McKenzie Funk

McKenzie Funk

@mckenziefunk.com

Reporter @propublica.org, author of The Hank Show and Windfall | Signal: mckenziefunk.01 | Other secure contacts: http://keybase.io/mckenziefunk

11.9K followers227 following61 posts

McKenzie Funk reposted

Early this year, I visited Ingram, a TX town of ~1,900, to check out a tip. The area was starting to recover from its worst flood in a century. But as Latino workers drove to jobsites to help rebuild, the tipster said, a cop in a black Dodge Charger kept stopping them ... 🧵

McKenzie Funk reposted

McKenzie Funk reposted

Seven months after @nicolefoy.bsky.social reported on the 170+ U.S. citizens (and counting) detained by immigration authorities, it keeps happening and happening and happening, even to the same people

Eric Umansky@ericumansky.bsky.social

New from PP: You know those 'Kavanaugh stops,' where justice allowed racial profiling but said they'd be no big deal? Well, ICE agents have now stopped and held this American *3 times* Earlier this month, they *shackled him* He's thinking of moving to Mexico www.propublica.org/article/immi...

McKenzie Funk reposted

I’m in D.C. again today as several U.S. Citizen families share their stories about their (often violent) arrests by immigration agents In this picture: Anabel Romero of Idaho speaking while her 14YO, 8YO & 6YO listen behind her. All are citizens detained during an FBI-ICE raid in Idaho last year

ProPublica@propublica.org

NEW: Today, Congressional Democrats are spotlighting a particularly troubling part of Trump's immigration dragnet: the American kids — including some featured in ProPublica's reporting — who have been collateral damage in the deportation campaign.

McKenzie Funk reposted

NEW: For the first time, ProPublica has been able to quantify how many U.S. citizen children have been directly affected by Trump’s immigration crackdown: more than 11,000 kids had a parent detained — and that’s an undercount. 1/ 🧵 www.propublica.org/article/trum...

propublica.orgTrump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen KidsA ProPublica analysis of new ICE data shows that Trump has detained parents of U.S. citizen children at about twice the rate that Biden did, and moms have been deported four times as often.

McKenzie Funk reposted

THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section.

An average of 600 kids and parents had been arriving at Dilley every month. But "in February, those so-called books-ins fell to 133. As of mid-March, they dropped again to just 54." Many moms and kids we wrote about are already out, including Edison, a Chicago 7th grader who got home Wednesday.

Mica Rosenberg@micarosenberg.bsky.social

NEW: This week, the average daily population at Dilley dropped to 100 people, compared with over 900 in January. The shift follows weeks of mounting public pressure generated in part by the widespread publication of letters written by detained children. www.propublica.org/article/fami...

McKenzie Funk reposted

NEW: Nike says its factory workers should earn enough to pay their basic needs and have some money left over. In Indonesia, its factory workforce has shrunk where the minimum wage is considered enough to live on. And it has grown, dramatically, where the opposite is true.

propublica.orgNike Is Moving Jobs to Low-Wage Regions of IndonesiaAfter moving manufacturing to the developing world to save on labor, Nike and other apparel brands are shifting employment in their Indonesian supply chain away from high-wage parts of the country and...

McKenzie Funk reposted

Hello! I’m the reporter who has been tracking citizens detained by immigration agents. And last night, I noticed something: A lot of them were at the State of the Union, including a number of whom I’ve written about. Their stories should be known:

McKenzie Funk reposted

McKenzie Funk reposted

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

McKenzie Funk reposted

This is 18-mo-old Amalia waving to me when she was detained. She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families. She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/

"No puedo respirar"—the same phrase @nicolefoy.bsky.social and I heard while reporting our recent @propublica.org story about immigration agents' use of banned chokeholds. These and other neck restraints have been prohibited since at least 2011 in detention facilities: www.ice.gov/doclib/deten...

ice.govice.gov
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

🚨WHOA. The El Paso Medical Examiner says it will rule the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at ICE's "Camp East Montana" tent camp as a homicide. He was allegedly choked to death by a guard during a "struggle" after he refused to enter a housing unit without his medications.

McKenzie Funk reposted

I’m one of the ProPublica reporters who has been documenting the aggressive tactics federal agents are using against immigrants & U.S. citizens All eyes are on Minnesota right now, but I want to tell you about Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-YO citizen in Houston who was choked by immigration agents in October

This is an outstanding and infuriating story, very well done, and well worth a read even with all else that’s going on.

Alex Burness@burness.bsky.social

Eleven American Samoans in Alaska face serious prison time for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. Theirs is a wild story of colonialism, cops, “voter fraud” panic, small-town beef, and family. I spent months on this + am so glad to now be able to share it: boltsmag.org/prosecuted-f...

McKenzie Funk reposted

Replying to @guyoron.net

Thank you to my editors, fellow staff, vendors and volunteers, and most importantly, our readers. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. Read my full farewell letter here: www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/12...

realchangenews.orgFarewell for nowGuy Oron writes a heartfelt letter about his nearly four years working at Real Change, expressing gratitude to readers for their support and pride his impactful journalism.

McKenzie Funk reposted

1. This year traffic stops by Florida cops have led to at least two dozen immigrant kids being separated from their family or caregivers and placed in federal shelters. For one 15-year-old, it began with a cracked windshield.

McKenzie Funk reposted

McKenzie Funk reposted

McKenzie Funk reposted

A Black Hawk helicopter. SWAT teams repelling to the roof. 300 agents. Flash-bang grenades. A TV crew. “It’s 20,000 of them running through my house like we got Saddam Hussein in the closet." For all that, fed prosecutors filed no criminal charges against anyone who was arrested. Stunning report.

propublica.org“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a CrimeAuthorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arres...

War ravaged” Portland? @robwdavis.bsky.social , Steve Suo, and Joanna Shan watched hundreds and hundreds of videos to find out. (And the federal government, apparently, did not.)

ProPublica@propublica.org

📽️ WATCH: We reviewed 700+ videos, hours of footage from ICE protesters and counterprotesters in Portland. Trump justified the deployment of National Guard troops by calling the city "War ravaged," with an ICE office under siege. That's not what we found. 🔗 Full story: https://propub.li/43fRCmF

Veterans with cancer struggling to get VA benefits... because it's breast cancer... because they're men... because "gender ideology extremism" caused this cancer?

Eric Umansky@ericumansky.bsky.social

"We love our veterans." -Trump “Veterans benefits aren’t getting cut,” VA sec. Reality: The admin is making it far harder for male vets w/ a deadly disease --breast cancer--to get benefits and care. B/c...the fight against "Gender Ideology Extremism" www.propublica.org/article/vete...

McKenzie Funk reposted

Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents. I did it because the government isn’t. This is what I found.

The reality of Kavanaugh stops: American citizens dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. Citizens held in the rain while in their underwear. A pregnant citizen's door blown off while Kristi Noem watched. Important story by @nicolefoy.bsky.social of @propublica.org

Eric Umansky@ericumansky.bsky.social

BREAKING from PP We found immigration agents have held more than 170 *citizens* The govt doesn't track citizens held. So we did. We tallied: Nearly 20 kids, two w/ cancer More than 20 citizens held for day or more, incommunicado www.propublica.org/article/immi... by @nicolefoy.bsky.social

McKenzie Funk reposted

I recently reported on an ICE officer who was publicly reprimanded and “relieved of his duties” after shoving a woman to the ground in an NYC immigration court. Well, he’s back. DHS did not respond to a request for comment. Original story: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... Photos: Carol Guzy

McKenzie Funk reposted

1/ DEVELOPING: A journalist was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital following another incident with an ICE agent at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration court in NYC. The last I heard, he was getting X-rays for his lower back.

Trump texts OR governor Kotek on Sunday: "They attacked our ICE Patriots last night... I won’t let that happen in America!" Staffer texts Kotek after talking to police: "There was one misdemeanor arrest. Also a report of a laser pointer at a helicopter and that’s it.” www.opb.org/article/2025...

opb.orgOregon Gov. Tina Kotek and President Donald Trump trade testy texts over troop deploymentGov. Tina Kotek and an assistant to President Donald Trump exchanged tense texts throughout the weekend as it became clear the President planned to deploy 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to p...

McKenzie Funk reposted

For those folks posting about South Korea's angry response to Trump's ICE raid on Korean companies in Georgia, this interview & post from me helps explain why: in part, national PTSD from 40 years of military dictatorship. I've covered Korea since 1980. 🌺 timshorrock.substack.com/p/my-intervi...

timshorrock.substack.comMy interview with BBC about Trump's ICE raid on the Hyundai/LG plant in GeorgiaI spoke to the Beeb's Business Report this morning about the South Korean response to the raid and the anger ICE has generated. They wanted to emphasize what the Koreans did wrong, but I persevered.