Sam Levin

NEW: A Palestine book by Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari has been pulled from Penguin Random House just before its release. As a result of the dispute, a long-running series of nonfiction books by marginalized folks on the histories of their peoples is also ending at Penguin Alana + Jenan speak out:

Here's the best report — from @samtlevin.bsky.social at the Guardian — on Frank Strada, the Tennessee Department of Correction chief who Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee announced this morning is resigning following this week's failed execution of Christa Pike. Strada will leave by the end of October.

NEW: FBI warned law enforcement across the US that women with fake "tradwife" profiles were luring ICE agents on dating sites to "dox" + "embarrass" them. FBI didn't provide evidence, but the internal memo is one of many raising alarms about anti-ICE activist "threats." w/ @propertyofthepeople.org

NEW: ICE is arresting and detaining a record number of pregnant women and teens. At the same time, it has lost count of how many had miscarriages, according to a Guardian review of internal ICE documents. w/ @amyqin.bsky.social, @wcraft.bsky.social and Flávio Pessoa

They spent $200 million demonizing trans people. But faced with one officer who briefed this president, 25 years of service, and a name? They can't. Saying it means admitting they needed a trans person. With @samtlevin.bsky.social at The Guardian on how the White House has weakened America.

For a year, California's largest ICE facility has barred all detained residents from hugging loved ones. The policy has sparked so much fury that residents have launched campaigns across dorms demanding contact visits In my latest, see video from one detained organizer + how CoreCivic has responded

NEW: records reveal how undercover US agents spied on ICE protesters in Minnesota, posing as concerned citizens in community meetings and Signal chats + getting directly involved in organizing. Here are photos an agent took during their investigation. FULL STORY: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

*content warning - graphic injury photos* An ICE arrest left a Virginia man with a brain injury, black eyes + bruises all over his body. ICE says he fled a stop + agents "used necessary force to gain control of the situation” For days, José Mejía Hernandez couldn't get an MRI due to ankle monitor

Inside DHS' "mass spying campaign" targeting leftist groups + ICE protesters: -undercover agents posed as protesters at meetings + secretly recorded -agents infiltrated Signal chats + encouraged others to do "direct action" -DHS got financial records of major groups, incl SEIU + Sunrise Movement

A Minnesota religious studies professor is facing six years in prison, with the DOJ saying he is part of an "antifa" conspiracy against ICE Erik Davis speaks out about his prosecution, largely based on a handful of his comments in Signal chats. He's not accused of any violence “It’s petty revenge"

We reviewed DHS' list of immigrants + protesters who "weaponized" their vehicles to "assault" ICE agents. Nearly all claims have been debunked or dropped, with only one of 26 cases ending in an assault conviction. Inside the govt's stunning failure to prove DHS' claims of violence against agents:

Such a good episode of the Guardian’s new podcast, featuring @samtlevin.bsky.social, @chasestrangio.bsky.social and some of the trans kids who just want to play sports

NEW: We obtained bodycam footage showing ICE violently arresting farm workers in Oregon and using a facial recognition app to try to ID them. The officers later admitted they had no warrants and no idea who the people were when they stopped them. Four of the workers were later deported.

NEW: ICE violently arrested a US citizen, filmed high-res videos of the operation + made viral social media content out of him Christian Cerna, LA native, speaks out about his arrest at gunpoint while driving his baby + toddler and the turmoil in his life that followed "They tried to humiliate me"

This is probably the best story I have read on Oregon's public defense crisis. People don't realize how much the laggard bureaucracy around this grinds up the people actually caught in the system.

NEW: Corshelle Jenkins was falsely charged with a crime + a warrant issued for her arrest. It was clear mistaken identity but a judge said there were no available lawyers for her. The charge would stay + she had no way to fight it She's 1 of 1000s in Oregon trapped in criminal cases without lawyers

NEW: Law enforcement + city officials across the US have privately worried ICE operations are interfering with police work + public safety Internal memos reveal growing concerns people might misidentify local cops as ICE. Records obtained by @propertyofthepeople.org, shared with @us.theguardian.com

DOJ prosecutes a California man who was shot in the face by ICE agents DOJ/DHS say Carlos, 36, "assaulted" officers with his car, but video doesn't show his car hitting officers + officials haven't claimed an agent was injured. FBI's complaint says it has "not been able" to interview key ICE agents

ICE pulled over a man in Patterson, CA + shot him 6 times, hitting his face. ICE now says he is part of a gang in LA – a city he has no connection to. Carlos Mendoza Hernandez, 36, now in ICU, says he's "never ever been in a gang" + was shot without justification www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

California residents are now being sent to prison for shoplifting. In the first year of Prop 36, shoplifters have been charged with felonies + imprisoned for stealing diapers, hygiene supplies, a $13 belt, groceries and soda. DAs filed 15,000+ felonies for thefts previously treated as misdemeanors

NEW: California DAs have charged nearly 20,000 people with drug possession *felonies* under Prop 36, a new tough-on-crime law. Despite promises for "mass treatment," only 57 of those people have successfully gone into treatment + had their cases dismissed in the first year. Others face prison time.

Under oath, ICE agents in Oregon revealed: -quota of eight arrests a day per team, equaling roughly 50 arrests a day in OR -agents use a special app to choose areas + ppl to surveil -agents have followed, stopped + arrested ppl without probable cause, warrants or basic info about their targets.

NEW: Judge orders ICE to release a Minneapolis man and asylum seeker unlawfully detained for 50 days. In January, Elvis Joel TE + his 2-year-old were arrested without a warrant + flown to Texas despite an order barring their transfer. The girl was later released, but he remain jailed until today.

A MN protester accused of assaulting ICE officer had case dropped after vids showed no assault. LA protester accused of assaulting ICE w/ “hat” had case dropped; judge said govt acted in “bad faith” In Chicago, 92 ppl were arrested for assault/impeding ICE; 0 convicted DOJ keeps lying and losing:

NEW: Jeffrey Epstein cultivated relationships with CBP officers at the airports he frequented. Epstein emailed and texted with six CBP officers, invited them to his island, visited with them at the airport, and frequently sought to determine who was going to be on duty when he was traveling

NEW: Two women incarcerated in a CA prison have come forward to report sexual assaults by a staff cook while they were working in the kitchen, paid 12¢/hr. They told me he threatened discipline if they spoke up. The prison concluded abuse occurred, a very rare outcome, but he hasn't faced charges.

NEW: Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, a 36-year-old LA protester, spent six months in jail accused of assaulting a federal officer with a *cloth hat.* A judge tossed out the DOJ’s case, accusing govt of acting in “bad faith” and engaging in “prosecutorial harassment“ that could “chill lawful protest”

More than 1,400 pending criminal cases in Oregon must be dismissed due to a huge shortage of public defenders, state supreme court ruled. Many defendants have waited months or years to get a lawyer, a constitutional violation leaving them unable to fight charges, indefinitely derailing their lives.

After Border Patrol shot two people in Portland, DHS claimed they were "vicious gang members" tied to a past shooting. But records I obtained reveal a US prosecutor has since directly contradicted DHS, saying, "We're not suggesting he is a gang member." My dive into how DHS' claims have collapsed: