iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I still believe if I don't sacrifice everything for journalism I won't succeed. I'm trying to stop believing that. New substack post where my thoughts and updates live! jessdipierroobert.substack.com/p/past-prese...

jessdipierroobert.substack.com

Same Skies Straddle a Wormhole

and getting to the same destination with different means.

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Foreign Policy @foreignpolicy.com · 20/08/2026

While cuts did not create Haiti’s gang recruitment crisis, they gutted the programming designed to keep young people out of the armed groups: job training, income support, education, and community mediation, Jess DiPierro Obert writes. foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/19/u...

foreignpolicy.com

U.S. Funding Cuts Fuel Child Recruitment Into Haitian Armed Groups

“Without USAID support, all you have left is the rule of the ganglord.”

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Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

NEW co-publication @foreignpolicy.com and @newhumanitarian.bsky.social with support from @pulitzercenter.org: Since the start of 2025, when roughly 80% of US-funded programs in Haiti were cut, the number of children recruited into armed groups has tripled. foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/19/u...

foreignpolicy.com

U.S. Funding Cuts Fuel Child Recruitment Into Haitian Armed Groups

“Without USAID support, all you have left is the rule of the ganglord.”

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

BREAKING: Alligator Alcatraz has officially closed. A lot of outlets won’t report on this, but the Miccosukee Tribe played a key role in the fight.

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

SCOTUS has issued its decision on TPS, ending protections for Haitians and Syrians in the U.S. To better understand what this means for people now facing deportation, please read this recent reporting by @jessobert.bsky.social that details the deadly conditions 350K Haitians will be returned to.

prismreports.org

SCOTUS holds the fates of 20,000 Haitian TPS recipients on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

SCOTUS will decide if the Trump administration can deport Haitian TPS recipients, many of whom have built lives in Maryland and fear being returned to deadly conditions in Haiti

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 25/06/2026

Sam Alito: It is the worst kind of discrimination to create majority-minority congressional districts and so we are going to kill the Voting Rights Act. Also Sam Alito: There is nothing we can do if the president cancels legal status because he thinks the United States is a white country.

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Fourth (and *last*) ruling from #SCOTUS is in TPS. For the usual 6-3 majority, Justice Alito holds that federal law forecloses judicial review of statutory challenges to the executive branch's termination of temporary protected status for Haiti, Syria, etc.: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

supremecourt.gov

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Prism @prismreports.org · 23/06/2026

SCOTUS holds the fates of 20,000 Haitian TPS recipients on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, @jessobert.bsky.social reports. SCOTUS will soon decide if the Trump admin can deport Haitian TPS recipients, many of whom have built lives in Maryland & Delaware & fear being returned to deadly conditions in Haiti.

prismreports.org

SCOTUS holds the fates of 20,000 Haitian TPS recipients on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

SCOTUS will decide if the Trump administration can deport Haitian TPS recipients, many of whom have built lives in Maryland and fear being returned to deadly conditions in Haiti

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Reposted by Jess DiPierro Obert

Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · 10/03/2026

NEW: Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes. Dozens of ordinary people, including many children, have been killed and injured in these drone operations.

hrw.org

Haiti: Drone Strikes Put Residents at Risk

Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes.

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Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I wrote a piece about stewardship — and what it means to keep reporting across the U.S. while the ground keeps shifting. “Light can give us the feeling that no time has passed at all… it can pull us back to specific points in history.” Full essay here:

substack.com

Field notes 002: Across the Heartland

I find myself trekking across the United States for stories, and it has me thinking.

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Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

I’m trying to share more beyond my published reporting, so here’s the first ‘Field Notes’: behind-the-scenes observations and fragments that often shape the stories I later pitch and pursue: open.substack.com/pub/jessdipi...

open.substack.com

Field Notes 001: Salt, Stone, and Ash Trees

Notes on taking a vacation from New York, traveling through Croatia and Sicily, and following threads of family history.

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Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Here's a trailer for my new short doc that's making its way through the festival circuit called RUN FROM RAIN / KOURI POU LAPLI. It follows a 16-year-old teen in Haiti who flees from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince due to gang violence that took the lives of his parents. vimeo.com/1082328698

vimeo.com

Run from Rain - Trailer

RUN FROM RAIN / Kouri Pou Lapli is a short documentary that follows 16-year-old Macul Nelson, who fled Port Lafiteau near Haiti’s capital after losing both…

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Jess DiPierro Obert @jessobert.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

I spoke with @michaeldeibert.bsky.social about my upcoming film, RUN FROM RAIN, that follows a family displaced by ongoing gang violence in Haiti. Take a listen!

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