Melissa Sanchez
@melissa-sanchez.bsky.social
Reporter at @ProPublica.org interested in immigration and labor. Based in Chicago. Also a fan of parenting memes.
17/ My essay on the Venezuelans detained the night of the raid was first sent in our Dispatches newsletter, which spotlights wrongdoing around the country. Sign up to receive it every Saturday: www.propublica.org/newsletters/...
Dispatches
www.propublica.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
17/ My essay on the Venezuelans detained the night of the raid was first sent in our Dispatches newsletter, which spotlights wrongdoing around the country. Sign up to receive it every Saturday: www.propublica.org/newsletters/...
16/ The Department of Homeland Security did not answer our questions about the raid. In a statement, it said the operation was “performed in full compliance of the law.” You can read the full statement here.
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
2025-11-06 Tricia McLaughlin statement
www.documentcloud.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
16/ The Department of Homeland Security did not answer our questions about the raid. In a statement, it said the operation was “performed in full compliance of the law.” You can read the full statement here.
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
15/ When her husband calls her from detention, a knot forms in the back of her throat. Primera said she wants to lift his spirits. She assures him that everything is fine. She had forced a smile on her face as she told me this, but her eyes were shiny with tears.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
15/ When her husband calls her from detention, a knot forms in the back of her throat. Primera said she wants to lift his spirits. She assures him that everything is fine. She had forced a smile on her face as she told me this, but her eyes were shiny with tears.
14/ Primera and her daughters are now living in a homeless shelter in Chicago, while her husband waits in jail to be returned to Venezuela. Primera said she rarely leaves the shelter, afraid of getting detained again - and separated from the girls.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
14/ Primera and her daughters are now living in a homeless shelter in Chicago, while her husband waits in jail to be returned to Venezuela. Primera said she rarely leaves the shelter, afraid of getting detained again - and separated from the girls.
13/ Yelianny Primera was released after the raid, with an ankle monitor and instructions to get her three young daughters’ birth certificates and passports in order so they can be returned to Venezuela together. Her two youngest daughters are U.S. citizens.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
13/ Yelianny Primera was released after the raid, with an ankle monitor and instructions to get her three young daughters’ birth certificates and passports in order so they can be returned to Venezuela together. Her two youngest daughters are U.S. citizens.
12/ Mejías and her son returned to Venezuela with even less than what her family had when they had left. Her son’s toys, clothes, shoes and tablet. The green backpack with $600 in savings. The used SUV her husband had bought to get to work. All of it was gone.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
12/ Mejías and her son returned to Venezuela with even less than what her family had when they had left. Her son’s toys, clothes, shoes and tablet. The green backpack with $600 in savings. The used SUV her husband had bought to get to work. All of it was gone.
11/ “They said they were looking for criminals, but the boy and me, and my husband, we’re not criminals,” Mejías said. Her husband washed dishes at a restaurant in Chinatown. Her son was in first grade at the school across the street from their apartment building.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
11/ “They said they were looking for criminals, but the boy and me, and my husband, we’re not criminals,” Mejías said. Her husband washed dishes at a restaurant in Chinatown. Her son was in first grade at the school across the street from their apartment building.
10/ “I don’t know why they did this,” Norelly Mejías told me. She and her 6-year-old son spent a month at a Texas detention facility before she gave up on her asylum case and asked to be sent back to Venezuela. Her son cried for his father and refused to eat. He lost weight.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
10/ “I don’t know why they did this,” Norelly Mejías told me. She and her 6-year-old son spent a month at a Texas detention facility before she gave up on her asylum case and asked to be sent back to Venezuela. Her son cried for his father and refused to eat. He lost weight.
9/ Everybody told me they were angry and confused about what had happened. Their lives were torn apart. Their families were separated. Asylum-seekers were returned to a country with an authoritarian government and a collapsed economy that they had once fled.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
9/ Everybody told me they were angry and confused about what had happened. Their lives were torn apart. Their families were separated. Asylum-seekers were returned to a country with an authoritarian government and a collapsed economy that they had once fled.
8/ I wrote about how we found them, what they went through and how different their profiles are from what the government alleged. You can read that essay here: www.propublica.org/article/chic...
What the Trump Administration’s Videos From a Chicago Immigration Raid Don’t Show
Detained and deported Venezuelans tell their stories of what happened when immigration agents raided their apartment building.
www.propublica.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
8/ I wrote about how we found them, what they went through and how different their profiles are from what the government alleged. You can read that essay here: www.propublica.org/article/chic...
7/ The government refused to identify any of the 37 immigrants it detained. We set out to track them down and tell their stories. We ID’d 21 immigrants and interviewed 12. Some were in jail, some back in Venezuela. One was at a homeless shelter with her three young daughters.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
7/ The government refused to identify any of the 37 immigrants it detained. We set out to track them down and tell their stories. We ID’d 21 immigrants and interviewed 12. Some were in jail, some back in Venezuela. One was at a homeless shelter with her three young daughters.
6/ Video footage of the raid went viral on social media, and it got plenty of attention from local and national news outlets. But one thing has been missing from nearly all of the coverage: the voices of the Venezuelan men and women taken away in the middle of the night.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
6/ Video footage of the raid went viral on social media, and it got plenty of attention from local and national news outlets. But one thing has been missing from nearly all of the coverage: the voices of the Venezuelan men and women taken away in the middle of the night.
5/ After the cameras left, prosecutors didn’t charge anybody with a crime. Instead, the immigrants are being sent back to Venezuela. The government hasn’t released any evidence to back its claims about the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, or guns or explosives in the building.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
5/ After the cameras left, prosecutors didn’t charge anybody with a crime. Instead, the immigrants are being sent back to Venezuela. The government hasn’t released any evidence to back its claims about the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, or guns or explosives in the building.
4/ These are some of the Venezuelan men and women who were detained on Sept. 30 in Chicago in one of the most aggressive and highly publicized immigration raids to take place in a U.S. city in recent history. You can read our story here. www.propublica.org/article/chic...
“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime
Authorities 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...
www.propublica.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
4/ These are some of the Venezuelan men and women who were detained on Sept. 30 in Chicago in one of the most aggressive and highly publicized immigration raids to take place in a U.S. city in recent history. You can read our story here. www.propublica.org/article/chic...
3/ Agents zip-tied Jhonny Caicedo’s hands behind his back, marched him out and asked him questions. He answered softly, his eyes darting to a television crew that accompanied the agents. Later, Caicedo told me he thought the cameras were there to document what he saw as abuse.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
3/ Agents zip-tied Jhonny Caicedo’s hands behind his back, marched him out and asked him questions. He answered softly, his eyes darting to a television crew that accompanied the agents. Later, Caicedo told me he thought the cameras were there to document what he saw as abuse.
2/ Naudelys Yeyes told me she pleaded with agents to stop hitting a Venezuelan man she knew. “There are children here,” she said she told them repeatedly, worried about her 4-year-old son who was watching.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
2/ Naudelys Yeyes told me she pleaded with agents to stop hitting a Venezuelan man she knew. “There are children here,” she said she told them repeatedly, worried about her 4-year-old son who was watching.
Thank you! And so nice to see your face here ☺️
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Thank you! And so nice to see your face here ☺️
Reposted by Melissa Sanchez
16/ I hope you will read the full story. It was a team effort by @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social, @tchristianmiller.bsky.social @mariamelba.bsky.social, Sebastian Rotella, me and many more, part of a collaboration between @propublica.org/ @frontlinepbs.bsky.social
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime
Authorities 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...
www.propublica.org
November 16, 2025 at 3:27 PM
16/ I hope you will read the full story. It was a team effort by @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social, @tchristianmiller.bsky.social @mariamelba.bsky.social, Sebastian Rotella, me and many more, part of a collaboration between @propublica.org/ @frontlinepbs.bsky.social
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
www.propublica.org/article/chic...
Reposted by Melissa Sanchez
15/ A Chicago judge decided the building was too unsafe. She appointed a new property manager and said the tenants should be relocated. All the people who lived at 7500 S. South Shore Drive when the raid began — immigrants and U.S. citizens — may soon be gone.
November 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
15/ A Chicago judge decided the building was too unsafe. She appointed a new property manager and said the tenants should be relocated. All the people who lived at 7500 S. South Shore Drive when the raid began — immigrants and U.S. citizens — may soon be gone.
Reposted by Melissa Sanchez
14/ She was among the tenants who attended a recent online court hearing about the future of the building. Tenants and city inspectors described ongoing horrible conditions: mice and gnats, exposed wires, leaking pipes, squatters.
November 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
14/ She was among the tenants who attended a recent online court hearing about the future of the building. Tenants and city inspectors described ongoing horrible conditions: mice and gnats, exposed wires, leaking pipes, squatters.