Reporters don’t have access to Camp East Montana, one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. Emergency calls from the Texas facility offer a glimpse of unfolding crises faced by those locked inside, with few ways to get help.
Perla Trevizo
Perla Trevizo is a Mexican-American reporter born in Ciudad Juárez and raised across the border in El Paso, Texas, where she began her journalism career. Trevizo spent more than 10 years covering immigration and border issues in Tennessee and Arizona before joining the Houston Chronicle as an environmental reporter. She has written from nearly a dozen countries, from African refugee camps to remote Guatemalan villages, with the goal of broadening readers’ understanding of the global issues that impact the local communities where she has worked. Her work has earned her national and state awards including the Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism, French-American Foundation Immigration Journalism Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow for a story done in collaboration with Arizona Public Media. She was also honored as the 2019 Arizona Journalist of the Year by the Arizona Newspaper Association. She is based in El Paso.
Posted in
Immigration
Records reveal “systemic neglect” after immigrant died at Camp East Montana
Geraldo Lunas Campos repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health before he died at Camp East Montana in West Texas. Records indicate the facility’s staff failed to respond adequately.
Posted inImmigration
The Trump administration is facing scrutiny over its billion-dollar border wall contracts in Texas’ Big Bend region
A lawsuit alleges the Trump administration awarded most new Texas border wall contracts to two firms. One has faced legal issues and shoddy construction claims.
Posted in
Investigations
Trump’s DOJ is pushing prosecutors to pursue “fatally flawed” cases against Texas border crossers
Federal prosecutors, who can face discipline for not advancing the Trump administration’s priorities, are bringing military trespassing charges against immigrants with little evidence.
Posted in
Investigations
Texas court district leads U.S. in immigrants challenging legality of federal detention
The administration’s push for mass deportations has resulted in more than 18,000 habeas petitions, a historic high. Texas and California account for about 40% of cases this year.
Posted in
Investigations
Venezuelan deportees say they endured months of abuse inside a Salvadoran prison
Trump framed the deportation of more than 230 Venezuelan men as a long-overdue campaign to rid the country of immigrants who have committed violent crimes. The facts tell a different story.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
He came to the U.S. to support his sick child. Then he disappeared from a Texas detention facility.
Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to a Salvadoran prison, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas had followed U.S. immigration rules when he arrived at the Texas border with Mexico. Then Trump rewrote them.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Trump administration knew most Venezuelans deported from Texas to a Salvadoran prison had no U.S. convictions
Homeland Security records reveal that officials knew that more than half of the 238 deportees to El Salvador were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws.
Posted in
Investigations
Trump is spending billions on border security. Some residents living there lack basic resources.
The president has reportedly urged Congress to pass $175 billion for border security. But residents of Del Rio, Texas, and Douglas, Arizona, say basic needs — like safe drinking water and hospital access — aren’t being met.
Posted in
Investigations
Trump is sending migrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo. One mother speaks out about her son’s detention.
Yoiker Sequera’s mother reflects on her fears after finding out her son had been detained in the infamous prison in Cuba for two weeks before being deported to Venezuela.