Isabela Dias
@isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social
Reporter at Mother Jones covering immigration, Latin America, and more. Falo português.
More than 60 people protected under a landmark settlement agreement for families who were separated at the border have been detained and at least 16 have been deported by the Trump administration. "The perpetuation of forcible separation upon this group is never ending," one lawyer told me.
Separated at the border, torn apart again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
motherjones.com
Read my July 18 story for the original reporting that the New York Times didn’t link to... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Assault, misogyny, verbal threats: Records detail new allegations against Rep. Max Miller
Police reports and filings in a bitter custody dispute raise new questions about the conduct of an Ohio Republican as he campaigns for a third term.
motherjones.com
Eric Umansky@ericumansky.bsky.social · last wk.GOP House member--and fmr Trump advance man--allegedly -threw boiling water on his then-wife -held a gun to her head -broke his daughter's collarbone. She's 2 -abused abuse a fmr Trump WHer too When a reporter asked him about it , he threatened to block their # www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...
After the family separation crisis of 2018, many impacted families earned legal status in the United States through a settlement agreement. Years later, some of them are being detained and deported by the Trump administration. This week on @revealnews.org, one mother relives her worst nightmare.
Children are being left behind as ICE detains parents across the country
Six miles from Mar-a-Lago, Guatemalan families are being ripped apart. Kids are left to fend for themselves as ICE detains their parents.
motherjones.com
Mirsy Alva López was separated from her 3-year-old son in 2018. Then last year, she was deported despite having legal protection. On this week’s @revealnews.org, how the Trump administration is violating a settlement agreement for separated families.
Children are being left behind as ICE detains parents across the country
Six miles from Mar-a-Lago, Guatemalan families are being ripped apart. Kids are left to fend for themselves as ICE detains their parents.
motherjones.com
In 2018, Mirsy Alva López arrived at the US-Mexico border with her 3-year-old son Ederson. Then border patrol agents ripped him from her arms and took him away. [1]
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart Again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
motherjones.com
“We never went far enough to repair the original sin of the separations at the border. And now we’re perpetrating that same harm all over again.” I wrote about how the Trump administration is violating a landmark settlement agreement for families who were separated at the border years ago.
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart Again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
motherjones.com
The DOJ filed the first-ever application with an “alien terrorist” removal court dormant since its creation in 1996. “The fact that the government had never previously used this process…speaks to the discomfort that just about everyone who’s ever looked carefully at the statute has come away with.”
The Trump administration is trying to revive a “Zombie” deportation court
"It's like getting into a car that came out of the factory 30 years ago but has never been started."
motherjones.com
This week, TPS for Haitians is expected to end. No state will feel the impact more than Florida, home to roughly 350,000 -- many of them healthcare workers. “The workers are suffering, but the patients are going to suffer more.” My latest for @motherjones.com: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Florida's nursing homes are bracing for life without Haitian TPS workers
The Supreme Court ended its legal status. Their patients will pay the price.
motherjones.com
Imagine being a kid and learning both your parents were arrested by ICE. You’ll have to pay rent and survive on your own. I shadowed four siblings—US citizens near Mar-a-Lago—as they try to do that. I'll be thinking about their story for a long time 1/x www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
ICE took Mom and Dad. Now the Perez kids are home alone.
Four American siblings left to fend for themselves—and they're not the only ones.
motherjones.com
ICE took mom and dad. Now the Perez kids are home alone.
ICE took Mom and Dad. Now the Perez kids are home alone.
Four American siblings left to fend for themselves—and they're not the only ones.
motherjones.com
Jared Kushner’s leading role in the bungled negotiations makes him complicit in what, by most accounts, has been a costly and humiliating defeat for the administration—and for the nation. Check out our latest cover story: tinyurl.com/7feeb4hw
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
"An utter disregard for safety and just humane treatment."
motherjones.com
Deaths in ICE custody have reached a record high; 49 people since January 2025. As many as 29 just in this fiscal year. But the Trump administration is shutting down an independent DHS oversight office that handles complaints about conditions and treatment in detention facilities.
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
"An utter disregard for safety and just humane treatment."
motherjones.com
“I live in constant fear that I will be subjected to further baseless detentions just for going about my daily life." On May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a Florida-born US citizen, was detained by ICE in Alabama for the third time (!) in the span of a year. And he's suing the federal government.
ICE keeps detaining the same US citizen again, and again, and again. He’s fighting back.
“I only wish to live my life in peace,” Leonardo Garcia Venegas said in a declaration.
motherjones.com
A judge ordered her return after a wrongful deportation. Now comes the hard part. “I think a lot of people assume that the story ends when your loved one comes back. But that’s just the beginning of when the healing process starts.”
A Judge Ordered Her Return After a Wrongful Deportation. Now Comes the Hard Part.
"They failed me once, they made a mistake once, what makes you think it's not going to happen again?"
motherjones.com
The "justices’ immigration histories span much of the American experience...In each case, these newcomers paved the way for a descendant to reach the privileged pinnacle of the country’s civic life. These nine men and women will now sit in judgment of citizenship for their fellow countrymen."
In Supreme Court Justices’ Histories, a Story of Immigration in America
nytimes.com
When the SCOTUS justices hear oral arguments over Trump’s effort to rewrite the Constitution and limit birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara tomorrow, they'll be considering arguments pushed by a handful of controversial legal scholars. @pemalevy.bsky.social and I unpacked their theories here:
The nonsense case against birthright citizenship
Meet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.
motherjones.com
NEW: The government is holding Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Sacramento DACA-protected mother deported after her February green card interview, at the San Ysidro port of entry despite an approaching court-ordered deadline to bring her back to the United States, advocates and her legal team say.
"Flagrant Violation": Judge orders return of mother deported despite DACA
"I followed the rules and trusted the process, and I just want to return to my family and rebuild my life."
motherjones.com
“I followed the rules and trusted the process, and I just want to return to my family and rebuild my life.” A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Sacramento mother who was detained at her green card interview and deported to Mexico within 24 hours.
"Flagrant Violation": Judge orders return of mother deported despite DACA
"I followed the rules and trusted the process, and I just want to return to my family and rebuild my life."
motherjones.com
"What the government’s really trying to do here is muddy the waters enough so that we won’t notice that it is rewriting the clear text of the Constitution itself." I talked to Cody Wofsy, ACLU lawyer in the SCOTUS birthright citizenship case, about Trump's push to upend the 14th Amendment.
The case that could upend who gets to be an American is back at the Supreme Court
A long-settled Constitutional right faces a familiar legal assault.
motherjones.com
On February 18, Damaris Bello accompanied her mother to a green card interview in downtown Sacramento. By the next morning, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez had been deported to Mexico, where she hasn't lived in 27 years and despite having valid DACA status.
“I feel like I’m grieving my mother”
Damaris Bello’s mother attended a green card interview—and was deported less than 24 hours later.
motherjones.com
SCOOP: In a January letter to Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), DHS says 270 DACA recipients have been arrested from January to September 2025. In addition, 174 DACA applicants have been deported, according to ICE records. Those numbers differ from what was shared with Sen. Dick Durbin in February.
Immigrants are successfully challenging the Trump administration's mass detention policy and winning release from ICE custody—thanks to a centuries-old legal principle and constitutional right. My latest for @motherjones.com:
24,403 lawsuits and counting: How habeas corpus became the front line of immigration defense
"We have to kick the door down."
motherjones.com
ICE took their papers—and won’t give them back
ICE took their papers—and won’t give them back
Immigrants are being released from detention without documents proving their status.
motherjones.com
Steven Tendo is a pastor and asylum seeker from Uganda who has survived unimaginable harm and persecution back home. He has been fighting his case for years and reporting to ICE regularly. Yesterday, he was taken into custody—days before a scheduled check-in—and moved from Vermont to New Hampshire.
The (almost) unbelievable tortures of Steven Tendo
A snake pit. Severed fingers. COVID. A US immigration judge.
motherjones.com
“It’s not at all surprising that this is happening with these ICE [removal] officers being sent out to basically treat people terribly,” a one-time deputy chief counsel with the agency told me, anticipating more escalation of violence. My latest for @motherjones.com:
Former members of ICE say recent violence is "by design"
"What has changed is there has been an encouragement from the top to be much more aggressive in enforcement."
motherjones.com
“Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers,” Stephen Miller said in late 2023. But as I wrote here before Trump's re-election, researchers estimated that large-scale deportations would result in fewer jobs for Americans, not more.
How Trump’s “mass deportation” plan would ruin America
It would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal.
motherjones.com
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe U.S.-Born Unemployment Rate Rose After Trump Reduced Immigration www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...
"We have voted. We have protested. We have been killed. We have been persecuted. We have been imprisoned. We have been tortured. We have done everything in our power to have a path to democracy—and we deserve that opportunity.”
They fled Maduro and cheered his downfall. But they fear deportations, too.
"Until there is true justice in Venezuela and the economic means to return and rebuild the country, I don't believe Venezuelans can go back."
motherjones.com
This year felt like a decade. I wanted to highlight some of the immigration reporting I've done over the past 12 months: In January, I wrote about the big money fueling the right's plot to end birthright citizenship.
The big-money right-wing push to upend the Constitution—and kill birthright citizenship
“We’re in totally uncharted territory.”
motherjones.com
