Arelis R. Hernández

🙏🏽

Covering Immigration Safely and with Care - Journalism Institute With immigration enforcement directives among the most politicized and contentious topics in the U.S., reporters on the beat face growing threats on the ground and online. Local and national journalis...

Join us next week for an important conversation on covering immigration safely and with care. We'll hear from experienced reporters & editors about their experiences on the ground.

With @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social, @arelisrhdz.bsky.social, @jcollins.bsky.social, Michelle Zenarosa

We cited this data.

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.

20 years from now, maybe sooner, this will be remembered as an infamous episode in American history, on par with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2. Reporting on ICE and children by @arelisrhdz.bsky.social & @marialuisapaul.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

How Maxim Naumov learned to embrace his grief to earn a spot at the Olympics After his parents died in a plane crash, the activity he feared most ended up being the one that healed him.

Out came the story about what it feels like to lose everything.” Read @newsbysamuels.bsky.social incredible profile of a figure skater who lost his parents in the DCA plane crash a year ago, and is now headed to the Olympics www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

Appeals court to reconsider 2023 Texas immigration law, SB 4 Senate Bill 4 returns to the 5th Circuit with border crossings at record lows, a sharp reversal from the influx that inspired Texas’ law authorizing state police to arrest undocumented immigrants.

Texas passed a '23 immigration law in response to record border crossings under the Biden admin.

Today, a challenge to the law returns to court under v diff circumstances: crossings are low + TX is helping the Trump admin + the DOJ is no longer a plaintiff.

www.texastribune.org/2026/01/22/t...

Her wail at the border as Trump took office went viral — and echoes today Video of a Colombian migrant crying after her CBP One appointment had been canceled was viewed millions of times. A year later, she still hopes to cross legally.

NEW: Her wail at the border as Trump took office went viral — and echoes today

Video of a Colombian migrant crying after her CBP One appointment had been canceled was viewed millions of times. A year later, we checked in on her and she still hopes to cross legally.
wapo.st/4r6z2a0

ICE released the young refugee in this story but the details of what happened inside detention and how refugees of all backgrounds are being shipped to Texas for “re-interviews” is still unfolding and should be cause for major concern for legal immigrants and citizens. More reporting coming…

Trump Justice Department enters new territory with probe of Walz, Frey The agency is targeting critics during a moment of crisis in which protesters are clashing with federal agents on icy city streets.

Trump Justice Department enters new territory with probe of Walz, Frey. By @patrickdmarley @yabutaleb7: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

family is still fighting to liberate their son in ICE for unexplained reasons.

Native Americans are being swept up by ICE in Minneapolis, tribes say Tribal leaders say Indigenous people have been stopped, questioned, harassed and, in some cases, detained solely on the basis of their skin color or names.

Tribal leaders and members who live in the greater Minneapolis area say Indigenous family members, friends and neighbors have been stopped, questioned, harassed and, in some cases, detained solely on the basis of their skin color or their names.

They arrived as refugees but now are detained in Trump’s Minneapolis crackdown Lawyers and immigrant advocates say dozens of legal migrants who arrived as vetted refugees and have protections from deportation have been detained in Minnesota.

BIG news on the refugee front: ICE arrested a Minnesota refugee family’s son, who they say has no criminal record, w/o explanation. Experts & advocates say they have never seen this happen with vetted refugees and aren’t clear what the legal grounds are: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Incredibly disturbing FBI action www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

He was attacked on Jan. 6. Can he make sense of it for the kids he teaches? Nathan Tate was a D.C. police officer defending the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Now he’s trying to find the lesson in it.

Such a great piece by my colleague Ellie Silverman about a DC cop who lived through J6 processing what happened now as a teacher with students. wapo.st/4pplPrm

Analysis | Toppling Maduro is likely to be the easy part for Trump Trump allies point to the capture of Panama’s Noriega in 1990 as a precedent. But Venezuela could turn out to be much more difficult.

Toppling Maduro is likely to be the easy part for Trump.
His allies point to the capture of Panama’s Noriega in 1990 as a precedent. But Venezuela could turn out to be much more complicated, by @ktumulty www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

‘My country is free’: Venezuelans in U.S. react to Maduro capture Jubilant demonstrators danced and cheered in an impromptu gathering in the heart of South Florida’s Venezuelan community to celebrate the news that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. f...

www.washingtonpost.com/video/nation...

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/...

It’s never been easy covering immigration but this past year, I’m grateful to the veterans who hung in there & the newcomers who jumped in to cover this consequential story. It’s a beat that forces you to face yourself and ask who we want to be as people. Thank you, thank your sources. Gear up! 🫡

Remembering 10 extraordinary lives lost in 2025 They never got a Post obituary. They rarely made the news. But across the Washington area, they shaped and enhanced their communities.

The portraits capture some of the lesser-known but still extraordinary and impactful lives that ended in the DMV over the past year.
Here is the link:
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Federal judge dismisses indictment against TikToker shot by ICE, citing constitutional violations Days before Carlitos Ricardo Parias was set to to go to trial for assault on a federal officer, a federal judge dismissed the case against him. The judge cited the deprivation of Parias' access to cou...

Federal judge dismisses indictment against TikToker shot by ICE, citing constitutional violations

The U.S. sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — and let them go In blowing up the vessel, destroying evidence and repatriating the survivors, the U.S. cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.

In blowing up an alleged narco-terrorists’ boat, destroying evidence and repatriating the survivors, the U.S. cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.

For one migrant family, no Christmas lights in New Orleans After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their five children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings and no lights on the Christmas tree.

A tender and disturbing story beautifully told by @arelisrhdz.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Migrants blocked from bond hearings are fighting back, and winning DHS issued a policy blocking migrants from having bond hearings. But immigration attorneys are starting to win cases in which judges call the detentions illegal.

Migrants blocked from bond hearings are fighting back, and winning

Immigration attorneys are successfully challenging cases requiring mandatory detentions as the Trump administration tries to invoke a policy that denies due process

For one migrant family, no Christmas lights in New Orleans After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their five children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings and no lights on the Christmas tree.

🎄STORY: After the Border Patrol arrived in Louisiana, a couple and their 5 children went into hiding. That meant less food, few outings & no lights on the Christmas tree.

New Orleans has long been a second home for Hondurans, now they feel under siege.
wapo.st/3YdQNYx

‘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

Migrants facing mandatory detention in U.S. are fighting back, and winning DHS issued a policy blocking migrants from having bond hearings. But immigration attorneys are starting to win cases in which judges call the detentions illegal.

NEW: The Trump administration’s move to eliminate bond hearings for immigrants facing deportation has resulted in an explosion of legal challenges that the policy violates due process.
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

DHS swept Chicago to get ‘the worst’ criminals. Many have no record. Aggressive tactics in Chicago have been deployed in DHS’s “Operation Midway Blitz” to round up more than 4,000 people, only a small portion of whom have major criminal records.

DHS swept Chicago to get ‘the worst’ criminals. Many have no record. Aggressive tactics have been deployed to round up more than 4,000 people, only a small portion of whom have major criminal records, w/ @marianne_levine & @mariasacchetti.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

🔔 Join us for a discussion with immigration journalists about reporting truth and protecting communities, ft. Maritza L. Félix, Arelis R. Hernández, Lam Thuy Vo, Jose Antonio Vargas, and @caitlinvogus.bsky.social.

🗓️ Dec. 5, 2 pm ET

RSVP: http://freedom.press/immigration-beat