McKenzie Funk
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mckenziefunk.com
McKenzie Funk
@mckenziefunk.com
12K followers 220 following 57 posts
Reporter @propublica.org, author of The Hank Show and Windfall | Signal: mckenziefunk.01 | Other secure contacts: http://keybase.io/mckenziefunk
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mckenziefunk.com
"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...
January 15, 2026 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
nicolefoy.bsky.social
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
A teenage boy with dark hair and a black and gold football jersey holds his helmet, standing on the side line of a green football field
January 15, 2026 at 9:31 PM
mckenziefunk.com
This is an outstanding and infuriating story, very well done, and well worth a read even with all else that’s going on.
burness.bsky.social Alex Burness @burness.bsky.social · 12d
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...
Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It - Bolts
In a small Alaska town, American Samoans face prosecution for voting in the only country they’ve ever known. They live in a limbo, created by colonial expansion, that now confuses even public official...
boltsmag.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:33 PM
mckenziefunk.com
Breaking from CBS: the officer who killed Renee Good "suffered internal bleeding"

Also from CBS, a few days ago: "but the direction of the tires appears to be facing away from the officer"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ywL...
Retired ICE agent breaks down deadly Minneapolis shooting
YouTube video by CBS Evening News
www.youtube.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
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...
Farewell for now
Guy 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.
www.realchangenews.org
December 12, 2025 at 2:05 AM
mckenziefunk.com
Incredible @matinastevis.bsky.social story about an asylum-seeker kept apart from her son and family as she ping-ponged back and forth between U.S. and Canadian immigration officials has a telling detail about ICE Air.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...
Screenshot of story text: “You need to go because you are American,” Rahel told him. “I will stay here because I am Eritrean.” She smiled weakly, trying to put on a brave face for him. “Remember, mommy is a fighter and she’s going to fight,” she said. Rahel was moved from one place to the next until eventually she boarded a plane, its destination unclear. She realized that, if there were an emergency, she would not be able to reach the oxygen mask with her shackled hands. She complained to an ICE officer. “Nothing we can do,” she said he told her. “These are the rules.” She couldn’t stop imagining that the cabin would experience air loss and she would die trying to reach her mask. When the plane landed, Rahel saw that another detainee had begun menstruating and blood had seeped through her clothes and onto her seat. She would remain like this, blood drenching her clothes, as she moved from the plane to buses and walked in front of dozens of officers. “How can this be happening in America?” Rahel thought.
November 26, 2025 at 12:25 AM
mckenziefunk.com
"A cracked windshield, a waiting officer, a forgotten document: The new family separations often start in the most mundane ways." From our story out today: www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Article text: “In South Carolina, a Colombian family of five went to a government office for a fingerprinting appointment, only to have the parents detained while the children — ages 5, 11 and 15 — were sent into the shelter system for four months. In South Florida, a 17-year-old from Guatemala was taken into custody because officers couldn't make contact with his dad after a traffic stop; his dad is deaf. In Maryland, a 17-year-old from Mexico ended up in a shelter after making a wrong turn onto military property.”
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
marioarizabaez.bsky.social
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.
November 24, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
micarosenberg.bsky.social
NEW: Today we published a new investigation into something happening largely out of view: immigrant kids getting separated from their families and placed in federal shelters, in some cases after something as mundane as a traffic stop🧵 1/
www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record.
Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...
www.propublica.org
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
fastlerner.bsky.social
Amazing research by @natlash.bsky.social on how the wind helped spread the bird flu virus around Ohio and beyond. Scary — and terrifically nerdy www.propublica.org/article/bird...
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
annaleighclark.bsky.social
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.
“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 13, 2025 at 2:35 PM
mckenziefunk.com
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.org ProPublica @propublica.org · Nov 6
📽️ 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
November 6, 2025 at 5:11 AM
mckenziefunk.com
Veterans with cancer struggling to get VA benefits... because it's breast cancer... because they're men... because "gender ideology extremism" caused this cancer?
October 31, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
ericumansky.bsky.social
So a few months ago, we detailed how immigration agents were breaking car windows to grab the people inside.

Well, it turns out one agent just did that *with his gun* and mistakenly shot the person inside and a U.S. marshal.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/21/u...
October 21, 2025 at 9:38 PM
mckenziefunk.com
Idaho's new "law runs against one of the hallmarks of modern public health: that a person’s full participation in society depends on their willingness to follow certain rules." By the great @audreydutton.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/idah...
Idaho Banned Vaccine Mandates. Activists Want to Make It a Model for the Country.
The Idaho Medical Freedom Act makes it illegal to require anyone to take a vaccine or receive “medical intervention.” Leslie Manookian, the activist behind the law, hopes to make it a “societal norm” ...
www.propublica.org
October 21, 2025 at 12:15 AM
mckenziefunk.com
Panicked kidnapping reports during immigration raids in Santa Ana:

“He’s bleeding,” one 911 caller said. “They dumped him into a white van. It doesn’t say ICE”...

Another: “Should we just run?”

New story by @davidmcswane.bsky.social and @hannahallam.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/trum...
How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force
Trump’s DHS appointees have dismantled civil rights guardrails, protected agents’ anonymity and encouraged them to wear masks, threatened groups that stood in their way, and overwhelmed legal challeng...
www.propublica.org
October 21, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
nicolefoy.bsky.social
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.
White words on a black background read: 50+ Immigration agents have the authority to detain whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino. ~130 Agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers. ~20 Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.
October 18, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
ericumansky.bsky.social
Let me help you with that, Speaker Johnson.

This is what we documented.

www.propublica.org/article/immi...
October 17, 2025 at 4:33 PM
mckenziefunk.com
Over on Twitter, DHS just questioned @nicolefoy.bsky.social's vital @propublica.org reporting on American citizens arrested by immigration agents, calling her story "fake news." But—whoops!—they conveniently forgot the link. Here it is. Check the receipts. www.propublica.org/article/immi...
Screenshot of an October 16, 2025 tweet by the Department of Homeland Security claiming that ProPublica's reporting that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been arrested by immigration authorities since January was "fake news" and that DHS enforcement operations are "HIGHLY TARGETED"
October 16, 2025 at 10:27 PM
mckenziefunk.com
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
Screenshot of the article by Nicole Foy of ProPublica: "When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.” But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones."
October 16, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
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
October 6, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
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.
September 30, 2025 at 6:37 PM
mckenziefunk.com
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...
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and President Donald Trump trade testy texts over troop deployment
Gov. 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...
www.opb.org
September 30, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
cengizyar.com
“I didn’t think I’d come here to the United States and the same thing would happen to me.” www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
I Filmed the ICE Officer Who Shoved a Woman. It Felt Like the New Normal.
I arrived in the U.S. eight weeks ago to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines. What I saw Thursday was the culmination of ICE’s aggressive beha...
www.propublica.org
September 27, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by McKenzie Funk
tilleckert.com
8/ If you have tips about new ICE enforcement tactics in courts, my colleagues and I want to hear from you. Reach out to me on Signal (tilleckert.90) or via
propublica.org/tips.
How to Contact ProPublica or Send a Tip Securely — ProPublica
Our job is to hold people and institutions accountable. To do that, we need evidence.
propublica.org
September 26, 2025 at 1:06 AM