| Forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe here. | We’re just a couple weeks into 2026, and I’ve been stopped three times to prove my citizenship at three different airports, each under the guise of a routine screening that feels like anything but. My last name, Cardoza, is Portuguese. It comes from my dad’s side of the family, who are from Cape Verde, a small country off the coast of Western Africa that the Portuguese colonized to create a convenient pit stop for the burgeoning transatlantic slave trade. After the slave trade ended, hundreds of thousands of Cape Verdeans – who often reflect a racial blend of West Africans and Portuguese settlers – legally immigrated to New England to work in the whaling business. My great-grandfather, who carried my last name, arrived here in 1908. He was 11 years old. His naturalization records list him as sex: M, color: white, nationality: Portuguese. | But each time I’m stopped I’m asked if I speak Spanish, or what par of South America my family is from. While I was pulled over by CBP in 2022 leaving Big Bend National Park and had my car searched (because, according to them, “no one just goes to a park by themselves” to sightsee), one agent insisted on speaking to me only in Spanish despite my insistence that it’s not my language. “You don’t speak Spanish?” an agent with the last name Espinoza sneered at me last week, as if it was another reason to question my validity. | The government doesn’t care about our lineage. They’re not concerned with the meaning of our last names, our immigration status, or our racial and ethnic identity. They do not care if we’re peacefully protesting or calmly documenting the injustices unfolding around us. They do not care if we are five years old, if we are mothers or fathers, or if we’d die in detention. They’ve targeted Native people who were here before America existed. They are committed to using this gross abuse of power to reinforce an illusion of danger, to make us more afraid of each other than them, to turn us against one another to create a country easier to control. | We need each other now more than ever. We’ve got to see the stories they choose to ignore, the stories where our humanities are rooted. Today’s newsletter, like many I’ve sent before, is full of resources as an invitation to togetherness, a call to community. You are my neighbor. You aren’t alone. And together, as we have for centuries, we will keep each other safe. | Readers like you make this newsletter possible.Consider making a one-time or monthly donation on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@reimaginednews) to help sustain this work. You can always manage your subscription here. | Take care, | Nicole | ps – looking for the audio version of this newsletter? Click to read the web version, and you’ll find the audio recording at the top of the page. This is a service provided by Beehiiv, our email publishing platform, and AI-generated. |
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| | Follow the reports on ICE presence in your neighborhood (and add your own). | iceout.org is a community-driven tracker of ICE activity across the country. You can sign up for alerts in your neighborhood, along with anywhere your community may be located. You can also report what you see. This is urgent for keeping people safe now, but it also will act as helpful documentation as the violence of ICE unfolds. | The “SALUTE” acronym is a handy way to remember what to note in your reports: | Size: How many agents or officers do you see? Activity: What are they doing? Has anyone been detained? Location: Where exactly did you see them and what direction are they heading in? Units: What types of officers are they or what words and markings can you see on their uniforms? Time: What time was the sighting? Make reports as quickly as possible. Equipment: What do the agents have with them, such as types of weapons, vehicles, crowd control methods, and other details?
| I don’t see this shared often but it’s an important step: Also share any information you witness with your local vulnerable community directly. Set up a group text with neighbors in need of protection to let them know what’s happening. | Learn how to record law enforcement. | You have the right to observe and record law enforcement interacting with your community, and it’s incredibly powerful. Without user-generated content for the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, many more would believe the false narratives the government has circulated. As you do, here are tips to keep yourself safe. | This short video from independent LA-based media organization L.A. Taco gives you a handy checklist to keep yourself safe. This video from Witness Media Lab shares how you can use videos to protect those featured in it.
| Donate or volunteer for local community-based organizations providing immediate support to those most vulnerable. | These differ city by city. You can look at what your local churches, food pantries, and community-based organizations have posted lately, or search for the equivalent of the organizations listed below where you live. | National Resources | Here is a community-curated list of local, public-facing organizations that focus on immigrant support and advocacy. Here’s a list of mutual aid organizations across the U.S.
| Orgs to support in Minneapolis: | | Orgs to support in Maine (where ICE is starting operations): | | Orgs to support in Chicago: | |
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