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Union-busting at the BOP will weaken an already teetering agency. President Donald Trump’s executive order last week authorizing an end to collective bargaining for federal employees, including thousands of Bureau of Prisons workers, will likely make prison conditions worse for both incarcerated people and staff, union officials say. The order would turn some 30,000 unionized federal prison workers into “at-will” employees, making them more vulnerable to being fired and undermining hiring and retention goals at a directorless federal agency that already suffers from chronic and dangerous understaffing. TMP’s Beth Schwartzapfel and Christie Thompson have our story. The Marshall Project
“No reform is palatable enough for the police unions.” Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a police union-backed bill last week that takes control of the St. Louis police department from local officials and puts it into the hands of a state government dominated by Republican legislators. Those local officials, including members of the city’s Civilian Oversight Board, have worked for a decade to implement policing reforms identified during and after the Ferguson uprising in 2014. It’s not the first time a Missouri governor has tried to take over a local police department and Kehoe is not the first governor to do so. A similar anti-local arrangement exists in Kansas City. Bolts TMP Context: Tell us your stories about criminal justice in St. Louis. The Marshall Project
Dragnet. As he repeatedly promised to do before the 2024 election, Trump is waging “an intricately planned assault on every aspect of the immigration system,” reports former TMP immigration reporter Julia Preston. The New York Review of Books A Cuban man is in federal immigration detention in New Mexico after he was seized while taking out the trash at his home in south Florida. Miami Herald ICE seizures in rural Pennsylvania threaten a town’s billion-dollar mushroom industry. NBC News More: A closer look at the effort to track ICE raids in real time and identify those who have been placed in immigration detention. The Washington Post
Pointing the finger. Pro-Israel groups are working with federal immigration officers to identify pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. The Associated Press So are executives at colleges and universities, where surveillance of students has ramped up. The New York Times Gary Redman, of Amador County, California, may be the only sheriff in the state who has publicly pledged to violate state sanctuary laws and cooperate with federal immigration agents. San Francisco Chronicle Hundreds of international students in the U.S. have received emails instructing them to self-deport because of campus activism or sharing or liking social media posts. The Times of India
Autocracy watch. Trump again says he isn’t joking about running for a third term as president despite a constitutional prohibition against it. The New York Times The White House (not the Justice Department) reportedly ordered the Friday firing of a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles at the request of the defense in a white-collar criminal tax fraud case. The prosecutor was immediately locked out of his phone and email. Los Angeles Times/Yahoo News More: FBI Director Kash Patel is also the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He’s shown up at ATF offices once since taking office. The Washington Post
A furious Massachusetts judge held a federal immigration agent in contempt of court on Monday during an extraordinary hearing in a case in which a defendant in the middle of his own criminal trial was taken away by immigration agents. WCVB Wilson Martell-Lebron was being tried for allegedly providing false information on a license application. Assistant district attorneys said prosecutors had expected ICE to wait until after the trial was finished. The Boston Globe
A Michigan woman was attacked and reported the crime to the police. They turned her in to immigration agents. Now she faces deportation. Detroit Free Press A California couple with no criminal records who lived in the U.S. for 35 years were deported to Colombia after almost a month in federal detention centers. Desert Sun More: A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by ICE agents last week, school officials say. NBC News
The Republican-dominated Texas legislature is considering a measure that would tweak the language of the state’s near-total abortion ban to add a little protection for doctors and patients. Critics are not convinced. Texas Observer
A close look at the members of a graduating class of prison guards in Michigan, another state with chronic prison understaffing. It follows the largest class of recruits since 2015. Detroit News
North Carolina lawmakers have redirected $15 million in funding for sexual assault victims from state agencies led by Democrats to an obscure, small anti-trafficking commission prioritizing faith-based groups. ProPublica
“Ours are the last faces he sees.” A witness to South Carolina’s firing-squad execution of Brad Sigmon chronicles a state-sponsored killing. USA Today TMP Context: Witness to the execution. The Marshall Project
The end of the Justice Department as we’ve known it for decades. “The new administration’s abuses of justice are in many cases close variations on tactics sampled by Trump the first time around. But now, they’re happening all at once. And the administration is barely bothering to hide its actions or justify them as anything other than an effort to turn the Justice Department into Trump’s personal gang of enforcers.” Lawfare
Death and despair in double-solitary cells. “Solitary confinement, whatever form it takes, has a proven record of dehumanization and has no place in our society. The practice of double-celled solitary confinement is no different. It’s past time for the state of Texas to stop playing the name game at the cost of human life.” Solitary Watch/The Appeal TMP Context: The deadly consequences of solitary confinement with a cellmate. The Marshall Project
Why you should care about the snatching of people off the streets of America. Due process rights for immigrants, including asylum-seekers, migrants, student visa holders and permanent residents, are due process rights for all of us. The Washington Post More: Wake up! “We are sleepwalking into autocracy.” The New Yorker A list of the “disappeared.” Tableau
A failure to protect. Thousands of lawyers across the country make it clear that the Justice Department under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, by not defending judges and law firms threatened by the president, is failing to defend the rule of law. Above the Law More: Trump’s attack on Big Law. The New Yorker Stand up and fight, lawyers! The New York Times
Two justices dissent in a capital case. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the case of a Missouri death row prisoner seeking to have appellate courts evaluate a jury misconduct claim. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the court’s refusal to hear the case. U.S. Supreme Court
They say they have seen the light. Some Capitol rioters, especially those who were imprisoned, say they now want to be advocates for prison reform. The wife of one Jan. 6 defendant has started a nonprofit to help children whose parents are in prison or jail. Brian Mock, a Capitol rioter who faced a 33-month sentence until pardoned by Trump, says he wants to work with left-leaning justice reform organizations. The Washington Post
“No one cared that my boy was killed, and the cops just rushed it for a damn show.” “The First 48,” a true-crime reality television series on A&E, is now in its 27th season. A conviction review unit in Minneapolis recently concluded that, in at least one wrongful conviction case, police worked with producers to stage scenes. Officials in several cities have now “soured” on working with the show. ProPublica TMP Context: The “Cops” show. The Marshall Project
Gun safety laws slowly inch forward. At least half of all states now have laws prohibiting devices that turn pistols into machine guns. The Associated Press Gun violence preventers in Philadelphia prepare for the worst as Trump’s federal funding cuts loom. The Trace
Retaliation. The Trump administration is investigating some school districts in Maine over claims that local officials are withholding information from parents about their children’s gender transitioning. NBC News There is a split among top Republican officials in Oklahoma over the search for undocumented children in the state’s public school system. The New York Times
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