John,

Ordinary people are being detained — and in some cases, disappeared — in America.

And it’s not just immigrants, or people accused of crimes. But U.S. citizens.

According to a ProPublica investigation published this month, more than 170 American citizens have been detained by immigration agents in recent months. The government doesn’t even track the full number — a staggering fact in a democracy that promises due process.

There should be no other story.

In a moment, we’ll share how COURIER and other local, independent newsrooms are stepping up to hold ICE accountable and expose the new terrifying reality of being an American. But first, please donate $25 before our end-of-October deadline and fuel our fearless journalism.

While the legacy media pushes Trump’s latest spectacle to our phones, people are quietly vanishing into detention centers. Families are spending weeks searching for loved ones. 

Protesters like congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, who joined a peaceful demonstration outside an ICE detention facility to bear witness to what was happening, now face felony charges.

The truth is: without independent and local media, we might even know these stories exist.

It was ProPublica’s report that connected the dots on the mass detention of U.S. citizens.

In Texas, a local publication exposed that local sheriffs are quietly sharing driver data with ICE.

In New Orleans, a hyper-local news site exposed people being held in local jails without charges.

And in Chicago, a U.S.-born manager at a comedy club was handcuffed by masked federal agents in front of his mother on a quiet morning street. 

And then — there’s COURIER.

Across eleven battleground states, COURIER’s local newsrooms are connecting the dots between local intimidation and national authoritarianism.

• In Arizona, The Copper Courier broke the story of a Tucson-born man trapped in ICE detention despite proof of citizenship.
• In Michigan, The Gander exposed how fear of deportation keeps families from accessing healthcare.
• In Iowa, Starting Line chronicled how ICE arrests at courthouses send shockwaves through small-town communities.
• In Texas, Courier Texas documented the human toll of wrongful detentions — spouses, students, and citizens living in fear of a knock at the door.

COURIER was built for this moment. We can keep expanding our coverage and hold ICE and MAGA accountable, but we can’t do it without your support.

We need to raise $85,000 before midnight tonight to keep this work alive.

Chip in $25 before our deadline

Thank you for standing with us,

The COURIER Team