Alex Burness

Eyeing Voting Rights, Liberals Aim to Secure Wisconsin’s Supreme Court through 2030 - Bolts After flipping the court in 2023, Wisconsin liberals now hope to expand their majority on a body that could be a critical backstop for voting rights during the next presidential election.

Maria Lazar, the conservative candidate in Wisconsin’s supreme court election:

- Ruled in favor of election deniers seeking private health info to prove voter misconduct
- Was endorsed by key players in the bid to overturn the 2020 election
- Defended GOP gerrymandering and voter ID requirements

Eyeing Voting Rights, Liberals Aim to Secure Wisconsin’s Supreme Court through 2030 - Bolts After flipping the court in 2023, Wisconsin liberals now hope to expand their majority on a body that could be a critical backstop for voting rights during the next presidential election.

Wisconsin liberals have a chance next month to go up 5-2 on the state supreme court for the first time in modern history. If they succeed, they'll also block conservatives from earning a court majority through the next presidential election and until at least 2030.

New preview in @boltsmag.org:

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

How State and Local Leaders Are Responding to ICE: Your Questions Answered - Bolts The violence of Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across the country and the killing of protesters by federal agents have put pressure on local leaders to change their approach to... Read More

The Q&As at @boltsmag.org are such great service journalism! Love this overview on state and local responses to ICE.

How State and Local Leaders Are Responding to ICE: Your Questions Answered - Bolts The violence of Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across the country and the killing of protesters by federal agents have put pressure on local leaders to change their approach to... Read More

Recently, we asked for questions from readers about what local and state leaders are doing in response to the federal immigration crackdown.

Our new explainer shares some answers. Our entire team worked on this and it’s *really* worth a read:

boltsmag.org/how-state-an...

Chris's conviction was overturned & he's been out of Angola since November, but the state is *still* trying to reinstate his guilty verdict & death sentence. The family of the girl he was accused of killing now believes deeply in his innocence & has filed a remarkable amicus brief:

Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State - Bolts As part of a 287(g) contract between state officials and ICE, Massachusetts continues to release prisoners into deportation—even as state lawmakers look to ban other forms of ICE collaboration.

In almost all cases, people in the MA DOC’s custody have been convicted. This story explains their situation: boltsmag.org/massachusett...

And fwiw, unrelated to the state-level 287(g), MA local jails *do* often send unconvicted/pre-trial folks to ICE, which this story also discusses.

bsky.app/profile/burn...

If anyone is curious to see the yearly data on Massachusetts transferring state prisoners to ICE custody through the 287(g) program, here is the letter I received yesterday from the state’s DOC. This is data that the DOC spent months trying to withhold before finally sharing it yesterday.

Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State - Bolts As part of a 287(g) contract between state officials and ICE, Massachusetts continues to release prisoners into deportation—even as state lawmakers look to ban other forms of ICE collaboration.

Why should you care that Massachusetts transfers so many people with felony convictions to ICE?

I tried to answer that question here: boltsmag.org/massachusett...

The data I've just obtained shows that the Massachusetts prison system has sent more than 2,000 people directly into ICE custody since 2009. It's facilitated between 78 and 172 prison-ICE transfers every year. Governor Maura Healey and leading Democratic lawmakers say they support this program.

Massachusetts denied my records request. I filed a request with ICE, which also denied me. I appealed the Massachusetts denial and the state supervisor of records ruled this month that I had been unfairly denied, and ordered a fresh response, which I finally received yesterday.

In August, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction told me that the state prison system transferred 164 people into ICE custody in 2023 and 2024.

I filed a records request seeking data for other years besides 23-24, since the state has been working with ICE long before 2023.

Maryland, New Mexico Become Latest Blue States to Ban Local Contracts with ICE - Bolts Governors Lujan Grisham and Moore signed laws barring local sheriffs and police from partnering with ICE’s 287(g) program, joining a string of eight states with similar prohibitions.

To underscore just how unusual it is for a blue state like Massachusetts to be formally partnering with ICE, note that a majority of D-trifecta states now ban 287(g) agreements with ICE. Among those that do not, Massachusetts is the only one with a state-level 287(g).

boltsmag.org/maryland-new...

Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State - Bolts As part of a 287(g) contract between state officials and ICE, Massachusetts continues to release prisoners into deportation—even as state lawmakers look to ban other forms of ICE collaboration.

As we reported in @boltsmag.org last month, Massachusetts is the *only* state with a Democratic governor + legislature that maintains a state-level 287(g) agreement with ICE. As part of this agreement, Massachusetts often funnels people exiting prison into deportation.

boltsmag.org/massachusett...

The Massachusetts Department of Correction has been fighting me for months, trying to withhold data about its collaboration with ICE.

Yesterday, I won that fight, and obtained records showing that the state has transferred more than 2,000 people into ICE custody since 2009.

A quick thread:

The Feds Targeted Charlotte. Now a Local Democrat Who Helped ICE Faces Voters. - Bolts North Carolina lawmaker Carla Cunningham voted to mandate compliance with ICE, and derided immigrants on the House floor. The Democrat faces an intense March primary.

JUST IN: North Carolina's Dem lawmaker Carla Cunningham gave the GOP the decisive vote to pass a law forcing police to comply with ICE. She said "all cultures are not equal."

She just lost reelection BIG in the Dem primary to a progressive pastor & activist, Rodney Sadler. 70% to 22%!

Context:

The state’s prisons are overflowing, but Polis has been so resistant to working with the legislature to release eligible inmates that lawmakers had to briefly hold prison funding hostage this year just to get Polis’ staff to the negotiating table.

Really important context re: Jared Polis hinting at clemency for Tina Peters.

If Polis is interested in people who were over-sentenced and/or are unjustly incarcerated, well, he’s had eight years to act on that. And he has lots of prime, non-Peters opportunities waiting now right in front of him:

Happy election day to those who celebrate!

The guide you need: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

The thread you need:

Opposition to Mega Prison Project Shapes a Local Election in Rural Arkansas - Bolts Incarceration has become a central issue in Western Arkansas, where the governor wants to build a new prison that has angered and mobilized residents.

Before Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders announced a megaprison a mile from his house, Colt Shelby hadn’t voted in 15 years.

Now he says he won't miss another election.

Ahead of Tuesday's special election, I took a look at how incarceration has become the race's biggest issue in a deeply red district.

The 75 Elections to Watch This March - Bolts The 2026 midterms really are starting. Five states hold all of their primaries for federal and state offices in March, and voters there face high-profile choices. They’ll decide which Democrat... Read...

NEW: We're there. The midterms really are starting.

March has the year's 1st supreme court race. Primaries for Senate, AG, & legislature. Sheriff & DA races rocked by ICE. Special elections that may flip. Even a minimum wage measure!

My guide of the *75* elections to watch in March:

Always clarifying to hear politicians say this out loud. The truth is that the U.S. has always treated voting as a privilege, not a right, and still does today by blocking millions with past criminal convictions from voting—to say nothing of the functional blocks it places on millions of others.

In an Intense Election Year, New Post Office Rules Could Trip Up Voter Registration A change in how mail is postmarked could lead some voters to miss key deadlines, including voter registration. Advocates worry the people most affected will be those already facing voting barriers.

“Any mail that’s getting dropped into a blue box is not getting postmarked on the same day, and likely not on the day after either,” says the leader of a postal workers’ union.

This could have tremendous implications for voting:

Colorado Bans Local Governments From Jailing Immigrants for ICE - Bolts Colorado this week became just the seventh U.S. state to prohibit local government agreements to detain immigrants in their jails on behalf of federal immigration authorities.  House Bill 1100, which....

Colorado still has one single active 287(g), in Teller County. However the state has taken other steps to limit ICE’s power in the state, notably including this one: boltsmag.org/colorado-imm...

Not only does Massachusetts still allow 287(g) partnerships with ICE, the governor and leading lawmakers have gone out of their way to defend and preserve the state’s only existing 287(g) contract: boltsmag.org/massachusett...

A majority of the 16 U.S. states under total Democratic control now ban 287(g) partnerships with ICE. Maryland and New Mexico just joined that list, following Maine in January.

I wrote about this landscape and these new reforms in @boltsmag.org:

boltsmag.org/maryland-new...

Yes, tho Ds rolled over in advance, helping to pave the way for those ballot measures—even as they seemed poised to win, then did win, control of state gov. Of course they probably didn’t see *this* coming, but even at the time it felt like they were playing safe in a way that could backfire on them

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

The Feds Targeted Charlotte. Now a Local Democrat Who Helped ICE Faces Voters. - Bolts North Carolina lawmaker Carla Cunningham voted to mandate compliance with ICE, and derided immigrants on the House floor. The Democrat faces an intense March primary.

For @boltsmag.org, I wrote about the race to unseat Rep. Carla Cunningham in NC. After casting critical votes forcing cooperation with ICE, and backing other Republican legislation, the longtime Democratic lawmaker is facing a strong challenge in next month’s primary.
boltsmag.org/north-caroli...