Esteban
Esteban
@estebananza.bsky.social
I'm an affordable housing attorney and this is where I post my personal views. Talk to me about trains, cities, and safe, healthy, attainable homes for all. Temple Law/UR Alum | 🏳️🌈 he/him | 📍philly :)
139 followers265 following319 posts
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The U.S. has AGAIN sent people to a foreign country where they get imprisoned. This time, it’s to get around laws barring the deportation of people who face persecution/torture in their home countries. The U.S. gets paper-thin assurances that the below won't happen, which it knows will be ignored.
Immigrants confined in a decommissioned hotel in Equatorial Guinea, after the U.S. deported them there without notice/due process, report worsening, dangerous conditions: "We’re living a nightmare." tucson.com/news/local/s...
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These are some of the people who have been "moved" off of food assistance in the wake of the Republican reconciliation law's unprecedented SNAP cuts. The immense hardship these families are now facing is not, in fact, "a pretty big win." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
Rollins: "For those who love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it's a pretty big win when we've moved 5 million people off food stamps, y'all."
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this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.
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BREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
BREAKING: in May 2026, *every single one* of the 599 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 6,665 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November 2025), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
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Replying to @elienyc.bsky.social
With this ruling, the birthright issue is not going away. The right hasn't really begun *organizing* around getting rid of the citizenship clause. Like Roe, this will be their fight for a generation. And if the Democrats just say "we won" and ignore it, like Roe, the Republicans will eventually win.
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There's no sugar-coating Slaughter. It's an enormously important ruling (far more important than the other three decisions #SCOTUS handed down today). It's a huge win for Trump/the executive. And it's going to have massive ramifications for the functioning of the government long after Trump is gone.
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Replying to @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Justice Kagan, in dissent, emphasizes that Alito and the majority are too cowardly to even print Donald Trump's bigoted statements in their opinion, only giving them summaries which drastically downplay their severity. She is right. The majority is endorsing racism.
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BREAKING: in May 2026, *every single one* of the 599 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 6,665 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November 2025), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
BREAKING: in April 2026, *every single one* of the 1,570 refugees admitted in the United States were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 6,066 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November 2025), and nobody else.
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This heinous ruling confirms a worst-case-scenario reading of Callais as an all-purpose shield for racist lawmakers who want to gerrymander Black communities into electoral oblivion. And it’s outrageously partisan—a totally unprincipled gift to the GOP. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
BREAKING: In an unsigned, per curiam opinion on the shadow docket, the SCOTUS conservatives allow Alabama to use a congressional map held repeatedly by a lower court to have been enacted with discriminatory intent.
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The EEOC is seeking to overturn rules created decades ago to tackle discrimination in employment. The Trump administration says those rules have led to more discrimination —against white people. n.pr/4xj3rG7
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NEW: Trump's gross Aliens.gov site claims to map where immigrants have been taken into custody, but it includes more 83 spots where Americans alone were arrested. Over 700 locations include citizen arrests. The counter is fake. The music was ripped. And Puerto Rico is listed as a foreign country.
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Replying to @chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Unfathomable levels of corruption.
FLASH: DOJ expands settlement in Trump-IRS leak suit to cover audits of all tax returns filed by Trump, family members, companies and trusts. Waiver of IRS' claims contained in addendum signed by AAG Blanche that was not in agreement released Monday www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
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A new report used census data to estimate that more than 100,00 U.S. citizen kids had an immigrant parent detained since Trump took office in January. Brookings’ analysis cites reporting from ProPublica on detentions, which can lead to family separation www.propublica.org/article/trum...
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This is absolutely outrageous. SCOTUS reinstated Texas gerrymander 15 weeks before primary because they claimed it was too close to election to block it but now allowing Alabama to gerrymander one week before primary after trial court found map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS issues “GVRs” in the Alabama cases—vacating district court injunctions & remanding for further proceedings in light of Callais. In practice, this means Alabama can now redraw its congressional districts in time for the midterms:
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A perverse incentive of Callais: the more racist a party is, the more its gerrymander is insulated from any VRA challenge. boltsmag.org/scotus-calla...
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In December, SCOTUS stayed a district court ruling blocking TX from using its new maps because the lower court ruled "on the eve of an election." That district court ruling was issued 15 weeks before the TX primaries. Callais was issued *17 days* before the LA primaries.
This is partisanship at its rawest. SCOTUS has clamped down on lower courts for rulings that could alter maps many *months* before an election—even when those maps have been judged illegal. Here, it's rushing to let the Louisiana GOP change a map *while an election is underway.*
Book delivery day!! Featuring my first hardcover buys in a minute, from @chanda.blacksky.app and Joey Santore.
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Tennessee’s Republican senator, who is the overwhelming favorite this year to become the next governor, calls for eliminating the only majority-Black and safely Democratic congressional district
NEW: The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act, enabling the GOP to erase countless districts drawn to protect voters of color at the congressional, state, & local levels. We detailed each Dem VRA congressional seat that the GOP could target by 2028: www.the-downballot.com/p/with-the-v...
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One thing I have really appreciated as an @inquirer.com subscriber is how Inky journalists stay on top of developing stories, like this highly sus RE situation near Temple. (Also @arianedatil.bsky.social if you end up finding the best chicken Caesar, hook me up!!) share.inquirer.com/Mz6sCj (🎁)