Arelis R. Hernández

Washington, D.C.

Reporter covering the U.S. Southern border, Immigration, Texas and beyond

Education: University of Maryland, BA in broadcast journalism, minor in U.S. Latinx studies

Arelis Hernández has covered hurricanes, mass shootings and most recently, has been in and out of Puerto Rico chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She was part of the team that created the digital project “Sin Luz: Life without power,” which garnered an national Emmy nomination and international recognition. She joined the Washington Post staff in 2014 to cover Prince George's County, a suburb of Washington D.C., where she grew up. Hernández has also spent time in Venezuela for the foreign desk and at one point lived in Puerto Rico to probe the politics, culture and social movements
Latest from Arelis R. Hernández

Texas is gearing up in a big way for Trump’s mass deportation campaign

The state’s Republican leaders say they’re primed for Texas to be both the model and epicenter as the incoming administration cracks down on immigration.

November 29, 2024
Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump's incoming “border czar,” talks to members of the Texas National Guard and the Department of Public Safety during a visit to Eagle Pass on Tuesday. Gov. Greg Abbott, center, also addressed the group.

How border counties in Texas flipped from blue to red for Trump

Trump soundly defeated Harris in 12 of 14 Texas counties touching the border. Concerns over immigration only partly explain it.

November 8, 2024
Criselda Leal Peña sets up a canopy to campaign for Donald Trump and local Republicans running for office on Election Day in Edinburg, Texas.

    As immigration tensions deepen, one family risks it all to reach the U.S.

    A Venezuelan mother and her sons braved a dense jungle, perilous waters and menacing traffickers for a better life in New York. The election could decide their fate.

    November 3, 2024

    They fled Cuba in search of the American Dream. Hurricanes upended everything.

    Priced out of Miami, scores of Latino immigrants have settled in the Fort Myers area. But back-to-back hurricanes in southwest Florida are proving costly.

    October 20, 2024

    Florida begins massive post-Milton recovery effort

    More than 2 million customers remained without power, 13,000 people were being housed in shelters, and some were threatened by floodwaters that had yet to recede.

    October 11, 2024
    Residents look at burned-out homes Friday at the Beachaven Villas in Sarasota, Fla., after Hurricane Milton’s landfall. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

    New Paxton lawsuit targets mail-in voter registrations in Texas’s Bexar County

    The lawsuit is the latest push by Texas’s attorney general to target mail-in voter registrations. It comes as civil rights groups accuse Paxton of suppressing minority votes.

    September 4, 2024
    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb. 23.

    Paxton’s election fraud charges upend lives but result in few convictions

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has aggressively filed charges accusing volunteers, candidates and voters of election fraud. But the cases rarely go to trial.

    September 2, 2024

    Critics ask for probe after Texas raids homes of Latino campaign workers

    The action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a darling of the far right and ally of former president Trump, came in an area to be hotly contested in November.

    August 26, 2024
    Lydia Martinez, a volunteer and great-grandmother whose home was searched, center, speaks at a news conference where she and officials with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, responded to allegations by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday in San Antonio.

    New arrests in smuggling of migrants who died in a Texas truck

    Guatemalan officials announced the dismantling of a smuggling ring behind the deadliest incident of its kind on U.S. soil, in which 53 migrants died.

    August 22, 2024
    Police and other first responders respond to a tractor-trailer where dozens of migrants were found unconscious on June 27, 2022, in San Antonio.

    Half of Puerto Rico has no electricity after Ernesto, utility reports

    Tropical Storm Ernesto pounded Puerto Rico with rain, triggering major flooding and leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

    August 14, 2024
    Downed power lines in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday after Tropical Storm Ernesto moved through.