Ari Figueroa

Ariana Figueroa

[email protected] https://twitter.com/arianalfigueroa https://bsky.app/profile/arianalfigueroa.bsky.social

Ariana covers the nation's capital for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include immigration, congressional policy and legal challenges with a focus on how those policies impact the lives of immigrants and migrants coming to the U.S.

Before joining States Newsroom, Ariana covered public health and chemical policy on Capitol Hill for E&E News. As a Florida native, she's worked for the Miami Herald and her hometown paper, the Tampa Bay Times. Her work has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune and NPR.

She is a graduate of the University of Florida.

TPS
National

DHS extends permits for immigrants set to lose status when justices’ order takes effect

Jul 10, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Friday postponed the date that immigrants from seven countries affected by disaster and violence can legally work in the country, extending a deadline that was at odds with federal court orders not...
Protesters held a rally on protecting birthright citizenship outside the U.S. Supreme Court as President Donald Trump attended oral arguments on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
National

US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump order

Jun 30, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s attempt to redefine the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. In the decision, a majority of the justices upheld the country's long understanding of automatic citizenship by birth on...
Security stands outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus rally on Feb. 3, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
National

Former Oklahoma trooper nominated by Trump to head up ICE

Jun 29, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has nominated a former Oklahoma state trooper to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency tasked with carrying out the president’s mass deportation campaign. Richard “Lance” Schroyer’s nomination on June 27 comes on the...
Demonstrators chant and hold signs outside U.S. Supreme Court on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. The court heard arguments challenging the government's termination of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
National

US Supreme Court rules Trump administration can end legal protections for 350,000 Haitians

Jun 25, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its plans to strip temporary legal status from 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, a move that opens them up to deportation. The 6-3 conservative court...
Appeals court says Trump administration must open borders to asylum-seekers
National

Supreme Court sides with Trump administration’s efforts to curb asylum claims at southern border

Jun 25, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court sided Thursday with the Trump administration’s request to turn away asylum seekers who present themselves at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. The question the justices considered was whether migrants have to fully...
President Donald Trump speaks to the media as U.S. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., look on after a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
National

Lunch with ‘mad as a murder hornet’ Trump and US Senate GOP fails to heal divisions

Jun 24, 2026
Jennifer Shutt Ariana Figueroa Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans walked into a lunch with the president on Wednesday looking for ways to unify, but they left the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill as fractured as ever about policy goals. President Donald Trump said after...
An observer is detained by ICE agents after they arrested two people from a residence on Jan. 13, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
National

Trump administration in court win allowed to conduct nationwide fast-track deportations

Jun 23, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — An appeals court Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to use fast-track deportations within the interior of the country and not just at the Southern border, a key pillar in the president’s mass deportation campaign. The...
Parking lot at ICE detention center Farmvilel Va.
National

As Trump’s immigration dragnet grows, so do complaints of detention center conditions

Jun 18, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — When the overhead lights turn off at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, it not only means that night has arrived for Aliaksei Scharbachenia, but that panic attacks will soon follow. The attacks, which started after his detention...
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom’s casket is displayed at a funeral home in her hometown of Webster Springs, West Virginia, on Dec. 5, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense)
National

Man charged in killing of West Virginia guard member pleads not guilty to new charges

Jun 16, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice Tuesday issued a new indictment against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man accused of killing one West Virginia National Guard member and wounding another in an attack in the nation’s capital, including six new charges that...
An aerial view of Camp East Montana, an immigrant detention center in El Paso, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Government Accountability Office)
National

GAO finds millions of dollars wasted, safety and security at risk in Texas detention center

Jun 09, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — A hastily constructed immigrant detention facility on a military base in Texas wasted millions in federal funding and failed to meet basic standards, according to a report released Tuesday by a nonpartisan government watchdog. The report by the...
President Donald Trump's $100,000 visa fee for highly skilled workers was struck down Monday, June 8, 2026, by a federal judge. In this photo, Trump looks on during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
National

Trump administration $100,000 visa fee for highly skilled foreign workers struck down

Jun 08, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts Monday struck down the Trump administration’s efforts to require a $100,000 visa fee for highly skilled immigrant workers, finding the policy is an unlawful tax. Judge Leo T. Sorokin found the hefty fee...
A federal judge on June 5, 2026, struck down several Trump administration policies that halted processing for asylum-seekers following a shooting in Washington, D.C. of two members of the National Guard deployed to the nation's capital. In this photo, tourists pass by members of the guard stationed outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 18, 2025. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
National

Trump administration processing freeze on asylum seekers violated law, judge rules

Jun 05, 2026
Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island Friday struck down several Trump administration policies that halted processing for asylum seekers following a shooting in Washington, D.C., that left one West Virginia National Guard member dead and another seriously injured...