent domain to strip 1.2 miles of land from the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico for the construction of the border wall. My story:

US Rep. Veronica Escobar introduces bill to protect Mount Cristo Rey

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar introduced legislation to protect the sacred symbol on the U.S. border with Mexico from plans for Trump's border wall.

elpasotimes.com

one of my favorite charts

Tradition is the preservation of fire, not the worship of ashes. — Gustav Mahler

would hogwarts hire a velociraptor? do you have to let a vampire inside your home - if he's your landlord? is a cop who fights crime as a werewolf by night technically a K9 unit who - deserves overtime? if they become partners, can they literally go anywhere and pull over whomever they want?

NEW: A second ex-wife of David Brouillette, the ICE agent who killed Joan Durán Guerrero in Maine, Lucinda Brouillette, issued a statement this morning. "If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of extreme violence, my answer is unequivocally yes." /

Many more disturbing details in here about David Brouillette, including alleged physical violence against two ex-wives and his daughters, telling his ex all women in her bloodline should die, and throwing boiling water at her while holding a child.

AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to c...

apnews.com

Steve Held@peoplesfabric.bsky.social · last mo.

His ex-wife said “that she wanted to speak publicly because she had previously reported concerns to his superiors in the military about his mental health. She said he was abusive in their relationship,” and he asked her to lie for him. Exactly the kind of chud you’d expect to work for ICE.

Ninety percent of the 71 detainees contacted in the concentration camp on Fort Bliss say they were beaten by guards are witnessed beatings, in addition to inedible meals and lack of access to medication or lawyers.

Report: Detainees at ICE facility in Texas report frequent beatings and other human rights abuses

A new report from human rights advocates says 90% of detainees interviewed at a sprawling ICE facility in Texas say they were either beaten by guards or witnessed others being beaten.

apnews.com