Laurel Police Shared Haitian Immigrants’ Addresses With FBI.
In a seemingly unprecedented move in Delaware, a local police department in Sussex County created a list last year of where officers believe Haitian immigrants spend their time, and then sent it to federal officials.
During the early days of the Trump administration, the Laurel Police Department first compiled a dozen addresses of where its officers had encountered Haitian immigrants whom they “believe to be undocumented.” They then shared it with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to emails sent by the Laurel police chief in January 2025.
Police later added two more addresses to the list, according to the emails, which Spotlight Delaware obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, last month.
Asked about the revelation, immigrant advocates said they were shocked. Laurel’s mayor said he was “utterly disgusted” by his police department’s actions.
The town’s police chief said he is committed to helping other law enforcement agencies when they ask.
More than half of the 14 Laurel addresses on the list, where police had encountered “documented and undocumented” Haitian immigrants, were houses, according to the emails. Also on the list were several intersections.
Laurel Police Chief Robert Kracyla sent the address list to Justin Downen, according to the emails, which did not state Downen’s title. But a 2017 news release did identify him as an FBI special agent. Kracyla also confirmed that he sent the list to the FBI after the agency requested the information.
“We were asked to provide assistance, so we will always provide an agency assistance if they ask us,” Kracyla said in an interview with Spotlight Delaware.
Even the ICEstapo. He should be fired today. Which reminds me–more killings from the ICEstapo:
Keith Porter Jr, a 43-year-old father of two, was fatally shot by an ICE officer on New Year’s Eve outside his apartment complex, according to LA and federal officials. An LA police department (LAPD) spokesperson said after the incident that Porter had fired gunshots into the air. A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the off-duty immigration officer was “forced to defensively use his weapon” while responding to an “active shooter”.
Much about the incident remains unclear. There’s no footage of the shooting. Porter’s family and local activists have argued that, contrary to the DHS’s portrayal of the events, Porter was not threatening anyone and was celebrating the new year. Jamal Tooson, an LA attorney representing Porter’s family, said Porter’s actions possibly merited arrest or citation by the LAPD, but the ICE agent, who was not charged with local law enforcement duties, instead subjected him to “a death sentence”.
The press release from ICE about Lunas Campos’s death claims that he’d been put into segregation after he became “disruptive while in line for medication”. It was there, officials said, that staff “observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance”. He was pronounced deceased by medical responders at 10.16pm.
Witnesses in detention with Lunas Campos told the Washington Post a different story. Santos Jesus Flores, who was detained at the camp where Lunas Campos died, said he saw five guards choking the man as he struggled after he resisted going into the segregation unit because he didn’t have his medications.
During the struggle, Jesus Flores said he heard Lunas Campos say again and again in Spanish that he couldn’t breathe.
“He said, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore and that’s it,” Flores told the Post.
Will any of the Haitians narced out by Laurel’s top cop meet the same fate? Will we ever know?
‘Breathtaking Constitutional Violations’:
Young, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan, leveled the searing critique during a hearing in Boston to determine the appropriate remedies for the administration’s detentions of pro-Palestinian students last year. The judge had ruled in September that senior administration officials engaged in an illegal effort to arrest and deport noncitizen students based on their activism.
On Thursday, he again denounced the administration’s conduct in unusually stark terms. “Talking straight here,” he said. “The big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to deprive people of their rights, Young said. “The secretary of state,” he noted, his voice full of incredulity, “the senior Cabinet officer in our history involved in this.”
Yes, Virginia, We Have A Path To The House Majority:
The Virginia state senate is expected to pass a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow the legislature, which is in Democratic hands, to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. If voters in Virginia then approve the amendment in a referendum planned for this spring, Democrats could be in position to gain as many as four more seats in the House.
In a news conference earlier this week, Democratic leaders said that a proposed new map would be made public by the end of the month and that the referendum would most likely take place in April. Democrats currently hold six out of 11 seats in the state delegation.
Trump and the Rethugs started it. Spare me their crocodile tears. Maryland? You’re up next.
BTW, figured I didn’t have to contrast Trump’s support for dissent in Iran with his suppression of dissent in Minneapolis. So I won’t.
Lest you wonder why I’m canceling my Washington Post subscription (effective January 25):
Washington Post staff are expressing anger that billionaire owner Jeff Bezos has not spoken out publicly after the Department of Justice raided the home of one of its reporters earlier this week.
In an escalation of the Trump administration’s sustained attack on the truth, the FBI raided the home of reporter Hannah Natanson Wednesday morning, seizing her personal and work-related devices as part of a purported investigation into leaks from the Pentagon.
Bezos, who is ranked by Forbes as the fourth wealthiest person in the world, has owned the Post since 2013. He has made no public comment about the federal government’s action against his employee.
One journalist told Status that it’s “nauseating and irresponsible to have our owner remain silent given this unprecedented event.”
“If there is a moment to stand up for our journalistic values, this would be it,” another source said.
Multiple organizations supporting press freedoms have slammed the FBI’s action against Natanson.
“Physical searches of reporters’ devices, homes and belongings are some of the most invasive investigative steps law enforcement can take,” said Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press President Bruce D. Brown.
What do you want to talk about?