I’m still reporting on how immigration officials detain U.S. citizens. Send me tips Nicole.foy@propublica.org or signal nicolefoy.27 www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
25.02.2026 23:47
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I’m still reporting on how immigration officials detain U.S. citizens. Send me tips Nicole.foy@propublica.org or signal nicolefoy.27 www.propublica.org/people/nicol...
Here is the searchable database we made with the stories of 238 of the men our government sent to a prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured. A very large team of journalists from ProPublica and Venezuela did the work to put this together.
projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...
I'm so happy to share that our reporting on the Venezuelan men sent to a prison in El Salvador was just named a finalist for one most special awards in journalism -- the Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. And congrats to all of the other finalists who produced such important work last year!
We’re delighted to announce five finalists for the 2026 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. These finalists distinguished themselves in a competitive and impressive field of nominations, telling stories with outstanding ethics, integrity and impact.
ethics.sjmc.wisc.edu/shadid-award...
A crowd of people on the sidewalk hold signs reading "ProPublica Workers Love a Union Contract" and "Ready to Strike"
A crowd of several doezen people hold signs reading "ProPublica Workers Deserve Fair Pay", "ProPublica Workers Love A Fair Contract", and "We're Not Shutting Up"
1/ Our members are practicing picketing @propublica.org offices in multiple cities right now to demand job security protections and guardrails around AI. We are ready to do what it takes to get a fair contract.
Investigative journalism with a moral force is a public service that we take seriously, and we need a strong contract to do our jobs effectively. That’s why we are ready to strike! Our GoFundMe will help offset the cost of missed pay: www.gofundme.com/f/support-pr...
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NEW: Chicago's top cop said he backed an effort to give the agency charged with probing police misconduct the authority to investigate whether officers have violated city law by helping ICE agents because no one would “trust” internal affairs probes. @wttw.bsky.social
Last night, @repbonamici.bsky.social and 70 other House members sent a letter to Linda McMahon and Kimberly Richey, the head of the Office for Civil Rights, urging them to address the backlog of discrimination complaints.
"We are deeply troubled by these reports, and so is the public," it said.
Andy Mannix, @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I found local police didnt investigate 6 of past 12 shootings that led to injuries & deaths involving federal agents. Among those incidents: the death of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, and the shooting of Marimar Martinez in Chicago
As the crisis in Minneapolis unfolded and we saw the feds thwart local efforts to independently investigate the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, it was hard not to think about the Mexican man killed by ICE agents a few miles from my house in Chicago.
www.propublica.org/article/why-...
14/ We plan to keep writing about this raid and other aggressive enforcement actions like this one in Chicago and across the country. If you have a tip, please reach out to me, @jodiscohen.bsky.social or anyone else at ProPublica. Here’s how to do that securely. www.propublica.org/tips/
Thank you.
13/ You can read our earlier reporting on the Chicago raid. We found little to support the government’s claims that the apartment complex was “filled” with Tren de Aragua gangsters.
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
12/ Last month, state officials launched a housing discrimination investigation into allegations that Flood & Strength in Management used federal agents to illegally force out tenants. State officials said they look forward to a response from them.
dhr.illinois.gov/about-us/idh...
11/ From the beginning there had been questions about whether Flood and her property manager tipped off the government to get rid of squatters. Flood had repeatedly sought court orders to evict squatters and paid $100K+ in legal fees for evictions, according to court records..
10/ We reached out to the property owner, Trinity Flood, a Wisconsin-based real estate investor, and Strength in Management, the management company at the time of the raid. Neither responded to requests for comment.
9/ Despite DHS’ claims, the government has never provided evidence of any Tren de Aragua presence in the building. In fact, federal prosecutors never charged any of the 37 immigrants detained that night with any crimes tied to the gang or that building.
8/ In a statement, a DHS spokesperson defended the raid and said it was performed legally: “Given that two individuals of a Foreign Terrorist Organization were arrested, at a building they are known to frequent, we are limited on further information we can provide.”
7/ Others were separated from their loved ones that night. Among them: a man who'd moved in with his wife and three young daughters days earlier. “They separated me from my family,” he said. “I feel awful.”
His wife is now struggling to support their daughters alone in Chicago.
6/ “They took us out as if we were dogs. As if we were criminals,” said another, who was detained for about two months before he was deported. His wife and 6-year-old son were taken that night, too, and spent a month in family detention before they were returned to Venezuela.
5/ “We were paying our rent, doing things the right way,” one man said. “Then suddenly, boom, the government comes in and takes us out.” A former Venezuelan paratrooper who worked construction and as an Uber driver in Chicago, he spent 2+ months in custody before he was deported.
4/ Over the past few months, I’ve talked to many of the immigrants detained that night, and reached back out to several of them for this story. They were angry to hear that the building’s owner and property manager had facilitated federal agents’ entry.
3/ Their rent money might not have been going to the property owner. We interviewed a U.S. citizen who said that he and others moved Venezuelan families into empty units, charged whatever amount they believed was fair and pocketed the money. “We started making them pay rent to us,” the man said.
2/ The complex was home to dozens of mostly African American & Venezuelan tenants. Some told us they stopped paying rent because of the dilapidated conditions. But close to a dozen Venezuelans insisted they WERE paying rent.
What we found next was surprising.
1/ Federal records show how a dramatic raid in Chicago was facilitated by a landlord who was apparently concerned about immigrants squatting in the building. The government claimed a Venezuelan gang had taken over the apt complex, but that’s not what docs say. 🧵
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
Even a small contribution goes a long way:
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I love this organization and hope management can come to the table with a real willingness to reach a deal. Like all of us at ProPublica, I would much rather be focused on doing the journalism than negotiating our first contract.
Instead, it was about targeting immigrants who were (allegedly) squatting in the building. The building's property owner/manager gave consent for them to search the property. Nowhere in the arrest records is Tda mentioned. Here's our story:
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
You remember the big flashy raid on a Chicago apartment complex? The one where DHS claimed Tren de Aragua had taken over the building.
@jodiscohen.bsky.social and I got records showing that's not what the government said in its own arrest reports from that night.
