Unbreaking is about to take our quarterly break to catch up on backlogs, rest our stalwart volunteers, and train new folks. Before that: Quick updates on Immigration and Medical Research Funding below. We’ve also added some little flame icons to our landing page to indicate the recent intensity of federal actions affecting each of our active issues. (The flames in our hearts are less restrained, but we want to preserve your nervous systems.)

Thank you for reading our work and sharing it. We’ll be back with more on July 10.

Immigration

The Immigration team added 24 new events to our timeline, including the nineteenth death in ICE custody this year. Earlier this month, Georgian national Mamuka Artmeladze died after 114 days in detention at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. Two days before his death, DHS’s own Office of the Inspector General released a report on the facility’s violations of medical care, use of force, sanitation, and food safety standards. It’s not an outlier: KFF and the AP published a damning joint analysis of medical neglect in immigration detention. 

As we noted in last week’s Data Security briefing, ICE has rescinded the rule requiring them to report and investigate deaths that occur within 30 days of release from detention. One representative case has just been ruled a homicide; Daphy Michel died of hypothermia after ICE left her far from home and without adequate clothing in dangerously cold weather. 

A couple of wins, though: Federal judges struck down the “pause” on asylum applications, green cards, and work permits for immigrants from the 39 countries on the travel ban list and ruled that the $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas is unconstitutional, though the fee remains in place for the moment.  

Medical Research Funding

The Medical Research Funding team added 7 new entries to our timeline. In the words of NIH staffers, “The chaos of 2025 has been replaced with coordinated, systematic, institutionalized destruction in 2026.” Meanwhile, a draft 2027 spending bill from the House appropriations committee proposes a slight increase to the NIH budget—but it also includes an 11% cut to the CDC, a 30% cap on indirect costs at some institutions, and a ban on gain-of-function research.  

How to help

Unbreaking is run in the spirit of a mutual aid cooperative, with researchers, writers, editors, and community organizers working collaboratively to create and maintain our timelines and explainers. We welcome both experts in government as well as curious and interested observers. You can learn more about our work, make a contribution, or apply to join us.