The Marshall Project news digest

Presented by Alfred A. Knopf Donate Edited by Andrew Cohen View in browser Pick of the News Closing the gates to the kingdom. Since February, some formerly incarcerated Americans have needed an Electronic Travel Authorization, in addition to a U.S. passport, for travel to the United Kingdom. The documents aren’t easy to get. Rahsaan “New York” Thomas spent decades behind bars in California before his sentence was commuted. He says the new restrictions, which precluded a recent trip to the U.K., are unfair. “The ETA process doesn’t allow room for proof of transformation. It simply treats a serious criminal conviction as proof of unworthiness, even when your lived experiences have turned you into an asset to society,” laments Thomas in the latest installment of our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project A desperate hunt for voter fraud. Inside the Trump administration’s attempt to use federal immigration agents to threaten and intimidate Hispanic voters. The effort is being led by “zealots” at the White House and Department of Homeland Security, says a former federal official. The New Yorker Democrats sued the Trump administration in federal court this week, alleging that federal officials are illegally interfering in the midterm elections by pressuring states to remove voters from voting rolls. The Washington Post A federal judge in California this week blocked DHS agents from carrying out field operations that target noncitizen voters. It’s unclear whether the ruling will stop those operations. The New York Times How will the Trump administration react to news that it isn’t deporting people swiftly enough? The number of deportations has risen in the past year but still falls far short of the White House’s promise that a million people would be removed annually from the U.S., a new report concludes. The number of people deported in this second Trump term is 26% higher than the yearly average of deportations under the Biden administration, but less than half the number of deportations recorded during the Clinton administration in 2000. The Associated Press DHS officials are now mulling the use of a Pentagon-developed heat-ray weapon against people at the border. Trump officials have also considered its use at protests in the U.S. CNN Due process in the age of Trump. A federal appeals court this week rejected the Trump administration's attempt to reset the six-month limits on immigration detention. The ruling blocks the feds from using the “resets” to justify the rolling and indefinite detention of immigrants. Raw Story Related: Read the ruling. 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals José García-Sorto was shot by an ICE agent following a chaotic traffic stop in Phoenix last October. The administration said he posed a threat, but he was never charged with a crime. Garcia-Sorto has since been deported back to Honduras. The New York Times Nearly 200 people granted clemency by Trump for their Jan. 6 acts are seeking taxpayer compensation. Bloomberg Immigration nation. Latino construction workers in Texas fear they will be shot or deported by federal immigration agents. The Guardian Deported Haitians face violence and uncertainty back home. USA Today As widely predicted, the economy of Springfield, Ohio, has taken a significant hit because so many Haitian residents have been detained or deported by federal immigration officials. The Washington Post ICE agents tried to arrest a man in Rhode Island this week while he was holding his two small children in his hands. The agents ultimately released the man. The Boston Globe House Democrats introduce federal legislation that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to sue federal agents and officials over immigrant detention. ProPublica N/S/E/W There are grisly new details about the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee late last month. Some of her executioners warned that some of her veins may have ruptured before the lethal drugs were injected into her, her attorney claim