News & Commentary

In November 2002, the CIA tortured Gul Rahman to death in a secret prison in Afghanistan. Sixteen years later, Rahman’s family is still desperately searching to find out what the CIA did to his body.  To date, the CIA has told his loved ones nothing, and his daughter cannot even give her father a d

This piece originally appeared at The Washington Post's PostEverything.  Pictures of migrant women and children fleeing in panic as tear gas canisters were fired at them

Back in April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both under the Department of Homeland Security, entered into a memorandum of agreement with an obscure government agency known as the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The office, known by its initials ORR, had traditionally served vulnerable immigrant youth coming to the United States without an adult. The agency took custody of those children while it worked to place them with a sponsor, often a relative, who would care for them. But thanks to the Trump administration’s family separation policy, ORR also began taking custody of the thousands of immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents in the past year. The

In his 636 days in office, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions secured a legacy that has been described as “unprecedented” and “dark.” But Sessions’ unwavering actions against criminal justice reform may also earn another descriptor for his time in office: successful. Whether it’s civil asset forfeiture, sentencing, or police accountability, Jeff Sessions has reversed or hamstrung Obama-era policies at the Justice Department that sought to reform the nation’s criminal justice system.  In July of 2017, Sessions restored the federal government’s full use of civil asset forfe

Despite attacking family members of fallen war heroes, criticizing Sen. John McCain for being captured in war, and recently deploying troops to the border for a costly and unnecessary political stunt, President Donald Trump has nonetheless boasted about his supposed support for military service members. During his presidential run, Trump even went so far as to say that, “There’s nobody bigger or better on the military than I am.” And yet, the Trump administration has quietly been taking action against immigrants who have wished for nothing more than to serve in the personnel-starved U.S. armed forces. Last week, a federal court in San Francisco

In the face of the Trump administration’s stepped-up deportation efforts, officials in Boston and other progressive cities have declared their communities safe spaces for immigrants. But behind the scenes, progressive havens like Boston are facilitating the deportations of some of our most vulnerable young people. As the federal government’s rhetoric and action around immigration have sharpened and hardened

This piece was originally published by The Washington Post in August. I realized my life had entered a new phase while crossing into the United States from Canada in September 2016. “You both have to come ins

On Trans Day of Remembrance the trans community honors our dead. Too many names are read and remembered at vigils around the world marking the deaths of trans people who have been murdered during the year. This year is again on pace to be the deadliest year for transgender people in the United States. As of October, at least 22 trans people were killed, almost all of them women of color. We look at their photos, say their names, light a candle and then, too often, we move on until we add a new

Anti-abortion politicians wasted no time going after Roe v. Wade after the midterm elections. Last week, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a ban on abortion starting at six weeks in pregnancy, which would effectively ban almost all abortions given that most people don’t know they are even pregnant at that time.  The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is likely to pass. If it doe