As most have predicted and feared, the US Administration appears to now be testing if they can push one step further towards enforcing an authoritarian ethno-state: threatening a full-on US citizen by-birth with detainment and deportation (to where, exactly, if they are a born US citizen?). Someone who, “coincidentally”, is an immigration lawyer, someone who might defend other targets of their deportation agenda.

First they came for …


EDIT: a thread indicating this has been a mass email to others https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lmljpkrdj22h

  • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Very interesting. I don’t use Bluesky and I’m trying to verify the accuracy of this information. Does anyone else find her account strange? 8 hours ago she posts this terrifying message. And…3 hours ago she posts a totally chill introduction? Isn’t that backwards? And she seems to have an awful lot of followers for just these two posts. The name seems legit from a quick search, tied to a lawyer indeed. But I’m kind of surprised people aren’t more freaked out in the replies - isn’t this the first known instance of a citizen being targeted for deportation? But it’s mostly jokes from responders. And her post chronology is confusing to me still. Maybe someone can help clarify/verify.

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      50
      ·
      2 days ago

      Not that it isn’t a little sus, but my personal interpretation would be:

      Blue sky is still fairly new, most people haven’t been on it for very long, not everyone is really an active poster, some are just there to follow other people, and maybe only decide to create an account or start posting if something exceptional happens, like maybe getting an email like this that they feel they need to share.

      So that explains the short history.

      She makes the post, it gets attention from being seen by the right person at the right time who shares it to Reddit, Lemmy, a news outlet, a YouTuber, etc. and it blows up, a bunch of people show up to follow her to see where it goes, so she goes “ah shit, I have followers now, I guess I’d better introduce myself”

      As for the people joking in the comments, welcome to the internet. We have a lot of idiots here, and a lot of people who cope with fucked up shit with dark humor that not everyone gets.

      Just kind of my 2¢ on it anyway.

      Could absolutely be fake, could be bots, trolls, foreign agents, whatever your favorite online boogie man is. Or it could be just the internet being a dysfunctional mass of assorted individuals using it however the hell they want.

      I’m not considering it verified, nor am I dismissing it out of hand. I’ll wait to see what else comes of this.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Good questions, and important that we crowdsource verification of this. I saw some other posts on bsky that other people have received these emails, suggesting it is not a single instance. Implication is that it’s a new automated effort, perhaps “by AI”, to intimidate people en masse. But it could be fake, so the more examining it, the better.

      EDIT: Link here to a thread, indicating others have received these emails: https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lmljpkrdj22h

      I was trying to sound the alert that this might be a thing – BUT if it turns out to be fake, please by all means shout to the hilltops that it is bunk.

      • the Howling North@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        DOGE is working with DHS on automating mass deportation efforts

        Oh yeah, this has gotta be an AI generated blacklist. 100%.

    • xyzzy@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      Unless the immigration lawyer in question is on parole as the letter stipulated, it’s either a mistake, a malicious fake, or a malicious effort by the administration to provoke self-deportation with a wide net.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      On the one hand she could have made the account to post about her deportation letter, which is why the introduction comes later. On the other hand … I can’t explain anything else and tend to agree with you. I’m getting a nasal indication of a medium rodent nearby.

      • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yup that seems to make the most sense to me. Guess we’ll just have to check in on that account in awhile. No news articles on it yet.