Yana Kunichoff
Journalist @azluminaria.bsky.social covering poverty/homelessness/housing insecurity and organizing in Tucson and southern Arizona
- My colleague @shannonconner.bsky.social has been at the forefront of breaking some of the biggest stories in education in southern AZ lately. Her latest is about parents lawsuit over a plan to move Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind out of Tucson azluminaria.org/2026/02/03/a...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffMy time with The Washington Post is up. I was laid off with hundreds of folks I am so honored to call my colleagues. I covered it all at The Post (really), so now I'm looking for my next adventure. ➡️ kbellware [at] gmail dot com Website update coming soon @postguild.bsky.social forever
- Reposted by Yana Kunichoff404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for the Palantir-made tool called ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address. www.404media.co/here-is-the-...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffSince last year, we’ve been reporting on ICE extensively. But every week brings new information, and it’s getting harder to keep track of what’s happening, let alone remember what’s already happened. So here’s a quick thread to help.
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- Reposted by Yana Kunichoff“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” principal Jason Kuhlman said about the second grader and fifth grader.
- Yesenia had walked thousands of miles through the Darién Gap and through Mexico to get a modicum of safety and security for her children in Tucson. Then a traffic stop destroyed it all @jwashing.bsky.social follows the story of one family after deportation azluminaria.org/a-long-way-h...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffOne human rights observer in Maine said agents followed her home, blocked off her street, and came to her door to say they know where she lives. Her children are now staying elsewhere, to keep them safe.
- Now in Maine: ICE watchers say federal agents are coming to their house to threaten and intimidate them. www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...
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- Reposted by Yana KunichoffWillian Giménez González, Chicago day laborer and beloved worker leader in Chicago, has been released from ICE custody. I spoke to him about his 47-day detention, and what solidarity looks like in this moment. "I owe my freedom to being organized," he says.
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffWe've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.
- One of my biggest takeaways from reporting this story was how much media reports in the aftermath of police shootings, in particular with the police union spokesperson putting forward a narrative of an incident, were then used as key pieces of evidence for a future investigation.
- Shaping narratives when police shoot and kill someone has been a fundamental part of how police and their supporters operate. For example, see this @yanak.bsky.social @samstecklow.bsky.social story about the Chicago Police Department from 2016: chicagoreader.com/news/how-chi...
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- Police officers move to new departments all the time. What is the responsibility of local agencies to make sure they're not hiring officers accused of misconduct? @samstecklow.bsky.social and I look at the hiring of one officer in Phoenix www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...
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- Nearly a quarter of HIV-related deaths in Maricopa County involved people who were housing insecure, a @lookoutnews.bsky.social investigation of medical examiner data found www.lookoutnews.org/lookout-repo...
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- @nodesertdatacenter.com has been one of the most energetic and fast-growing organizing efforts I've covered - this summer it was a loose group of people opposed to a water-heavy development, and its closing out 2025 as a national model for fighting data centers azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/t...
- Nearly 1400 people have been ordered into Pima County’s Restoration to Competency program to see if they can stand trial That can mean more than a year in jail, waiting. My colleague @jwashing.bsky.social writes about when jail becomes a mental health facility azluminaria.org/2025/11/24/w...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffToday, Tucson City Council is discussing a proposed ordinance that would create a new offense of "drug-related loitering". Indications that could trigger an arrest for this include officer knowledge of a prior drug conviction, or the so-called "fent fold." tucsonaz.hylandcloud.com/221agendaonl...
- A new ordinance under consideration in Tucson would allow police to arrest people who raise a “reasonable suspicion that they are about to engage” in public drug use azluminaria.org/2025/11/18/a...
- Rest in power to Sister JoAnn Persch - I met her at the Broadview detention center circa 2010-ish, where she was among a group that lay down in front of a deportation bus blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/18/s...
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- Reposted by Yana KunichoffExtraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffBREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador. Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.
- The non-disclosure agreement also says the county will not share the name of the final user for Project Blue with county personnel unless it is legally obligated.
- From a mother evicted and grieving her brother, to a woman rotating between shelters and her car, to families in a mobile home park with failing power — Tucson residents show what it takes to survive in extreme heat
- The latest on efforts to build a data center in the Sonoran Desert:
- Pima County's jail healthcare provider has been in consistent violation of certain performance indicators over the past year, @jwashing.bsky.social reports azluminaria.org/2025/09/11/s...
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- Immigration enforcement in America's second largest city: "The masked agents pull up quickly. They jump out of unmarked vans or trucks. They wear blue jeans or battle fatigues. They approach Latino men, at times yelling and carrying assault rifles." calmatters.org/investigatio...
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- The Tucson city council unanimously rejected the Project Blue data center today. That comes after weeks of dogged organizing plus our little team @azluminaria.org going hard on helping Tucson understand who was behind this project and its impact on our community azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/t...
- My latest on Project Blue: The mega data center has more site options and will be built “regardless of what the City of Tucson decides,” said one council member Tuesday azluminaria.org/2025/08/05/t...
- The Trump administration is using federal jails and facilities as well as reopening shuttered facilities to detain a historic number of immigrants, the Marshall Project team reports www.themarshallproject.org/2025/08/01/t...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffThe Trump administration’s deportation machine has made women invisible targets. If you’ve ever wondered, like me, what happens to all the women ICE detains:
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffNEW: I spoke with a woman named Andrea about her experience being detained by ICE after calling the cops for help during a domestic violence incident. She was recently postpartum, breastfeeding & put in an all-male facility. She was detained for 2.5 months.
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- Nearly 70% of mobile home parks running their own water systems violated safe drinking water rules in the past five years apnews.com/article/mobi...
- So important to remember when writing about homelessness: In no state today can a minimum-wage worker afford a two-bedroom apartment. thebaffler.com/latest/invis...
- For much of this summer, a public process to bring a massive data center to Tucson moved ahead w/o revealing the company behind the center Now, through public records, we can share that the company is Amazon Web Services by @jwashing.bsky.social and I azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/a...
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- "“We have this list of people that the U.S. government has not formally acknowledged in any real way and we pretty much have no idea if they are in CECOT or someplace else" www.404media.co/flight-manif...
- Reposted by Yana Kunichoff“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Mario Guevara told @ajc.com in an exclusive interview from the Folkston, Georgia ICE detention center where he is currently detained, despite a judge's bail order. “I haven’t committed any crimes.”
- Some highlights from my conversation with Tucson's housing director: - Much of the affordable housing is manufactured housing - The city stopped building affordable housing basically from 2013 to 2023 and just restarted - There are simply not enough houses azluminaria.org/2025/07/18/5...
- Important reporting by @torigantz.bsky.social on the bills based on project 2025-esque model legislation and signed by AZ gov Hobbs www.lookoutnews.org/policies-fav...
- As the Texas flood clean up continues, I'm thinking about how after the tragedy of a natural disaster, its often immigrant workers that come in to clean up and are left to fend for themselves amid loosely regulated worker safety rules by @mizamudio.bsky.social publicintegrity.org/environment/...
- At Tucson Unified School District, $6 million in federal funding for everything from teacher training to after-school programs and English language instruction is on pause as a federal grant review is underway, @shannonconner.bsky.social reports azluminaria.org/2025/07/03/t...
- Following the passage of the budget bill, more than 55% of Arizona hospitals could soon be operating in the red, and some could close their doors altogether, healthcare advocates warn www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report...
- The U.S. had 675,000 people internally displaced by conflict and disasters in 2022, per the International Displacement Monitoring Center api.internal-displacement.org/sites/defaul...
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- Reposted by Yana KunichoffNEW: A WIRED investigation of 911 calls placed from ICE detention sites across the US show a system inundated by life-threatening crises, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. By me & @dmehro.bsky.social. Free to read:
- People living in South Tucson, a small town tucked inside the city limits of Tucson, have dealt with water contamination since the 1950s. @cacuella.bsky.social reports on ongoing efforts to address the issue azluminaria.org/2025/06/24/f...
- 'It's so terrifying to go to court because you have no idea if you've been selected today. It's like playing Russian roulette.' @bgirledukate.bsky.social on the people arrested when they attend their immigration court hearings beyondthebordernews.substack.com/p/heres-what...
- The regular utility protections dont apply to residents in master-meter mobile home parks, which means a mistaken utility bill can lead to residents losing their homes My latest on the reality of living in one of Pima County's last types of affordable housing: azluminaria.org/2025/06/25/b...
- On the men disappeared into CECOT: Peñaloza’s mother said her son is hard-working, principled, and respectful. He’s a trained refrigerator technician. He’s a good cook who can dress up humble meals like vegetarian arepas or rice with tomato sauce www.huffpost.com/entry/cecot-...
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- A recovery court set to open with federal funds in an area hard hit by the opioid crisis has been stalled since a grant was cut. One look at the ways federal funding cuts are rolling back harm reduction work on the ground: www.themarshallproject.org/2025/06/17/n...
- A look at the rules, enforcement tactics and ordinances that already shape where people without shelter can — and can’t — rest in Tucson as the city weighs increasing enforcement azluminaria.org/2025/06/13/t...
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- ICE initiated 514 new 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies across 40 states since January azluminaria.org/2025/06/09/l...
- Instead of taking homeless people to be processed for a citation in Pima County jail, TPD is trying to do an initial appearance on the spot when it clears encampments. A look into the details of how TPD polices during sweeps from @jwashing.bsky.social azluminaria.org/2025/06/05/i...
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- Under DOGE cuts, the National Weather Service lost nearly 600 staff members - the same number of departures the agency saw across the past 15 years. It's leaving some overnight weather stations unmanned www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...
- Climate organizers at Tucson Unified School District want to cut the district's emissions in half by 2030 and for TUSD to offer a comprehensive climate curriculum in grades K-12 The recent board meeting moved closer to those goals, writes @shannonconner.bsky.social azluminaria.org/2025/05/14/t...
- Seniors in Pima County are facing an ongoing crisis in paying rent, mortgages and utilities For now, that's being mitigated in part by emergency funds from the Pima Council on Aging, but that money is running out. My latest: azluminaria.org/2025/05/12/n...
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- How often does a stop by the Pima county sheriff's dep end in someone entering Border Patrol custody? We don't know, because the sheriff's department doesn't follow their own rules on tracking requests to immigration authorities reports @jwashing.bsky.social azluminaria.org/2025/05/15/p...
- I also find this really upsetting. It took me a year to get my regular energy levels back after having Covid in 2022, and as noted below, vaccines are an important part of decreasing the risk of severe disease and severe lingering impacts
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- Reposted by Yana KunichoffIsrael has rapidly accelerated its destruction of Rafah in April and May. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, even when spending time analyzing recent satellite imagery. From me, Samuel Granados, Aaron Boxerman, and @rileymellen.bsky.social Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- Reposted by Yana KunichoffSeveral Columbia Univ student journalists are suspended after covering protests (while wearing press ID) in the main library. Their access to campus is blocked, and they can't take final exams. Also: Columbia's acting president is a former ABC journalist www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/05...
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- The mine gave 4 generations of Hector's family a living wage despite the boom and bust cycle of the industry. Now the he is critical of new mining efforts, part of a broader trend of opposition in AZ mining communities My latest with @wyattmyskow.bsky.social azluminaria.org/2025/05/08/i...
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- For the first time, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States has made a ruling about a law enforcement killing on U.S. soil. @bgirledukate.bsky.social reports on the torture and killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas capitalandmain.com/internationa...
- 15 years after the ACA’s preventive services protections took effect, patients on the ground are experiencing expensive and unexpected loopholes Here is one person's story kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
- A good breakdown of what $1 million in public funds buys in Tucson from the @tucsonagenda.bsky.social team: - 74 housing vouchers for a year - 728 people spending a week at the Pima County Jail - 6 police officers tucsonagenda.substack.com/p/million-do...
- My friend @caiken.bsky.social is a thoughtful bike rider and vivid writer and you can read their thoughts on transit in Chicago here: chiwho.bike/interviews/75 And their broader work about the world and how they live in it here: carmenalicia.beehiiv.com
