Reynaldo Leanos Jr.
Reynaldo Leanos Jr. is a freelance multimedia journalist living in New York City.
Reynaldo Leanos Jr. is a freelance multimedia journalist living in New York City. His work has been featured on PRI's Global Nation and The World, NPR's Latino USA, NBC Latino and KUT's Texas Standard. He is from the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas near the Mexico border, where he reported on immigration on the southern border and Latino culture.
Reynaldo graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, where he studied journalism and international studies. He is now studying at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and specializing in international reporting.
Four months of food aid in Puerto Rico brought too much salt and sugar, say some recipients
FEMA sent 57 million meals to Puerto Rico in the four months after Hurricane Maria. The Queer Kitchen Brigade sent just 400 jars of produce, but they are hoping to impact the kinds of food people in prolonged disaster relief can expect.
DACA recipients won’t go back into the shadows quietly
A private prison company with a troubled past looks to reopen an immigration detention facility in Texas
In the age of Trump, fewer lenders want to provide this med student with student loans
This underground railroad took slaves to freedom in Mexico
A 19-year-old undocumented student — authorized to be in the US — was detained and then let go by federal agents
Josue Romero was arrested and put into the custody of federal immigration agents. He was held for 24 hours and then released — which raises serious questions for immigrants about what Trump's policies actually are.
In a small Texas town, a new private detention center for transgender migrants brings jobs — and concerns
In Texas, a new immigration detention facility will house only transgender migrants. The hitch is, the last time they tried this, the contract was not renewed because of abuses.
Halfway through med school, undocumented students worry Trump will derail their progress
The medical school at Loyola University is trying to keep its students in the program. Their skills, languages and cultural diversity are needed in health care, they say.
'I don’t think that being of a certain ethnicity should decide who you’re going to [vote for]'
Angel Gallegos voted for Donald Trump in a heavily Latino and Democratic part of South Texas. For him, immigration wasn't a top priority, rather the economy.
Texas is now a swing state, but here's why these voters are sticking with Trump
Members of the Hidalgo County Young Republicans know they’re in the minority in the Rio Grande Valley — but they think Donald Trump will be better for them on immigration and other issues.
California's governor vetoed a bill that would stop privately run migrant detention. What now?
Some 100,000 people passed through the state’s four immigrant detention centers last year. The Dignity Not Detention bill will have to wait for the federal government to decide if it wants private companies detaining people.
50 years later, protesters re-enact a farmworker strike that is scarcely mentioned in the history books
The “melon strike” of 1966 paved the way for farmworkers in Texas — and Mexican Americans in general — to stand up for their rights. But many young people have never heard of it.
DHS will review its relationship with private prison companies, but there are many questions about what comes next
In the wake of the US Department of Justice deciding to end its relationship with private prisons, Homeland Security is considering a similar move. But whether it will happen is far from certain.
Advocates say another privately operated immigration detention center for women and children is the wrong approach
“Sometimes I’d like to imprison the immigration officials, the judge, the president, so that they can endure 19 days in there with their children,” says one woman who was recently released from immigration detention.