Gaby Del Valle

Policy Reporter

Gaby Del ValleApr 17, 2025

Palantir has evolved into a ‘mature partner for ICE.’

The data-mining company recently did a three-week sprint to build a tool that will help Trump execute his mass deportations. It includes a “self-deportation tracking” project and a database of “actionable leads” of people who can be deported.

Palantir also put together FAQs to help staff explain their work to friends and family, and its “Ethics Education Program Lead” is circulating links to internal company pages like:

Ethics FAQ - “Can it be right to support a customer who you think is wrong?”
Ethics Discussion - The Ethics of Immigration

Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People

[404media.co]

This ICE-snitching app is actually promoting a meme coin

ICERAID claims to pay people in crypto for reporting undocumented immigrants. There’s no indication that actually happens.

Gaby Del ValleApr 16, 2025

The student arrested at his naturalization interview knew it was coming

Gaby Del ValleApr 15, 2025

Trump says he wants to deport some US citizens, too

Gaby Del ValleApr 14, 2025

ICE arrested a Columbia student during his citizenship interview.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a permanent resident who has lived in the US for 10 years, walked into his interview with US Citizenship and Immigration Services expecting to become a US citizen. Instead, ICE walked him out of the building in handcuffs.

Mahdawi, who was involved in Columbia’s pro-Palestine protests, reportedly faces deportation under the same law being used to target other student protesters. He’s also been targeted by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel group compiling “deportation lists” for Trump.

Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE

[theintercept.com]

Gaby Del ValleApr 8, 2025

A lawyer representing pro-Palestine protesters got his phone searched by CBP.

Makled, whose clients include demonstrators arrested at University of Michigan protests, was asked to hand over his phone to Customs and Border Protection after flying into Detroit with his family.

“I tell them, ‘I know you can take my phone. I’m not going to give you my phone, however ... 90% of my work is on my phone. You’re not getting unfettered access,” he said. “We have an obligation as lawyers to stand up to this stuff.”

Agents looked through Makled’s contacts list but ultimately returned his phone.

Lawyer for U-M protester detained at airport after spring break trip with family

[freep.com]

Trump’s DOJ will no longer prosecute cryptocurrency fraud

Gaby Del ValleApr 8, 2025

Gaby Del ValleApr 7, 2025

Clearview AI’s founder is reportedly obsessed with eugenics.

Hoan Ton-That, the founder and former CEO of Clearview AI, is fixated on “race, IQ, and hierarchy” and “solicited input from eugenicists and right-wing extremists” to build his facial recognition system, Mother Jones reports.

Ton-That, who has had a long history with the far right, reportedly wanted to “totally hire” Danish race scientist Emil Kirkegaard. This part stuck out to me:

Ton-That was fascinated by eugenics and admired the field’s founder, Francis Galton, who inspired Nazi “racial hygiene” programs. After digesting a letter by Galton that argued for Chinese immigrants to move to Africa and supplant the “inferior” Black race, Ton-That declared in an email that Galton was a “true prophet.”