Democrats should embrace angel families. Republicans will keep pushing the sanctuary narrative. Democrats need a better answer: frame participation policies around public safety & hold this Admin accountable for its MANY failures to keep communities safe. www.thirdway.org/memo/democra...

Democrats Need a New Approach to Sanctuary Cities

Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.

thirdway.org

Last week, I testified at a sanctuary cities hearing where two grieving "angel" parents asked Democrats to care. We should. That doesn’t mean accepting Trump’s anti-immigrant story. It means honoring every victim, examining failures, & fixing what's actually wrong www.thirdway.org/memo/democra...

Democrats Need a New Approach to Sanctuary Cities

Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.

thirdway.org

Trump & Republicans aren't just pouring money into ICE. They're shifting the focus of law enforcement. That doesn't just increase immigration enforcement. It distorts the mission of our public safety infrastructure. See more in this brilliant & important op-ed: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

When law enforcement takes on immigration, our safety is the cost | Opinion

President Donald Trump signed a $70 billion funding bill, pushing law enforcement into immigration enforcement. But this is more than a budget story.

usatoday.com

Yesterday I testified on sanctuary policies. The parents who also testified deserved a serious debate about public safety & a functioning immigration system. Instead, Republicans used the hearing to mislead & defend an admin chasing deportation numbers over safety. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXqx...

TW's Sarah Pierce Testifies at House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Sanctuary Cities

YouTube video by ThirdWayVideo

youtube.com

🚨 This week is Police Week — a fitting time to examine this admin's utter failure to support police & public safety. To start, the majority of DOJ public safety funds from FY25—LAST YEAR—still have not been granted. That's delays for police departments, prosecutors, & more.

Also great work by @gallego.senate.gov & 29 Dem senators drawing attention to this issue. The Senators say it best: "This diversion represents...a stunning abdication of the basic responsibilities of the executive branch to the American people, and a direct threat to the security of...the country."

Austin Kocher, PhD@austinkocher.com · 7mo ago

The Trump administration's deportation hysteria is making America less safe. 28k+ agents diverted to ICE. Child exploitation cases abandoned. 80% of ATF reassigned. We need politicians to work together to get this country back on track. Good work by Sam Levin. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Read this.

Sarah Pierce@sarahpierce.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Last April, I left @uscisgov.bsky.social heartbroken by how career civil servants were treated — and honestly terrified for what that meant for America’s legal immigration system. What I saw inside wasn’t normal — and I couldn’t unsee it.

Last April, I left @uscisgov.bsky.social heartbroken by how career civil servants were treated — and honestly terrified for what that meant for America’s legal immigration system. What I saw inside wasn’t normal — and I couldn’t unsee it.

“The single biggest difference between this version of the Trump administration and the last one is the shift from the border to the interior of the country.” @sarahpierce.bsky.social details how the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country.

From the inside & out, USCIS is being pushed away from its Congressionally-mandated mission and into immigration enforcement As I told NYT, when USCIS is used for rapid-response enforcement or mass “re-vetting,” everyone loses—families, employers, & the system’s credibility.

New data shows the Trump administration's attack on due process is working exactly as intended... In FY25, in absentia removal orders (those handed down when a noncitizen fails to show up for immigration court) increased by 40% overall & by more than 160% for asylum applicants.

“Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” - Charles Tiefer

Justin Elliott@justinelliott.bsky.social · 9mo ago

NEW: Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts www.propublica.org/article/kris... w @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

Effective immigration enforcement depends on cooperation with local police — not conflict. Yet this administration keeps undermining that partnership: first with a bogus “sanctuary list" it deleted after sheriffs pushed back. Now by poaching police to quickly fill ICE’s ranks.

Gothamist@gothamist.com · 9mo ago

Federal immigration authorities are trying to poach New York City police officers with social media ads that suggest the NYPD doesn't respect them or their families. https://gothamist.com/news/ice-targets-nypd-officers-with-ads-claiming-the-agency-offers-respect

"In Albuquerque and elsewhere, ICE has attempted to recruit officers from local law enforcement, a desperate move local police chiefs rightly warn will compromise local public safety. Diverting local officers from investigating violent crimes... does nothing to make our streets safer."

“Sanctuary cities” aren’t lawless — they’re practical. Local police are balancing safety and resources while D.C. plays politics. NYT Magazine's latest backs up what I argued for @thirdway.bsky.social: sanctuary policies are about smart governance, not defiance.

Human trafficking spikes at events like the Super Bowl. Yet this admin is deploying ICE to arrest “illegal aliens” in response to a halftime performance. They’ve pulled officers who fight trafficking to instead do civil immigration enforcement—a perfect snapshot of their broken priorities.

Excited to share my first piece with @thirdway.bsky.social: breaking down what “sanctuary” really means—and why the Trump admin’s narrative doesn’t match reality. Spoiler: every jurisdiction in America helps ICE. Here’s the real story ⬇️

NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

Shelters that house unaccompanied minors are bracing for "Freaky Friday," the start of an ICE operation that will first issue letters to children, seeking to pressure them to return to the countries they've fled in exchange for a cash payment. If they decline, their parents will be targeted by ICE.

This is horrific. The harder it gets for the Trump admin to reach their arrest & deportation quotas, the more ruthless their pressure for self-deportation will get. This time? They’re trying to get kids to self-deport.

Aura Bogado@aurabogado.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Shelters that house unaccompanied minors are bracing for "Freaky Friday," the start of an ICE operation that will first issue letters to children, seeking to pressure them to return to the countries they've fled in exchange for a cash payment. If they decline, their parents will be targeted by ICE.

I always pay attention to what stories People Magazine and other consumer media outlets cover. That's how you can tell that something has broken through the usual political and news bubbles. This horrific Chicago story has broken through. people.com/ice-agents-o...

ICE Agents Rappel from Helicopter in Overnight Chicago Raid, Dragging Kids from Beds to U-Hauls

Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 30, federal agents from different agencies raided an apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, pulling men, women and children — some of them allegedly naked — from ...

people.com

Even before the $45 billion for detention money started leaving the government, Trump officials were already self-dealing. When contract bidders hire someone with direct ties to the border czar to ‘help win work,’ that’s not innovation — it’s corruption.

Mica Rosenberg@micarosenberg.bsky.social · 10mo ago

NEW: This story by Avi Asher-Shapiro and Jeff Ernsthausen and me looks inside several tent companies push to cash in on the Trump administration's deportation campaign and how they hired a consultant with ties to Tom Homan who would become the border czar www.propublica.org/article/tom-...

My god. “Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion. Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.

Walter Olson@walterolson.bsky.social · 10mo ago

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’” It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

Excited to share my first piece with @thirdway.bsky.social: breaking down what “sanctuary” really means—and why the Trump admin’s narrative doesn’t match reality. Spoiler: every jurisdiction in America helps ICE. Here’s the real story ⬇️

This is also a frightening sign of what is to come. If diverting TENS OF THOUSANDS of federal law enforcement officers to deportations & causing mass distress with nonstop at-large arrests is still keeping them at numbers well below their goas & Obama's numbers... what will they do next?

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11mo ago

NEW: Unsurprisingly, Kristi Noem extends the "mass influx" declaration authorizing it to deputize local police for ICE. Buried in the notice is new official data on ICE removals, showing 145k removal from Oct. 2024 to Sept. 8. This is substantially lower than previous figures leaked to the press.

One week from today! Come view a sneak peek of "Credible Fear", a forthcoming feature length documentary about the asylum system, & join a discussion with @yaelschacher.bsky.social & myself. Date: Sept 24, 6pm Location: Immigrant Food, Ballston Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/credible-f...

12 Senate Dems on Armed Services write strongly against use of military as immigration judges: "the Trump administration views skilled personnel as pawns to be traded between agencies, rather than as professionals essential to their core missions, in order to advance misguided immigration policies"

"At DHS, Trump has ordered agents formerly dedicated to investigating and arresting human traffickers to focus on deporting immigrants." This is not an administration that cares about public safety. This is an administration that cares about padding its deportation numbers.

This new @thirdway.bsky.social memo is just as relevant for immigration. "Dismissing voters’ legitimate concerns about crime & public safety will only confirm their suspicions that at best, you’re not serious about these issues, & at worst, your policy stances are making things worse"