Alessandra
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alessnrs.bsky.social
Alessandra
@alessnrs.bsky.social
72 followers 70 following 18 posts
immigration attorney & cat mom. she/her.
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Reposted by Alessandra
asamnews.bsky.social
Sandra Wong, the great granddaughter of Wong Kim Ark, is preparing to march at the #NoKings Rally in San Francisco. Today is the 128th Anniversary of the SCOTUS decision affirming birthright citizenship.
March 28, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
kyledcheney.bsky.social
NEW: The Trump administraiton has lost more than 7,000 immigration detention cases in recent months. Increasingly, DOJ is telling judges they have no argument to present or couldn't get facts from ICE to present in court.

A look at this emerging trend.

www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
March 20, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
levin.house.gov
More than 400 federal judges have ruled that ICE is breaking the law.

Not once. Not a handful of times. 4,400+ TIMES.

That's 4,400+ illegal detentions. 4,400+ violations of the Constitution. And in many cases, ICE has kept people locked up even AFTER judges ordered their release.
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
The decisions amount to a huge legal rebuke, one the administration has ignored.
www.reuters.com
February 23, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
mitchellepner.bsky.social
A simple proposal for federal judges frustrated that Trump Regime isn’t freeing people in response to habeas corpus orders:

Order that DHS bring each individual to court for their habeas hearing. If the judge grants habeas, the petitioner walks out free.

Bonus: huge pre-hearing burden on feds.
February 10, 2026 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
joshuaerlich.bsky.social
once again: lawyers are morally responsible for their professional decisions. people get really mad about this but … you picked the job. you took the money. you own what you’ve done.
danielsuitor.com Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · Feb 5
A bizarre number of people have stepped up to defend Julie Le. What you see in that transcript is an attorney who chose to do evil work—deporting people for ICE then moving over to DOJ in early Jan. specifically to fight these habeas petitions—being called to the carpet. She's desperate, not heroic.
danielsuitor.com Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · Feb 4
If you want to read the transcript of the February 3 hearing where Julie Le had her "this job sucks" meltdown, now you can:

drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2...
February 5, 2026 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Alessandra
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Judge Reyes’s conclusion: “There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. … Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, [Noem] pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”
VIl. CONCLUSION There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter). Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that. By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705. Ana C. Reyes Date: February 2, 2026 ANA C. REYES United States District Judge
February 3, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Alessandra
felipedlh.bsky.social
It’s easy to forget since he’s still a high public official but Homan straight up took $50,000 in cash from undercover agents on camera and then nothing happened
January 29, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
johnhawkinson.bsky.social
Whoa. D.Minn's chief judge Patrick Schiltz dockets a list of "96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases."

www.courtlistener.com/docket/72120...
January 28, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
proptermalone.bsky.social
Schlitz clerked twice for Scalia, once at DC Circuit and then as part of Scalia's first SCOTUS clerk cohort
kyledcheney.bsky.social Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Jan 27
👀 Judge Schlitz, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, has ordered the head of ICE, Todd Lyons, to appeal personally in court Friday and threatened him with contempt for the agency’s repeated violation of court orders.

“The court’s patience is at an end.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 27, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
wrigleyfield.bsky.social
This is one of the things that I find is most shocking to people outside Minnesota who don’t realize it yet—the scale at which everyone who isn’t white has been forced into a spectrum of hiding.

Very good article drawing out the Tahrir Square comparison.
Knutson mentioned in passing that his neighbor had “an adopted brown kid down there; they hid her in the basement yesterday.” This kind of thing no longer sounds weird in Minneapolis. Many people are hiding indoors—so many that, in a city with a substantial minority population, I hardly saw any Black or Latino faces on the street.
January 26, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Alessandra
jeffrueter.bsky.social
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
January 25, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Alessandra
annabower.bsky.social
A magistrate judge found no probable cause to support arrest warrants for 5 people involved in the St. Paul church protest.

DOJ appealed to the 8th Cir.

That appeal led to this remarkable letter from the Chief Judge of the Minnesota district court…

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Re: In Re: United States of America No. 26-1135 Dear Chief Judge Colloton, I apologize for addressing this letter to you, but, for reasons I will describe, I do not have any other option. I am working from home today, as the program that my mentally disabled adult son attends each day is closed because of the extreme cold At 11:34 am, I received an email regarding Case No. 26-1135, entitled "In re: United States of America." The order in its entirety read: The motion of the United States to seal is granted. The Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota is invited to file a response, at his discretion, to the petition for writ of mandamus. Any response is due by 2:00 p.m. Friday, January 23. This is the first that I have heard of any petition for a writ of mandamus. The United States did not have the courtesy to tell me that they would be filing such a petition, nor did the United States serve the petition on me. I am unable to access any documents in Case No. 26-1135 because, at the request of the United States, the case is sealed-apparently even from me. So I have been given about two-and-one-half hours to respond to a mandamus petition that I have not read and cannot read. Apparently I am supposed to guess what the petition is about and guess what the mandamus petition says and then respond. I will do so. The Honorable Steven M. Colloton January 23, 2026 Page 2 On the evening of Tuesday, January 20, the United States presented an application for eight arrest warrants to Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko in connection with the disruption of a religious service at Cities Church on Sunday, January 18. Judge Micko was the magistrate judge who was on duty at the time. Judge Micko found there was probable cause to issue warrants with respect to three of the suspects but not with respect to the other five. Minutes after Judge Micko signed three arrest warrants, the U.S. Attorney notified me that his office wanted a district judge to review Judge Micko's decision -either by hearing an appeal of that decision or by considering the application de novo. The first thing I did is ask our Clerk's Office to randomly assign a district judge to consider the government's request. I was the judge who was randomly assigned. It is important to emphasize that what the U.S. Attorney requested is unheard of in our district or, as best as I can tell, any other district in the Eighth Circuit. I have surveyed all of our judges — some of whom have been judges in our District for over 40 years —and no one can remember the government asking a district judge to review a magistrate judge's denial of an arrest warrant. I have also surveyed the chief judges of all of the districts in the Eighth Circuit. I have heard back from almost all of them, and all of those responding have said that, to their knowledge, no district judge has ever reviewed the decision of a magistrate judge to deny an arrest warrant. The reason why this never happens is likely that, if the government does not like the magistrate judge's decision, it can either improve the affidavit and present it again to the same magistrate judge or it can present its case to a grand jury and seek an indictment. On Wednesday, January 21, I informed the U.S. Attorney that because he was asking me to do something that was unprecedented, and because m…
January 24, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
startribune.com
Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026
January 23, 2026 at 11:45 PM
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piperformissouri.bsky.social
The RFK, jr effect.
December 13, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
joedudekjd.bsky.social
18 days later, Justice Kavanaugh would write: “If the person is a U. S.
citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Sep 25
WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.
September 27, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
sesmith.lol
Really glad to see disabled students centered and profiled in this article on changing cultures at schools and the shift toward stricter rules, which really harm many people with varying disabilities from ADHD to those needing to step out of class for medical needs.
Strict rules can foster calm classrooms. But some students pay the price
An Indiana charter school network has won praise for its strong academics. But some students with disabilities struggle to follow the school system's discipline policies.
www.npr.org
September 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
athul.acharya.cc
"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."
September 9, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Justice Sotomayor, not mincing words, also says that today's decision will lead to the "creation of [] a second-class citizenship status" for Latinos, who now will have the burden to "carry enough documentation to prove that they deserve to walk freely."
The concurrence relegates the interests of U. S. citizens and individuals with legal status to a single sentence, positing that the Government will free these individuals as soon as they show they are legally in the United States. Ante, at 8 (opinion of KAVANAUGH, J.). That blinks reality. Two plaintiffs in this very case tried to explain that they are U. S. citizens; one was then pushed against a fence with his arms twisted behind his back, and the other was taken away from his job to a warehouse for further questioning. More fundamentally, it is the Government’s burden to prove that it has reasonable suspicion to stop someone. The concurrence improperly shifts the burden onto an entire class of citizens to carry enough documentation to prove that they deserve to walk freely. The Constitution does not permit the creation of such a second-class citizenship status.
September 8, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
mchannon.bsky.social
Ann Arbor folks, Rocky got out of our yard this morning. Please lmk if you see him.
September 7, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
heatherweaverdc.bsky.social
On the topic of law firm billable hours, do not assume that just because you do not go into big law you will be working any less. As a non-profit lawyer, there have definitely been years when I’ve worked the equivalent of 2,400 billable hours, and I know may of my colleagues have too.
September 6, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
daralind.bsky.social
Two things both true:

The loved ones of Venezuelans are celebrating that they are no longer in CECOT; some are celebrating their return home.

And.

It is a violation of international law to cause someone to be returned where they’ll be persecuted. Most of them never got a chance to make that case.
July 19, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Alessandra
stevevladeck.bsky.social
This decision is bad enough on the merits. But it also gives the government relief in a case in which it defied the district court at least *twice.* That’s quite a message to send to the government with respect to the costs of its litigation behavior in other cases—or the complete lack thereof.
June 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
stevemullis.net
Rümeysa Öztürk wrote an op-ed critical of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. She was arrested by ICE and was in detention for six weeks. This white nationalist student wrote a paper that argued the Constitution applies only to white people. He won an award.
A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.
www.nytimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Alessandra
zingherpolisci.bsky.social
Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.
June 9, 2025 at 12:39 AM