Michael Squires

Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

A note from our editors:

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

Jesús Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Reymundo Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations.

1-28-26 Fulton Warrant

1/ NEW: @propublica.org has obtained a search warrant that the FBI is executing for records related to the contested 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., which has not yet been widely shared. It’s an extraordinary document.

Link: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Residents I’ve spoken to are furious and want the agents out of their city. I’ve seen tense encounters in grocery story parking lots, housing developments, and neighborhoods. I've covered unrest around the world and the anger among protesters here is among the most intense I've ever experienced.

I’ve been in Minneapolis the last few days reporting on the ICE raids happening across the city. This morning federal agents shot and killed a man, identified by the AP as Alex Pretti. This marks the third shooting by federal agents since Operation Metro Surge started in Minnesota last month.

Her Parenting Time Was Restricted After a Positive Drug Test. By Federal Standards, It Would’ve Been Negative. In the child welfare system, the threshold at which a drug test is considered positive varies widely from one jurisdiction to the next. There’s no industry consensus on what, or if anything, should be...

Drug-testing labs typically report results in black and white: positive or negative. But a little-known fact about the industry is that those results are often based on standards that are wholly discretionary.

www.propublica.org/article/drug...

How to Contact ProPublica or Send a Tip Securely — ProPublica Our job is to hold people and institutions accountable. To do that, we need evidence.

hey! just putting this out there:

propublica.org/tips

THREAD: It was supposed to be a routine surgery. So when the doctor stepped out, Sandra Parker wasn’t sure she heard right.

Her husband’s heart couldn’t have stopped for more than 5 or 6 minutes, the doctor was saying.

“That’s not a lot of time,” Mrs. Parker thought. “Is it?”

Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rule...

“The Department of Homeland Security spent $220M but has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Kristi Noem and her senior aides at DHS.”

On Sept. 28, the day Trump’s order was implemented, a Fox News broadcast played a clip of Kotek saying that Guard troops were not needed in Portland, then immediately cut to a clip of a hectic scene of protesters clashing with police. “Wish she could see some of those images,” the anchor said. Sarcastically, as a co-anchor chuckled, she added: “Look at that. Just a peaceful protest.” A small box on the screen showed the footage wasn’t from Oregon. It was from Illinois.

Amazing kicker on @robwdavis.bsky.social’s story about Fox News’ misleading coverage of Portland before Trump sent in troops.
www.propublica.org/article/port...

Toxic wastewater from oil fields keeps pouring out of the ground. Oklahoma regulators failed to stop it. Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...

Every oil state disposes of toxic wastewater underground. But in Oklahoma, it hasn't been staying there, creating large, ongoing pollution events known as "purges."

An investigation a year in the making for @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org

www.readfrontier.org/stories/toxi...

This County Was the “Model” for Local Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Ended in Civil Rights Violations. Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of the first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets local police enforce immigration laws. Many Arizonans say those abuses parallel what...

More than a decade ago Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies carried out immigration raids. Now hundreds of departments are partnering with ICE. AZ Latinos see Arpaio as the beginning of what playing out nationally. “They did the experiment, and basically now they’re implementing it at the national level.”

This County Was the “Model” for Local Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Ended in Civil Rights Violations. Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of the first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets local police enforce immigration laws. Many Arizonans say those abuses parallel what...

More than a decade ago Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies carried out immigration raids. Now hundreds of departments are partnering with ICE. AZ Latinos see Arpaio as the beginning of what playing out nationally. “They did the experiment, and basically now they’re implementing it at the national level.”

I have always loved @propublica.org's mission statement. It speaks to method as much as mission, and does not shrink from describling their journalism as a moral undertaking. www.propublica.org/about/

Said it a thousand times, but the fact that the general public does not understand the difference between an opinion writer and a reporter is a real fucking problem.

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

Our latest on Boring Co.’s alleged flouting of environmental regulations as it builds a tunnel-transportation system beneath Las Vegas. www.propublica.org/article/elon...

There are 600,000 of you who now follow us on Bluesky 🦋

As journalists ourselves, we understand that regularly reading stories about broken systems can take a toll, and we never take the community here for granted.

Thank you to all of you who care deeply about the work we do.

The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security DOGE has ignored urgently needed reforms and upgrades at the Social Security Administration, according to dozens of insiders and 15 hours of candid interviews with the former acting chief of the agenc...

NEW: Ignoring urgently needed reforms in favor of fruitlessly trying to find evidence of fraud, DOGE descended on the Social Security Administration “thinking it should work like a McDonald’s,” the agency’s former acting chief reveals to ProPublica.

Department of Gore

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells. The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions. The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.

NEW: The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions.

The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.

At my local paper/website the second sentence is always: What to know.

I'm going to publish the entirety of an exchange I just had with the press office of the DOJ. I want you to see how they are talking about truth.

My tent was taken also my blankets, cooler, food, perscription medicines It made it harder for me to be comfortable in this heat and took my shelter away from me made me feel less safe

my Husbands ashes It made me feel alone scared, empty, now I wonder where he is and if he’s all still in his urn and if he’s ok and I hope he’s not in the dump

I had my kid’s baby shoes w/me since we became homeless. It was all I had left of them & they are w/family. The police/city took them w/the rest of our stuff it broke my heart

I have lost everything clear down to the clothes on my back. I now wear a purse that I wear 24-7. I have no trust and I live like an animal and have serious mental issues because of it, help it get better,

Spend some time with the handwritten notes on what people lost in sweeps. Heart-wrenching and infuriating.

Seizure medication, wheelchairs, Social Security cards, dentures, urns of ashes, work uniforms — just some of what's been thrown away during cruel, degrading, utterly counterproductive homeless sweeps.

A good time to revisit this gutting @propublica.org story:

Top Democrat on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies The request follows ProPublica reporting that DOGE cuts and voluntary resignations left thousands of vacant jobs at the Forest Service, severely hampering its ability to fight wildfires.

In June, the Forest Service claimed it had reached 99% of its hiring goal for its wildland firefighting workforce. But ProPublica’s reporting indicated that the agency was selectively counting firefighters, presenting an optimistic assessment to the public.

These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency. Many of the same Republican lawmakers who have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cuts have collectively directed thousands of constituents’ complaints about banks, credit cards, lo...

NEW from me: The CFPB's consumer complaint system is more popular than ever, fielding over 2.7M complaints last year.

But Republican lawmakers still voted to slash the CFPB's budget, even after referring thousands of their own constituents' issues to the agency.

www.propublica.org/article/cfpb...

A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives. Authorities are investigating why two women fell ill at the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival. They both received peptide injections, an alternative therapy promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr....

The doctor doesn’t believe peptides were the cause of the patients’ severe illness after receiving injections at a Las Vegas casino. He asked AI and it responded with a report that “basically says that it is impossible it was the peptides.”

His Former Company Got Caught Employing Undocumented Workers. Now He’s Profiting Off an Immigrant Detention Camp. Disaster Management Group is one contractor behind the nation’s largest detention camp, to be built at Fort Bliss. It’s run by Nathan Albers, who previously co-owned a company that pleaded guilty to a...

This CEO co-owned a company that pleaded guilty in 2019 to a scheme to hire and conceal undocumented workers.

Now he’s profiting off the construction of an immigrant detention camp.

Such critical reporting from Avi Asher-Schapiro + @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social:
www.propublica.org/article/nath...

“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to the Thacker Pass mine, according to a ProPublica review of thousa...

“I’ve been warned my entire life, ‘The FBI’s watching us.’”