this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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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

top 26 comments
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago

Its because they're an immigration lawyer

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wanna bet the selection is made via AI and we're starting to see hallucinations?

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Possibly worse it's just fucking lists of people compiled by right wing ~~think tanks~~ domestic terrorist groups, passed on to DHS, ICE, and CBP who are just reporting with zero investigation into who the person is, why they're on the list, nothing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I bet someone has already been deported for a “¿porque no los dos?” Tattoo

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wow, what a surprise. Who could have seen this coming from a racist administration voted in by a racist base helped along by the apathetic non-voters. /s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Holy shit I want to be sent one of these. It’s a golden ticket to living abroad with asylum lol.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Yeah basically my exact thoughts. Glad I'm not alone in that interpretation!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

DOGE is working with DHS on automating mass deportation efforts

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As with all things the Trump administration is doing, this moment came sooner than one would have expected.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, I thought we'd at least get to June before they tried this.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In January I commented hoping that they would move as quickly as possible. The problem all along has been the slow, gradual destruction. Death by a thousand cuts, so to speak.

Just be thankful that they aren't doing this slowly and methodically. Their actions show that this was inevitable. The only hope the American people have at this point is that the nazis incompetence shocks the masses into the appropriate response; whatever's necessary to remove them from power.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I take your point - that the rapid progression might shock some people into action - but also keep in mind that Hitler took control of Germany rather quickly too and we all know how that ended.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

True, but even if Americans are too brainwashed to do what's necessary, the rest of the world is not. The shock and awe will result in massive divestment and brain-drain from the US. With how dependent the US is on trade, that might mean the difference between WW3 and domestic economic collapse (containment).

A slow takeover would result in an even stronger shift of the overton window, globally, and give fascism some legitimacy among the average moron. Without the American people enacting a peaceful revolution, the best case scenario for the world is economic collapse and civil war in the US.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

True. Here in Australia the rapid progression of the Trump administration has definitely resulted in some last-minute policy changes by our major conservative party. I don't believe they will honour their new campaign promises for a moment if they get into power, based on their previous behaviour, but it has been nice to see a bit of a reality check.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

articles like this one suggest that the brain drain is an intentional cultural purge:

This is the vision: take NIH scientists, coders, artists, researchers, and teachers and force them into low-wage jobs doing whatever robots can’t yet do. Not because it’s efficient. Not because the work isn’t valuable. But because they are who the far right considers dangerous—people who know how the system works—and might challenge it.

None of this is about restoring dignity to labor. It’s about stripping dignity from labor that offers autonomy, safety, or intellectual freedom. It’s about reducing workers of all kinds—whether white-collar, blue-collar, or no-collar—to servitude.

aka a real life hand maid's tale

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Literally everything they are doing is a "cultural purge", to plant fascist loyalists into every position of power and authority. The brain drain is a side effect, and the more educated and high-skilled people that leave, the more it will sap American tech and industry of profits (including big tech, the war machine, etc).

Brain drain: the situation in which large numbers of educated and very skilled people leave their own country to live and work in another one where pay and conditions are better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

Better than the government claiming they mailed me something to my nonexistent address or called me on my nonexistent phone or pushed a notification to me in the app I won't install.

Email is a step up, especially if they cryptographically sign their messages and encrypt them

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yup, now we have to worry about getting spam from official US sources.

Oh look, they are running the government like some shady malware producing shell corporation. After all, the majority of people voted for this /s