The Trump administration opened 2018 with a renewed attack on immigrants. The arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir and the targeting of No More Deaths volunteers in Arizona were early salvos in a campaign of harassment and intimidation that reached its apex with the family separation crisis.
1,224 Complaints Reveal a Staggering Pattern of Sexual Abuse in Immigration Detention. Half of Those Accused Worked for ICE.
By Alice Speri
The Day After Trump’s ICE Raid in a Small Tennessee Town, 550 Kids Stayed Home From School
By Ryan Devereaux, Alice Speri
Hidden Horrors of “Zero Tolerance” — Mass Trials and Children Taken From Their Parents
By Debbie Nathan
Desperate Asylum-Seekers Are Being Turned Away by U.S. Border Agents Claiming There’s “No Room”
By Debbie Nathan
An Abused Woman Came to the U.S. Seeking Asylum. The Government Took Her 5-Year-Old Son. This Is How She Got Him Back.
By Debbie Nathan
Photos of Children Being Teargassed Stoke Outrage — While Playing Into Trump’s Manufactured Border Crisis
By Natasha Lennard
Undocumented Immigrant Faces a Choice: Become an Informant for ICE or Be Deported
By Ryan Katz
ICE Has Conducted Hundreds of Raids in New York Since Trump Came to Power. Here’s What Those Operations Look Like.
By Ryan Devereaux
As ICE Targets Immigrant Rights Activists for Deportation, Suspicious Vehicles Outside Churches Stoke Surveillance Fears
By Nick Pinto
The Trump Administration Carried Out Thousands More Family Separations Than Previously Acknowledged
By Ryan Devereaux, Alice Speri, Cora Currier
An Iraqi Family Sought Asylum in the U.S., Thinking the Worst Was Over. Then Their American Nightmare Began.
By Ryan Devereaux
Nine Humanitarian Activists Face Federal Charges After Leaving Water for Migrants in the Arizona Desert
By Ryan Devereaux
ICE Shackled 92 Somalis for 40 Hours on a Failed Deportation Flight. That Was Just the Start of the Abuse.
By Maryam Saleh
In South Texas, Border Residents Struggle to Cope With the Latest Military Surge
By Melissa del Bosque
He Grew Up Thinking He Was American — Until He Was Deported
By Daniel Medina
ICE Detainee Diagnosed With Schizophrenia Spent 21 Days in Solitary Confinement, Then Took His Own Life
By Jose Olivares
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
Contact the author:
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