Nicole Foy

@nicolefoy

investigative reporter covering immigration, labor and more for @propublica.org signal: nicolefoy.27

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Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jul 6

been thinking all morning about this graf in @micarosenberg.bsky.social and @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social's story

Sometimes the deportation orders issued in immigration court have been coming so fast that lawyers say even they have a hard time explaining them to their clients. Within a span of three hours on a single morning in April in a downtown New York immigration courtroom, Judge Jem Sponzo issued deportation orders fore 25 minors, almost everyone on her docket appearing virtually that morning. Some of the hearings were only a few minutes long, and some of the minors were too young to understand what was happening to them.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jun 2

I asked DHS several questions about this last night (do they dispute Dulce's citizenship? What led to the mistake?) Here's what they sent this morning:

“On October 20, 2023, when CBP encountered Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz near Lukeville, Arizona, she told officers she was a citizen of Mexico. The Biden administration released her into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. After she failed to show up for her hearing, she was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on January 31, 2025.”

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jun 2

INBOX: Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, 22, received her U.S. passport today. Her lawyers say DHS filed a request to dismiss her immigration proceedings Late last year, DHS had detained the young mother for 25 days, moving her thru 5 detention centers & claiming she was "NOT a U.S. citizen."

A tall man in a grey suit, white shirt and red tie poses with a shorter woman with dark brown hair, black shirt and jeans. She is holding a blue U.S. passport in the photo and the one next to it.

Text below the photo reads:

1 June 2026

Statement on the End of Immigration Court Proceedings for U.S. Citizen Dulce

A screenshot of a text message from Tricia McLaughlin @TriciaOhio reads:

False. Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Diaz is NOT a U.S. citizen--she is an illegal alien from Mexico.

She did NOT provide a valid U.S. birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim that she is a U.S. citizen.

On December 14, ICE arresting this illegal alien in Baltimore, Maryland. On October 20, 2023, when CBP encountered her near Lukeville, Arizona, Madrigal-Diaz claimed she was a citizen of Mexico and was born on October 18, 2003.

Her case is being adjudicated.

Any allegation that ICE does not allow detainees to contact legal assistance is FALSE. All detainees have access to phones to communicate with lawyers.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· May 28

this is such a perfectly polite way to say that this New York ICE official lied in a ~sworn declaration to the court~ gothamist.com/news/federal...

Emails unearthed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys also showed that ICE agents were at times aware they were violating the judge’s temporary restraining order.

“We are in violation of the TRO,” Zanello wrote in an Aug. 18 email, adding that there were 48 people in the ICE holding rooms that day and 13 more coming in.

That same day, Zanello signed a sworn declaration that said, “as of 11:59 p.m. EDT Aug. 15, 2025, there are currently 8 aliens in custody at the 26 Federal Plaza ERO Field Office.”

According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, ICE contractor logbooks showed that, at the time, there were over 20 people detained at the time than Zanello attested to on Aug. 15, and 60 people on Aug. 18, the day she signed the declaration.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· May 8

as someone who just had a full spiral panic over having to expense a Venmo transaction, I need to know the Expensify code for purchasing a bottle of Kash Patel-branded bourbon www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

After my story appeared, I heard from people in Patel’s orbit and people he has met at public functions, who told me that it is not unusual for him to travel with a supply of personalized branded bourbon. The bottles bear the imprint of the Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve, and are engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director,” as well as a rendering of an FBI shield. Surrounding the shield is a band of text featuring Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: Ka$h. An eagle holds the shield in its talons, along with the number 9, presumably a reference to Patel’s place in the history of FBI directors. In some cases, the 750-milliliter bottles bear Patel’s signature, with “#9” there as well. One such bottle popped up on an online auction site shortly after my story appeared, and The Atlantic later purchased it. (The person who sold it to us did not want to be named, but said that the bottle was a gift from Patel at an event in Las Vegas.)

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Apr 11

An underappreciated part of these stories is how many of the young U.S. citizen children currently being forced out of the country with their parents may face this very same fate years down the road

In a video posted on Instagram, Terrazas reported that Morales, who does not speak English, was born in the U.S. but was taken to Mexico by his parents as a toddler.

He said he came back to the U.S. as an adult, crossing the border legally using his birth certificate. He was in the process of obtaining his Real ID.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Apr 10

why did they lose? who can say

The footage also showed the agents laughing over their use of tear gas and celebrating so-called Triple-Chaser canisters as “fucking awesome.” Minutes before Cortez deployed the tear gas canister that Caravello threw, he rejected a suggestion from another agent to create a diversion to move protesters away from the road and called for more tear gas.

“We’ll fucking gas the shit out of them like we did earlier,” Cortez said.

Prosecutors also argued that Caravello’s overhand throw was particularly dangerous, although body-camera footage shows a federal agent throwing a tear gas canister at protesters overhand.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Apr 8

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 24

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

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 7

Over and over, the patterns repeat

After he's shot three times, Martinez is seen being pulled from his vehicle, thrown to the ground by an ICE agent, face down, and then handcuffed. Personnel on the scene are not seen in the video providing medical care until after he is handcuffed.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 3

4 reviews lol. Trustworthy

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 3

Blumenthal holds up the text messages from the CBP agent who shot U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez (widely reported: he bragged she had five shots, 7 holes.) When asked, she did not condemn the agents actions or say whether the agent was still on the job.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 3

U.S. citizens Leo Venegas, Javier Ramírez & Marimar Martínez are asked to stand while Sen. Blumenthal asks Noem if she’s met the citizens detained by DHS. She didn’t answer. Blumenthal says she can meet these 3 I wrote about all 3 in this @propublica.org story www.propublica.org/article/immi...

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Mar 3

I’m in Senate Judiciary today, where DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to answer oversight questions related to immigration enforcement tactics, the arrests of U.S. citizens, children in detention centers, terrorism threats + more

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Feb 25

I've asked DHS about many of these cases -- going back a year. Their overarching answer is always the same:

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Feb 11

You know how it’s a @propublicaguild.org picket because Scabby has a tip line

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Feb 10

alt text version bc i posted too fast:

black words on a white background read:

After this violent arrival, law enforcement rounded up the entire crowd, zip-tied most of the adults and many teenagers, and ordered everyone onto the track. Law enforcement then detained the crowd of hundreds for four hours without food, refusing to let mothers feed their
hungry and crying babies. They lined up the crowd, sorting them into groups partly based on perceived immigration status, while wrongly presuming light-skinned individuals to be citizens and dark-skinned individuals to be undocumented. Law enforcement used racial epithets for Latinos and, in denying some Latino detainees water, they said “that’s what you get for being here.”

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Feb 9

quite a quote to give the paper of record about a raid in your town (especially when it’s easily disproven by wall-to-wall local news coverage in English and Spanish) Must read story about the Wilder, Idaho raid last year by @agpnw.bsky.social (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...

White text on a black background reads:

Four months later, the full impact of the raid on Wilder varies depending on who is doing the talking.

On the day after the raid, half the students in Wilder, where more than 70 percent of the school population is Latino, skipped class. Ms. Gross, who is white, said anyone who sees a black S.U.V. roll through town, regardless of their race, “freezes up.” Ms. Ramirez-Smith predicts that civil rights lawsuits are coming.

Yet Mayor Rhodes insisted there had been “zero impact” on the town.

“These were not our people,” he said of the raid. “What happened out at that track had nothing to do with Wilder.”

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 24

There was already another DHS presser with Border Patrol's Greg Bovino scheduled for 1 ET. We'll see if they keep it www.dhs.gov/live

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 24

can't stop thinking about the woman in pink

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 23

watching more Minneapolis videos and thinking about this @lataco.bsky.social headline from ~October~ lataco.com/daily-memo-f...

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 19

DHS confirms they detained this elderly U.S. citizen/ Hmong-American man in St. Paul Sunday No explanation for taking him outside in subzero temps. A GoFundMe posted by woman who says she is his sister-in-law says he has severe psoriasis & 5YO grandson was present www.gofundme.com/f/support-ch...

Yesterday in St. Paul, ICE conducted a targeted operation of 2 convicted sex offenders. One of the criminal targets had convictions for sex with a minor and sexual assault. The other target had convictions for sex assault with penetration in the first degree, domestic violence, and violating a protective order. Both also have convictions for failure to register as sex offenders. They both have final orders of removal from an immigration judge.

The US citizen lives with these two convicted sex offenders at the site of the operation. The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID’d. He matched the description of the targets. As with any law enforcement agency, it is standard protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement.

Both of these sexual predators remain AT LARGE in St. Paul. We will be providing the public with photos and descriptors to help us locate and apprehend these public safety threats.

Two ICE agents in dark clothing lead an elderly Hmong-American man in blue shorts, white crocs, and a red/white checkered blanket outside into the snow. He is not wearing a shirt.

Tricia McLaughlin of DHS retweet of Matt McDermott post that says the following:

Yesterday, Reuters captured ICE breaking down a door and dragging a man out half-naked into the freezing cold in Saint Paul.

According to his sister-in-law, they returned him after realizing he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen with no criminal record.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 19

Later that morning, Shelly accompanied her mother to an MRI scan. After the scan was complete, Shelly said her mother tried to leave the hospital.

However, another nurse intervened and physically prevented Sanchez Dominguez from leaving, pushing her back onto the MRI table, Sanchez Dominguez told Shelly. Shelly said that at no point was Sanchez Dominguez informed by ICE agents why she’d been detained.

There’s no patient here with that name’

The same morning, Ray Valenzuela, a pastor at the Minnetonka Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where the family attends services, arrived at the hospital to support the family.

With his pastor ID and Bible in hand, Valenzuela approached the front desk and said he was there to see Sanchez Dominguez. The staff told him there was no one by that name under the care of the hospital.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 19

abcnews.go.com/US/lawyers-a...

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 18

Joined @cspanwj.bsky.social early this morning to discuss the latest @propublica.org investigation by @mckenziefunk.com and me Watch here: www.c-span.org/program/wash...

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 15

We showed the videos to former police and immigration officials. They were appalled, calling it bad policing that would likely get a local cop disciplined or fired. We sent the same videos to DHS. A spokesperson defended them all and wouldn’t say if any officer was punished.

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 15

Hear Arnoldo tell his story in his own words:

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 15

But here’s the strangest part: In one video, you can hear Arnoldo protest agents taking his phone. After, he tracked the phone as it circled near the detention center where they took his dad Finally, it stopped in a parking lot. Police recovered it from a vending machine that buys phones

Two officers in dark blue uniforms lean over a white and green ATM machine, looking inside

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 15

Meanwhile, Arnoldo’s dad was taken to an ICE facility. The Bazans claim agents threatened to charge Arnoldo w/ assault if his dad didn’t agree to deportation. He was in Mexico before his family could reach him. DHS didn’t answer our Q’s about the alleged threat. HPD didn’t answer us either.

A middle aged man with dark black hair and a yellow stripped collared shirt holds a baby with a light blue hat, matching shirt and pants

A teen with dark hair and a dark blue/black collared shirt poses for a picture in the mirrow with a middle aged man in a white collared shirt, holding his thumb up

Nicole Foy@nicolefoy· Jan 15

Hospital staff immediately recognized signs of a chokehold. From Arnoldo's bedside, his sister Maria tried to file an assault report w/ Houston PD. But police were skeptical of her account & their own authority: “What can HPD do to federal agents?” Maria said a cop told them.