Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Aura Bogado

@aurabogado.bsky.social

15K followers 490 following 430 posts

Investigative reporter. Freddie Freeman fan. On Signal: https://tinyurl.com/mwjwj4zs

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 2d

If a news website publishes the term "Customs and Border Patrol," it tells me the reporter, at least one editor, and (presumably) a fact checker haven't made the distinction between two federal agencies. For me, that deeply weakens the reporting.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 2d

Customs and Border Protection is an agency.
Border Patrol is an agency, within that agency.

"Customs and Border Patrol" does not exist.

Reposted by Aura Bogado

UC Berkeley Labor Center @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social · 3d

The UC Berkeley Labor Center mourns Kent Wong, our longtime colleague and friend. A passionate champion for workers—especially immigrants—and students, Kent dedicated his life to justice. Our hearts are with our colleagues at the UCLA Labor Center.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks for asking! I'm an investigative reporter with several sources; however at this point DHS has acknowledged the practice and only denies that it coined the name.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

For many reasons. I’ll share one: Parents sometimes flee a direct threat to their own lives and leave a child with another family member while they work out the details and gauge the safety of crossing into and living in the United States.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

Several HHS sources shared details of it with me for the past few weeks, and several more confirmed specific parts of it yesterday. DHS has now acknowledged it but denies that it coined the term.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

Happy to answer more questions you may have about this system. It’s one tiny in the world I know a lot about and wish was better known by the public.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

Sure, I understand how this is really confusing. Every unaccompanied child is obviously different but some children are held in shelters awaiting release to a sponsor — often a parent or sibling — already living in the U.S.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

I haven’t been able to confirm a child who’s been personally affected yet; DHS did acknowledge the practice but denies the use of the term stemmed from the agency.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 8d

Hey thanks for asking. DHS has acknowledged this new practice, but denies the use of the term.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 9d

Children sometimes walk the length of entire countries to reach a parent waiting in the U.S. They're here to reunite with their family. It's all but impossible to imagine the burden that this operation will place on children who will feel forced to make this terrifying choice.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 9d

It's already much harder to be released to a sponsor under this administration and many age-out when they turn 18, often to adult ICE custody. There had long been imperfect but well-meaning bright lines between the shelter network and ICE; sources tell me that line is increasingly blurred.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 9d

Shelters that house unaccompanied minors are bracing for "Freaky Friday," the start of an ICE operation that will first issue letters to children, seeking to pressure them to return to the countries they've fled in exchange for a cash payment. If they decline, their parents will be targeted by ICE.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 11d

The Conviction Integrity Unit helped overturn 248 wrongful convictions between 2016 and 2024. It's overturned exactly 0 in the last year.

Important work here by @danhinkel.bsky.social!

www.injusticewatch.org/project/deny...

Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent

State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations again...

www.injusticewatch.org

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 12d

Thank you for this! Been off this app but I believe a San Diego-area reporter may have reached out already (according to a text thread I saw on my phone earlier today)?

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 17d

At least three more immigration judges were terminated today, incl a longtime judge at headquarters who previously served as Air Force JAG for 20+ years.

Meanwhile, the gov is asking retired judges to come back as “part-time and intermittent reemployed annuitants.”

www.justice.gov/legal-career...

Immigration Judge

www.justice.gov

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 17d

If you're an immigration attorney whose client's case was dismissed by an IJ in 2025, can you contact me? DMs are open, and you can also Signal me: tinyurl.com/mwjwj4zs

Signal Messenger Contact

Follow this link to message on Signal.

Reposted by Aura Bogado

Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 18d

Senior reporter Maya Dukmasova's recent investigation of a UIC crime lab involved submitting more than 45 FOIA request, reviewing more than 8k pages of documents, and interviewing more than 50 people. If you've got questions or want to learn more about her process, join us on Reddit! buff.ly/BnaI0DC

A screenshot of an AMA post in r/foia

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 19d

I don’t like Jimmy Kimmel Live I just like a world in which that show exists and I can say that I don’t like it.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 22d

More than a dozen immigration judge were just fired. Such firings have been common on Friday evenings and often involve newer judges still on probation. But today's firings include a Sacramento IJ who's been on the bench close to 20 years.

"The judge version of Jimmy Kimmel," one source told me.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 22d

People running for office — especially those unaffected by immigration enforcement — create visual opportunities to advance campaigns. It's up to the press to decide whether to shift away from the work of local community members who are personally affected in order to reward performative candidates.

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 22d

DMV: Grab your tickets to a sneak peek of Gabrielle Ewing's Credible Fear next Wednesday! Discussion will include @yaelschacher.bsky.social and @sarahpierce.bsky.social:

"Credible Fear" Sneak Peek Fundraiser

Join Immigrant Food for a very special sneak peek of "Credible Fear", a forthcoming feature length documentary about the asylum system.

www.eventbrite.com

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · Sep 9

This doesn’t refer to the individual who was sold as a woman. It refers to her as a girl.

Oversight Dems @oversightdemocrats.house.gov · Sep 8

NEW PAGE FROM EPSTEIN’S BIRTHDAY BOOK: Epstein and a longtime Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a "fully depreciated" woman to Donald Trump for $22,500.

Reposted by Aura Bogado

Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · Sep 5

Although I should with any luck see some $$ from this settlement, I would rather AI never existed in the first place and I doubt that $3,000 per stolen work will impede a company that is valued at almost $200 billion. (Also: is a "work" only books or articles, too?)

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/t...

Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit With Book Authors

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Aura Bogado

Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · Sep 4

19 people say they were sexually assaulted under Leonard Dixon – a Chicago superintendent who draws a $280,000 yearly salary and whose public records trail, including voting records, ties him to suburban Detroit.

Amazing work here by @kellygarcia.bsky.social:

www.injusticewatch.org/juvenile-cou...

Superintendent of Chicago’s youth jail might not live here, records show

Leonard Dixon has run the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center — one of the largest youth jails in the country — for a decade. Records and interviews suggest he might not live in Chicago an...

www.injusticewatch.org