"“So it was his son who actually reached out to me and then his son connected me to a kind of like a family friend that was here, because for a while they couldn't find him.”"
"“I had to connect with the Mexican consulate to see if they could help me find where he was, (and I was) trying to also understand what was going on or what was happening. It really was a metaphor of what was going to happen next.”"
"“Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration's first major concentrated immigration sweep, which soon took over the city and left immigrant communities living in fear."
"“We had community members and community organizers that we were speaking to, that we were communicating with and how they were preparing and what they were feeling and what the plans were,” she said."
Bystander videos of a flower vendor’s arrest by federal immigration agents began reaching Laura Rodríguez Presa through Chicago community groups and social media. She sought information about Leodegario Martínez Barradas, believed to be the first immigrant in Chicago detained and deported during the Trump administration. She learned Barradas had no family in Chicago, with his family living in Mexico. Rodríguez Presa connected with Barradas’s son and a family friend to locate him, then contacted the Mexican consulate for help. Her search revealed a broader unfolding crackdown. Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s first major concentrated immigration sweep, soon spread across Chicago and left immigrant communities living in fear. Her monthslong coverage contributed to winning a Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting.
Read at Poynter
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