Marcela E. García

Columnist & Editorial Board member at @BostonGlobe's @GlobeOpinion | Nieman Nation '26 @NiemanFdn | @PulitzerPrizes finalist '25 | Born & raised in 🇲🇽

[Marcela E. García @marcela_elisa]

Officially launching my @GlobeOpinion @BostonGlobe newsletter THIS Friday!! Coming to your inbox every week in English or en español.
Sign up to get either version — or both! — here: https://t.co/VKd1qHldYL 👀💅🏽

[Boston Globe Opinion @GlobeOpinion]

Introducing ¡Mira!: @marcela_elisa’s once-a-week take on politics, policy, people — and pets.

Sign up to get it in your inbox starting this Friday: https://t.co/eOEtp2QWhp

[Boston Globe Opinion @GlobeOpinion]

“Immigration enforcement is a federal power, and no statute passed on Beacon Hill can simply order federal agents to stand down,” writes @marcela_elisa. https://t.co/8Zt8S1Ndz0

[Teddy Schleifer @teddyschleifer]

NEWS —

@MacKenzieScott, the billionaire philanthropist and novelist, appears to have written a new book.

It is called Last Days In Two Nations (A History in Eighteen Minds) and comes in at 80,000 words.

She just slyly uploaded a few early pages on a newly launched Substack.

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission. The government has paid millions to private contractors to surface everything from potential threats to agents to activities that could disrupt ICE’s operations, according to federal documents, contractors and former Homeland Security Investigations agents.⁠
⁠
The program has ensnared U.S. citizens and activist groups that alert community members about ICE activity. Contractors prepare daily reports and dossiers on threat actors, identifying the poster’s name, location, date of birth, workplace, Social Security number, vehicle registration and criminal history when possible.⁠
⁠
To unmask anonymous online critics, DHS has sent hundreds of subpoenas to social-media companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Its agents have tracked down Americans at work and on the road, asking them to sign letters acknowledging their online speech about ICE “may” be a crime.⁠
⁠
DHS says it is trying to protect its agents and their families from “coordinated campaigns of violence” that have fueled an 8,000% increase in death threats since Trump took office.⁠
⁠
But civil-rights lawyers and former DHS staffers say the approach has swept up people expressing opinions that are protected by the First Amendment.⁠
⁠
“As far as I can tell, all of this is about people saying naughty things about ICE and immigration enforcement,” said Lauren Regan, a civil-rights attorney who has represented multiple people investigated by the government over their online speech. “Nothing that comes close to true threats.”⁠
⁠
An agency spokesperson said that ICE’s investigative methods abide by the Constitution and respects civil liberties and privacy interests. “Any allegation DHS and ICE are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically FALSE,” the spokesperson said. “ICE investigates all credible threats towards its employees, officers and families.”⁠
⁠
Read more: https://t.co/CHUoCCebem

[Teddy Schleifer @teddyschleifer]

Final NYT numbers on Haley Stevens v. Abdul El-Sayed:

— Six outside groups spent $62 million for Stevens, giving her a nine-to-one spending advantage over Abdul

— Half of that Stevens spend, $32 million, came from AIPAC's super PAC

— AIPAC's super PAC spent more than any single group has in a federal Democratic primary this cycle

[G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris]

Looks like a 10-15 point polling miss in Michigan. And people have been writing a lot of electability takes using this data. Be careful out there folks

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

"Trump did it so why can't I"

The new Republican standard.

[Boston Globe Opinion @GlobeOpinion]

The reality of what happened in Ceuta is considerably more complicated than Trump’s cliched, hyperbolic warning about liberal immigration laws and an approaching invasion, writes @marcela_elisa. https://t.co/ngFI7mZpor

[Luanne Rice @LuanneRice]

beautiful piece by @marcela_elisa. i am right there with her... ♥️♥️

[Boston Globe Opinion @GlobeOpinion]

Loving a senior pet means living in sort of two parallel lives, writes @marcela_elisa. There is the “now,” in which my dog is happy and eating well. Then there is the future, which intrudes into those perfectly ordinary days. That’s anticipatory grief. https://t.co/S5Fge7WNiY

[ABC News @ABC]

A San Francisco company says it is offering a new home-cleaning service using humanoid robots for a rate of $30 per hour. https://t.co/BQAngbK2Ey

[InteractivePolls @IAPolls2022]

TEXAS POLL - Senate

🟦 James Talarico: 51%
🟥 Ken Paxton: 48%

Fox News Poll (A) | July 23-27 | RV

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Worth naming who's actually getting swept into this, since expired visas sounds abstract. Chantal Morales Rojas filed her extension paperwork before her visa lapsed, passed every DHS background check for three and a half years, and had an active work permit from the same agency that arrested her. Agents pulled her out of the jetway in Denver as a friend filmed her being marched down to the tarmac.

A Ugandan woman with sickle cell anemia and a pending asylum claim was detained in her wheelchair. A newlywed married to a US citizen was taken into custody landing in Burbank with her husband standing right there. None of these people have criminal records. All of them had pending, lawful applications already filed.

A lawyer with thirty eight years in immigration law said flatly he'd never seen this before. That's the actual headline, not the bureaucratic phrase visa overstay.

[InteractivePolls @IAPolls2022]

TEXAS SENATE POLLS (June/July)

🔵 TPOR: Talarico +5
⚪️ NYT/Siena: Tied
🔵 A2 Insights: Talarico +2
🔴 SoCal: Paxton +2
🔴 Quantus: Paxton +2
——
Hispanic Texans
🔵 TPOR: Talarico +46
🔵 NYT/Siena: Talarico +32
🔵 SoCal: Talarico +10
🔵 Quantus: Talarico +1
——
AVERAGE (All voters)
🟦 Talarico: 46.8% (+2)
🟥 Paxton: 44.6%
——
AVG (Hispanics)
🟦 Talarico: 56.5% (+22.3)
🟥 Paxton: 34.2%

[Carlos Odio @carlosodio]

Thank you @_alibianco

[New Politics @new_poli]

"I have more legislative experience than all the other candidates combined." Tram Nguyen is the only current elected official in the MA-06 race, and she has the record to show it: https://t.co/PibhF1wnlt

[David Paleologos @davidpaleologos]

Opinion | Tram Nguyen is being outspent. Don’t count her out. https://t.co/AVVxZqSDdC via @BostonGlobe

[The New York Times @nytimes]

ICE is detaining foreign citizens at airports with expired U.S. visas, including spouses of Americans, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with immigration lawyers. https://t.co/gHPgFnhc6r

[David J. Bier @David_J_Bier]

If you have access to all the data, you can see the war better than anyone else.

[Boston Globe Opinion @GlobeOpinion]

“If a refugee and seasoned legislator cannot compete without millions, who gets a shot at Congress?” writes @marcela_elisa. https://t.co/4RWWWAJi1A

[Hannah Natanson @hannah_natanson]

It's been hard to do my job this year. Being back reporting — and in print again — means more than I can say. Please spend some time with my story about a Trump administration crackdown on faculty speech at West Point, and one professor's lonely rebellion. https://t.co/ULTtHOZM9k