50501 FRIDAY BRIEFING | FEBRUARY 13, 2026
Bad Bunny made headlines. ICE made arrests through your county jail. DOJ made lists of what Congress searched. Detention infrastructure is expanding.
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SUMMARY
Congressional oversight became a DOJ intelligence operation. County jail ICE cooperation reached 48% of all arrests. Warehouse detention infrastructure expanded across Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, Georgia. Federal employment protections eliminated for 50,000 workers.
BY THE NUMBERS FROM THIS WEEK’S POSTS
48% of ICE arrests now occur through local jail cooperation, not federal enforcement actions
1,000+ people arrested by ICE per day across the United States
6 confirmed warehouse purchases across Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, and Georgia totaling millions of square feet
~23 warehouse-style sites described in internal DHS planning documents (Washington Post)
800,000+ square feet the size of the Maryland warehouse purchased for $102.4 million
50,000 federal workers losing job protections through new “Schedule Policy/Career” employment category
“Jayapal Pramila Search History” the surveillance document Attorney General Pam Bondi carried into the House Judiciary oversight hearing
MONDAY: Culture at Full Volume, Governance in Fine Print | Together we are America
Bad Bunny closed the Super Bowl halftime show with “Together we are America.” President Trump responded on Truth Social with insults about language and multilingual identity.
The federal government finalized rules removing job protections for up to 50,000 federal workers, shifting whistleblower complaints away from independent oversight toward internal agency processes.
The Trump administration appealed a court order requiring release of Hudson Tunnel funding after reports surfaced that the funds were offered conditionally contingent on renaming transit hubs after Trump.
The FBI scheduled an unusual nationwide call with election officials about “preparations” for the midterm elections.
And a racist video depicting the Obamas as apes appeared on Trump’s official Truth Social account, was removed, and met with a refusal to apologize alongside claims a staffer posted it without review.
Culture can be a form of belonging. Governance decides who is protected, targeted, or ignored.
Read the full post with sources by clicking here
Which is the bigger red flag to you: “staffer posted it” excuses, or “internal process” oversight swaps?
TUESDAY: The 48% of ICE Arrests Most People Never Hear About
Nearly half of all ICE arrests in the United States now happen through local jail cooperation.
The Prison Policy Initiative analyzed newly released federal data showing that someone arrested for a broken taillight in Ohio or shoplifting in North Carolina or unpaid traffic tickets in Arizona goes to the local jail, where their information is automatically shared with ICE.
Before they’re convicted of anything and before they see a judge, ICE places a detainer asking the jail to hold them past their release date. The local jail complies, and the person enters the deportation system.
States with sanctuary policies and restrictive cooperation laws show measurably lower jail-based ICE arrest rates.
States with 287(g) agreements allowing local law enforcement to function as deputized immigration agents show significantly higher rates.
The Trump administration’s second-term deportation push depends on county sheriffs, municipal police departments, and local detention facilities choosing to cooperate.
That cooperation is a choice made by elected officials who can be pressured, challenged, and replaced.
Geography determines enforcement capacity more than federal agent deployment.
The data gave us a map of where power operates and where organizing efforts should focus.
County policies, state legislation, sheriff elections, all of it determines whether local jails function as deportation pipelines.
Read the full post with sources by clicking here
Does your county cooperate with ICE? Do you know? What is your community doing to protect each other?
WEDNESDAY: What Do They Need 800,000 Square Feet For?
Public records confirm that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased at least six massive warehouse properties across multiple states.
Large. Industrial. Warehouses.
Arizona: 418,000 square feet, $70 million.
Pennsylvania: 520,000 square feet, $87.4 million.
Texas: 640,000 square feet, $66.1 million.
Maryland: 825,000+ square feet, $102.4 million.
Another Texas site: over $122 million.
Georgia: large industrial warehouse confirmed by local officials.
The Washington Post reported that internal planning documents describe a strategy involving approximately 23 warehouse-style properties nationwide.
These are existing industrial structures near highways, freight corridors, and airports, selected for logistical efficiency and speed of conversion.
Warehouses enable centralized intake operations capable of processing large numbers of individuals simultaneously.
Even if characterized as temporary processing centers rather than long-term confinement sites, the physical footprint dramatically expands enforcement throughput capacity.
Governments do not invest hundreds of millions of dollars in industrial properties without anticipating sustained, high-volume use.
Physical infrastructure is durable. Once acquired, it does not disappear easily.
In Oklahoma City, a warehouse owner ended negotiations with DHS after public opposition.
Documentation and local engagement can alter outcomes. But only when people know what’s being built in their name.
Read the full post with sources by clicking here
What’s worse: buying warehouses… or normalizing them as “intake centers”? If the plan is 23 sites, what do you think the end goal is?
THURSDAY: Caught: Bondi Was Tracking What Congress Searched in the Epstein Files
A Reuters photographer captured what Attorney General Pam Bondi carried into Wednesday’s House Judiciary oversight hearing: a printed sheet labeled “Jayapal Pramila Search History” listing at least eight Epstein-related files by number and description.
A detailed record of exactly which files Rep. Pramila Jayapal had searched in the DOJ’s controlled, members-only review system for unredacted Epstein records.
The Department of Justice created the only pathway for congressional oversight of the Epstein files, controlled every variable of that access, collected data on what members searched, and then used that intelligence to prepare the Attorney General for the oversight hearing.
The executive branch monitored the legislative branch’s investigation of the executive branch.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin called it Orwellian and requested a formal DOJ Inspector General investigation.
Rep. Jayapal is organizing a congressional letter demanding answers.
Rep. Hank Johnson stated “The surveillance state has extended to the top of the Justice Department.”
When Jayapal asked Bondi to face the Epstein survivors sitting in the hearing room women wearing all white, multiple standing with raised hands to show they had not yet been able to meet with DOJ and apologize for the department’s failure to redact their personal information from public releases, Bondi refused. She called it “theatrics.” While holding a surveillance log. In front of the survivors who were trafficked.
This is the same Attorney General who promised an Epstein “client list” that DOJ later admitted doesn’t exist. Who claimed tens of thousands of videos of child abuse that court filings don’t corroborate and who invited right-wing influencers to receive declassified “Epstein Files” binders that contained mostly public information.
Constitutional checks and balances assume that when Congress investigates the Justice Department, the Justice Department doesn’t get to investigate Congress back. That assumption broke down in full view of a Reuters camera.
Read the full post with sources by clicking here
Do you think she expected the camera to catch it… or didn’t care if it did?
The work of organizing is the work of hope. Every action you take with us; you’re organizing with us. You are hope.
Every county policy challenged, every warehouse deal exposed, every constitutional violation named out loud matters because silence is how power shows up without accountability.
You are not watching history happen to you. You are making choices about what happens next.
We are all making collective choices multiplied across communities and states where we refuse to turn our backs on our country. This is how democracies either collapse or hold.
We keep going.
A better tomorrow doesn't arrive suddenly. It's built over time through consistent work that compounds.
Keep showing up, speaking up, and naming what's happening.
Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
COMING UP:
February 17: National Day of Lobbying.
Show up in your representatives’ district offices and demand impeachment, conviction, and removal. In-district pressure matters more than phone calls to D.C. offices. Visit here for more: citizensimpeachment.com/feb17
March 28: The next NO KINGS mass mobilization.
If you missed the announcement, read it here: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Next NO KINGS Mobilization. If you’re a beginner organizing locally, use this guide: How to Organize a Protest.
The loss of protections for the Federal Workforce is a big deal. As a retired Civil Servant, I can tell you Civil Service has long been mission-driven and non-partisan. This regime is aiming to take us back to the “spoils” system of the 19th century in which know-nothings are given appointments based on campaign donations and favors.
After the feds finish warehousing immigrants, they will come for Democrats. This is why they are retrofitting all this warehouse property.