Ginger Thompson

Chief of Correspondents

Photo of Ginger Thompson

Ginger Thompson is ProPublica's chief of correspondents. A Pulitzer Prize winner, she previously spent 15 years at The New York Times as the Mexico City bureau chief and as an investigative reporter. Her work has exposed the consequences of Washington’s policies in Latin America, particularly policies involving immigration, political upheaval and the fight against drug cartels.

Thompson also served as a Latin America correspondent at The Baltimore Sun, where she co-wrote a series of stories about U.S. support for a secret Honduran military unit that kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of suspected leftists; work that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She also parachuted into breaking news events across the region, including Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.

Her work has won the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting, an InterAmerican Press Association Award, and an Overseas Press Club Award. She was part of a team of national reporters at The Times that was awarded a 2000 Pulitzer Prize for the series “How Race is Lived in America.” She was also part of a team of reporters at ProPublica whose coverage of the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance policy won numerous other awards, including a Polk Award, a Peabody Award, a Tobenkin Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Thompson graduated from Purdue University, where she was managing editor of the campus newspaper, The Exponent. She earned a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University, with a focus on human rights law.

Help ProPublica Reporters Investigate the Immigration System

We need your help to find productive ways to examine the country’s immigration system — what’s working and what isn’t. We especially want to hear from federal workers, attorneys, employers, labor advocates and ESL teachers.

Netflix estrena una serie inspirada en un reportaje de ProPublica sobre una masacre en México desencadenada por Estados Unidos

La serie en español, titulada "Somos.," se basa en una investigación de Ginger Thompson para ProPublica de 2017 y fue escrita y producida por un equipo casi enteramente mexicano.

Netflix Is Launching a Series Inspired by a ProPublica Story About a U.S.-Triggered Massacre in Mexico

The Spanish-language series, called “Somos.,” draws from Ginger Thompson’s 2017 ProPublica investigation and was written and produced by an almost entirely Mexican crew.

New York Grand Jury Indicts Two Former Leaders of Mexico’s Drug War for Cartel Connections

One official oversaw a unit that leaked information and triggered a massacre that was the subject of a ProPublica investigation. Though the indictment doesn’t link the men to the incident, it alleges corruption at Mexico’s highest levels.

Aumentarán la violencia intrafamiliar y el abuso infantil durante las cuarentenas. También empeorará la negligencia contra las personas en riesgo, informan trabajadores sociales.

Diferentes departamentos de servicios sociales se están esforzando por enfrentar las consecuencias de las restricciones causadas por el coronavirus, y los trabajadores sociales informan que grandes cantidades de norteamericanos en riesgo, ancianos, enfermos y discapacitados están en peligro. “Vamos a tener muertes debido a esto”.

Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Will Rise During Quarantines. So Will Neglect of At-Risk People, Social Workers Say.

Patchwork social service departments are scrambling to address the fallout of coronavirus restrictions, and social workers say vast numbers of at-risk, elderly, sick and disabled Americans will be imperiled. “We are going to see some deaths.”

Un agente de la Patrulla Fronteriza revela la realidad de ser guardia de niños migrantes

Con la agencia siendo blanco de críticas por mantener a niños detenidos en condiciones deplorables, y por los comentarios racistas y misóginos publicados en Facebook, uno de sus agentes habla de cómo es realmente desempeñar su trabajo. “En algún momento la gente solo comenzó a aceptar lo que está sucediendo como una cosa normal”.

A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children

With the agency under fire for holding children in deplorable conditions and over racist and misogynistic Facebook posts, one agent speaks about what it’s like to do his job. “Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal.”

Revelations About a Secret Facebook Group Spawn Investigation of 70 Current and Former Border Patrol Employees

Top officials with Customs and Border Protection said the investigation was prompted by revelations that agents had posted racist and misogynistic Facebook memes. But they declined to say whether any top officials have been suspended from duty.

Border Patrol Official Circulates Article That Deems Our Reporting on Secret Facebook Group a Threat

An official who directs a Border Patrol intelligence gathering center sent the article to all top intelligence officials and field offices. The article directly attacks a ProPublica reporter who revealed that agents were posting anti-migrant and misogynistic memes in group for current and former agents.

Para un niño inmigrante, ¿cómo resulta vislumbrar el sueño americano para que luego se lo arrebaten?

La política de cero tolerancia de la administración de Trump separó a padres de sus hijos, colocando a estos en hogares de crianza en los que probaron una vida mucho mejor que la que dejaron en sus países. ¿Qué sucede cuando regresan a casa?

What’s It Like for an Immigrant Child to Have a Glimpse of the American Dream, Then Have It Taken Away?

The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy separated kids and parents, putting the children in foster care, where many of them got a taste of a life much better than the one they left. What happens when they land back home?

Salvadoran Girl Whose Cries Highlighted the Cruelty of Family Separation Policy Embraces New Life

After she was separated from her mother at the border, 6-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid was recorded begging to make a phone call over the sobs of other children. A video shows how she and her mom are coping with their life in Texas.

Government Reverses Course, Sending 4-Year-Old Boy Back to His Father

More than 11 weeks after separating a young Salvadoran boy from his father and claiming, without evidence, that his father was a gang member, the Department of Homeland Security returned the boy.

Todavía hay familias que están siendo separadas en la frontera, meses después de haberse revocado la “cero tolerancia”

Algunos abogados de inmigración comentan que los agentes fronterizos han vuelto a separar a menores de sus padres, con la explicación de querer protegerlos en contra de padres y madres delincuentes. Quienes abogan por la inmigración dicen que eso es solo una denominación nueva para la cero tolerancia.

Un encausado se presenta solo al tribunal de inmigración. Tiene 6 años de edad.

Wilder Hilario Maldonado Cabrera fue el compareciente más joven de la lista de casos juveniles de ese día; también era uno de los últimos menores que aún seguía bajo custodia del gobierno en virtud de haber sido afectado por la política de cero tolerancia.

A Defendant Shows Up in Immigration Court by Himself. He’s 6.

Wilder Hilario Maldonado Cabrera was the youngest defendant on the juvenile docket that day, and he was one of the last children left in government custody who had been affected by the zero-tolerance policy.

Families Are Still Being Separated at the Border, Months After “Zero Tolerance” Was Reversed

Immigration lawyers say border agents are again removing children from their parents. The explanation? They’re protecting kids from criminal dads and moms. Immigration advocates say it’s zero tolerance by another name.

Inspector General del Departamento de Justicia investigará un programa de la DEA vinculado con masacres en México

La indagación surge gracias a los reportajes de ProPublica que mostraron que la unidad autorizada de la DEA en ese país tiene antecedentes de revelar información confidencial a narcotraficantes.

Justice Department Inspector General to Investigate DEA Program Linked to Massacres in Mexico

The inquiry stems from stories by ProPublica that showed the DEA’s vetted unit in the country has had a history of leaking sensitive information to drug traffickers.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica