Hola,
Today we published the first two chapters of A Long Road Home, a deeply reported, three-part investigation produced in partnership with La Silla Rota that follows one family’s journey from Venezuela to Tucson — and back into danger.
The series is based on more than a dozen hours of interviews conducted by Arizona Luminaria and La Silla Rota reporters with Yesenia and Mariano in a town outside Mexico City a couple months after Yesenia was deported from Tucson, along with interviews with family and friends, public records, audio files and months of messages exchanged between the couple.
In Chapter 1, we trace Yesenia’s flight from violence and her fight to protect her children across borders, jungles and detention. Chapter 2 shifts focus to Mariano, documenting his own journey and the consequences of a system that separates families and forces impossible choices in the name of immigration enforcement.
Part 3, publishing Monday, follows Yesenia and Mariano as they attempt to reunite their family once again — and examines what happens when U.S. and Mexican immigration policies converge.
📖 Read Chapters 1 and 2 now in English and en español.
More tomorrow.
Also in today’s newsletter:
🪪 The days of a hall pass attached to a chemistry beaker or toilet plunger are long gone for Tucson schools rolling out digital versions. Read more.
Featured stories
“Being a migrant is not a crime”: A Venezuelan mother’s fight to keep her family together after deportation to México.
A Long Way Home Part 1: Yesenia is barefoot, three days into a deadly trek through the jungle in Panama. Her kids traveling with her are stomach-sick. So is she. […]
“Ser migrante no es un delito”: La lucha de una madre venezolana por mantener unida a su familia tras la deportación a México.
Capítulo 1: Yesenia va descalza, es el tercer día de una travesía mortal por la selva en Panamá. Sus hijos que viajan con ella sufren malestar estomacal. Ella también. Todos […]
He faced the Venezuelan Navy, survived the Darién Gap and U.S. detention. In Tucson, Mariano is forced out again.
A Long Way Home Part 2: Mariano trembles. Maybe from cold, maybe from fear, maybe from rage. His cheek is pressed against the hard and dirty asphalt under a rusty […]
Se enfrentó a la Armada venezolana, sobrevivió al Tapón del Darién y a la detención en Estados Unidos. En Tucson, Mariano vuelve a ser obligado a huir.
Capítulo 2: Mariano tiembla. Tal vez de frío, tal vez de miedo, tal vez de rabia. Tiene la mejilla pegada al asfalto, duro y sucio, bajo un auto oxidado que […]
Local school districts pilot digital hall pass programs that track students from class to nurse, bathroom, library and back
Remember the clipboard with the sign-in and sign-out log in your fifth-period class? Or how about the hall pass attached to a toilet plunger or a chemistry beaker that you […]
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The Florence Project’s most recent report on detention conditions in Eloy Detention Center chronicles medical neglect, mistreatment during mental health crises, broken air conditioning during extreme summer temperatures and invasive strip searches. The report collected information from more than 60 people detained at Eloy between June 2024 and November 2025. The Trump administration has gutted the federal watchdog tasked with overseeing conditions in immigration detention. Read the full report here.
Both Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors will meet next week. The Pima County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. on Jan. 20. See the full agenda here. The Tucson City Council study session will take place at 1 p.m. on Jan 21 (agenda here) followed by the regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. (agenda here).
The Pima County Board of Supervisors will begin evening meetings on May 12 following a vote to do so at its January meeting. The board will also add one study session each month from 1-4:30 p.m. The meetings will also move to the second and fourth Tuesday of the month to avoid conflicts with Tucson council meetings.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would remove the Department of Energy’s role in setting energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes, reports Grist. As residents in the nation’s largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing, manufactured home owners in Pima County and elsewhere are seeing the squeeze from high utility prices. Opponents of the move argued it would hurt low-income communities. “This is not about poor people. This is not about working people,” said Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, who grew up in a manufactured home.
There have been 418 people infected with measles in an outbreak along the Arizona-Utah border that began in August, the Associated Press reported. Last year was the nation’s worst year for measles spread since 1991, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As activists continue to fight against a new data center in Marana, several petitions have been filed to begin collecting signatures to get a referendum about the land rezoning on the ballot. If the petitions meet the 1,360-signature goal by Feb. 6, the applicant can submit the signatures and the town clerk will have 20 days to review them. Marana town council voted in January to rezone two parcels of land for a data center to be developed by Beale Infrastructure. That comes as Project Blue opponents sue Pima County over alleged open meeting law violations related to the county rezoning process.
Volunteer for a community project on Jan. 19 for United Way’s annual MLK Day of Service. Sign up.
Mark your calendar for festivals in January.
• Tucson Jazz Festival, Jan. 16-24
• SAVOR Heritage Food Festival, Jan. 24
• Yuma AGFest, Jan. 24
• Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase, dates vary with many shows starting in January
• Arizona Balloon Classic, Jan. 16-18 in Chandler
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