Ben D’Avanzo
Ben D’Avanzo
@bendavanzo.bsky.social
Senior Strategist at the National Immigration Law Center. Health and immigration policy issues mostly, with a focus on Congress and politics. Also neighborhood and housing issues as a hobby. Dad of 2 cute wild kids.
1.6K followers433 following807 posts
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
I'm not sure how much more blatant it can get that these guys are looting the federal government and then pointing over there and saying "look what THOSE BLACK PEOPLE ARE GETTING AWAY WITH!!!" bsky.app/profile/atru...
Stephen Miller claims Somali-Americans in Minnesota are "buying Mercedes, buying BMWs, they buy a nice house, all their kids fly first class all over the world" (This is a lie!)
One in four kids living in the U.S. has an immigrant parent. The trauma ICE is inflicting on children will be reflected in society for many many years
A new report on truancy in D.C. says that some Latino students are truant because the increased presence of ICE, other federal agents, and National Guard had "negative impact on their families." One kid said he was "genuinely afraid to step outside" after his dad was deported.
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
Under previous admins, a green card holder reentering the US who had a flag for a possible fraud issue re: an arrest which occurred TWO DECADES in the past would have, in most cases, been released with a Notice to Appear. But the Trump admin mandates detention. So a man is dead.
ICE arrested a 56-year old green card holder, i.e. a lawful permanent resident, and detained him in the Rio Grande Processing Center, where he died. www.texastribune.org/2026/10/19/t...
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
I hope Democrats who are still living in November of 2024, in terms of their views on immigration policy, read this poll
New Marist poll of Texas finds 61% say undocumented immigrants should stay in US if meet certain requirements. Only 35% say they should leave. A majority of noncollege white men (Trump base) says stay. Supports my case (see piece/thread below) that Trump opened way for new pro-immigrant consensus
HSI used to be viewed with some integrity, despite being part of ICE, due to its work on trafficking cases. Now HSI agents are engaging in racist and political raids on a Congresswoman's home www.foxnews.com/politics/ilh...
He was shot with a five year old in the car. Horrific. Evil. From MTRNY: www.instagram.com/p/DeQJhuiDgV...
Another ICE shooting, this time in New York. Brought to you by funds that were cut from Medicaid and SNAP.
Another ICE shooting, this time in New York. Brought to you by funds that were cut from Medicaid and SNAP.
She started as the annual Green Party board candidate in Arlington in 2011. In 2018, her campaign was about opposing a high school removing Robert E Lee from their name. She ran on opposing new housing in 2022. This year, she's run on opposing immigrants, and then this happened.
Arlington GOP backs Clement for County Board, criticizes both treasurer candidates
Today tens of thousands of immigrants, all of whom are lawfully present and were deemed worthy of Medicaid coverage by Newt Gingrich of all people, are getting kicked off their health care.
This KFF headline really gets directly to what's happening today
Most people accused of a crime get a bond hearing. Under Trump's reasoning, many people accused of civil immigration offenses don't. I thought our country had agreed that locking people up indefinitely harms society? Remember when Congress passed the First Step Act and Trump signed it?
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the legality of ICE's mandatory detention policy, weighing in on an issue that has been ovewhelmingly rejected by district and appeals courts but has nevertheless roiled the justice system nationwide. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
Under Trump, every single federal agency seems to be complicit with ICE horrors. This now officially includes the Forest Service, which is apparently putting resources into collaborating with ICE instead of stopping wildfires www.fox13seattle.com/news/us-fore...
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
This means eligible voters will be wrongly labeled non-citizens due to faulty and unreliable data and be purged from the rolls
BREAKING: SCOTUS allows DHS to use its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database with Social Security info, staying a district court order that had vacated the new policy. Justice Jackson dissents for the three Dem appointees. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
Trump is addressing the affordability crisis by sending ICE goons to harass cattle farmers Of course, they have no interest in the cost of groceries. They just want to rid the country of every immigrant, at any cost to us.
Trump's illegal pocket rescission fact sheet has lie after lie about immigrant serving organizations, claiming all manner of things around welfare for immigrants with no tether to reality. Yet agai immigrants and trans people are being used to move forward an authoritarian government's takeover
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
💯 "So let’s lay down a marker: If Democrats take over the House and/or the Senate, they should make it their business next year to ensure that this agency faces truly withering scrutiny. As many Americans as possible should know what their government is doing in their name."
Many thanks to @theunpopulist.net for reposting my piece on Stephen Miller’s Office of Remigration, which really needs more attention. This agency announces right in its name that white nationalism is the basis for US immigration policy: www.theunpopulist.net/p/stephen-mi...
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle. "The state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen."
"The family also claims that when they showed up at the hospital, they were not allowed to see Cabrera-Gomez, who reportedly told them his leg and spine are broken." This is an awful trend where ICE is forcing hospitals to deny families and lawyers access to the people harmed by their agents
ICE agents chasing him in a car ran this guy over a week ago, horribly injuring him. Needs some media attention beyond this: www.walb.com/2026/09/23/i...
Disappearing people from the ICE tracker means their loved ones will have no idea where they are. ICE has routinely been moving people around, causing confusion, hardship, and potential due process denial People convicted and jailed with felonies aren't treated like this
NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
While ICE agents were shooting Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in Austin on Sunday, their colleagues were violently detaining a US citizen in Evanston, IL who "resembled" a person they were seeking. The victim reported "injuries to his head, neck and teeth":
ICE has shot another person in Texas and is apparently blocking his family from visiting him in the hospital. Given this ICE goon gets their paycheck in money Congress took from Medicaid, the circle of harm is just horrific to contemplate
Retailers are at risk of letting their issues be coopted into giving more power to ICE to invade our privacy www.retaildive.com/news/how-the...
For an administration that claims to be forcing race-blind civil rights onto the country they sure are encouraging a lot of life-changing decision making based purely on ethnicity
Interesting window into immigration enforcement: An ICE supervisor in upstate New York stopped at Walmart to use the bathroom and instead ended up surveilling a group of Spanish-speakers he saw in the toy aisle. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
If people were really being asked to be put into these cages like DHS claims, than imagine the horrors they were trying to escape elsewhere in this wasteful failed gulag
their line was that people **asked** to be put in these cages, that it was what they wanted: "facility staff said... detainees asked to spend time in the enclosures." www.cnn.com/2026/09/14/p...
Padilla and Schumer have whistleblower report showing, in its absurd voter fraud investigation, reviews using potentially illegal data sources and being rushed to the point of great potential for error www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
States and cities are suing Trump over his public charge policy that, among other things, potentially blocks green cards for families who sought food, health, and other types of aid The new interpretation is set to go into effect Friday
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
NEW: Once exceptionally rare, illegal deportations — in defiance of court orders or due to ICE screw-ups — are now a routine part of President Trump's mass deportation push. It happened 3 times this past week and more at least 30 times in recent months. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
This money going to bribe local police departments into spending their time locking up immigrant families instead of addressing real crime was paid for by slush funds Congress created last year, offset by cutting Medicaid and SNAP.
How is ICE making record arrests? I found the answer in Pa. coal country, where cops lured by a promise of federal $$$ have embraced ICE's 287(g) and are throwing up checkpoints, raiding job sites, arresting 100s, and terrorizing their communities My special report www.inquirer.com/opinion/penn...
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
This is good news. It's absurd Trump made the IRS share private taxpayer information with ICE after doing everything possible to keep his own tax fillings in shadow. No one should have to worry they'll be arrested by ICE because they followed the law and filed their taxes.
newrepublic.com/post/215165/...
This is likely not actually happening and would be a really bad idea, given impersonating a law enforcement officer is a crime Our solidarity guide offers some more practical ideas of how to resist these jerks www.nilc.org/resources/so...
Apparently people are sharing this far and wide on social media, which I think is horrible. This could cripple ICE operations. PLEASE do not share this.
Started off my career over 18 years ago interning for this guy. He already was a progressive institution then. Glad my home state is still electing him!
Sen. Ed Markey, the oldest Senate Democrat running for re-election this year, fended off a primary challenge in Massachusetts from Rep. Seth Moulton, who argued that the party needs “a new generation of leadership.”
Quite literally. These robots are funded by the $240 billion for immigration enforcement from Congress, which at the same time has done $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
This is why you can't have healthcare. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-buy-robot-dogs-immigration-enforcement-rcna594897
Odd news but if true, goes to show, the Trump administration really wants mass deportations at any and all costs. Yiannopoulos is the latest of many supporters who are experiencing that cost personally.
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
Ben D’Avanzo reposted
NEW: Days after announcing it had received ICE contracts that could pay it $165m/year to detain immigrants, the private prison company the GEO Group donated $1.4m to the Trump-backed MAGA Inc. super PAC.