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Michelle Lapointe

@michlapointe

Legal director at the American Immigration Council. Mom, runner, former Fenway Park tour guide. Opinions my own.

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13.11.2024
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Latest posts by Michelle Lapointe @michlapointe

You’ve got to click through to really be able to read this, but note that the box on the top right says this will actually be a two-level facility, with around 5,200 beds on the ground floor (if I’m reading the blurry text right) and around 3,100 on the “mezzanine.”

20.02.2026 13:22 👍 1018 🔁 496 💬 65 📌 41

Before Minneapolis, before Chicago, even before Los Angeles, ICE started its racial profiling sweeps through Nashville, with a willing partner in the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

19.02.2026 21:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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"This agenda is only going to get worse. The $150+ billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is enough to turn DHS into the size of a small foreign military and to increase the detention system of by the end of this year" - @naynagupta.bsky.social, Policy Director, @immcouncil.org

12.02.2026 14:59 👍 11 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

We can choose not to detain children.

09.02.2026 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Judge Order Filed – #00805446834 in IA Migrant Movement for Justice v. Brenna Bird (8th Cir., 24-2263) – CourtListener.com JUDGE ORDER: The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The petition for panel rehearing is also denied.Judge Stras would grant the petition for rehearing en banc.STRAS, Circuit Judge, with whom LO...

JUST IN: 8th Cir. denies en banc review after panel agreed w/block on Iowa state law seeking to crack down on illegal immigration. Judge Stras, possible Trump SCOTUS pick, dissents. Loken (GHWBush) joins in part storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Earlier apnews.com/article/immi...

04.02.2026 17:37 👍 43 🔁 24 💬 1 📌 0

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

21.01.2026 22:00 👍 27098 🔁 16059 💬 1139 📌 1637
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We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing Civilians have had apparent seizures. One had his eyes roll back. Another had ribs broken. “I felt like I was going to pass out and die,” said a 16-year-old citizen put in a chokehold. The government ...

Immigration agents are choking people in America's streets & using tactics against their own policy/training. Many LEO agencies have banned their use

A Colombian TikToker. An ICU nurse. A father holding his child.

A 16-year-old citizen

DHS calls this "utmost professionalism"

w/ @mckenziefunk.com

13.01.2026 13:38 👍 1256 🔁 646 💬 30 📌 30
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Can Renee Good’s Family Sue ICE in the Aftermath of Her Killing? The Answer Is Complicated - American Immigration Council Any legal fight against the individual ICE agent or federal government in the wake of Renee Good's death is riddled with pitfalls.

Can ICE be held accountable for killing Renee Good? I try to make sense of the legal issues here. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/can-ren...

09.01.2026 17:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion | By Killing Renee Good, ICE Sent a Message to Us All

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/o...

09.01.2026 13:43 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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08.01.2026 20:30 👍 13873 🔁 5786 💬 153 📌 172

The shooting is shocking enough but the government's response is off the charts when you consider that this incident is forensically documented on video.

08.01.2026 12:38 👍 5216 🔁 1027 💬 168 📌 121

“The move came after officials at Roosevelt High School said armed U.S. Border Patrol officers came on school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders.”

08.01.2026 14:46 👍 201 🔁 93 💬 4 📌 3
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'Pull Up Your Pants!' ICE Raided A Plant And Detained Dozens — With No Arrest Warrant. One agent called the raid a "s**tshow." A federal judge had a different term for what came next.

New: In September, federal agents swarmed a manufacturing facility in upstate New York, arresting 57 people on alleged immigration violations.

...all without a single arrest warrant.

Behind the unusual administrative warrant ICE used to question everyone:

www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-ra...

23.12.2025 19:07 👍 40 🔁 26 💬 1 📌 1

Occasionally, we get good news on a Friday…

12.12.2025 23:39 👍 200 🔁 27 💬 1 📌 0

Great piece that cites the practice advisory and thorough case tracking on this issue being done by my colleagues at @immcouncil.org

01.12.2025 18:04 👍 49 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 0
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The Trump administration has a new mass deportation playbook.

We’ve seen it in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte. And it’s coming to more cities.

@daralind.bsky.social explains 👇

21.11.2025 19:50 👍 103 🔁 44 💬 2 📌 9

Our legal team helped uncover this document, and has been fighting against the Trump admin's plans to detain and deport thousands of unaccompanied migrant kids. Proud to work with them.

Check out this story below!

20.11.2025 19:01 👍 744 🔁 305 💬 9 📌 4
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A tornado and an immigration sting. The start and end of a life in Nashville. • Tennessee Lookout Caught in an immigration sting, Felipe Mendez was ordered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the U.S. or lose his children.

Felipe Mendez lost his wife & son when tornadoes swept through Nashville in '23

A May traffic stop landed him in ICE custody, where the single dad was given a choice: "self-deport" or lose his surviving 2 sons to state custody

Story by John Partipilo & @friedmanadam5.bsky.social
bit.ly/49v0U1T

20.11.2025 16:32 👍 11 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 3
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Gregory Bovino is exactly who E.B. White — author of 'Charlotte's Web' — warned us about DHS named its North Carolina anti-immigrant effort "Operation Charlotte's Web." In 1940, White wrote of the "smell" that "rises" from those who "adjust to fascism" over freedom.

NEW: Gregory Bovino is exactly who E.B. White — author of 'Charlotte's Web' — warned us about.

DHS named its North Carolina anti-immigrant effort "Operation Charlotte's Web." In 1940, White wrote of the "smell" that "rises" from those who "adjust to fascism" over freedom.

Tonight, at Law Dork:

17.11.2025 00:26 👍 3635 🔁 1332 💬 62 📌 75
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06.11.2025 19:24 👍 5392 🔁 2293 💬 88 📌 117

A Spanish-language immersion daycare in a leafy residential neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago was raided by federal immigration agents on Wednesday and a teacher was taken away www.reuters.com/world/us/chi...

05.11.2025 20:48 👍 21 🔁 12 💬 0 📌 1
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Appeals Court Upholds Block on Iowa Anti-Immigrant Law The law empowers state officials to arrest and deport people, a power that, under the U.S. Constitution, belongs to the federal government.

#BREAKING: Iowa’s anti-immigrant law, SF 2340, stays blocked!

The 8th Circuit has affirmed what advocates have said all along: states can’t make their own deportation laws. This ruling keeps thousands of Iowa families safe and together.

A win for dignity, due process, and the rule of law.

24.10.2025 16:05 👍 90 🔁 24 💬 0 📌 0

BREAKING: DC District Court just granted our emergency motion, filed with @immigrantjustice.bsky.social, stopping ICE from locking up unaccompanied immigrant children in adult detention centers once they turn 18. 

Locking up young people in ICE jails only inflicts more harm on vulnerable youth.

04.10.2025 17:22 👍 251 🔁 88 💬 3 📌 3
Garcia Ramirez v. ICE case caption.

ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AND TO ENFORCE FINAL JUDGMENT AND PERMANENT INJUNCTION
Upon consideration of Plaintiffs' Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and to
Enforce the Permanent Injunction and accompanying Memorandum of Points and Authorities
and Declarations (the "Motion"), and all other materials properly before this Court, it is hereby
ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Motion is GRANTED; and it is further
ORDERED that Defendants and all persons acting under their direction or in concert with them, are hereby ENJOINED from implementing any new directive regarding age-outs;
ORDERED that Defendants and all persons acting under their direction or in concert
with them, are hereby ENJOINED from detaining any class member in an adult ICE facility in
any manner that contravenes the Permanent Injunction;
ORDERED that Defendants immediately rescind any determinations to detain based on this directive;
ORDERED that Defendants immediately produce that directive, any related policies
regarding that directive, and the Age-Out Review Worksheets of any class members who may
have been impacted by that directive, including all AORs issued since October 1, 2025.
SO ORDERED this 4th day of October 2025.

Garcia Ramirez v. ICE case caption. ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AND TO ENFORCE FINAL JUDGMENT AND PERMANENT INJUNCTION Upon consideration of Plaintiffs' Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and to Enforce the Permanent Injunction and accompanying Memorandum of Points and Authorities and Declarations (the "Motion"), and all other materials properly before this Court, it is hereby ORDERED that Plaintiffs' Motion is GRANTED; and it is further ORDERED that Defendants and all persons acting under their direction or in concert with them, are hereby ENJOINED from implementing any new directive regarding age-outs; ORDERED that Defendants and all persons acting under their direction or in concert with them, are hereby ENJOINED from detaining any class member in an adult ICE facility in any manner that contravenes the Permanent Injunction; ORDERED that Defendants immediately rescind any determinations to detain based on this directive; ORDERED that Defendants immediately produce that directive, any related policies regarding that directive, and the Age-Out Review Worksheets of any class members who may have been impacted by that directive, including all AORs issued since October 1, 2025. SO ORDERED this 4th day of October 2025.

BREAKING: Federal judge BLOCKS a new ICE policy that went into effect last week to automatically detain unaccompanied migrant children on their 18th birthday when they “age out” of shelter care.

The TRO enforces a court order in a case brought by @immcouncil.org and @immigrantjustice.bsky.social.

04.10.2025 16:30 👍 2517 🔁 909 💬 27 📌 43
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State fights to keep confidential full record of THP participation in immigration enforcement • Tennessee Lookout Tennessee fights to keep information confidential about the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s participation in mass immigration sweeps this year.

The state is fighting to keep information confidential about the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s participation in mass immigration sweeps earlier this year in an argument that mirrors one from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

24.09.2025 00:10 👍 22 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0

In his entire answer he notably never once denies taking the $50,000.

23.09.2025 00:10 👍 2900 🔁 577 💬 93 📌 23

Proud to stand with @tirrcvotes.bsky.social and @icapgeorgetown.bsky.social to challenge this law.

11.09.2025 16:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

🚨 Today the U.S. Supreme Court rubber stamped EXPLICIT racial profiling during DHS immigration raids. This green lights the worst ICE & CBP practices we are seeing against Latino communities around the country. We can expect this racist enforcement to expand rapidly.🚨

08.09.2025 17:41 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

Moreover, as for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.

Moreover, as for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.

This is a paragraph Brett Kavanaugh wrote on his little computer and then sent out into the world:

08.09.2025 15:59 👍 5453 🔁 1269 💬 281 📌 758

The stadium Trump is in is named after Arthur Ashe, the tennis legend.

What many people today probably don't know is that Ashe was literally arrested in front of the White House in 1992 for protesting the George H.W. Bush administration's treatment of Haitian refugees. www.upi.com/Archives/199...

07.09.2025 18:00 👍 3715 🔁 1115 💬 53 📌 29