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Isabela Dias

@isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social
15K followers 168 following 128 posts

Reporter at Mother Jones covering immigration, Latin America, and more. Falo português.

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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
ICE took Luis and his son Andrés into custody together. Then, the agency separated them transferring the boy as "unaccompanied" to ORR, which cares for migrant kids with no parent or legal guardian. Andrés ended up in foster care. The new interior family separations w/ @samanthamichaels.bsky.social:
motherjones.com
“You kidnapped my son”
ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Flávio Bolsonaro got 56 million votes yesterday. He's under investigation for alleged “money laundering, illicit capital flight, corruption" after he negotiated a $24-million investment from a now-jailed banker—accused of leading the biggest bank fraud in Brazil's history—to finance the movie.
motherjones.com
How a Bolsonaro biopic ended up at the center of Brazil's presidential election
“This movie is going to be a nightmare for the Left.”
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“Twenty-five years is not temporary—25 years is a lifetime." The struggle of Salvadorans fleeing the country’s civil war was a determining factor behind the legislative framework for TPS. Now, that protection is under threat. My latest for @motherjones.com:
motherjones.com
"A sword of Damocles": Salvadoran TPS holders are in limbo as DHS does nothing
They fought for protected status. Now they could lose it.
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Kiera Butler @kieraevebutler.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This new one from me has been a long time coming: Pete Hegseth’s spiritual advisor wants an America dominated by “biblical masculinity.” I went over to his house for brunch. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Pete Hegseth dreams of holy war. Meet his spiritual adviser.
Doug Wilson preaches iron discipline and male dominance. One of his disciples runs the Pentagon.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A staggering 55 people have died in ICE custody since Trump's return to office. But the agency's official death toll record-keeping doesn't account for people like Prisciliano, whose health deteriorated in detention but died shortly after the agency released him from custody to be hospitalized.
motherjones.com
The Deaths ICE Doesn’t Count
Prisciliano Trejo Ricano passed away in the hospital days after being released from detention.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 06/08/2026
The tragedy traces back to an ICE stop and deportation of Nixon Giovanni Pérez Paz. A year later, amid acute struggle, his wife, Glendy, decided to "self-deport." Weeks after reuniting, the couple was found dead in a field. “If my brother hadn’t been deported…Both of them might still be alive.”
motherjones.com
She followed ICE’s advice to self-deport. Five weeks later, she was dead.
A St. Louis mother took her three daughters to reunite with her deported husband in Guatemala. Neighbors found the couple bound and shot in a sugarcane field.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
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.
motherjones.com
Separated at the border, torn apart again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
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Abby Vesoulis @abbyvesoulis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Read my July 18 story for the original reporting that the New York Times didn’t link to... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
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.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
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.
motherjones.com
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.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 25/07/2026
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.
motherjones.com
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.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
A federal judge found the deportations were unlawful and violated the agreement. After almost a year in Guatemala, Mirsy and her kids were allowed to return to the US in May. I followed the family's journey back. But for them and other separated families, the fight to stay together isn't over. [8]
motherjones.com
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart Again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Mirsy wasn't alone. Dozens of parents and children are facing re-separation, even as they reel from the horror they survived the first time. In the last year and a half, more than 60 people protected under the Ms. L settlement have been detained and at least 16 have been deported, the ACLU says. [7]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
In a matter of days, she was deported to Guatemala—without Ederson and his older sister Briseidy. Mirsy was reliving a nightmare. The first time she was separated from one child. Now she had been separated from both. The kids uprooted their lives to be with her in Guatemala and it wasn't easy. [6]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Mirsy registered as a class member and received three-year parole status and a work permit. Ederson started seeing a bilingual therapist and he got better. The family was rebuilding their lives in West Palm Beach until, last summer, Mirsy got picked up on her way to work. [5]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Ederson continued to struggle after the reunification. He became hypervigilant and didn’t want to go to school because It reminded him of the shelter. Years later, the Biden administration reached a settlement with the ACLU in the class action lawsuit known as Ms. L that challenged the policy. [4]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Experts called the family separation policy “an act of state-sponsored child abuse.” When a court order brought Mirsy and Ederson back together, he didn’t recognize her at first and pulled away from her. It was like he had started to forget her. He asked: “Why did you leave me?” [3]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The first Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy was in full swing. Mirsy and Ederson were separated for four and a half months. She had no idea what had happened to him. It turns out he was in a government shelter in Phoenix, just an hour away from where she was detained. [2]
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
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]
motherjones.com
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart Again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
“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.
motherjones.com
Separated at the Border, Torn Apart Again
Years after being split up and reunited, a family gets caught in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
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.”
motherjones.com
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."
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Laura Morel @lauracmorel.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
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...
motherjones.com
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.
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Samantha Michaels @samanthamichaels.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
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...
motherjones.com
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.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 15/06/2026
ICE took mom and dad. Now the Perez kids are home alone.
motherjones.com
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.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 09/06/2026
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
Cover of Mother Jones, featuring a baby Jared Kushner swimming after a dollar with the headline Nevermind the Corruption: How nepo baby Jared Kushner is selling America out.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 15/05/2026
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
motherjones.com
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
"An utter disregard for safety and just humane treatment."
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
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.
motherjones.com
Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone.
"An utter disregard for safety and just humane treatment."
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
“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.
motherjones.com
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.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 09/04/2026
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.”
motherjones.com
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?"
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
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."
nytimes.com
In Supreme Court Justices’ Histories, a Story of Immigration in America
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
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:
motherjones.com
The nonsense case against birthright citizenship
Meet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Estrada Juarez went to Mexico City over the weekend to pray at the Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe then flew to Tijuana Sunday morning, before driving to the border today. Her parole authorization was approved, according to her lawyer. Her daughter Damaris Bello is waiting to reunite with her.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
On March 23, a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Estrada Juarez's return within seven days, finding that she “was removed in flagrant violation of the regulatory protections afforded to her under DACA."
motherjones.com
“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.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
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.
motherjones.com
"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."
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 24/03/2026
“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.
motherjones.com
"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."
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
"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.
motherjones.com
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.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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.
motherjones.com
“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.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The January letter shows the ICE areas of responsibility where the arrests of DACA recipients have taken place:
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The office of Rep. Ramirez has reached out to DHS to clarify the inconsistency, saying in a March 4 letter that the "discrepancies between your two responses demonstrate gross incompetency or intentional misdirection." I've also reached out to DHS for clarification.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The February letter shared with Sen. Durbin and first reported by CBS News stated that 261 DACA recipients had been arrested and 86 deported between January and November 2025. (Note the distinction between recipients and applicants in the two letters.)
cbsnews.com
ICE arrested 261 DACA recipients over 10 months last year, document shows
Federal immigration agents arrested 261 DACA recipients during the first 10 months of the second Trump administration, according to statistics shared with Congress.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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.
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Schuyler Mitchell @schuylermitchell.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
My dispatch from the Jersey suburbs: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
"How am I going to sell my house with this crap in my backyard?"
ICE wants to turn warehouses into detention centers. The suburbs are fighting back.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
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:
motherjones.com
24,403 lawsuits and counting: How habeas corpus became the front line of immigration defense
"We have to kick the door down."
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 25/02/2026
ICE took their papers—and won’t give them back
motherjones.com
ICE took their papers—and won’t give them back
Immigrants are being released from detention without documents proving their status.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
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.
motherjones.com
The (almost) unbelievable tortures of Steven Tendo
A snake pit. Severed fingers. COVID. A US immigration judge.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
“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:
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."
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
“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.
motherjones.com
How Trump’s “mass deportation” plan would ruin America
It would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal.
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
"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.”
motherjones.com
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."
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Isabela Dias @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Finally, in December, I reported on the fallout of the administration's crackdown on legal immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. More to come in 2026.
motherjones.com
Trump is “basically shutting down the legal immigration system”
In response to the DC shooting, the administration is blocking pathways for rule-following and vulnerable immigrants.
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