María Luisa Paúl

Guanipa was released on Sunday after months of arbitrary detention. He had spent the day speaking to the press and riding in a caravan that threaded through Caracas, calling for the release of Venezuela’s political prisoners.

The sequence is striking: Shortly after opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped by unidentified men, the Venezuelan government announces it has asked the court to revoke his precautionary measures and move him to house arrest.

This means the world, Kat! Thank you so much ❤️

Thank you, Eric! As my dad said: “We Venezuelans are resilient. We’ve gone through dictatorships, coups, tear-gassing, killings and we’re still standing.” Upwards and onwards we go!

Here's who the Washington Post just laid off.

Thank you so much for these kind words and your support! I so appreciate the time you took to share your insight and help us shed a light on things ❤️

I’m among today’s Washington Post layoffs. It was an absolute dream to cover everything — from immigration, to Venezuela to politics to national breaking news — over the past 5 years.

If you’re hiring or know of someone who is: mpaulrangel(at)gmail(dot)com

Attorney Eric Lee, who represents a family at Dilley, said his clients have not been asked about their vaccination status, given guidance or offered vaccines.

The lockdown at the facility, they told him, was lifted yesterday and detainees have resumed using shared spaces.

Measles cases identified at ICE’s largest detention facility for children Two detainees at a family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, have contracted measles, prompting concern among health experts that the virus could spread

Two cases of measles were confirmed at Dilley, ICE’s main family detention center. In Arizona, at least three people in immigration custody have contracted measles this year.

“I can’t think of a better incubation environment for transmission of measles than a detention facility.” wapo.st/4qZ2GOK

Judge ordered 5-year-old released, but data shows ICE is detaining more kids As family detentions spike, the Trump administration is increasingly ensnaring the youngest, and most vulnerable, lawyers and advocates say.

Liam Conejo Ramos is among the escalating number of children swept up in the administration’s immigration enforcement dragnet.

The average number of people in family detention has more than tripled since the beginning of the fiscal year. W/ @arelisrhdz.bsky.social

Gift link: wapo.st/3LWg1rT

Judge ordered 5-year-old released, but data shows ICE is detaining more kids As family detentions spike, the Trump administration is increasingly ensnaring the youngest, and most vulnerable, lawyers and advocates say.

Judge ordered 5-year-old released, but data shows ICE is detaining more kids www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
w/ @marialuisapaul.bsky.social

Thanks for sharing and reading our work!

An engineer-turned-baker shared his immigration story. Pie sales surged. Máximo Mendoza’s pie business, Max & Crust, has attracted attention as he shares his story of remaking his life over and over again.

If you need a small moment of hope, meet Grandpa Max. After losing everything in Venezuela and arriving in Miami with almost nothing, this 78-year-old engineer-turned-baker is remaking his life one pie at a time.

“If you have to start again, you start again.” wapo.st/4600Nsw

Hey @colesci.bsky.social! I'm a reporter at The Washington Post and I'm currently digging into this. If you're open to it, I'd love to talk and better understand what happened. My dms and inbox (maria.paul@washpost.com) are open anytime. Thanks!

ICE officer fatally shoots woman during Minneapolis operation A shooting involving an ICE officer took place in a Minneapolis neighborhood amid increased enforcement operations, Mayor Jacob Frey said.

Breaking news: An ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman during an operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday, federal authorities said, an incident that came as the Trump administration has staged a massive enforcement effort in the city.

On today’s @washingtonpost.com front page: The Venezuelan government unleashes a new wave of repression.

“I have hope things could get better without Maduro. From where I am, all I see is the same people who destroyed my country still in power. They’re still persecuting us. And we’re still afraid.”

Fear grips Caracas as a new wave of repression is unleashed in Venezuela Venezuela’s government launched a far-reaching crackdown after Maduro’s ouster, detaining journalists and civilians and sending armed gangs to the streets.

For a moment, some Venezuelans allowed themselves to celebrate Nicolás Maduro’s fall. But as the government moves to crush dissent, joy has given way to fear, dread & uncertainty.

“It feels like it did after the presidential elections in 2024. We won, but we also lost.”
My latest: wapo.st/45HA83w

According to Venezuela’s National Press Workers Guild, at least 14 journalists have been detained today — most, while reporting from the National Assembly.

At least 3 were detained by military counterintelligence officers, who went through their phones, emails and social media.

In exile, Venezuelans greet Maduro’s fall with joy — and fear of what comes next Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral took to the streets in celebration after learning that the U.S. had struck their homeland and removed Nicolás Maduro.

Lots of uncertainty for Venezuelans in the U.S. but Nestor Galavis in DC summed up a collective sentiment: “ Today, just let me be happy. We’ve been suffering for 27 years.”

@davidovalle.bsky.social
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@marialuisapaul.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

They were arrested during routine ICE check-ins. Then they disappeared. Deportation proceedings are often shrouded in secrecy. But lawyers say the lack of information about the Venezuelan migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act is nearly unprecedented.

And in March, we documented how Venezuelan immigrants disappeared without a trace after routine ICE check-ins — wounding up in CECOT with no public accounting of who was taken or where they were www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Trump’s 48-hour scramble to fly migrants to a Salvadoran prison The administration rounded up some of the Venezuelans two days before the flights took off, pressing forward even as Venezuela agreed to accept deportees.

In May, we reconstructed the 48-hour scramble in which the Trump administration rushed to deport Venezuelans. Many had open asylum cases, TPS or refugee status, and most had no criminal record; yet were sent abroad before the court could intervene www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Families welcome Venezuelans released from El Salvador with joy, grief Families cheered the return of their relatives, who had been deported from the U.S., jailed in El Salvador and sent home months later in a swap with Venezuela.

The men were flown back to Venezuela in a US-brokered prisoner swap. The July releases brought joy to families who had spent months without answers. But the ordeal had already upended lives in many ways www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

In that story, we did a reconstruction of the group cells and isolation cell — where the men said they suffered the worst of their beatings and abuse — at CECOT based on the testimony of 16 former Venezuelan prisoners.

‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the notorious prison.

Our investigation found that Venezuelans held in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison endured extreme isolation, lack of medical care, physical — and, in some cases, sexual — abuse. Experts told us these conditions could amount to torture. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Over the past year, we at @washingtonpost.com investigated what happened to the group of Venezuelans the US sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT — from their disappearance, to how they were sent there, to what they endured inside and the aftermath for their families.

🧵Here’s what we found:

‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the notorious prison.

INSIDE EL CECOT (GIFT LINK) The Post's reporting on the Salvadoran prison where the Trump administration sent migrants deported from the United States, based on interviews with 16 former detainees

wapo.st/3KUUv6n

‘It’s a war’: Inside ICE’s media machine Thousands of internal ICE messages show how its public affairs team has coordinated with the White House to satisfy Trump administration demands for viral arrest videos

New: We obtained thousands of internal chat messages from the ICE team creating viral videos of raids and "EPIC takedowns."

A scramble to satisfy the White House and "feed the beast" spawned a new "propaganda" machine, current and former officials told us.

"It's a war!"

wapo.st/4s6YnC5

For Latino families, Nochebuena looks different this year Traditionally a night for celebration, the Christmas Eve holiday takes on a pall amid expanded immigration enforcement.

A night meant for joy, in a year marked by fear.

As immigration enforcement intensifies, families shared how they’re spending Nochebuena — navigating absence & court hearings, taking pride in their roots and leaning into the quiet insistence of hope.

A beautifully illustrated story wapo.st/4qn4pws

In cities targeted by ICE, empty desks and school disruptions follow One in 5 students in Charlotte missed school after a recent ICE crackdown began. It’s the latest city where schools felt the impact of Trump’s deportation effort.

Schools had long been considered off-limits for immigration enforcement. But our review found federal agents operating in the periphery of campuses — detaining parents in at least 10 states this year, and using tear gas, car chases and gunfire near schools www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Venezuelans begin fleeing U.S. as protections end and threat of war looms TPS expired for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans on Friday. Many are shuttering business, selling homes and boarding planes, or scrambling to find a way to stay.

“These are people who did everything by the book, paid taxes, had no criminal records, opened businesses and contributed to their communities...now they have become collateral damage in this cruel, unjust and inhumane political game.”

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...