Allegra Harpootlian
@ally_harp
Comms @ACLU on national security, tech, privacy, and free speech | Views my own | Find me on Bluesky and Signal
Today I had the honor of meeting with Mahmoud Khalil, who was imprisoned for 104 days just for speaking out against the war in Gaza. We had an important and productive conversation about Trump’s attacks on all immigrants and free speech and how we can keep fighting back.
🚨AFP issues a statement saying this is the 1st time in their entire history their journalists on the ground face death by starvation
85% of Gaza’s population have entered the "fifth stage" of malnutrition — the most critical and dangerous phase, which is often irreversible even if food becomes available in the future.
Palestinians are live tweeting their starvation and yet all I hear about is whether a politician should condemn a phrase he never says. I hope our leaders, like @RepJeffries, are haunted by the screams of the hundreds of thousands of people they are letting die.
I don't have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk.
If you read one thing today, make it Rümeysa Öztürk's first essay since being released from ICE detention for co-authoring an op-ed. It will break your heart and stitch it back together again. vanityfair.com/news/story/rum…
UNRWA easily has enough food to feed starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Israel, pursuing Netanyahu's war-crime starvation strategy, just won't let UNRWA move that food into Gaza. x.com/UNRWA/status/1…
UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of #Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry. The supplies are available. The systems are in place. Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and…
Since this morning, Israel has killed 48 Palestinians in Gaza — 37 while seeking food at U.S.-backed aid centers, and 11 in strikes on tents sheltering displaced families in the north.
Andry Hernández Romero, the innocent make-up artist imprisoned without trial for 4 months in El Salvador by the Trump admin, is FREE. He was wrongfully accused of being a gang member because of his “mom” and “dad” tattoos, and illegally sent to El Salvador without due process.
We have been in touch with Andry Hernández Romero’s legal team and they have confirmed he is out of CECOT and back in Venezuela. We are grateful he is alive and are engaged with both the State Department and his team.
JUST IN: A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from enforcing Trump's executive order punishing people who work with the ICC, calling it an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
On Feb. 15, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas called his wife from inside a Texas immigration detention facility. He asked her to record a message, “just in case something happens to me.” Thread 👇
Rep. Justin Jones was asked to leave DHS Sec. Noem's press conference on Thursday. Jones was seeking answers on ICE raids affecting his district.
A U.S. District Court in Maine has enjoined the government from imposing civil or criminal penalties on two human rights lawyers under Executive Order 14203 for their "speech-based services" to the International Criminal Court.
WATCH: “I told my Republican colleagues I thought the bill was unconstitutional, un-American, and un-Christian.” TEXAS state Rep. @jamestalarico (grandson of a Baptist preacher) tells Joe Rogan why he opposes a bill forcing teachers to put The Ten Commandments in every classroom
Super good visuals showing what are now vulnerable public TV and Radio stations and how much they largely serve rural communities and fill “news deserts.” Nothing good will come of this removal of funding.
NEW: Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained for writing an op-ed in support of Palestine. In a new piece in @VanityFair, she speaks for the first time about her deeply unjust arrest--a shocking attack on the First Amendment--& her time in an ICE facility
This detail on reading in ICE detention: “To my surprise, I discovered handwritten notes scattered throughout the book, dated and written by various detainees over time. These messages were filled with reminders of hope, strength, and the assurance that this, too, shall pass.”
If you read one thing today, make it Rümeysa Öztürk's first essay since being released from ICE detention for co-authoring an op-ed. It will break your heart and stitch it back together again. vanityfair.com/news/story/rum…
Stop what you're doing and read this extraordinary essay by Rümeysa Öztürk: "I am free, but my true freedom is interlinked with the freedom of many women I lived alongside in ICE prison." vanityfair.com/news/story/rum…
"In one small room, a world of possibilities unfolded: The cell transformed into a therapy space, a beauty salon, a hairstyling center, a Pilates studio, a medical center, a massage room, an interfaith temple and an art studio all at once." tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/0…
Wholesome side note: This essay was co-published by @VanityFair and @TuftsDaily, the outlet she wrote the original op-ed for.
If you read one thing today, make it Rümeysa Öztürk's first essay since being released from ICE detention for co-authoring an op-ed. It will break your heart and stitch it back together again. vanityfair.com/news/story/rum…