María Luisa Paúl

ICE kept most offices open in shutdown — but not the one inspecting detention centers The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s entire Office of Detention Oversight has been placed on furlough, despite surging numbers of detainees.

Exclusive: The Trump administration said immigration enforcement will “remain unchanged” through the government shutdown.

But at least one team at ICE isn’t going into work: the office that ensures detention centers meet federal safety standards.

Maduro lost election, tallies collected by Venezuela’s opposition show Edmundo González likely beat President Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 election by millions of votes, a review of data from election receipts shows.

Here's a good report on the election from the dream team of @schmidtsam.bsky.social @marialuisapaul.bsky.social @datab.ae and Ana Vanessa Herrero

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/0...

A Venezuelan singer won asylum. ICE detained him for two more months. The singer known online as Davicito59 won his asylum case in July. Still, ICE kept him in custody for two more months — a holdup several experts called unlawful.

When a judge told Claudio David Balcane González “Welcome to the United States,” he sobbed. He had finally been granted asylum.

Then ICE detained him for 63 more days @marialuisapaul.bsky.social reports

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

U.S. deports journalist Mario Guevara to El Salvador, family says Mario Guevara, an independent journalist, was arrested while covering a protest of the Trump administration in a case that has alarmed free speech groups.

Mario Guevara, an Emmy-award winning reporter, was deported to El Salvador — a nation he fled more than two decades ago. He was arrested while covering a protest of the Trump administration in a case that has alarmed free speech groups.

A Venezuelan singer won asylum. ICE detained him for two more months. The singer known online as Davicito59 won his asylum case in July. Still, ICE kept him in custody for two more months — a holdup several experts called unlawful.

Venezuelan artist Claudio David Balcane González won asylum in July, at a time when the vast majority of such petitions are being denied.

ICE kept him in custody for 63 more days — well past the government’s appeal deadline. Lawyers say that was illegal. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Meet the first American to win ‘Best Cheesemonger in the World’ Emilia D’Albero won the Mondial du Fromage, one of the world’s top cheese competitions, held every two years in Tours, France.

I resurrected my cheese beat to write about Emilia D’Albero, the first American to win “Meilleure Fromagère du Monde” (that’s fancy for “Best Cheesemonger in the World.”)

Here’s a slice of joy for these ✨unprecedented✨ times www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

For migrants, Dallas attack — and Trump response — marks another indignity In the hours after the shooting, Trump officials cast law enforcement officers as the victims and asked people to pray for them — seldom mentioning the migrant victims.

Unlike in other shootings in the U.S., the victims of the one in a Dallas ICE office so far are faceless and nameless.

Though it was immigrants who ultimately paid the price of violence, they’ve seldom been mentioned by officials who have cast LEO as victims www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

ICE holding facilities overcrowded amid surge in immigration arrests Immigration agents have arrested so many people in their D.C. crackdown that they are crowding the agency’s processing site in Northern Virginia, lawyers say.

NEW: ICE has arrested so many people in Trump's D.C. crackdown that it's crowding the agency’s Northern Virginia processing site, lawyers say, creating "dangerous" conditions in a site not meant to keep people overnight.

w/ Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff & @marialuisapaul.bsky.social

‘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.

On the front page of today’s @washingtonpost.com: What 16 of the migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador’s CECOT experienced in that notorious mega prison

w/ Sam Schmidt, Helena Carpio @marialuisapaul.bsky.social @silviafosterfrau.bsky.social @asteckelberg.bsky.social

Pets are being abandoned, surrendered amid Trump’s immigration crackdown The heightened need is colliding with a shelter system already stretched thin by post-pandemic overcrowding, chronic staffing shortages and plummeting adoptions.

Some pets are surrendered. Some are left behind when their owners are detained or deported. Others are simply found wandering the streets or inside abandoned homes.

Animal shelters say Trump’s immigration crackdown is pushing them to the brink. My latest: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

‘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.

The US government has sent innocent men to be beaten and raped in a foreign gulag

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

STOP READING ABOUT THE WASHINGTON POST JUST READ THE WASHINGTON POST DAN BALZ

‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the mega prison 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.

“Welcome to hell”

We spoke to 16 Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. This is the most complete view yet of the conditions they faced — which, some experts said, may violate conventions against torture.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Newlywed detained by ICE freed after 141 days and two deportation attempts Immigration authorities detained a 22-year-old woman days after she married an American citizen, and sought to deport her twice — even after a judge barred it.

For 141 days, Ward Sakeik sat in immigration detention — stateless, newly married and nearly deported twice, despite a federal judge’s order.

In her first interview since being released, she tells her story — one that epitomizes the human cost of Trump’s immigration crackdown. wapo.st/4lvpOBc

Tortured in Venezuela, he’s asking for asylum. ICE just detained him. Gregory Sanabria Tarazona was at a routine check-in in Houston on Thursday when he was detained and taken to an ICE processing center.

EXCLUSIVE/BREAKING Gregory Sanabria Tarazona, a Venezuelan activist tortured inside Nicolás Maduro's notorious El Heliocoide prison, is seeking asylum in the U.S. Weeks before his initial hearing, he was making a routine check-in when ICE detained him @schmidtsam.bsky.social reports

wapo.st/3HE9dwu

Mariachis and ballet folklórico energize resistance in L.A. protests The musicians and dancers say they are pushing back on immigration raids “through the culture and traditions that represent us. We will not be silenced.”

After a week of immigration raids and military presence, mariachis and folklórico dancers are now energizing LA protests with their music — a way to reclaim space in a city they helped build, in a country that hasn’t always made them feel like they belong.
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Maduro lost election, tallies collected by Venezuela’s opposition show Edmundo González likely beat President Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 election by millions of votes, a review of data from election receipts shows.

Out team reviewed 23,000+ tally sheets; extracted their data; matched them w/ physical copies in secret locations; and interviewed dozens to determine that Edmundo González won twice as many votes as Maduro.

Read the definitive account of these historic elections (for free!) wapo.st/3WTxRyw

Our investigation into Venezuela’s presidential election is a finalist for a NAHJ award.

A huge team effort by reporters in Caracas & DC made it happen. But the story exists because brave Venezuelans, some now detained in El Helicoide or living in hiding, risked everything to get the truth out.

He begged Trump not to deport him in a viral song. ICE detained him anyway. Davicito59, one of the singers of “Donaltron,” is facing deportation. Authorities say he has gang ties, which he denies.

Claudio David Balcane, aka Davicito, was a rising star in Chicago’s Venezuelan dembow scene. After dropping “Donaltron” — a viral song asking Trump not to deport him — ICE arrested him. He's now facing removal.

I spoke to him from detention. Here’s his story: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Supreme Court ruling on Venezuelans ripples through Miami’s ‘Doralzuela’ Venezuelans have long considered the Miami suburb of Doral their refuge. Trump’s immigration crackdown is calling that into question.

Venezuelans have long considered the Miami suburb of Doral their refuge.

President Trump’s immigration crackdown is calling that into question.

Mexico says migrant deaths have doubled since Trump took office The number of Mexican migrants who have died while unlawfully crossing into the United States has doubled since President Trump took office.

Mexico said 181 Mexicans irregularly crossing the US border died during 2025's first 4 months, more than double compared to the same period last year

www.borderreport.com/immigration/...

The Immigration Pendulum Is Swinging Once Again Trump was elected, in part, on a pledge to crack down on immigration. But he may be overinterpreting his mandate.

NEW -- Trump's eroding immigration approval rating follows an iron law of ICE enforcement: the more Americans see what it looks like, the less they tend to support mass deportation www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Venezuelan opposition team flees to U.S. after ‘precise operation,’ Rubio says A group of Venezuelan opposition members who sought refuge in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas has arrived in the U.S., according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Argentine government described the operation as an “extraction” @schmidtsam.bsky.social and @marialuisapaul.bsky.social report

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

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.

Incredible reporting by the Washington Post on the Trump administration's hurried, lawless effort to carry out illegal renditions to El Salvador - to terrorize people. (Including how they violated court directives.)

Take a moment to read the entire thing: 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.

Our team uncovered new, key details about the US government’s mad dash to send 260+ Venezuelans to El Salvador. The group included refugees who had been thoroughly vetted by the State Department and UN, TPS holders and scores of people w/ no criminal records
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Here are the U.S. citizens caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown Over a dozen U.S. citizens have been swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, according to interviews, court records and news reports.

I’m tracking the U.S. citizens who have gotten detained, removed or swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

If this has happened to you or a loved one, my dms and inbox are always open! I’m also on Signal via marialuisapaul.68 www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

She truly is. Thanks a ton!

Thank you so much! And, of course, go irish!! 💚

Her husband was mistakenly deported. Now she’s caught in a political frenzy. Jennifer Vasquez Sura has fought to bring her husband, Kilmar Abrego García, home from a Salvadoran prison while caring for their children, two of whom have autism.

Ever since Kilmar Abrego García was wrongly deported, his wife, Jennifer, has had no choice but to become everything at once: A single mother to three kids with special needs. An advocate. A fighter.

I spent an afternoon with Jennifer. Here’s her story: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Thank you so much ❤️