Popp & Bullman, Attorneys-at-Law

10/14/2026

More on 287(g) and Stinesville from the Washington Sun. The lack of community participation is a national problem.

"Christie Popp, an immigration lawyer in Bloomington, said the attorney general’s sudden rereading of the law “has many errors and contradicts the plain text of the statute.”

Although the attorney general now claims the statute doesn’t apply to deals with the federal government, Popp pointed out that it specifically regulates cooperation between law enforcement agencies. And while Rokita has determined police chiefs have the authority to enter these agreements, Popp and others have noted that Pittman wasn’t even the actual chief when he signed the deal.

“We cannot ignore one important statute just to further Rokita’s desire to eject all brown foreign nationals from Indiana,” Popp said."

They are getting funds in exchange for enforcing federal immigration laws — and an earful from locals.

10/13/2026

This is why I encourage every jurisdiction in Indiana, including Stinesville, to end their 287(g) programs. ICE does not offer sufficient training to figure out a person's immigration status. ICE officers, themselves, frequently make errors.

The 287(g) "Task Force" model that Stinesville, Indiana signed on to was ended under Obama after countless incidents of racial profiling (and resulting lawsuits). Under the Trump Administration, the program has been rolled out again but with LESS training than before. This raises the risk of more individuals being detained unlawfully and more racial profiling. The only basis for asking someone their immigration status at a traffic stop is, let's be honest, whether they look Latino and/or whether they have an accent. But you cannot tell someone's immigration status by how they look or what they sound like. And who carries around evidence of their citizenship? Do you? I certainly do not, and nor should we have to.

The risk of detaining someone who is a US Citizen is heightened by having poorly trained police officers - who should be using their time on the clock actually preventing and investigating real crimes - conduct immigration checks at traffic stops or in other instances where someone comes into contact with them. And they are doing this because ICE is providing real tax-payer money for community needs. But this is blood money. This is money that is provided with the understanding or requirement that officers will be giving ICE human beings - usually brown human beings - who may or may not have violated their immigration status (and may or may not be a US Citizen).

Please urge your local government to end these terrible 287(g) programs. End the lawlessness. End the constitutional violations. And End the fear that brown and black people feel merely driving to work each day. No one should live in fear. Latinos and other black or brown citizens should not have to carry around evidence of their citizenship because some police officer decided to question and arrest them for not having evidence of their status. This madness must end.

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administration.

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

I wanted to share a couple of wins to uplift us over the weekend:

I was able to successfully convince an Immigration Judge to terminate a deportation case pending against one of my clients, so that my client can finish getting his green card through his daughter. Judges ordering termination of deportation cases used to be the norm. It's almost impossible now. I'm feeling so good about this one, and such a deserving client!

We received the green card (lawful permanent resident status) for one of my clients today! She and her husband have been waiting for way more than a year for this, and I am so happy that they can go into the weekend knowing that she is finally safe and secure here in the United States. These long waits are super stressful for people, and the possibility of being detained and put into deportation proceedings at any moment is causing intense anxiety for so many immigrants who are trying to do the right thing--who are "in line." No one deserves to live in fear. That should be a fundamental human right. I'm very happy that at least one more person is free of fear.

10/08/2026

More on 287(g) Agreements in Indiana. Not surprisingly, I disagree with Todd Rokita.

Indiana AG Todd Rokita says Stinesville’s ICE agreement is valid without town board approval. Immigration attorney Christie Popp disputes his legal reasoning. On Tuesday, the board delayed a decision a month, and created a fund to receive the federal money. County commissioners drew criticism.

10/08/2026

I rely heavily on Human Rights Watch reports in my asylum cases. HRW does an excellent job of reporting on human rights abuses worldwide. I am very much saddened that now those reports are being written about the United States' atrocities.

I stand in disbelief that the cruel Supreme Court allowed this to happen. What would have been the harm in staying these flights? No harm to the United States, for sure. But the harm to those sent abroad is incalculable.

The 125-page report, “‘To Scare People’: US Expulsions of Third-Country Nationals to Countries in Africa,” documents that US authorities denied the more than 500 people transferred to third countries a meaningful chance to contest their removals or to articulate their fears of being removed ...

10/07/2026

"W***y Wender Aceituno, a naturalized citizen who voted for Trump twice, said he never imagined that the immigration crackdown he supported would entangle him... “ICE isn’t looking for criminals,” Aceituno said. “They’re looking for Latinos...."

Eventually, Indiana's 287(g) agreements will end in a US Citizen being arrested for driving while Latino. And when it happens, I hope they sue the pants off of Attorney General Todd Rokita for pushing this taxpayer-funded, completely unnecessary madness.

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administration.

10/06/2026

So much this administration is doing could be described as "heartbreaking." Families separated; individuals living in fear of being detained; children in private prison-concentration camps (making bank for Stephen Miller & other investors); Third-Country Deportations. But among the heart-breaking-est of heart-breaking stories is what is happening to Haitians.

We have known since Trump 1.0 that Donald Trump hates Haitians. He hates them because they are black. He hates them because they come from a country that has struggled for generations (for many historic reasons). His hatred of this whole group of people has meant that he has demonized them and belittled them on the national stage (they're eating the cats and dogs! seriously?). It has meant that he has stripped legal status from thousands of people - those who came lawfully on parole and those who were here and applied for Temporary Protected Status. Now, his administration is detaining Haitians in horrifying and unnecessary raids. They are putting on ankle monitors and limiting their movement for no other reason than public humiliation. The Trump Administration has taken away work authorizations and, frankly, dreams. And he has harmed, not just Haitians, but also their families and their communities.

It is this reason that a young man named Pierre Damas Bel - a young man with so much potential and such big dreams - walked in front of a semi-truck. Pierre fled true horrors in Haiti where thousands of women and children are r***d and thousands more murdered by vicious, uncontrolled gangs. He came to a place where he could have big dreams and contribute to the world. And goddammit, Donald F-ing Trump and his racist administration took that all away because poor Pierre had the bad luck to be born black and Haitian.

My heart breaks for Pierre, for his family that grieves him, and for all of the Haitians who are similarly being punished for nothing more than seeking safety, and working their asses off to get ahead once they got here. Nothing can bring poor Pierre back, but we can bear witness to the Haitians' plight and raise our voices in outrage at this injustice.

Here's more about Haiti:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmy0z00wr14xo

More about Pierre:

On the day Springfield held a funeral for Pierre Damas Bel, the president held a rally 25 miles away. We went to both.

09/25/2026

Join me in a standing ovation for the lawyers on this case. Of all the horrible things this Administration has done to immigrants and the immigration system, these third-country deportations may take the cake. Glad to see they are halted, albeit temporarily.

I do love the indignant quotes by DHS and Todd Blanche- as if they are the ones who are suffering the injustice here, not the people sent to a country they have never been to, where they were hooded, starved, and beaten.

The decision adds a new burden for the government as it attempts to rapidly remove migrants from the United States without interference from their lawyers.

09/22/2026

One of the sick and cruel ideas of the Trump Administration. These people are twisted.

The Trump Administration is paying foreign governments to take people who aren’t their citizens—not just in a few cases, but in thousands of cases— under a system it has built largely outside public view.