Michael Barajas
managing editor boltsmag.org, mbarajas@boltsmag.org
- Reposted by Michael Barajas@ethanscorey.bsky.social and I have published a database of congressmembers who take money from GEO Group + CoreCivic. Find out if your reps have taken cash from the companies fueling ICE’s mass deportation efforts. Published in @theappeal.org + @inthesetimes.com. theappeal.org/ice-cold-cas...
- Bay Area prosecutors are continuing to pursue felony charges against pro-Palestine activists who staged sit-ins in 2024 @psfrench.bsky.social reports how the cases represent a notable escalation in punishment against nonviolent demonstrators boltsmag.org/stanford-san...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasNEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.
- Reposted by Michael BarajasExperts have described Dilley as “a hellhole” and decried the lack of proper medical care. Court records claim food is filled with worms, and the water is undrinkable. As a result, reports have spread of children are hitting themselves in the face and wetting themselves long after potty-training.
- NEW: @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social is calling for Dilley Immigration Center to be “shut down immediately.” Dilley released Liam Ramos. But hundreds of children who remain in the facility are facing a measles outbreak. The highly contagious disease can be deadly. thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/02/h...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasIn Minneapolis, for every story detailing the fallout of the federal crackdown, there are as many stories of people like Bri, a mom donating breastmilk for babies whose mothers are detained by ICE. Bri's story: 19thnews.org/2026/02/minn...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasNEW: There are 2,400+ elections for DA & sheriff this year. These matter hugely to criminal justice & policing—including: *these are often officials who decide ICE collaboration.* So I took a dive into these 2,400+ races to identify early hotspots and battlegrounds. Read, & check out our maps:
- Reposted by Michael BarajasNEW: I spoke with the Texas inmate who was put in solitary confinement after a GoFundMe for her sick prison cat went viral. While she's since been returned to regular housing, she and her longtime friend worry that more retaliation could be on the way. www.chron.com/culture/arti...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasMy latest for @boltsmag.org examines efforts to pass the MA Survivors Act, allowing abuse survivors to petition for resentencing (& release) or avoid lengthy/life prison sentences: boltsmag.org/massachusett...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasNew in @boltsmag.org: Virginia voters will decide this year whether to repeal the state's exceptionally harsh Jim Crow-era policy of banning anyone with any felony from voting for life. This will be the country's first statewide vote on felony disenfranchisement since 2020.
- Reposted by Michael BarajasHere's an enraging story I wrote about today: A lady currently incarcerated in Texas has been taking care of a stray cat. It got sick. Her daughter started a fundraiser to pay for the vet. The prison now has put her in solitary confinement. thebarbedwire.com/2026/01/15/p...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasFrom me in @boltsmag.org: some of the most important legal questions on voting rights and democracy that we're facing this year
- weekend must-read from @burness.bsky.social: How American Samoans, unlike ppl born in every other US territory and state, don't have voting rights—which has long generated confusion even among public officials, and has now made American Samoans a troubling new target for voter fraud prosecutions
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- no surprise when a killer cop was part of training police academies can be notoriously violent places that preach a combative view of the public www.texasobserver.org/the-culture-... police instructors give all kinds of contorted testimony to justify violence www.texasobserver.org/hands-dont-s...
- i don't totally get why it's all labeled 'illegal' when there are many exceptions to the PO box ban, but even if so.. doesn't this just show that the number is tiny (100-200ish out of 2.6 million registered voters) and that local election workers were already screening and suspending many of these?
- Reposted by Michael BarajasEleven American Samoans in Alaska face serious prison time for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. Theirs is a wild story of colonialism, cops, “voter fraud” panic, small-town beef, and family. I spent months on this + am so glad to now be able to share it: boltsmag.org/prosecuted-f...
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[Not loaded yet] - Reposted by Michael Barajas2025 was just as busy as 2024, so we’ll forgive you if you missed some of our articles at @boltsmag.org! Our team chose just 10 of our favorite pieces of the year. It was very hard to choose—but these are articles I'd love for you to not miss. (And: thank you for reading us!) 🧵
- Reposted by Michael Barajas“Grace periods” for late-arriving mail ballots were not controversial until very recently. (Kansas lawmakers voted *163-1* for a grace period in 2017!) But Trump wants them banned, so red states have lately rushed to help him. Ohio just joined the list: boltsmag.org/ohio-ends-gr...
- NM lawmakers in 2023 passed a Second Chance Act to ban life without parole sentences for juveniles. But a recent opinion by the state’s AG, which appears to conflict with the reform law, is now blocking releases and threatens to pull others back into prison the latest from @laurengill.bsky.social
- Reposted by Michael BarajasAll asylum decisions paused. Naturalization ceremonies canceled. Green card applications on hold. The Trump administration's blanket restrictions on legal immigration "don’t just disrupt paperwork, they derail lives.” My latest for @motherjones.com:
- Reposted by Michael BarajasThe Massey Commission was established after Sonya Massey was killed by a sheriff's deputy in her own home. I followed along for 9 months as its members tried to enact real policing & mental health reforms – & grappled w/ the limits of these commissions to effect change: boltsmag.org/sonya-massey...
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasNEW: Here's my story on Arlington, Texas, becoming the first known city in the nation to kill a city-wide LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy in response to the Trump administration. With no statewide protections, it was one of the few things protecting LGBTQ+ Texans: www.chron.com/culture/arti...
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasThey're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
- A shady stop and search outside San Antonio underscores the role of local elected officials (sheriffs) in the growing surveillance dragnet by federal police www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi...
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- an unapologetic fascist and attorney in North TX is trying to move from court-appointed cases to a seat on the bench see more of Steven's great coverage of this guy thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/22/c...
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- a very kind offer from a reader, any level of support really helps—even if just a follow and/or share, which still gets us more $ from Russ! i'm proud of the reporting that this small team continues to crank out every week, and immensely grateful to the readers who have helped us keep it going
- You can help Bolts continue to provide crucial coverage of local elections. Here's how: - Repost this = I donate $1. - Follow @boltsmag.org = I donate $1. - Donate (link below) + tell me how much = I match your donation. (Donate monthly = I match a year's worth)
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- NC prison officials say “shifting economic conditions” forced them to raise their markup on basic goods like food, drinks, batteries to run radios, etc Phill Smith, who’s incarcerated there, reports on the impact of the price hike and how prisons squeeze revenue from those who can least afford it
- Phill has done some fantastic reporting on prisons and punishment from behind bars, read some of his other stories that we've published this year boltsmag.org/north-caroli... boltsmag.org/north-caroli...
- Reposted by Michael Barajasabsolutely harrowing description of adx supermax in colorado boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasAfter Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row last year, the Trump administration is retaliating by sending them to the supermax. Prisoners are locked in cells smaller than a parking space 22-24 hours a day. One prisoner told me he fears he won't make it out alive. My latest:
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- Biden granted mercy to most everyone on federal death row before leaving office. Trump retaliated by putting them in some of the harshest conditions of longterm isolation that American prisons can impose. Another must-read by @laurengill.bsky.social boltsmag.org/death-row-cl...
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasMy last freelance piece of the year published yesterday in @boltsmag.org, taking a look at how Illinois' name change law still disproportionately impacts trans people with criminal histories. boltsmag.org/illinois-nam...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasThis is so cool. I interviewed Calvin Duncan - exoneree, and now Orleans Parish Clerk of Court - back in 2023 about his work as a jailhouse lawyer for the folks on death row in Louisiana. I remember being really struck by his words:
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasA Republican sheriff in a swing county that Trump won by 0.1% signed a contract to help ICE, then lost last week by 11. New by me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/sheriff-of-b...
- the TX AG's office has a long, ugly history of targeting Black and Latino organizers who register new voters www.texastribune.org/2025/11/10/t... Under Abbott, the office staked out the home of an old woman bc she helped a housebound neighbor mail a ballot www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasAll day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:
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- Reposted by Michael BarajasMost likely don’t have this on the Election Day radar, but felony disenfranchisement is on the ballot next week in Virginia, an unusually harsh state for denying voting rights to people with criminal records. Major reform may be coming there, and Tuesday is pivotal. Here’s what you need to know:
- Great reporting here on a measure on the TX ballot this week that would expand Greg Abbott’s growing influence over a commission that disciplines judges www.texastribune.org/2025/11/03/t...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasJust over an hour after 3 Supreme Court justices warned that Alabamian Anthony Boyd would suffer psychological torture, he was subjected to the longest nitrogen gas execution in US history, gasping for air more than 225 times. Read my eyewitness account: www.treadbylee.com/p/after-just...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasSCOTUS just allowed Alabama's execution of Anthony Boyd: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p... Justice Sotomayor wrote this vivid dissent blasting AL for using the method of nitrogen gas. @laurengill.bsky.social's reporting from an AL execution shows you why: boltsmag.org/alabama-nitr...
- Alabama plans to execute Anthony Boyd tonite by suffocating him with nitrogen gas, an experimental method that appears to be agonizing by most available witness accounts read Lauren's important reporting on Boyd's case and the death penalty in Alabama boltsmag.org/alabama-nitr...
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- also worth noting that Boyd is set to be executed by nitrogen gas, an experimental method that involves suffocating people to death read Lauren's bracing eyewitness account of this grisly new method of execution boltsmag.org/alabama-nitr...
- Anthony Boyd was sent to death row for murder with no physical evidence but rather on the word of a codefendant who testified against him to avoid execution. Boyd’s court-appointed lawyer admitted he was unprepared at trial important new story by @laurengill.bsky.social boltsmag.org/anthony-boyd...
- Anthony Boyd was sent to death row for murder with no physical evidence but rather on the word of a codefendant who testified against him to avoid execution. Boyd’s court-appointed lawyer admitted he was unprepared at trial important new story by @laurengill.bsky.social boltsmag.org/anthony-boyd...
- Reposted by Michael BarajasDispatch from Pennsylvania on a highly unusual state Supreme Court election—one of the few most consequential matters on the ballot anywhere in the country next month. New from me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/pennsylvania...
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