Introducing Un-Disappearing

Katherine Hawkins

— 3 min read
Introducing Un-Disappearing
Hand drawn image by me of one hand reaching toward a second, fading hand through barbed wire

I'm starting this new site in an attempt to make a more timely, widely accessible and lasting contribution to researching and documenting mass deportations/incommunicado detentions/disappearances by the second Trump administration, relying primarily on open sources. (See this page for more details on how this site relates to my day job at the Project On Government Oversight.)

I did similar work on U.S. rendition, disappearance and torture of counterterrorism detainees for over a decade after September 11. There is often a very large gap between what is publicly available somewhere in a footnote or appendix of a government report, or reported in an obscure article by an underpaid journalist, and what is widely known. I've spent much of career reading between redactions, connecting dots, and bridging that gap. I think those skills are especially important now, although I'm still figuring out how best to use them.

An article I published in Lawfare in May both illustrates my approach, and explains the title of this site.

(Most of what I post here will be shorter than that piece but significantly longer than a Bluesky post).

Since I am fortunate enough to have a day job, this site is free. Please become a member if you would like to be automatically notified by email of new posts. I will also be regularly linking to them from social media (mainly Bluesky and LinkedIn), so no worries if your inbox is already overwhelmed. I am not yet certain what my publication schedule will be.

As I said, I am only one of a community of people doing this work--and my part in it relies very heavily on open sources. So after introducing myself, it seems logical to start with a non-exhaustive list of other recommended sources of information.