Felipe De La Hoz

New York

Investigative Immigration and Policy Reporter at Freelance

Co-Founder and Writer at BORDER/LINES

@nydailynews Editorial Board. Cover immigration elsewhere. Teach @nyu_journalism. Co-creator of https://t.co/uYohIFAyaN

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Articles

The Worst Part of Trump’s Big Bill Is Getting Almost No Attention

1 week ago | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

For many weeks now, Senate Democrats have been trying to home in on the right message against the Republicans’ preposterously titled Big Beautiful Bill. While the budget bill narrowly cleared the House after some false starts, its deficit-busting characteristics have thus far kept it from the unified GOP support it needs to clear the Senate. Yet the Democrats similarly are not united on the best strategy to turn the bill into a political loser among voters: The bill is a tax break for the rich.
The Laws Propping Up Trump’s Masked Deportation Army

1 month ago | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

It seems like every week now brings new written accounts and harrowing videos of federal agents—mostly from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, but also from the ATF, DEA, FBI, and other federal agencies detailed to Trump’s all-encompassing immigration crackdown—engaging in what a worried public increasingly sees as police state tactics.
Trump’s Sneaky Plot to Steal Your Data-and Weaponize It Against You

1 month ago | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

Over the first 100 days of his second administration, President Donald Trump, working in concert with Elon Musk’s DOGE proxy—which it still seems a stretch to consider a bona fide government agency—has unleashed an onslaught against both our foundational democratic concepts and the civil service erected on top. Still, one of the less-noticed attacks on our democracy has been the siloing and use-case restrictions on government-collected data. Yes, I know.
No One Is Safe From America’s Abusive Immigration Authorities Anymore

Mar 19, 2025 | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

It probably never crossed Fabian Schmidt’s mind that he wouldn’t breeze through security at Boston’s Logan Airport. A legal resident of New Hampshire, he flew back to the U.S. on March 7 after a visit to Luxembourg, but never made it through security. According to his mother, who didn’t get to speak with him until four days later, Schmidt was “violently interrogated” for hours, stripped naked, and forced into a cold shower.
The Worst Thing About Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is That It’s Legal

Mar 12, 2025 | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

Weeks of Trump administration attacks on both speech and immigrant rights have come to a head this week with the ICE detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Palestinian graduate of Columbia University who had been involved in organizing campus protests. Donald Trump himself took credit for the detention on Truth Social, tying the organizer, without evidence, to Hamas.
Commentary: Don’t succumb to Trump’s immigration fearmongering

Feb 19, 2025 | cityandstateny.com | Felipe De La Hoz

President Donald Trump has long relied on the power of the simple message: We will cut government waste, prices will come down, we will root out corruption, we will deport undocumented immigrants, and so on. Reality is, of course, much messier than these slogans can capture, and a cursory look under the hood often reveals that they are at best incomplete or at worse entirely unsupported, but that simplicity of the message itself holds power.
The Democrats’ Shameful, Foolish Surrender on Immigration

Sep 29, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

Vice President Kamala Harris was in Arizona last Friday to engage in the periodic political pilgrimage to the southern border, where she pledged to continue President Biden’s crackdown on asylum if she defeats Donald Trump in November.
Commentary: New York City politicians have changed their tune when it comes to migrants

Sep 17, 2024 | cityandstateny.com | Felipe De La Hoz

Not so long ago, being proudly and even a little brazenly pro-immigrant was a standard Democratic political credo in New York City, perhaps the easiest way to signal that the speaker was standing firm against the encroachment of Donald Trump, the city’s most infamous son, who built his political career and presidential administration in part around assailing immigrants.
The Potential Upside of the Supreme Court’s Chevron Decision

Jul 4, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

Last week, the Supreme Court tossed out the precedent of so-called Chevron deference, a long-standing precedent that held that when federal statutes are ambiguous, the courts should defer to executive agencies’ interpretations of how to apply them. The decision, in Loper Bright Enterprises v.
The Racist Origins of America’s Broken Immigration System

Apr 30, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Felipe De La Hoz

As radical as the contemporary GOP has become in recent years, it remains generally verboten in mainstream circles to openly call for murder. At least, for all but one demographic: migrants, whom Texas Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year he couldn’t order killed. At best, party officials might argue that they are disease-ridden freeloaders; at worst, that they’re a demographic ticking time bomb engineered to wipe out real, white America.