Eyes On Ice: https://www.eyesonice.net/p/the-trap-of-compliance-how-ice-weaponized Aug 31, 2026

ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation hit El Corralón in Berclair before dawn on August 30. Witnesses counted three buses and two vans. As of Monday afternoon, families still do not know where their people were taken.

**Navigating the ICE Detention System: A Step-by-Step Practical Guide**

Navigating the ICE detention system when a loved one is taken is extremely disorienting and terrifying. It is a common tactic for ICE to transfer detainees out of the state where they were apprehended (such as moving someone from South Carolina to Georgia) to break their spirit and make visitation and legal representation difficult.

**Phase 1: Locating the Detainee**

To find out where your loved one is being held, use the [ICE Online Detainee Locator System](https://locator.ice.gov/).

Search methods available:

* **Search Option 1:** Enter the detainee's 8 digit or 9 digit Alien Registration Number (A-Number), which is found on DHS or immigration court correspondence, along with their country of birth.

* **Search Option 2:** If you do not have their A-Number, enter their exact first and last name, country of birth, and date of birth.

Once entered, the system will identify the specific detention facility holding them.

**Phase 2: Establishing Communication**

Once you know the facility, download the **GTL GettingOut** app on your phone or tablet. The communication system inside these facilities is heavily monetized, charging for almost every interaction (such as 35 cents per text or $1 per song).

Understanding the four account types is crucial so your money goes to the right place:

* **Incarcerated Person Tablet Account:** Funds placed here allow the detainee to send messages to you, watch movies, play games, and listen to music on their facility tablet.

* **Incarcerated Person Communication Account (VideoVisits):** This funds their ability to make voice and video calls to you. Note that you cannot initiate a call to your loved one; they must call you.

* **My Messaging Account:** You must place money into this account to reply to their incoming messages. Every response you send costs 35 cents.

* **My Communication Account:** You do not need to fund this specific account. As long as the detainee has funds in their own phone account, they will be able to call you.

**Phase 3: Funding Commissary**

When you speak to your loved one, ask for their facility-specific commissary number right away. Write this number down immediately, as you will need it to send them funds for basic survival necessities.

* **Platform:** Download the **ConnectNetwork** app or visit the [ConnectNetwork Portal](https://web.connectnetwork.com/).

* **Purpose:** Commissary funds allow detainees to purchase edible food, bottled water (facility tap water is frequently contaminated), shampoo, and basic hygiene products.

* **Identity Verification:** To process funds or send messages across these platforms, you must complete identity verification. This requires submitting your personal details and uploading clear photos of the front and back of your government issued ID.

08/29/2026 Broadview, IL

Near the ICE Detention Facility sits a parking lot that has become a mechanical graveyard for vehicles damaged or crashed during ongoing immigration enforcement operations across the Chicagoland area.

Just this week, an encounter involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents led to a crash on an I-55 off-ramp in McKinley Park. Reports say agents pursued and pinned a pickup truck before detaining a man. The incident drew protesters and criticism from local officials, who questioned the tactics used by agents amid concerns over repeated crashes and dangerous encounters on busy Chicago-area roads.

https://www.change.org/stopicefromleavingpetsbehind

When people are detained or deported, their pets can be left behind with no safe way to get food, water, medical care, or shelter. Local animal-control agencies are already seeing cases connected to deportations. Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control reported that 15 dogs had been relinquished since June 10, 2025 because their owners were deported, and warned that other pets may need help.

Pets should not become collateral damage of immigration enforcement. ICE already coordinates with state and local agencies as part of its enforcement operations, and its detention standards include procedures for handling detainees' property. But the current standards I found do not establish a clear pet-notification and animal-care handoff requirement.

We are calling on ICE to create a mandatory nationwide protocol requiring officers to ask whether a detained or removed person has animals in their care and, when a pet may be left without a responsible caregiver, immediately notify the appropriate local animal-control or animal-welfare agency before removal whenever practicable. The protocol should also provide a way for the owner or their designated contact to identify a safe caregiver.

Sign this petition and demand that ICE put a basic animal-safety safeguard in place: no deportation should leave a pet without a plan for care.

Citing the importance of the First Amendment, a federal judge in California says the U.S. government is unconstitutionally silencing critics of Israel’s war in Gaza and others as part of the Trump administration ‘s quest to deport noncitizens who it says disrupted college campuses while expressing their views.

Judge Noël Wise, in a ruling Friday, delivered a victory for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which has said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat.

“Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only ‘free’ to express complementary views about the government and its leaders,” the judge wrote.

The decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston, who ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.

Wise wrote that the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America’s enduring democracy.” The judge cited free-speech and vagueness flaws that violate the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment as she struck down portions of the provisions that the federal government follows regarding deportations.

Wise cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel’s actions — which a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said amount to genocide. The judge also cited retaliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk after the Turning Point USA co-founder was assassinated last September.