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Local and State Police Are Joining Trump’s ‘Deportation Force’
Texas law enforcement agencies and others around the nation are reviving a long-dead "task force" program that led to racial profiling in the past.
Francesca D'Annunzio
Francesca D'Annunzio is the Texas Observer's 2025 David McHam investigative reporting fellow. D’Annunzio has reported on topics ranging from deportations in the Dominican Republic, Christian nationalism, U.S.-Mexico border colonias, right-wing sheriffs, to zoning and housing policy in Texas. Her work has been published or syndicated in The Guardian US, The Dallas Morning News, Religion News Service, The Global Investigative Journalism Network, The Texas Standard, and The Arizona Republic, among others. She received her master’s in investigative journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and is an alumna of the Arabic Flagship and Humanities programs at The University of Texas at Austin. She is proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic.
Articles by Francesca D'Annunzio
‘Asylum as We Know It’: An Immigration Historian on Trump, Refuge, and Exclusion
After World War II, "People understood that if they had allowed more immigrants into the United States, many of them wouldn't have been killed in Europe."
New DEA Chief’s Background Includes Surveillance Tech and Border Misinformation
Derek Maltz formerly worked at PenLink, a Nebraska-based tech firm that has sold software that can track phone locations without a warrant to agencies like ICE and Texas DPS.
ICE Agents in Churches ‘Does Not Bode Well for the Future of Religion’ in America
“They’re de facto endorsing government interference with the church—the very government interference with the church that they've complained about in the past.”
The Border Propagandist
Jaeson Jones, a former DPS captain-turned-MAGA influencer, is helping lay the groundwork for mass deportations and conflict with Mexico.
Texas Gave $1 Million in Expert Contracts to Defend Border Buoys in Court
Records reveal additional costs of the controversial Rio Grande barrier that the governor describes as “low-cost.”
Will Texas Finally Wind Down Border Security Spending?
Top state officials have already made promises that, under Trump, money can be shifted to education. But that didn’t happen last time.
She Fled Mexico as a Child. Now, She Teaches Migrant Kids in Tamaulipas.
“When I see a mom with her child trying to cross, it's like I see myself in her.”
Texas Will Be on the ‘Front Lines’ of Mass Deportation
“We're going to defend our immigrant communities from Trump's attacks, while we hold Trump and people like Elon Musk accountable for spreading lies and scapegoating immigrants.”
Border 911: The Misinformation Network Profiting Off the ‘Invasion’ Narrative
Dark money and charity organizations led by former intelligence officers and ex-feds have been spreading propaganda and laying the groundwork for presidential election challenges.