ICE keeps some children in hotels and other locations where advocates and loved ones cannot find them. Children detained for long stretches by federal agents are often sent to the notorious immigrant jail in Dilley, Texas. But some detained for shorter periods are locked away in hotel rooms or in Border Patrol station rooms with no privacy or access to their advocates. Government officials say in court filings that such accommodations are necessary due to travel delays or bureaucratic reasons, but one New York woman with two children who was detained after she went to an ICE check-in said her family was kept in a hotel room for nine days. TMP’s Shannon Heffernan and Lauren Villagran have the story. The Marshall Project

One stitch at a time. Marie-Pierre Py leads a quilting workshop for men incarcerated at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Vermont. The men have created a piece currently on display at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center titled “Fractured/Not Broken.” Py says it’s clear the workshop has helped quilters better cope with life behind bars. “When the quilt returns to hang at the prison, I hope the men will be really proud of their work and that it will remind them that they are not alone in the hard work of transformation and that there are many of us out there ready to welcome them home,” she tells TMP’s Annaliese Griffin in the latest installment of our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project

No October surprise here. ICE agents have been told to ramp up enforcement operations across the U.S. between now and the midterm elections. The Trump administration’s reported goal is to increase arrests to 3,000 a day, a figure that federal immigration officials have long sought to meet. CNN More details on how federal immigration officials reduced training for ICE officers and recruits from four weeks of in-person training to 40 hours. The Washington Post A U.S. Army study found that the “shock gloves” that thousands of poorly trained ICE agents will soon use during enforcement operations were so painful and powerful they immediately debilitated the people they touched. The Associated Press

Autocracy watch. The Trump administration is still violating federal court orders by tying nearly $1 billion in federal funding to cooperation with immigration enforcement operations, states say. Courthouse News Service ICE agents have investigated hundreds of voter registration groups across the U.S. in the past year. Democracy Docket A Trump-nominated federal judge in New York this week accused ICE agents of falsifying records to justify two wrongful arrests. The Washington Sun The Trump administration is going to provide attorneys for children the Trump administration intends to deport. The Associated Press ICE is operating an immigrant jail in New Jersey despite a court order prohibiting it from doing so. NPR

Immigration nation. ICE agents fired seven shots and wounded a man in New York City during an enforcement operation on Thursday, NYPD officials said. Gothamist More on the shooting of Oscar Belgal. The New York Times A federal judge in New Jersey ordered the release of a man held in an immigrant jail for four months. State officials issued a certification supporting Martin Soto’s U visa application. NJ.com Soto was put into solitary confinement after he organized a hunger strike within Delaney Hall to protest poor conditions. Mother Jones U.S. Customs and Border Protection held a part-time employee of the Provincetown Police Department for 44 hours after his flight home from Puerto Rico was diverted to Bermuda. WGBH

Another trial balloon floats over California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s death row, the largest in the U.S. Newsom is again said to be considering commuting the death sentences of all 563 people with capital sentences in the state. California’s last execution was 20 years ago. The New York Times TMP Context: Last month’s exploration of California’s death penalty experiment. The Marshall Project More: In Pennsylvania, a closely watched gubernatorial debate pauses to discuss the candidates’ views on capital punishment. States Newsroom

The woman who has accused seven current and former Cornell University students of raping her in a fraternity house in New York in 2024 now fears for her life after a swatting incident at her parents’ home earlier this week. CNN

Curtis Flowers, a Black man in Mississippi who endured six flawed murder trials, died this week, years after he was finally released from prison. He was 56. Officials in Montgomery County are investigating his death. Mississippi Today TMP Context: Racism tainted their capital trials. Should they still be executed? The Marshall Project

A federal appeals court this week ruled that a Georgia family can try to hold an FBI agent liable for a mistaken raid on their home in 2017, but cannot seek to hold the federal government liable for the misconduct. FBI agents broke down the door of Trina Martin’s Atlanta home and pointed guns at her family before realizing they had stormed the wrong house. The Associated Press

Unraveling a decades-old sex abuse case in Worcester, Massachusetts, exposed old patterns within the Catholic Church. An accused priest was slated for transfer to another parish, a common practice to avoid accountability, but was intercepted by local authorities who eventually prosecuted him. The Boston Globe

What’s the point of felony disenfranchisement? “Is losing the right to vote part of the punishment? What does that accomplish? Why should a person be prohibited from exercising their responsibility of citizenship? There is no connection. It is bad public policy.” States Newsroom TMP Context: Americans with past convictions fight for the right to vote. The Marshall Project

We are all Flocked. “Law enforcement is using tools that can tell officers who you associate with, where you sleep, and what you believe. They call it safety. The law should call it a search and impose the safeguards and remedies that accompany one.” Lawfare

Let’s be honest about what “diversion” programs are. “Diversion is not in fact a tool of decarceration but a deeply embedded part of carceral capitalism.” Inquest TMP Context: Exit ramps from incarceration in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The Marshall Project

Family Separation II. “Under past administrations, ICE policy held that any detainees who were parents should be reunited with their children before being deported, or agents must get confirmation that there is a designated caregiver in place for their children in the parents’ absence. Last year, upon Trump returning to the White House, ICE revised this policy to make it only applicable ‘when operationally feasible,’ which gave agents all the leeway they needed to ignore the historical guidance in order to prioritize mass deportations.” Slate

The law is clear regardless of what the Trump administration’s Office of Legal Counsel now says. “The United States Code criminalizes deploying federal troops or armed federal law enforcement agents to any polling place, and multiple other federal criminal and civil laws bar military interference in an election. Such laws buttress the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits federal military participation in civilian law enforcement except where Congress has expressly authorized it.” Just Security

A matter of scheduling. The Marshall Project will be closed on Monday in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The next Opening Statement will be next Tuesday. We hope everyone has a good long weekend.

Help wanted. The FBI’s counterintelligence offices are so depleted that many squads have only 50% to 60% of roles filled. FBI officials have taken counterintelligence agents away from their duties to work on immigration enforcement cases. NPR Kurt Olsen, a MAGA ally of the president, failed a polygraph test and lost his Justice Department security clearance last month. He’s still working as a federal prosecutor. Reuters The Justice Department has hired scores of partisan lawyers with dubious employment histories. The New York Times Heather Honey, an election conspiracy theorist who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, is now a deputy at the Department of Homeland Security. Popular Information

Preserving evidence of another failed execution. A Tennessee judge this week ordered state officials to preserve all evidence related to last week’s failed execution of Christa Pike. Pike is now hospitalized in Nashville. The judge also ordered corrections officials to claw back evidence that may already have been lost. The Washington Post Pike is up and walking after surviving two lethal injections, her attorneys say. The Guardian

Another confession is thrown out of a military tribunal case at Guantánamo Bay. A military judge ruled this week that incriminating testimony made by 9/11 defendant Walid bin Attash could not be used against him at his tribunal because it was extracted through torture between 2003 and 2006. It’s the fifth time the Pentagon has failed to convince a military judge to permit evidence obtained by the CIA through “enhanced interrogation.” The New York Times

“Lady Trump” gets her pardon. President Donald Trump pardoned Michele Fiore, a Nevada Republican who was quickly convicted for a particularly egregious case of fraud. She raised money for a memorial statue for fallen police officers and used it instead for plastic surgery and her daughter’s wedding. She now peddles election conspiracy theories. MS Now

Now do El Salvador. Federal prosecutors filed new charges on Thursday against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for allegedly torturing Americans held in Venezuelan prisons. CBS News