Federal immigration agencies have operated under a blanket of secrecy for years, and in the early days of Trump’s second administration, it quickly became evident that it would take a team of dogged reporters to uncover how officials were executing the president’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
After ICE deported several hundred men to CECOT, the megaprison in El Salvador, we obtained internal correspondence outlining the terms of the secretive accord between the U.S. and El Salvador, reviewed immigration court filings that weren’t publicly available and extensively interviewed relatives of detainees. Our reporting showed that the Trump administration had rushed to fill planes and, in the process, transferred men to El Salvador who had entered the United States legally and were actively complying with U.S. immigration rules. At least two were vetted refugees who had come to the U.S. seeking safety, only to be sent to a prison synonymous with abuse.
When the men were released, we published the first comprehensive account of conditions inside the jail — something no outlet had done before because, as one lawyer explained in a court filing, no detainee who had entered was known to have been freed.
In the months that followed, we produced a series of stories that showed how a deportation campaign supercharged by DHS’s broad powers and a massive infusion of funding was sowing chaos, confusion and mistrust.
To do this, we obtained internal memos and inspection documents, reviewed thousands of court records, and interviewed hundreds of immigrants, their lawyers, and current and former DHS officials. We deployed to every city where DHS sent officers, and our journalists put themselves on the front lines of the clashes with civilians that ensued. And we partnered with visual forensic reporters and graphic designers to take readers into places where photojournalists were not permitted to go.
