The deportation of Maria Pires, who was adopted from a São Paulo orphanage at age 11 and imprisoned as an adult, tells a nuanced story about President Donald Trump’s deportation machine. Pires was abused by her adoptive father, who neglected to obtain her citizenship, making her stateless as an adult. She was not perfect herself, having beaten a teenager into a coma and stabbed her prison cellmate with a sharpened toothbrush. But her childhood suffering was so profound that she avoided deportation over several administrations, including Trump in his first term.
Immigration reporter Tim Sullivan began reporting the story when approached by Pires’ attorney, who said Pires was jailed in the U.S. He brought in Baltimore reporter Lea Skene due to the adoptive father’s Maryland roots, as well as reporter Mauricio Savarese in São Paulo after Pires was deported to her native Brazil. The team found government documents and visited with the assailant’s sister in North Carolina and Pires in eastern Brazil.
Top Stories Deputy Director Janelle Cogan edited the text. Senior Photo Editor Leslie Mazoch selected photos. Allen Breed produced video, and Dario Lopez handled digital presentation.
Together, the team produced a painful, nuanced, cross-format and cross-continental story that few news organizations have the resources to do.
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