End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Help World-Outlook Win New Subscribers
(the subscription is free of charge)
Dear reader,
Over the last month, World-Outlook and its sister publication in Spanish Panorama-Mundial have published unique coverage of U.S. and world events.
This includes the three-part interview with Cuban historian and writer Ernesto Limia Díaz, ‘Cuba Is the Moral and Political Compass of the World.’ A related article by Mark Satinoff, World Votes with Cuba to Demand an End to U.S. Blockade, included information on the campaign to send medical aid to Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa and was shared widely by the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee and other Cuba solidarity groups.
A number of readers sent their appreciation for Cathleen Gutekanst’s article Chicago Residents Fight ICE Abductions, Deportations, which provided a compelling, eyewitness account of this example of working-class resistance to the Trump administration’s war on undocumented immigrants. Some readers shared it widely on social media platforms.
The news analysis Bigotry, Jew Hatred Take Center Stage in GOP Mainstream also generated interest. It is part of World-Outlook’s consistent analysis of the danger of the rise of incipient fascism that Trumpism has posed for the working class and its allies in the U.S. and the world.
Most recently, another article by Mark Satinoff, ‘From Ceasefire to a Just Peace’ in Israel and Occupied Territories, was promoted by Friends of Standing Together (FOST NY/NJ) on the group’s website. Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed — the two Standing Together leaders featured at the November 12 event in Brooklyn, New York, that Mark’s article covered — and Israelis for Peace sent their thanks to Mark for his accurate reporting.
This is a small sample of the news coverage and political analysis World-Outlook offers.
We ask you to use this information to try to convince at least one of your acquaintances, colleagues, friends, fellow students, neighbors, or relatives to subscribe to World-Outlook. As you know, the subscription is free of charge. Increasing World-Outlook’s subscription base will widen the site’s reach. It will also provide new impetus to improve our coverage. Comments and reactions from subscribers, or initiatives from readers to cover events in their areas, often result in unexpectedly invaluable articles or opinion columns clarifying important political questions.
Feel free to share this letter, or part of its contents, with those you are asking to subscribe. And keep World-Outlookinformed about the reactions you get from potential new readers.
In solidarity,
World-Outlook editors
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Stop Cop City Bay Area
Did you know about a proposed $47 million regional police training facility in San Pablo—designed for departments across the Bay Area?
We are Stop Cop City Bay Area (Tours & Teach-Ins), a QT+ Black-led grassroots collective raising awareness about this project. This would be the city’s second police training facility, built without voter approval and financed through a $32 million, 30-year loan.
We’re organizing to repurpose the facility into a community resource hub and youth center. To build people power, we’re taking this conversation on the road—visiting Bay Area campuses, classrooms, cafes, and community spaces via our Fall 2025 Tour.
We’d love to collaborate with you and/or co-create an event. Here’s what we offer:
Guest Speaker Presentations—5-minute visits (team meetings, classrooms, co-ops, etc.), panels, or deep dives into:
· the facility’s origins & regional impacts
· finding your role in activism
· reimagining the floorplan (micro-workshops)
· and more
· Interactive Art & Vendor/Tabling Pop-Ups — free zines, stickers, and live linocut printing with hand-carved stamps + artivism.
· Collaborations with Classrooms — project partnerships, research integration, or creative assignments.
· Film Screenings + Discussion — e.g., Power (Yance Ford, 2024) or Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill, 2022), or a film of your choice.
👉 If you’re interested in hosting a stop, open to co-creating something else, or curious about the intersections of our work: simply reply to this email or visit: stopcopcitybayarea.com/tour
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to connecting.
In solidarity,
Stop Cop City Bay Area
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Dear Organization Coordinator
I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to invite your organization to consider co-sponsoring a regional proposal to implement Free Public Transit throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This initiative directly supports low-income families, working people, seniors, youth, and others who rely on public transportation. It would eliminate fare barriers while helping to address climate justice, congestion, and air pollution—issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities.
We believe your organization’s mission and values align strongly with this proposal. We are seeking endorsements, co-sponsorship, and coalition-building with groups that advocate for economic and racial equity.
I would love the opportunity to share a brief proposal or speak further if you're interested. Please let me know if there’s a staff member or program director I should connect with.
A description of our proposal is below:
sharethemoneyinstitute@gmail.com
Opinion: San Francisco Bay Area Should Provide Free Public Transportation
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful, with fantastic weather, food, diversity and culture. We’re also internationally famous for our progressiveness, creativity, and innovation.
I believe the next amazing world-leading feature we can add to our cornucopia of attractions is Free Public Transportation. Imagine how wonderful it would be if Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, SF Bay Ferries, and all the other transportation services were absolutely free?
Providing this convenience would deliver enormous, varied benefits to the 7.6 million SF Bay Area residents, and would make us a lovable destination for tourists.
This goal - Free Public Transportation - is ambitious, but it isn’t impossible, or even original. Truth is, many people world-wide already enjoy free rides in their smart municipalities.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is promoting free transit, with a plan that’s gained the endorsement of economists from Chile, United Kingdom, Greece, and the USA.
The entire nation of Luxembourg has offered free public transportation to both its citizens and visitors since 2020. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has given free transit to its residents since 2013. In France, thirty-five cities provide free public transportation. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, offers free rides to seniors, disabled, and students. In Maricá (Brazil) – the entire municipal bus system is free. Delhi (India) – offers free metro and bus travel for women. Madrid & Barcelona (Spain) offer free (or heavily discounted) passes to youth and seniors.
Even in the USA, free public transit is already here. Kansas City, Missouri, has enjoyed a free bus system free since 2020. Olympia, Washington, has fully fare-free intercity transit. Missoula, Montana, is free for all riders. Columbia, South Carolina, has free buses, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed free transit for over a decade. Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, offer free transit to students.
But if the San Francisco Bay Area offered free transit, we’d be the LARGEST municipality in the world to offer universal Free Transit to everyone, resident and visitor alike. (Population of Luxembourg is 666,430. Kansas City 510,704. Population of San Francisco Bay Area is 7.6 million in the nine-county area)
Providing free transit would be tremendously beneficial to millions of people, for three major reasons:
1. Combat Climate Change - increased public ridership would reduce harmful CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Estimates from Kansas City and Tallinn Estonia’s suggest an increase in ridership of 15 percent. Another estimate from a pilot project in New York City suggests a ridership increase of 30 percent. These increases in people taking public transportation instead of driving their own cars indicates a total reduction of 5.4 - 10.8 tons of emissions would be eliminated, leading to better air quality, improved public health, and long-term climate gains.
2. Reduce Traffic Congestion & Parking Difficulty - Estimates suggest public transit would decrease traffic congestion in dense urban areas and choke points like the Bay Bridge by up to 15 percent. Car ownership would also be reduced. Traffic in San Francisco is the second-slowest in the USA (NYC is #1) and getting worse every year. Parking costs in San Francisco are also the second-worst in the USA (NYC #1), and again, it is continually getting worse.
3. Promote Social Equity - Free transit removes a financial cost that hits low-income residents hard. Transportation is the second-biggest expense after housing for many Americans. In the Bay Area, a monthly Clipper pass can cost $86–$98 per system, and much more for multi-agency commuters. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this is a significant cost. People of color, immigrants, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities rely more heavily on public transit. 55–70% of frequent transit riders in the Bay Area are from low-to moderate-income households, but these riders usually pay more per mile of transit than wealthy drivers. Free fares equalize access regardless of income or geography.
Free transit would help people 1) take jobs they couldn’t otherwise afford to commute to, thus improving the economy, 2) Stay in school without worrying about bus fare, 3) Get to appointments, child care, or grocery stores without skipping meals to afford transit.
To conclude: Free Public Transit should be seen as a civil rights and economic justice intervention.
The Cost? How can San Francisco Bay Area pay for Free Transit throughout our large region?
ShareTheMoney.Institute estimates the cost as $1.5 billion annually. This sum can acquired via multiple strategies. Corvallis, Oregon, has had free public bus service since 2011, paid for by a $3.63 monthly fee added to each utility bill. Missoula, Montana, funds their fare-free Mountain Line transit system, via a property tax mill levy. Madison, Wisconsin’s transit is supported by general fund revenues, state and federal grants, and partnerships/sponsorships from local businesses and organizations.
Ideally, we’d like the funds to be obtained from the 37 local billionaires who, combined, have an approximate wealth of $885 billion. The $1.5 billion for free transit is only 0.17% of the local billionaire's wealth. Sponsorship from the ultra-wealthy would be ideal. Billionaires can view the “fair transit donation” they are asked to contribute not as punishment or an “envy tax”, but as their investment to create a municipality that is better for everyone, themselves included. They can pride themselves on instigating a world-leading, legacy-defining reform that will etch their names in history as leaders of a bold utopian reform.
Our motto: “we want to move freely around our beautiful bay”
——
Hank Pellissier - Share The Money Institute
Reverend Gregory Stevens - Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*  Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest. Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitskyhttps://freeboris.infoThe petition is also available on Change.org *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Articles
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) Justice Dept. Leaders Pushed to Charge Abrego Garcia, Emails Show
The release of the emails raised serious questions about whether the Justice Department had misled a judge in telling him that local prosecutors had acted alone in charging Mr. Abrego Garcia.
By Alan Feuer, Reporting from Washington, Dec. 30, 2025
Excerpts from the emails appeared to suggest that Justice Department leaders had played a greater role in bringing the charges than prosecutors have acknowledged so far. Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
Federal prosecutors in Nashville have insisted in the past few months that senior Justice Department officials had no involvement in their decision to file charges against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March and then brought back to the United States to face indictment.
But on Tuesday, excerpts from several emails released by a federal judge overseeing Mr. Abrego Garcia’s criminal case appeared to directly contradict those assertions, suggesting that Justice Department leaders — including Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general — played a greater role in bringing the charges than prosecutors have acknowledged so far.
The emails, which were made public as part of a newly unsealed judicial order, largely reflected communications about the case that Robert E. McGuire, the acting U.S. attorney in Nashville, had with members of his staff and with Aakash Singh, a top official in Mr. Blanche’s office. They raised serious questions about whether the Justice Department had misled Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who is overseeing the case, by telling him that local prosecutors had acted alone in charging Mr. Abrego Garcia.
“These documents show that McGuire did not act alone and to the extent McGuire had input on the decision to prosecute, he shared it with Singh and others,” Judge Crenshaw wrote in the unsealed order. “Specifically, the government’s documents may contradict its prior representations that the decision to prosecute was made locally and that there were no outside influences.”
One of the emails, dated April 30, was written by Mr. Singh to Mr. McGuire and another prosecutor, Jacob Warren, as the government was building its criminal case against Mr. Abrego Garcia, who at the time was still in custody in El Salvador.
In it, Mr. Singh made clear that charging Mr. Abrego Garcia was “a top priority” for Mr. Blanche’s office. In response, Mr. McGuire wrote, “We want the high command looped in.”
A little more than two weeks later, Mr. McGuire wrote to his staff that while the ultimate decision about whether to bring charges was his own, he had heard that Mr. Blanche and his chief deputy at the time, Emil Bove III, were pushing for charges to be filed. In the email, Mr. McGuire referred to Mr. Blanche as the “DAG” — or deputy attorney general — and to Mr. Bove as the “PDAG” — or principal deputy attorney general. He also mentioned the “ODAG” — or the office of the deputy attorney general.
“I have not received specific direction from ODAG other than I have heard anecdotally that the DAG and PDAG would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later,” Mr. McGuire wrote.
Judge Crenshaw’s order was only the latest in an ever-growing series of rebukes dealt to the Justice Department as it has pursued parallel efforts to both prosecute Mr. Abrego Garcia and expel him from the country again.
Three weeks ago, a federal judge in Maryland released him from immigration custody in a scathing order that accused the Justice Department of egregious conduct that included stonewalling her, disobeying her direct instructions and even “affirmatively” misleading her about its plans to re-deport Mr. Abrego Garcia.
The judge in that case, Paula Xinis, has temporarily barred the Justice Department from taking Mr. Abrego Garcia back into custody. But on Tuesday evening, department lawyers said they would rearrest him if they were able to overcome her provisional order stopping them from doing so.
Judge Crenshaw’s order containing the excerpted emails was originally issued under seal on Dec. 3, when he instructed prosecutors to hand over the full trove of materials to Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers. The lawyers sought the communications in an effort to bolster their claims that the indictment against Mr. Abrego Garcia had been brought because the Trump administration was trying to vindictively punish him for contesting his initial deportation.
In October, Judge Crenshaw issued a preliminary ruling finding that there was a “realistic likelihood” that the administration had in fact brought the case vindictively. That decision allowed Mr. Abrego Garcia’s legal team to seek internal documents from the government.
In his initial order, the judge singled out Mr. Blanche, saying that he had made “remarkable statements” about the criminal case. On the day in June that Mr. Abrego Garcia was brought back to face indictment, Mr. Blanche went on Fox News and declared that the government had started to investigate the case only after Judge Xinis, in Maryland, had questioned the administration’s decision to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia and found that it “had no right.”
The newly released emails only pointed further at Mr. Blanche’s involvement in deciding to charge Mr. Abrego Garcia.
In one of the emails, written on May 16 as the Justice Department was nearing its decision to bring charges, Mr. Warren wrote to Mr. Singh, suggesting that Mr. Blanche was playing some sort of role in whether to seek an indictment quickly.
“If the DAG does want to move forward with the indictment on Wednesday,” Mr. Warren wrote, “we think it would be prudent to loop in the press office ASAP.”
Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have issued subpoenas to both Mr. Blanche and Mr. Singh in an effort to have them testify under oath about their roles in seeking criminal charges. The Justice Department has strenuously objected to the subpoenas in a series of court filings, some written by a top department official, Stanley E. Woodward Jr.
For the moment, Judge Crenshaw has put off deciding whether to force Mr. Blanche and Mr. Singh to take the witness stand — although he has put Mr. McGuire and his team in Nashville in a tough spot as they seek to rebut the judge’s preliminary finding that the case was brought vindictively.
All along, Mr. McGuire has told Judge Crenshaw that he can fight the claims of vindictiveness by placing himself and other lower-ranking witnesses from law enforcement on the stand to testify that senior Trump officials were not involved in the indictment of Mr. Abrego Garcia. But that argument lost much of its credibility after the emails were released on Tuesday.
And that has left Mr. McGuire facing a pair of bad outcomes.
If he were to go forward with his plan to overcome Judge Crenshaw’s preliminary finding of vindictiveness with testimony that the emails have already undercut, the judge could make a permanent finding of vindictiveness and immediately dismiss the indictment.
But the judge has also reserved the right to force Mr. Blanche and Mr. Singh to take the witness stand if he is unsatisfied by Mr. McGuire’s presentation. And that could lead to embarrassing questions being asked of some of the Justice Department’s most senior leaders.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) They, Too, Died After Beatings by Guards. No One Raised an Alarm.
Two brutal killings, less than three months apart, in New York State’s prison system raised troubling questions: Had other inmates met similar fates?
By Jan Ransom, Dec. 31, 2025
Jan Ransom has been covering the turmoil in the New York State prison system. This article is based on dozens of interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court filings and inmate death records.
A screen grab from an officer’s hand-held camera recording shows officers at the Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone, N.Y., pushing Ladale Kennedy, an inmate, against a wall during a “cell extraction.” NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
When an inmate named Ladale Kennedy stopped breathing one night in a New York State prison cell, no one paid it much mind.
No one opened a broad inquiry into the death of Mr. Kennedy, the 1,055th to be recorded in the prison system since 2014.
The local medical examiner classified the incident, in July 2022, as something of an official mystery: cause and manner “undetermined.”
In fact, just before he died, Mr. Kennedy, 41 and mentally ill, had been pepper sprayed by guards, beaten, handcuffed, held face-first under running water and fitted with a “spit hood” — a mesh restraint that is sometimes used to prevent inmates from biting or spitting on officers.
All because he had failed to return some food trays and cups that had been handed to him in his cell.
He had said, “I’m sorry” at least eight times as they pulled him from his cell, video shows. He had told the officers he could not breathe at least 20 times during the entire counter.
Over the past year, the prison system that held Mr. Kennedy has come under enormous scrutiny. Twenty guards were charged in the fatal beatings of two inmates, Robert L. Brooks and Messiah Nantwi. Lawmakers proposed a sweeping measure to strengthen prison oversight, and the governor signed it into law.
But Mr. Kennedy’s case, which passed by largely unnoticed, is a reminder that other men have died after beatings like Mr. Brooks and Mr. Nantwi did — and that the public still has not received a full accounting of those deaths.
The New York Times, after conducting dozens of interviews and reviewing thousands of pages of medical records, court filings and inmate death records, identified three other cases of inmates who died after beatings in the past three years, including Mr. Kennedy.
These new cases bear similarities to the high-profile deaths of Mr. Brooks and Mr. Nantwi. But where those cases stirred outrage, these have gone almost completely unnoticed.
Mr. Kennedy died at Upstate Correctional Facility.
Another inmate, Clement Lowe, 62, told his daughter that guards at Green Haven Correctional Facility had stomped on him and lashed his head with batons before he deteriorated and died of a massive brain bleed in November 2023.
The third occurred in October 2024, when Ameek Nixson, 39, began fighting with another inmate at Fishkill Correctional Facility and was beaten by officers until he went limp, according to records and interviews.
Mr. Nixson’s was the only one of the three deaths that was ruled a homicide, although investigators have yet to determine whether it was caused by the inmate he was fighting or the guards who intervened.
None of the deaths have resulted in criminal charges.
Only Mr. Kennedy’s beating was captured on video, but many of the recorded actions are obscured by poor angles or guards’ bodies.
The New York State attorney general’s office, which is required by law to conduct an inquiry into every in-custody death, took the rare step of hiring an independent reviewer in April to scrutinize the medical examiner’s ruling in the case.
That reviewer, Dr. Christopher Milroy, said he was not able to determine what caused Mr. Kennedy’s death.
One expert who reviewed the case at the request of The Times called the findings into question.
“They put a spit hood on, that you can see,” said the expert, Dr. Michael Baden. “He starts at that point saying he can’t breathe.”
Dr. Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner and longtime consulting pathologist who spent decades on a state board reviewing in-custody deaths, said: “In my opinion, this was a death from asphyxia caused by the spit mask.”
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said that evidence had shown that the prison staff members had not caused the deaths of any of the three inmates.
The rate of deaths per year in the correctional facilities has been on the rise even though the number of people being held in the prisons has declined, the records show. Last year the death count hit 144 — the highest number in the past seven years.
State law requires each of those deaths to be investigated, but the results of those inquiries are often not made public. That makes it difficult to know what surfaced during the investigations and how thoroughly the cases were reviewed.
Current and former inmates, advocates for the incarcerated and state watchdog officials said they have long suspected that many more of those deaths followed violent encounters with guards than has been publicly known.
“There is no accountability,” said Jose Saldana, a former New York prison inmate who runs a nonprofit that lobbies for the release of older prisoners. “If Robert Brooks’s brutal murder wasn’t inadvertently captured on a camera, they would have gotten away with it.”
‘I can’t breathe’
After the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in 2020, the New York State legislature passed a law requiring all in-custody deaths to be thoroughly investigated.
It assigned the task of reviewing the cases to a newly created unit within the attorney general’s office, which would be empowered to supersede local law enforcers, gather evidence and issue public reports.
Over the years, the law was refined to add more protections for the incarcerated, in particular, including a requirement that the corrections department post information about prisoner deaths online within 48 hours of notifying the prisoner’s next of kin.
But the case of Mr. Kennedy shows that even a system that was designed to be robust has its limitations.
Mr. Kennedy was still a teenager when, according to his mother, he fell in with the wrong crowd. At 17, he was accused of killing a man in the Bronx in a gang-related shooting, convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Inside the prison system, he began showing signs of mental illness — including fits of paranoia and hallucinations — and was often at odds with guards and other inmates.
In summer 2022, he had been accused of fighting another prisoner and ordered held in solitary confinement despite his often fragile mental state, prompting him to write to state officials that the guards at Upstate prison were torturing him and that he needed to be transferred “before an officer murders me.”
Not long after, on July 30, guards dressed in riot gear assembled outside Mr. Kennedy’s cell for a “cell extraction” over concerns that he had kept items from the mess hall.
Their actions were captured on a hand-held video camera in accordance with department policy.
Although the camera’s view is often obscured by the guards, the video shows the officers blasting Mr. Kennedy’s cell with pepper spray and storming inside. They appear to strike him as he calls out apologies and begs the officers not to kill him.
Soon, they walk him, handcuffed, down a corridor to a shower cell, where they turn on the water, and he can be heard gurgling as they hold his face in the stream, ostensibly to wash away the pepper spray.
One of the guards accuses Mr. Kennedy of spitting, and he is taken to another room, where they pull a mesh spit hood over his face.
A nurse enters the room and he tells her: “I can’t breathe, ma’am.”
“All right, well stop spitting,” she replies, and then leaves the room.
They ignore his repeated protests that he cannot breathe — and signs that his legs were giving way — and carry him back to his cell, where they leave him alone for the next several hours.
When prison guards finally opened the cell to check on him, they found he had stopped breathing.
A local forensic pathologist, Dr. Laura Schned, conducted an autopsy for the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, in which she noted lacerations to Mr. Kennedy’s head and body and fractured ribs — possibly caused by emergency efforts to revive him. He was found to have no toxic substances in his body.
Ultimately, Dr. Schned concluded that it was impossible to say what had led to his death. She marked down its cause and manner as “undetermined,” and Mr. Kennedy became one of 121 inmates over the past decade whose deaths were initially attributed to “unknown causes” — a number that included Mr. Brooks, records show, before his case was reclassified as a homicide.
Dr. Schned did not respond to requests for comment.
At that point, the New York State Police opened an investigation into Mr. Kennedy’s death and the attorney general’s office began a preliminary review, but months passed with seemingly no developments.
Earlier this year, unsure of Dr. Schned’s finding in the case, the attorney general’s office hired an independent expert, Dr. Milroy, a renowned forensic pathologist at the Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada, to review her conclusions.
Dr. Milroy concluded that it appeared the guards had not caused his death.
In an interview he said he considered the spit hood as causing the death but added that, in his opinion, too much time had elapsed between when Mr. Kennedy was put in the hood and when he stopped breathing.
“The specific cause of death could not be determined, and I would stand by that,” he said. “People don’t typically die of delayed asphyxiation.”
The Times filed a freedom of information request for the report laying out the basis for his findings, but the attorney general’s office did not provide it before this article was published.
On Dec. 22, the office sent a letter to the local district attorney informing her that Mr. Kennedy’s death did not meet the criteria for further scrutiny from the in-custody death unit.
Nicole March, a corrections department spokeswoman, said that video showed that the force used during the cell extraction was consistent with agency policies and procedures and that Mr. Kennedy had been assessed by a nurse.
She said that his death had been thoroughly investigated by multiple agencies and that evidence supports that he was alive for 10 hours before he was found unresponsive in his cell.
Mr. Kennedy’s mother, Dorothy Charley, remains at a loss.
“Somebody killed him,” said Ms. Charley, who filed a still-pending lawsuit over her son’s death. “It seems like they can do all of this — and get away with it.”
Pleading for help
About a year after Mr. Kennedy died, Mr. Lowe was showing signs of medical distress in the same prison.
He had been incarcerated since 2000 and was serving up to 49 years for attempted murder, kidnapping and other crimes. For days, Mr. Lowe had been slurring his words, vomiting constantly and unable to hold eye contact with other people — all signs of a possible brain injury. But the prison officials in charge of his care failed to get him outside help until it was too late.
He died in a hospital in Albany on Nov. 7, 2023. After an autopsy, a forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard T. Ng of Schenectady Pathology Associates, ruled his death to be of natural causes.
Mr. Lowe’s case underscores how inmate deaths can receive that classification even after the prisoner was involved in a violent encounter with guards.
He was 62 and had a history of stroke and diabetes. But on Oct. 7, 2023, weeks before he died, guards at Green Haven Correctional Facility had struck him with batons in the head, stomach and ribs, Mr. Lowe told his daughter.
The guards were upset over an assault they said another inmate had committed on a correction officer and had set out to teach the other prisoners a lesson, according to an inmate who witnessed the beatings and complaints received by a state watchdog panel.
After the beating, he was driven by bus some 300 miles to Upstate prison, where he began to deteriorate.
It was not a subtle process, said his daughter, Jessica Lawman, who recalled her desperate efforts to get him medical care. She said he was complaining of splitting headaches. Then that he could not hold a pen or feed himself. Then vomiting, slurring and an unsteady gait.
She went to visit him, and a guard pushed him out in a wheelchair, Ms. Lawman said. He was emaciated and drooling, she said.
Still, despite pleas from Mr. Lowe and Ms. Lawman, the prison medical staff offered him no additional care, Ms. Lawman said. They did not even ensure that he was getting his medication for diabetes and other ailments, she said.
“His death could have been avoided if he had gotten the care he needed and if he was never beaten,” said Ms. Lawman, who filed a lawsuit that is still pending in state court.
After the autopsy, Dr. Ng concluded that Mr. Lowe had died of a massive intracerebral hemorrhage.
In an interview, Dr. Ng said that he had not been aware of the beating Mr. Lowe received when he did the autopsy but that he found no signs of trauma on his body.
“Does severe head trauma in the past increase the likelihood of a stroke? Yes, that is possible, but also hypertension and diabetes can as well,” he said. “He had a number of things against him that can lead to the final clinical presentation.”
Dr. Baden, the pathologist consulted by The Times, said the ruling of death by natural causes seemed not to take into account Mr. Lowe’s complaints of being beaten before he fell ill — and the failure of the prison medical staff to care for him.
“There is evidence the person is getting worse,” Dr. Baden said. “It takes weeks for this to get this bad.”
Ms. March, the corrections department spokeswoman, said, “There was no evidence of trauma identified, which refutes the claim that an earlier beating of Lowe caused his death.”
She said that department investigators did, however, find evidence to show that certain Green Haven staff had engaged in an unnecessary use of force, and they were disciplined. One was arrested and prosecuted, she said.
Mr. Lowe was one of 978 people over the past decade whose deaths were attributed to natural causes while in the custody of the state prison system, records show.
Gray areas
More so than the cases of Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lowe, the death of Mr. Nixson shows the gray areas that in-custody deaths can inhabit.
Mr. Nixson was 12 months into a five-year sentence for drug selling when he arrived at Fishkill Correctional Facility in fall 2024. He had been transferred there after an inmate at another prison had slashed his face, his mother, Laurie Willis, said in an interview.
Weeks later, for reasons that remain unclear, Mr. Nixson approached a prisoner with whom he had been friendly and took a swing at him in a housing area, according to that inmate and other prisoners who witnessed the incident.
The two men tussled briefly on the floor before guards intervened, the inmates said. One jumped on top of Mr. Nixson, landing with his knee on Mr. Nixson’s head, and others piled on, the inmates said.
After Mr. Nixson and the other man were handcuffed and separated, the guards began to beat them, according to the inmates and witness statements obtained by The Times.
They slammed Mr. Nixson onto a stove top, said one of the inmates, Jeffrey Wynn, in an interview at the prison.
Another witness, David Josaphat, 47, said the guards were punching Mr. Nixson in the head.
“They were bending their arms as far as they could,” said Mr. Josaphat, who was released from prison in March.
Other inmates shouted for the guards to stop, the inmates said, and the officers dragged the men into a hallway.
Accounts differ as to what happened next, but the man whom Mr. Nixson punched told The Times that after they were out of view of the other inmates, the guards kicked and punched them in the head, stomach and groin.
When the man looked over at Mr. Nixson, he said, Mr. Nixson’s eyes were fixed, his head lolled and it appeared he could not stand. The man spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals for Mr. Nixson’s death, which he said he did not cause.
Soon after, a nurse reported that Mr. Nixson was cold and clammy and had no pulse, according to the witness statements in a State Police investigative report obtained by The Times.
Mr. Nixson’s autopsy was conducted by a Dr. Jennifer L. Roman, a forensic pathologist in nearby Orange County.
Dr. Roman discovered that Mr. Nixson had severe heart disease that contributed to his death. But the manner, she concluded, was homicide.
Still, the case presented a challenge for investigators. It was not clear whether it was the fight with the inmate or the response by the guards that had caused his death.
The officers involved were wearing cameras, as required by policy, but none were activated during the incident, and no security cameras were installed in the housing area at the time, records show.
Four of the guards involved declined to speak with investigators without a union representative present.
The State Police opened an investigation but closed it months later. The attorney general’s office is still reviewing the case.
Ms. March, the correction department spokeswoman, said the agency’s investigators reached the same conclusion as the local pathologist.
“Staff did not cause the death of Ameek Nixson,” she said. “Nixson’s minor abrasions to his face and knee and small cut to his thumb were consistent with the fight he had engaged in with the other incarcerated individual and responding staff using force to break up the fight.”
She added, however, that staff members had been found to have violated department policy by failing to activate their body-worn cameras during the incident, and they were retrained on the policies.
Despite the murky circumstances, Mr. Nixson’s mother, Ms. Willis, remains convinced that the guards were responsible.
She has filed a lawsuit in the hopes that the civil courts can bring her the clarity that the criminal justice system has so far failed to provide.
“I know my son is in heaven right now saying, ‘My mom never gave up,’” she said, and then added: “I’m living a nightmare.”
Bianca Pallaro contributed reporting and Arijeta Lajka contributed reporting and video production. Amogh Vaz also contributed video production.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) One Lawyer’s Standoff With Trump’s Deportation Machine
Mahsa Khanbabai’s client, a graduate student, had been whisked away by masked agents and held in lockup for weeks. Would a court free her — and would the government let her go?
By Jonah E. Bromwich, Dec. 31, 2025
Mahsa Khanbabai’s account provides a window into the experience of immigration lawyers this year, who are fighting for clients against an administration that they no longer trust to follow the rules. Sophie Park for The New York Times
Mahsa Khanbabai peered through the small glass window of a locked door in an immigration jail in Basile, La., watching two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents question a young Turkish woman.
For six weeks, Ms. Khanbabai, a lawyer, had been fighting to free the woman, Rumeysa Ozturk. That day, a judge had agreed, but that was courtroom success, legal success. The young woman was still behind bars.
Ms. Khanbabai had feared this. Since the woman’s dramatic March arrest in Somerville, Mass., the Trump administration had been eager to keep her in captivity. It was May 9, a Friday afternoon, and Ms. Khanbabai expected the jail to close for the weekend at 5 p.m. If Ms. Ozturk were not released by then, her lawyer worried, she might not be released at all.
But a few minutes earlier, the two agents had finally retrieved Ms. Ozturk. Through the window, Ms. Khanbabai could see her filling out final paperwork. So why was the lawyer, 5-foot-4 on tiptoe, perched at the window as if she could micromanage the process? Chiding herself, she glanced away.
When she looked back, the young woman had disappeared.
Ms. Khanbabai felt a stab of panic.
In the nine months since Ms. Ozturk’s detention, tens of thousands of people have been taken into ICE custody, a way station before their forced removal from the United States. The mass deportation of immigrants was a fundamental part of President Trump’s 2024 campaign, and voters were enthusiastic. But in some cases, the Trump administration has bent rules and tested laws, transporting detainees in the dead of night, on military planes, to countries not their own.
Ms. Khanbabai was among the first lawyers to confront the deportation machine in a high-profile episode. Few knew how the administration might behave, or what laws and norms would be heeded.
That day in Louisiana, Ms. Khanbabai had to improvise minute-by-minute decisions outside a rule-bound courtroom.
Ms. Ozturk declined to speak for this article, or to have her picture taken. But Ms. Khanbabai’s account provides a look into the experience this year of immigration lawyers, who are fighting for clients against an administration that they no longer trust to follow the rules.
“A David and Goliath situation,” said Ms. Khanbabai, in one of several interviews with The New York Times in which she shared details of the episode. “It feels overwhelming.”
Asked for comment, the Department of Homeland Security, which ICE is part of, provided a statement: “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
‘Horrible Things Could Happen’
Ms. Khanbabai, 54, regularly travels to places where the rule of law is flimsy and the possibility of violence looms large — China, Egypt and Lebanon, among others. She remembers thinking she could be picked up off the streets by security forces and nothing could be done to help her.
This year, it started happening in the United States as the Trump administration targeted students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. In March, Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested in New York and rushed to a Louisiana jail. The same month, another legal resident, Yunseo Chung, went into hiding to escape ICE. Two weeks later, Ms. Ozturk, a 30-year-old Tufts graduate student wearing a hijab, was in the midst of a phone call when she was arrested on the street, and escorted toward a dark government vehicle.
Ms. Khanbabai felt her life had been leading to the moment of Ms. Ozturk’s arrest.
Born in Iran, she moved to Massachusetts as a child. Her father worked at a community hospital in Ware, Mass., a cosmopolitan oasis in an otherwise largely white town, where many of the other doctors were also immigrants: Filipinos, Indians, Egyptians.
While at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., she participated in a Muslim student association, protesting on behalf of Palestinians. At Albany Law School, she was one of the few students who wore a hijab.
She graduated in 1998 and after a divorce found herself living at home in western Massachusetts, a single mother with no professional experience. But she put up fliers at the mosque and the bodega advertising her own practice. Clients began to call, many with immigration matters.
Years passed. In 2016, Mr. Trump was elected president, and Ms. Khanbabai fought his ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries. She became vice chairwoman of the New England chapter of the immigration bar, then chair.
In 2024, the Gaza protests grew heated, and when Mr. Trump returned to office, new forms of repression were imminent. Even a foreign student who’d merely written an editorial in a college newspaper — as Ms. Ozturk had — was vulnerable.
“We had already started to think that horrible things could happen,” Ms. Khanbabai said.
Ms. Ozturk’s sudden arrest by masked agents was captured by a surveillance camera and the clip went viral. In the days that followed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the arrest, saying that her visa had been revoked because she was participating in a movement that had brought chaos to university campuses. He linked her editorial to the most destructive actions of the pro-Palestinian student movement.
“Why would any country in the world allow people to come and disrupt?” he said, adding that it was a privilege to study in the United States — not a right.
News of Ms. Ozturk’s arrest also traveled through a more private social network. The student had been on the phone with her mother in Turkey. Her mother phoned a friend who phoned another friend who contacted an acquaintance of Ms. Khanbabai who got in touch with the lawyer herself.
That day, Ms. Khanbabai asked a federal judge to free Ms. Ozturk.
Anxiety
Things that should have been simple were complicated. After Ms. Ozturk’s arrest, ICE had quickly moved her across state lines — New Hampshire, then Vermont and finally Louisiana — making it difficult to know which court should even hear her case.
Ms. Khanbabai had little faith in the immigration courts, given that they were overseen by Trump’s Justice Department. In April, an immigration judge denied Ms. Ozturk’s release.
She had asthma, and her attacks were becoming more frequent and more intense. She was stressed, anxious and exhausted. She and Ms. Khanbabai were talking almost every day.
Then, finally, a Vermont federal judge set a bail hearing for May 9. It would be held in a Vermont courtroom, and Ms. Ozturk would attend remotely from Louisiana. So on the afternoon of May 8, a Thursday, Ms. Khanbabai flew south to be by her side.
From New Orleans, she drove northwest toward a Cajun country town called Basile. The landscape transformed, the city giving way to serene countryside, the sun setting over Lake Pontchartrain.
Ms. Khanbabai found the whole thing surreal. Outside her window, everything was so calm and beautiful, and yet she was driving toward a jail, unsure whether the government was going to follow the law.
Ms. Khanbabai entered the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center early that Friday morning: high fences, barbed wire, prefab buildings connected by cement walkways. Inside, it smelled dank, humid and stale. Ms. Khanbabai was led through locked doors to a large, fluorescently lit room. Pictures on the wall showed children frolicking on playgrounds and people of different races holding hands.
She waited for Ms. Ozturk. The lawyer expected Ms. Ozturk to be interrogated by Vermont’s top federal prosecutor about the article she’d cowritten for a Tufts University student newspaper. It was, apparently, the sole reason Ms. Ozturk had been detained. It called on the school’s administration to recognize Israel-related resolutions passed by the student senate.
Ms. Ozturk entered the visitation room, and smiled at her lawyer. Ms. Khanbabai silenced the chatter that had dominated her thoughts, and tried to project calm and encouragement.
In the movie “Bridge of Spies,” a lawyer played by Tom Hanks asks a client facing the death penalty why he doesn’t seem worried. Each time, the client responds, “Would it help?”
That was Ms. Khanbabai’s mantra whenever her own anxiety began to build: Would it help?
Her Day in Court
The two women were escorted into a different building, where they logged on to the hearing.
It started poorly. Ms. Khanbabai struggled to read the courtroom, 1,500 miles away. The judge, William K. Sessions, seemed skeptical, and when Ms. Ozturk tried to testify about her asthma, Judge Sessions cut her short.
But when it was the government’s turn to question Ms. Ozturk, the prosecutor declined. Ms. Khanbabai began to believe her client would be released. She squeezed Ms. Ozturk’s arm, smiling.
Oh my God, she thought. I can’t believe this is finally going to happen. And immediately, she began looking ahead: If the government throws up more obstacles, how are we going to get out of here?
The government might thwart the judge’s order. A month earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a Salvadoran man from the harsh prison in that country where he had been sent. Rather than bring him back, the White House had waged a war over the meaning of “facilitate.” It took weeks for the man to be returned to the United States. He was released from jail earlier this month.
Judge Sessions began to speak: The government, he said, had introduced no evidence to suggest that Ms. Ozturk posed a public risk. Her detention could chill the speech of millions. To him, Ms. Ozturk seemed a quiet, book-loving member of the Tufts community, wholly committed to her academic career.
Shortly after noon, he ordered her release. Electronic monitoring was not required.
Alone Again
The end of the hearing marked a shift from the rule-governed environment of the courtroom to what Ms. Khanbabai saw as the caprice of an unscrupulous executive branch.
She did not want Ms. Ozturk to feel her concern.
“Let’s call your parents,” Ms. Khanbabai said, so they did, and laughed until one of the jail staffers chastised them: “You can’t make phone calls in here!”
Back in the visitation room with the sunny pictures, Ms. Khanbabai was concerned about the 5 p.m. deadline, expecting that the ICE agents might decree the day over and keep Ms. Ozturk in custody. There were hours to go.
What are they going to try to do to foil this, she thought — and what’s going to be my countermove?
They had not seen an agent since the hearing. Ms. Khanbabai asked the staff several times whether she could speak to ICE, and was assured that agents were on their way. She asked that Ms. Ozturk’s belongings be brought, too.
The hours ticked by. At 3:30 p.m., with 90 minutes to go, there was still no progress.
Then two ICE agents entered the family waiting area, both of them looming over Ms. Khanbabai. They began to review paperwork for Ms. Ozturk’s release. After some time, Ms. Khanbabai again asked for Ms. Ozturk’s belongings.
The men escorted Ms. Ozturk from the visitation room to the desk behind the locked door. Ms. Ozturk protested, but the agents insisted that the lawyer could not accompany her.
Ms. Khanbabai reassured her. “I’m going to stand right here by the door and look through the window and keep an eye on you,” she said.
She stationed herself at the window. Soon, Ms. Ozturk disappeared.
Standoff
For five long minutes, Ms. Khanbabai did not know where her client was.
Then, suddenly, Ms. Ozturk burst through the door, upset, trailed by the agents.
They’re demanding that I wear this, she told her lawyer.
She gestured at a cloth bag one of the agents held. Inside was an ankle bracelet. The agents had tried to place it on Ms. Ozturk, but she had refused.
The ICE agents told Ms. Khanbabai that they would not let her client leave without it.
Ms. Khanbabai told the ICE agents that the judge’s order specifically said that there was to be no monitoring of any kind. The agents said that they had been told the ankle bracelet was mandatory.
Ms. Khanbabai asked who had told them. “It’s from D.C.,” they said. “From headquarters.”
It was a standoff.
If Ms. Ozturk refused the bracelet, she might remain in captivity, her asthma attacks worsening. If she were forced to wear it, her imprisonment would not quite end. She would be bound by a physical reminder of her powerlessness.
Ms. Khanbabai decided that was unacceptable. Ms. Ozturk would refuse the bracelet, and the lawyer would refuse to leave the facility without her client.
Ms. Khanbabai texted the rest of Ms. Ozturk’s legal team, and her colleagues in New England raced to get a new order from the judge clarifying that Ms. Ozturk was to be released without the ankle bracelet. In Louisiana, Ms. Khanbabai and Ms. Ozturk huddled, talking quietly.
Shortly before 5, the judge gave the order that Ms. Ozturk’s team had requested. Ms. Ozturk was to be released immediately, without any ICE monitoring.
Ms. Khanbabai and Ms. Ozturk looked up at the agents, watching as they digested the order.
They said they would have to check with headquarters, and one made a phone call. Ms. Khanbabai tried not to imagine the worst. Would it help?
The call lasted a few minutes. When the agent was done, he walked over to Ms. Khanbabai and Ms. Ozturk.
Ms. Ozturk, he said, would not have to wear the ankle bracelet.
‘Say Something and Stand Up’
This month, Ms. Ozturk’s legal status as a student was restored; she is in the country lawfully. Nonetheless, Mr. Rubio’s revocation of her visa stands, which means that she continues to face the threat of deportation.
In its statement, the Homeland Security Department said that ICE had been right to terminate Ms. Ozturk’s legal status as a student.
“We also have the right to put illegal aliens on GPS monitors,” the statement said. “Visas provided to foreign students to live, study and work in the United States are a privilege, not a right.”
Ms. Khanbabai feels far more optimistic than she did on that day in May.
“Things have changed already so much within the legal community and their willingness to say something and stand up to the Trump administration,” she said.
That day in Basile, she was relieved, ecstatic that the system had worked. Ms. Ozturk was given her things and an officer led them to a door that led to the outside world. Ms. Khanbabai walked side by side with her client. Several more doors, then fresh air.
It was raining. Ms. Ozturk thanked reporters for being there, smiling and polite, but told them she was too tired to speak at length. She has barely spoken to the press since. She was yanked into public life against her will, and exited as soon as she could.
Ms. Khanbabai spoke to reporters far more effusively about the meaning of Ms. Ozturk’s release, emphasizing one specific point. “There is hope,” she told them.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) I Counted Trump’s Censorship Attempts. Here’s What I Found.
By Nora Benavidez, Dec. 31, 2025
Ms. Benavidez is the senior counsel for the media policy organization Free Press.
Pete Marovich for The New York Times
“We took the freedom of speech away.”
That was part of President Trump’s explanation in October of his executive order that purports to criminalize burning the American flag. Though his words fail as a constitutional rationale, they inadvertently distill many of his efforts at smothering dissent during the past 11 months.
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump and his administration have tried to undermine the First Amendment, suppress information that he and his supporters don’t like and hamstring parts of the academic, legal and private sectors through lawsuits and coercion — to flood the zone, as his ally, Steve Bannon, might say.
Some examples are well known, such as when ABC briefly took Jimmy Kimmel off the air after Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, objected to a reference in one of Mr. Kimmel’s monologues about the killing of Charlie Kirk. Other examples received less attention, but by my count, this year there were about 200 instances of administration attempts at censorship, nearly all of which I outline in a new report.
Mr. Trump’s playbook isn’t random. It employs several recurring modes of attack.
The president has tried to cow the press. His administration banned Associated Press reporters from certain parts of the White House and Air Force One because the outlet uses “Gulf of Mexico” rather than the term Mr. Trump prefers, “Gulf of America.” It tried and failed to force some of the nation’s biggest news organizations to agree to restrictions on coverage of the Pentagon. He has said critical coverage of his initiatives is “really illegal.”
A journalist from El Salvador, Mario Guevara, was arrested while reporting on a No Kings protest in Georgia; he was detained for more than three months, then deported. At an Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, an ABC News correspondent, Mary Bruce, asked about the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Mr. Trump replied by berating her at length, at one point describing one of her questions as “insubordinate” — a characterization that upends the entire notion of a free press.
The administration has used immigration status to try to suppress political speech. In March, Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and a leader of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus, was arrested and detained by immigration officials for several months. That month, Rumeysa Ozturk, a student visa holder, was arrested by immigration officials and detained for several weeks, apparently because she was an author of an opinion essay criticizing Tufts University for its response to the Israel-Hamas war.
It seems almost no one is beyond the scope of administration efforts to muzzle views or decisions that conflict with Mr. Trump’s agenda: After Federal District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled against the administration in a case involving the deportation of Venezuelans to El Salvador, Mr. Trump called for the judge to be impeached. A trainee was dismissed from the F.B.I.’s academy, apparently for having displayed an L.G.B.T.Q. Pride flag. The F.B.I. also appears to have fired agents for kneeling during George Floyd protests.
At a news conference in Tampa, Fla., Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, asserted that filming Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers while they are in the field is tantamount to violence. In Los Angeles, Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forced to the ground and handcuffed after interjecting at a news conference held by Ms. Noem.
In just the past few days, the administration has banned a former member of the European Commission and four European researchers from the United States, claiming that their efforts to fight disinformation and hate speech online amount to censorship of Americans.
The president federalized and deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles; a federal appeals court found that his administration had illegally prolonged the deployment. He similarly sent the National Guard to the Chicago area — an action that the Supreme Court, for now, has blocked.
As part of the administration’s war on so-called wokeness, it has identified hundreds of words, with the intent of curtailing their use. Mr. Trump issued an executive order directing staff members at national parks and museums to get rid of content that, he says, portrays America “in a negative light.” Just two days after Inauguration Day, the Justice Department’s chief of staff sent a memo calling for a “litigation freeze” in the department’s civil rights division.
Two of Mr. Trump’s perceived political adversaries — James Comey, a former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general — were criminally charged (in cases now both dismissed) that were difficult to see as anything other than revenge prosecutions. A few days into his term, the president fired more than a dozen inspectors general from various federal government agencies.
Some of the nation’s biggest law firms — including Paul, Weiss and Kirkland & Ellis — have caved under presidential pressure and signed deals agreeing to contribute pro bono work for causes dictated by the administration. Several prestigious universities submitted to agreements in which they committed to change certain policies and, in some cases, pay what amounts to millions of dollars in fines.
Mr. Trump has sued social media platforms for their content moderation policies — free-speech decisions, in other words — leading to Meta, X and YouTube capitulating through settlements totaling around $60 million.
These examples are just a sampling from the administration’s relentless campaign to stifle dissent. What is important to recognize is that these efforts work in concert in their frequency and their volume: Even the most egregious cases seem to quickly fade from public consciousness, and in that way, they’re clearly meant to overwhelm us and make us think twice about exercising our rights.
Over the past year, individual and communal acts of resistance have blunted the potency of Mr. Trump’s censorship campaign and contributed to his declining approval ratings. Unquestionably, more and more Americans are rejecting his overreach.
But constitutional rights and democratic norms don’t disappear all at once; they erode slowly. The next three years will require a vigilant defense of free speech and open debate.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) Coast Guard Searches for Survivors After More Boat Strikes
The U.S. military attacked a convoy of three boats in the eastern Pacific on Tuesday, and two more on Wednesday, as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against people suspected of drug trafficking.
By Eric Schmitt, Reporting from Washington, Dec. 31, 2025
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for an undetermined number of survivors of a U.S. military strike against several boats in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, the Pentagon and Coast Guard said on Wednesday.
It was the fourth known instance of people surviving, at least initially, one of the 35 military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.
Later on Wednesday, the military’s U.S. Southern Command said that a separate “lethal kinetic strike” had killed five people in two boats that day. It did not say where the boats were traveling when the military attacked. There was no mention of survivors.
The Trump administration says the boats that have been targeted since September were trafficking in narcotics but has provided no evidence to support that assertion. Only two people have been rescued, and at least 115 have been killed in the strikes.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that it was notified by the Pentagon on Tuesday that there were “mariners in distress” — people in the water — in an unspecified area of the Pacific Ocean.
“The U.S. Coast Guard is coordinating search and rescue operations with vessels in the area, and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft is en route to provide further search coverage with the ability to drop a survival raft and supplies,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, Southern Command said that on orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, it opened fire the day before on a three-boat convoy after intelligence analysts determined that the boats were traveling along “known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes.”
Three people on the first boat were killed in the initial strike, Southern Command said. “The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it continued in its statement.
Following the strikes, Southern Command said, it “immediately notified” the Coast Guard to launch search-and-rescue missions. Spokesmen for Southern Command and the Coast Guard said they did not know how many survivors of the first strike jumped in the water or which vessels were searching for them.
There have been three other known instances in which people traveling on one of the boats attacked by U.S. Special Operations forces survived at least the first volley.
In the first strike, on Sept. 2, nine people were killed in the initial strike on a boat in the Caribbean. About 30 minutes later, two survivors, shirtless, clung to the hull, tried unsuccessfully to flip it back over, then climbed on it and slipped off into the water, over and over, according to lawmakers and congressional staff who viewed a video of the strike and its aftermath or were briefed on it.
Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of the operation at the time, gave an order for a follow-up strike, which killed the two survivors and ignited a controversy over whether the survivors of the first one remained “in the fight” or were technically shipwrecked, making it a war crime to kill them.
On Oct. 16, the military struck a semisubmersible craft in the Caribbean. Two men were killed, but two others from the boat were rescued by the U.S. military and repatriated within days to Colombia and Ecuador. Neither of the two survivors was prosecuted.
Nearly two weeks later, the Trump administration announced that it had killed 14 people in four boats on Oct. 27 in the eastern Pacific. Mr. Hegseth said that the strikes — three of them — took place in international waters and that there had been one survivor. Mexican search-and-rescue authorities — the closest vessels to the strikes — were dispatched and combed the area, but could find no trace of the survivor.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) Oil Tanker Fleeing the Coast Guard Now Listed in Russian Ship Database
The listing could make it more challenging for U.S. forces to board the ship, which an arm of the Kremlin’s maritime authority says is now flying the Russian flag.
By Christiaan Triebert and Nicholas Nehamas, Published Dec. 31, 2025, Updated Jan. 1, 2026
A U.S. military helicopter flying over the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted in the Caribbean Sea. American officials have suggested that they intend to seize another ship, Bella 1, which they are currently tracking. Credit...Department of Homeland Security, via Reuters
The oil tanker fleeing American forces in the Atlantic Ocean has been formally renamed and added to an official Russian database of vessels registered in that country, potentially complicating U.S. efforts to board the runaway ship.
According to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the vessel, previously known as the Bella 1, is now registered as the Marinera. The database lists the vessel as flying the Russian flag, with a home port of Sochi.
Under international law, ships flying a country’s flag are under that nation’s protection. But the vessel’s efforts to stay out of U.S. jurisdiction might still be a long shot, because American officials said it was not flying a valid national flag when it was initially approached by the Coast Guard more than a week ago.
The slow-moving tanker has been evading the Coast Guard after being stopped on its way to pick up oil at a Venezuelan port. It may now be trying to invoke the aid of Russia, a longtime ally of Venezuela’s. An officer on the ship recently made radio contact with the Coast Guard to declare that it was a Russian-flagged vessel, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive ongoing operation. Crew members have also painted a crude Russian flag on the side of the vessel.
The register is a state-controlled enterprise acting as an official arm of the Kremlin’s maritime authority.
The Russian government’s stance on the ship is not clear. The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The White House, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security also did not respond to requests.
President Trump has sought to impose a partial blockade on Venezuela’s oil industry as he seeks to pressure President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela’s economy depends on selling its oil abroad, mainly to China. The United States has taken possession of two other tankers involved in Venezuela’s oil trade in December. The Bella 1 would have been the third.
American officials said the Bella 1 was not flying a valid flag when it was approached by the Coast Guard in the Caribbean Sea late on Dec. 20, making it a stateless vessel susceptible to boarding under international law. The tanker, which was not carrying oil, refused to be boarded and has been on the lam ever since.
David Tannenbaum, a former sanctions compliance officer at the Treasury Department, said it was “unclear” whether Russia’s providing “overnight flag registration” to the ship would prove valid.
The move, he said, was part of a broader pattern of Russia’s operating as a sanctuary of last resort for the so-called dark fleet. Those are vessels that move oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela in violation of sanctions from the United States and other countries.
“We continue to move into unproven territory,” Mr. Tannenbaum said.
The Bella 1 had previously been registered in Panama, Palau, Liberia and the Marshall Islands, according to the International Maritime Organization, which regulates international shipping.
U.S. forces have a seizure warrant for the ship that was issued before the boarding attempt. The court order was authorized because of the vessel’s history transporting Iranian oil, which U.S. authorities say is sold to finance terrorism.
American officials have suggested that they still intend to seize the ship. But boarding a moving vessel with a potentially hostile crew could prove dangerous, and the Coast Guard has so far only tracked the Bella 1.
Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt and Riley Mellen contributed reporting.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) Most of Iran Shuts Down as Government Grapples With Protests and Economy
Amid mounting street protests, businesses, universities and government offices stayed closed Wednesday under government orders, in 21 of 31 provinces, including Tehran.
By Ephrat Livni and Sanam Mahoozi, Dec. 31, 2025
Businesses, universities and government offices stayed closed on Wednesday across most of Iran under a government-ordered shutdown, as the president struggled to address public frustration that has fueled mounting protests over the faltering economy and the government.
The one-day shutdown in 21 of Iran’s 31 provinces, including Tehran, the capital, came as President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday appointed a new central bank chief, the former economy minister Abdolnaser Hemmati. The president acknowledged that it was an “extremely difficult and complex” role that would subject the new bank head to intense pressure and criticism, according to state news media.
Iran’s inflation rate has spiked, driving frustrated merchants to the streets in Tehran and other cities, and prompting the abrupt resignation of the former central bank head, Mohammad Reza Farzin, on Monday.
The disruptions caused by the days of protests came as footage circulating on social media on Wednesday and verified by The New York Times showed demonstrators throwing objects at the gates of a government building complex in Fasa, in south-central Iran, and then shaking them until they opened.
The protests have spread and drawn in demonstrators from across sectors and society, with the demonstrators increasingly also expressing frustration and anger at the regime over not only the economy but severe water shortages and more. “Death to the dictator,” protesters shouted at a demonstration in Hamedan in west-central Iran, according to a video posted by BBC Persian.
In Fasa, Hamed Ostovar, the head of the judiciary of Fasa county, said that part of the glass and the guard post door of the building were damaged and that four protesters were arrested during the clash, in which three law enforcement personnel were injured, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Ezzatollah Jahankhah, the special governor of Fasa, played down the incident, according to Iranian news media, saying some demonstrators had been “influenced by hostile channels and media,” and adding that the situation was resolved with “timely management and intervention of trusted people, local influential people.” He and Mr. Ostovar denied rumors that a protester had been shot.
The messaging from Fasa’s leadership, about protesters being in league with Iran’s enemies, echoed claims by Tasnim on Tuesday that “Zionist media outlets and figures” were “aiming to divert the people’s demands and turn the protests into chaos and riots.”
Mr. Pezeshkian, the president, and other officials have taken a different approach, acknowledging the economic woes and the legitimacy of the protesters’ complaints, while also alluding to forces pressuring Iran. On Wednesday, as he addressed the Parliament about the appointment of the new central bank chief, Mr. Pezeshkian said that criticism could improve governance, even as he pointed to external pressures, which he warned could exacerbate internal divisions.
Iran’s economy has long been hobbled by Western sanctions and mismanagement, and the 12-day bombing campaign in June by Israel, which the United States joined, has exacerbated its troubles.
President Trump, while meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Florida on Monday, threatened to strike Iran again if it tried to reconstitute its nuclear program. Mr. Pezeshkain responded on Tuesday with his own threat of retaliatory strikes.
Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, said on Wednesday that “peaceful livelihood protests” stem from “social and understandable realities,” but he warned that any attempt to use the economic protests to undermine security, destroy public property, or implement “externally designed scenarios” would be met with “a legal, proportionate and decisive response.”
Mr. Hemmati, the new central bank chief, outlined his priorities on Wednesday, saying the three main pillars of his agenda are curbing inflation, controlling the exchange rate by addressing corruption and other issues linked to the currency system, and shoring up Iran’s banks.
Iran has experienced waves of mass protests in recent years fueled by economic difficulties, restrictions on women and water issues. The government has often quashed the demonstrations with deadly violence and arrests.
Whether the steps the government has pledged to take, including discussions with demonstrators, can quell the unrest without similar brutality remains unclear.
On Tuesday, Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokeswoman for the government, told reporters that Tehran planned to establish a dialogue that would include protest organizers.
“We see how people these days are struggling intensely with their livelihoods,” she said. “We see, hear and recognize the protests, crises and constraints.”
This sympathetic rhetoric may not be enough to appease frustrated Iranians at this point.
“The recent protests were not the result of a sudden incident, but the accumulation of sustained pressure over time — something the authorities clearly anticipated,” said Omid Memarian, a senior Iran analyst at Dawn, a Washington nonprofit focused on U.S. foreign policy.
“The government’s decision to impose widespread shutdowns is an attempt to lower social tensions,” he said. “But with no real solutions to the worsening economic crisis, and no credible path out of it, such measures cannot contain public anger. The frustration runs far deeper than temporary restrictions can address.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
8) Minnesota Families Are Rattled by Threat to Cut Federal Aid for Child Care
After the federal government threatened to withhold funds for Minnesota’s child-care program, citing fraud concerns, parents and providers warned that the effects could be dire.
By Ernesto Londoño, Reporting from St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 1, 2026
Demonstrators spoke out against threatened cuts to child-care programs at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Wednesday. Credit...Giovanna Dell'Orto/Associated Press
Minnesota day-care providers and parents are warning of severe consequences if federal health officials carry out plans to withhold funds for a program that makes child care affordable for thousands of families.
The Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday that it was freezing funds for all Minnesota child-care centers that it was supporting under the program, citing concerns about fraud.
Day care center owners said that they could go out of business in a matter of weeks. Parents said they feared the move could force them to quit jobs or put off studies so that they could care for their children.
“Many families in Minnesota are living paycheck to paycheck as it is,” said Maria Snider, who runs a day care center in St. Paul. If parents have to quit work to care for children, she said, families could end up homeless.
The consternation came a day after Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that the federal government had “frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota.”
In a post on social media, Mr. O’Neill cited a viral video produced by Nick Shirley, a conservative content creator who claimed to have exposed widespread fraud in day care centers run by people of Somali origin. The video — which does not conclusively prove malfeasance — led to accolades from top officials in the Trump administration.
“We believe the State of Minnesota has allowed scammers and fake day cares to siphon millions of taxpayer dollars over the past decade,” Mr. O’Neill said in his own video announcing the funding freeze.
LeAndra Estis, 42, a state employee, said a cutoff in federal funds for child care would be devastating to her family. Her two adult children, who live with her, work at day care centers. Her youngest child, who is 4, attends a subsidized one that still costs several hundred dollars per week.
“I don’t have a family I am able to depend on to watch my kids,” said Ms. Estis, who works for the agency that issues driver’s licenses. “Without the funding, I would be forced to quit my job or be terminated.”
At stake is about $185 million that the federal government provides to Minnesota annually to help subsidize child-care centers attended by roughly 19,000 children.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday night that federal officials would continue to provide funding for Minnesota’s child-care program when they are satisfied that centers are operating with integrity.
Federal health officials are demanding that their state counterparts provide more robust documentation about day care centers, Mr. Nixon said.
In particular, federal officials will be requesting detailed attendance logs and documents about regulatory actions or concerns for an unspecified number of centers that the federal government believes could be engaged in fraud, he said. For all other centers, he added, federal officials will demand routine administrative records.
The threat to cut off federal aid for child care is the latest action by the Trump administration in response to a widening scandal over fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs.
Since 2022, federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundred of millions of dollars from programs meant to feed vulnerable children, assist people at risk of homelessness and provide treatment to minors with autism. The vast majority of defendants are of Somali origin.
Local law enforcement officials have investigated day care centers for overbilling in recent years. Those investigations have led to relatively few convictions.
Last month, Mr. Shirley visited several day care centers owned by Somalis and demanded to be allowed inside to verify whether children were present.
Most business owners rebuffed him. He said his inability to see children at the centers meant they were defrauding the government, an assertion many Republicans in Washington and Minnesota took at face value.
Officials from the state agency that oversees day care centers said they sent inspectors to the centers featured in Mr. Shirley’s video this week, but they have yet to say what they found.
On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Police Department said it was investigating a reported break-in at one of the day care centers featured in the video. Managers at the center told reporters that someone broke in early Tuesday morning and stole enrollment records.
Democrats in Minnesota called the Trump administration’s response to the video reckless.
“The basis for this action is a single YouTube video that was deceptive and bigoted, perfect to appeal to Elon Musk’s algorithm and Donald Trump’s government,” State Sen. Liz Boldon said in a statement.
Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who is running for re-election, said that while fraud is a major problem his administration is working hard to address, President Trump’s threat to cut off federal funds for social services in the state was unjustifiable. “He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Mr. Walz said in a statement.
On New Year’s Eve, parents who rely on subsidized child care in Minnesota said they were scared. Deko Nor, 24, said that losing access to child care for her son, who is 4, would likely mean putting off her dream of starting medical school later this year.
“People are struggling with rent as it is,” she said.
Ms. Nor, who is Somali American, said she watched Mr. Shirley’s video over the weekend and walked away feeling stunned and fearful.
“I’m sure he doesn’t understand what his words are or how impactful they are,” she said.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
