ICE kidnapped my husband on his way to buy diapers for our infant son
This article was originally published by Truthout on June 29, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
My husband, Martin Soto, was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this February when he left our home at night to buy diapers for our 11-month-old son.
Martin — who is a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker, and neighbor in the town of Kearny, New Jersey, where we live — was then jailed for four months at Delaney Hall, the ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey. Privately run by GEO Group, a for-profit prison company, Delaney Hall has quickly developed a reputation for medical neglect, rotten food, and abusive staff.
Then, in apparent retaliation for his participation in the hunger strike at Delaney Hall, and for my decision to speak out publicly about what he has experienced, he was transferred this May to Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he continues to be jailed.
When my husband arrived at Delaney Hall in February, he weighed 168 pounds. Now he weighs 117 pounds.
During the almost five months that Martin has wasted away in ICE custody, he has missed our daughter’s fourth birthday, our son’s first birthday, our wedding anniversary, his own 30th birthday, my birthday, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. ICE’s cruel decision has left me — pregnant with our third child on the way — suddenly forced to fend for our two young children and myself alone.
Martin has committed no harm. He is married to me, a U.S. citizen, and he has an asylum case pending for 2028. ICE has the power to release my husband right
Pride and resilience in the Sunshine State
This story originally appeared in The Progressive Magazine on June 18, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
Florida has a magic that only Floridians truly understand. The mix of whimsy, bravery, and devotion you find here is unique, as is the land itself: lush acres of forest and marshy wetlands, puppy like creatures found in springs and slow-moving rivers, beaches of white sand, and off-the-beaten-path trails.
It’s tough to be from here—we’re plagued with hurricane season, mocked with GIFs like Bugs Bunny sawing from the rest of the country, and absurd “Florida man” jokes reflecting the tired 2010s-era cliché that our state is a den of drug-addled chaos and bizarre misadventure. If you mention Florida in conversation, you’re often met with a disgusted or concerning gaze.
The state has also long served as the country’s playground—or, as scholar Julio Capó Jr. describes it in his history of queer Miami culture, a “fairyland” that lures in tourists with the promise of a quick getaway surrounded by Disney animatronics and dreamy beaches. It may be unrecognizable to visitors from outside of the state, but Florida has always been a little queer, even beyond the periphery of the gay club scene in Miami.
In the past several years, however, Florida has become increasingly known for being hostile to queer people. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis—whose term began in 2019, less than three years after the June 2016 mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that killed forty-nine people—is fixated on decimating Florida’s queer population and crushing the morale of our indomitable spirit. In 2021, DeSantis signed into law a provision that redefined a public demonstration of more than three people who “commit a breach of
‘Yeah, that’s illegal’: USPS chief says states won’t receive mail ballots unless they hand voter rolls to Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 25, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Postmaster General David Steiner drew the ire of Democratic senators and voting rights advocates on Wednesday when he said that the US Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that do not hand their voter files to the Trump administration.
During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the panels ranking member, asked Steiner if USPS would deliver ballots in a state whose government had refused the Trump administration’s request for access to its absentee voter list.
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied. “We would tell the state that we need the manifest.”
Peters responded by accusing USPS of creating a rule that “coerces” states into handing their voter files to the federal government even though they are under no legal obligation to do so.
“You’re making a decision that people cannot vote by mail,” Peters said. “That’s unacceptable.”
PETERS: Yes or no, if a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposed rule?POSTMASTER GENERAL STEINER: No.PETERS: So the proposed rule basically coerces states to hand over their… pic.twitter.com/5bnJb5Atnr— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 24, 2026
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also sparred with Steiner during the hearing, informing the postmaster general that USPS had absolutely no role to play in determining how states conduct their elections.
“You run the Postal Service, you deliver the mail,” Blumenthal said. “You don’t review ballots or registration. Nobody said you should… This proposed rule is bogus.”
Blumenthal demanded Steiner commit to deliver all mail-in ballots to voters
Prairieland protesters sentenced to 30 to 100 Years for ‘terrorism’ charges
This article was originally published by Truthout on June 23, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
On Tuesday, eight Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted on trumped-up terrorism charges earlier this year received decades-long sentences ranging from 30 to 100 years.
Five of the defendants received 50-year sentences after being convicted of rioting and “providing material support to terrorists.” One received a 30-year sentence, and another a 70-year sentence. And Benjamin Song, convicted of attempted murder of an officer in addition to rioting and “providing material support to terrorists,” was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
The eight protesters were convicted based on a July 4, 2025 protest at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where the activists used fireworks and noise-making to protest the immigrant jail and Trump’s anti-immigrant detentions. Police arrived at the scene, and later claimed that one of the protesters opened fire on an officer, who also shot at protesters. The next day, the FBI began raiding homes, and arresting and detaining protesters.
One of the defendants, sentenced to 30 years in prison, was not even present at the July 4 protest.
These sentences are far longer than any of the prison sentences given to January 6 rioters, the longest of which was 22 years for a member of the Proud Boys, a far right, neo-fascist militant group that embraces white nationalism, Islamophobia, and misogyny. The 22-year sentence was commuted to time served after President Donald Trump pardoned the Proud Boys member, along with some 1,500 other January 6 rioters.
But the Prairieland defendants, on the other hand, have been smeared by prosecutors as part of an “antifa
Alan Greenspan, longtime Fed chair and Ayn Rand disciple, meets ultimate ‘invisible hand’
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 22, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Alan Greenspan, whose policies during nearly 20 years as US Federal Reserve chair fueled soaring economic inequality and helped create the conditions for multiple economic crashes, died Monday at age 100 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
While many corporate media outlets published hagiographic obituaries lionizing the “Maestro” who presided over nearly two decades of low inflation, rising stock prices, and American economic confidence, critics focused on Greenspan’s role in promoting dangerous deregulation and “easy money” policies that inflated financial bubbles, with sometimes disastrous results.
Robert Reich—who served as US labor secretary under President Bill Clinton during all of Greenspan’s tenure—called him “in many ways the most powerful person in America” during that era.
“If any single person was responsible for the financial crisis of 2008, it was Greenspan.”
“He maintained an iron grip over the Fed, and almost single-handedly decided on interest rates,” Reich wrote. “He essentially fired George H. W. Bush by raising interest rates so high (ostensibly to ward off the inflation then threatening the economy) that the economy took a dive, and voters blamed Bush. This was enough to convince my boss, Bill Clinton, to do exactly what Greenspan wanted—which was to reduce the federal budget deficit and thereby destroy much of the agenda Clinton ran on (and I helped create).”
“I don’t want to speak ill of anyone who has passed. Greenspan was an extremely charming, intelligent, and thoughtful man,” Reich added. “But the truth must be told: If any single person was responsible for the financial crisis of 2008, it was Greenspan. That crisis—the worst collapse since 1929,