very lovely day in alexandria, va. this morning

Virginia Democrats stick with Jay Jones, electing him attorney general despite violent text messages in which he nonchalantly mused about shooting the former GOP speaker of the House of Delegates in the head. @teoarmus.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Grateful to have my thoughts included in this terrific @washingtonpost.com piece about the gay Republican running to be VA’s Lt Gov by @teoarmus.bsky.social wapo.st/3WvuRqV

Virginia is never lacking in political drama when elections come around -- and I'm doing a Reddit AMA with my colleagues Greg Schneider & Erin Cox to answer your questions about races for governor, LG, attorney general & the House of Delegates. It's tomorrow (10/30) at 2 p.m. ET. Ask away here:

NEW: The Trump administration’s rush to process thousands of White South Africans as refugees coincides with plans for overall refugee admissions into the US over the next fiscal year set as low as 7,500. w/ @mradamtaylor.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

A story I wrote from Buenos in Aires in January on meat in Argentina ... suddenly all the more relevant in the U.S. as Trump proposes importing Argentine beef www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

NEW: Trump's 30-day crime emergency in DC is over. But DHS agents are still joining DC police patrols & roll calls, even though DC law bars police from helping fed immigration agents. The result? Immigrants are ending up in ICE custody. w/ Emma Uber www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Claudia Sheinbaum’s government doesn’t want to ban narcocorridos. They want to compete with them @teoarmus.bsky.social reports from CDMX www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The Washington Post can't claim to defend free speech while firing Karen Attiah for exercising hers. The Post should be a newsroom that promotes the freedom of ideas, speech and the press.

NEW: ICE has arrested so many people in Trump's D.C. crackdown that it's crowding the agency’s Northern Virginia processing site, lawyers say, creating "dangerous" conditions in a site not meant to keep people overnight. w/ Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff & @marialuisapaul.bsky.social

told lovingly and beautifully by the brilliant @teoarmus.bsky.social

Wapo article does a good job covering two realities: How deeply watching a parents‘ immigration arrest affects kids, and how DC residents are organizing “walking buses” and neighborhood lookouts to help kids with immigrant parents get safely to school. wapo.st/3VNYZ08

New tonight: The Virginia Court of Appeals appears to have reinstated Arlington’s “missing middle” plan, reversing an order from a circuit court judge that put a stop to the EHO policy.

Amid deportations and fear, Mexicans in the U.S. are sending less money home, squeezing businesses, impacting jobs and leaving homes half-built – conditions that typically drive people to migrate @teoarmus.bsky.social and Karla Gachet report from San Bartolomé Quialana wapo.st/45vO9BX

NEW: Amid Trump's immigration crackdown, Mexicans are sending less money home. The drop is squeezing businesses, cutting jobs and leaving homes half-built – conditions that often drive people to migrate. On the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com, with stunning photos by Karla Gachet

NEW: As immigrant delivery drivers started using mopeds, D.C. police pushed greater enforcement of their vehicles. Now, amid Trump’s federal takeover, ICE is joining their patrols — and detained at least 11 of those drivers.

Federal agents violently detained a food delivery driver as he emerged from a D.C. coffee shop Saturday morning. The incident captured on video showed the officers throwing him to the ground and beating him before sweeping him away in an unmarked vehicle. wapo.st/45Egtkc

NEW in @washingtonpost.com: As Panama has been caving in to Trump's demands and shifting away from China, not even a historic monument is being spared from this geopolitical fight. My latest, on Central America's largest ethnic Chinese community -- now caught in the middle:

On the front page of today’s @washingtonpost.com: What 16 of the migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador’s CECOT experienced in that notorious mega prison w/ Sam Schmidt, Helena Carpio @marialuisapaul.bsky.social @silviafosterfrau.bsky.social @asteckelberg.bsky.social

“Welcome to hell” We spoke to 16 Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. This is the most complete view yet of the conditions they faced — which, some experts said, may violate conventions against torture. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

NEW: In a time of travel bans and visa fees, Trump is moving to let Argentine tourists into the US without a visa — a political gift to his friend Javier Milei. But a State Dept cable acknowledges that Argentina doesn’t meet a key requirement for that exemption. w/ @hannahnatanson.bsky.social

Julio González Jr., released last week from the Terrorism Confinement Center, said he was beaten, robbed of thousands of dollars and denied a lawyer. “I practically felt like an animal,” González told The Post.

Washington Post: U.S. Deportee, Freed from Salvadoran Prison, Describes ‘Horror Movie’ By @teoarmus.bsky.social, Samantha Schmidt and @arelisrhdz.bsky.social "Cells of nine to 15 people with metal benches for beds — thin mattresses were brought in for photographs and then taken away." Gift link!

Julio González Jr. thought he was being deported back to Venezuela. Instead, the plane landed in El Salvador. “The horror movie started there,” he said. What the Venezuelans freed from CECOT experienced at the world’s largest prison, w/ Samantha Schmidt, Helena Carpio & @arelisrhdz.bsky.social

Cristosal has relied on U.S. funding to document detainee abuse, investigate corruption and advocate for critics targeted by the Salvadoran government. Trump cut their funding; now the rights organization is fleeing the country @teoarmus.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Surprising and illuminating story from @teoarmus.bsky.social about immigrants increasingly sending their savings home as their futures in the U.S. dim: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Statement from the Arlington County Board re: latest missing middle ruling: “The Court of Appeals chose to hold a hearing following their June 24 order. That hearing was held Monday, July 8. The previous order was withdrawn pending the issuance of a new order after this week’s hearing.”

Arlington's missing middle policy ending single-family-only zoning was effectively reinstated Tuesday by a Virginia panel of judges, who ruled that homeowners suing over that effort did not adequately take real estate developers to court, too. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Analysis by Teo Armus | The political spotlight this year is on Virginia, which kicked off its statewide election cycle on Tuesday. Here’s what stood out as November’s matchups came into view:

His great-grandfather enshrined birthright citizenship. His mother was jailed in WWII internment. Now, Norman Wong has become an unlikely spokesman in the fight for American citizenship, with its presumed guarantees of civil rights, free speech and due process. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

The Trump administration ground refugee admissions to a halt, suspending a program that lets in thousands of people fleeing war or political persecution -- except now for one group: White South Africans. @teoarmus.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/... vía @teoarmus.bsky.social

“Mr. Rodríguez, we’re going to miss you,” a girl told the teacher after singing. 
“I’m going to miss you, too,” he said, fighting back tears of his own. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

As federal layoffs drive the need for more private sector jobs in the DC area, Amazon falls behind in hiring for HQ2 — and has less confidence it will meet its long-term staffing targets — reports @teoarmus.bsky.social. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

“There is no reason why they’re being held,” the judge said. “If this was a criminal case. … I’d throw you out of my chambers.” www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

“There is no reason why they’re being held,” U.S. District Leonie M. Brinkema said. Then, addressing a government lawyer: “If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers” Salvador Rizzo and @teoarmus.bsky.social report www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

My colleagues Katie Mettler and @teoarmus.bsky.social reviewed thousands of pages of govt documents and found that lenient safety requirements and lax state oversight — which spanned the administrations of at least six governors — made the Key Bridge less safe. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

They're here legally. They have SSNs, a driver's license, jobs cleaning hotels. They gave immigration officials their address. On Monday, federal agents took them from their home in handcuffs as their children screamed @teoarmus.bsky.social @mariasacchetti.bsky.social Steve Thompson wapo.st/4hcBWof

He escaped the cartel that kidnapped him. Then he learned there’s "no more asylum." Here’s one man's quest to seek protection in the U.S. at a time when the nation is rethinking its decades-long commitment to offering refuge: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

ICYMI @teoarmus.bsky.social reported on the impact of funding freezes on refugees. “Peck said the organization’s clients, including Afghans who fought alongside U.S. soldiers, are receiving eviction notices at properties around the region because LSSNCA has been unable to offer its rent assistance.”

Good morning. I just started as a columnist in the Washington Post Opinions department. It is, ahem, a deeply weird week to start this job. But I have some thoughts on what it means to me. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

My colleagues and I have been working to break news + write stories holding powerful people accountable. These are the top stories on our homepage right now, one of which I worked on. Our newsroom work is continuing. No one has ever told me what to write. If that changes, I’d speak out and leave.

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s sweeping ban on refugee admissions, saying the presidential executive order represented an improper nullification of congressional authority, w/ @teoarmus.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

NEW in WaPo: A sudden, unexplained halt in federal funding has forced refugee nonprofits like @globalrefuge.bsky.social to go weeks without routine reimbursements -- impacting vulnerable families and spurring widespread layoffs. Via @teoarmus.bsky.social 👇 www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Refugee resettlement groups have gone weeks without receiving payments for existing programs, forcing orgs to lay off staff and threatening assistance for refugees already in the US. One agency that funds them said it did not request any payment freeze. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

There are 1000s of kids (unaccompanied children) who could walk into immigration courts by themselves w/o their lawyers b/c of a new stop work order that keeps the nonprofit legal providers from doing their work. Story led by @teoarmus.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Tiny O'Neill, Nebraska, took a big hit from a 2018 ICE raid. The town is still recovering, its Latino residents again fearful. "The potential removal just lingers on for years like a war wound that won’t heal." @anniegowen.bsky.social wapo.st/4gtmQu8

Brielle Beyer's trip to Wichita with her mom Justyna was the biggest accomplishment yet for this 12-year-old skater. Their flight home ended in tragedy. What the DCA collision took from one Virginia family. Please take some time to read this one. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Not far from Trump’s White House, immigrants grapple with unknowns: wapo.st/4ge5y44 Grateful for colleagues like @marissajae.bsky.social @teoarmus.bsky.social Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff for deftly capturing how deportation operations can fray the social fabric of a community in my hometown and region.