Reporter at Mother Jones covering immigration, Latin America, and more. Falo português.
More than 60 people protected under a landmark settlement agreement for families who were separated at the border have been detained and at least 16 have been deported by the Trump administration. "The perpetuation of forcible separation upon this group is never ending," one lawyer told me.
Separated at the border, torn apart againYears after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.www.motherjones.comAfter the family separation crisis of 2018, many impacted families earned legal status in the United States through a settlement agreement. Years later, some of them are being detained and deported by the Trump administration. This week on @revealnews.org, one mother relives her worst nightmare.
Children are being left behind as ICE detains parents across the countrySix miles from Mar-a-Lago, Guatemalan families are being ripped apart. Kids are left to fend for themselves as ICE detains their parents.www.motherjones.comIn 2018, Mirsy Alva López arrived at the US-Mexico border with her 3-year-old son Ederson. Then border patrol agents ripped him from her arms and took him away. [1]
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart AgainYears after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.www.motherjones.com“We never went far enough to repair the original sin of the separations at the border. And now we’re perpetrating that same harm all over again.” I wrote about how the Trump administration is violating a landmark settlement agreement for families who were separated at the border years ago.
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart AgainYears after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.www.motherjones.comThe DOJ filed the first-ever application with an “alien terrorist” removal court dormant since its creation in 1996. “The fact that the government had never previously used this process…speaks to the discomfort that just about everyone who’s ever looked carefully at the statute has come away with.”
The Trump administration is trying to revive a “Zombie” deportation court"It's like getting into a car that came out of the factory 30 years ago but has never been started."www.motherjones.comDeaths in ICE custody have reached a record high; 49 people since January 2025. As many as 29 just in this fiscal year. But the Trump administration is shutting down an independent DHS oversight office that handles complaints about conditions and treatment in detention facilities.
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone."An utter disregard for safety and just humane treatment."www.motherjones.com“I live in constant fear that I will be subjected to further baseless detentions just for going about my daily life." On May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a Florida-born US citizen, was detained by ICE in Alabama for the third time (!) in the span of a year. And he's suing the federal government.
ICE keeps detaining the same US citizen again, and again, and again. He’s fighting back.“I only wish to live my life in peace,” Leonardo Garcia Venegas said in a declaration.www.motherjones.comThe "justices’ immigration histories span much of the American experience...In each case, these newcomers paved the way for a descendant to reach the privileged pinnacle of the country’s civic life. These nine men and women will now sit in judgment of citizenship for their fellow countrymen."
In Supreme Court Justices’ Histories, a Story of Immigration in Americawww.nytimes.comWhen the SCOTUS justices hear oral arguments over Trump’s effort to rewrite the Constitution and limit birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara tomorrow, they'll be considering arguments pushed by a handful of controversial legal scholars. @pemalevy.bsky.social and I unpacked their theories here:
The nonsense case against birthright citizenshipMeet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.www.motherjones.comNEW: The government is holding Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Sacramento DACA-protected mother deported after her February green card interview, at the San Ysidro port of entry despite an approaching court-ordered deadline to bring her back to the United States, advocates and her legal team say.
"Flagrant Violation": Judge orders return of mother deported despite DACA"I followed the rules and trusted the process, and I just want to return to my family and rebuild my life."www.motherjones.com"What the government’s really trying to do here is muddy the waters enough so that we won’t notice that it is rewriting the clear text of the Constitution itself." I talked to Cody Wofsy, ACLU lawyer in the SCOTUS birthright citizenship case, about Trump's push to upend the 14th Amendment.
The case that could upend who gets to be an American is back at the Supreme CourtA long-settled Constitutional right faces a familiar legal assault.www.motherjones.comOn February 18, Damaris Bello accompanied her mother to a green card interview in downtown Sacramento. By the next morning, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez had been deported to Mexico, where she hasn't lived in 27 years and despite having valid DACA status.
“I feel like I’m grieving my mother”Damaris Bello’s mother attended a green card interview—and was deported less than 24 hours later.www.motherjones.comImmigrants are successfully challenging the Trump administration's mass detention policy and winning release from ICE custody—thanks to a centuries-old legal principle and constitutional right. My latest for @motherjones.com:
24,403 lawsuits and counting: How habeas corpus became the front line of immigration defense"We have to kick the door down."www.motherjones.comSteven Tendo is a pastor and asylum seeker from Uganda who has survived unimaginable harm and persecution back home. He has been fighting his case for years and reporting to ICE regularly. Yesterday, he was taken into custody—days before a scheduled check-in—and moved from Vermont to New Hampshire.
The (almost) unbelievable tortures of Steven TendoA snake pit. Severed fingers. COVID. A US immigration judge.www.motherjones.com“It’s not at all surprising that this is happening with these ICE [removal] officers being sent out to basically treat people terribly,” a one-time deputy chief counsel with the agency told me, anticipating more escalation of violence. My latest for @motherjones.com:
Former members of ICE say recent violence is "by design""What has changed is there has been an encouragement from the top to be much more aggressive in enforcement."www.motherjones.com“Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers,” Stephen Miller said in late 2023. But as I wrote here before Trump's re-election, researchers estimated that large-scale deportations would result in fewer jobs for Americans, not more.
How Trump’s “mass deportation” plan would ruin AmericaIt would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal.www.motherjones.comCatherine RampellThe U.S.-Born Unemployment Rate Rose After Trump Reduced Immigration www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...
"We have voted. We have protested. We have been killed. We have been persecuted. We have been imprisoned. We have been tortured. We have done everything in our power to have a path to democracy—and we deserve that opportunity.”
They fled Maduro and cheered his downfall. But they fear deportations, too."Until there is true justice in Venezuela and the economic means to return and rebuild the country, I don't believe Venezuelans can go back."www.motherjones.com