The State Department plans to give Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate and Donald Trump ally, and his family US visas to enter the country.
asserted
Department → plan → country
At the same time, Trump’s government continues to implement widespread restrictions on new visas while it suspends and revokes existing ones.
asserted
it → continue → ones
As my colleague Isabela Dias noted Tuesday, Bolsonaro is defying an order by Brazil’s Supreme Court barring him from leaving and surrendering his passports by Tuesday.
asserted
Bolsonaro → note → Tuesday
Bolsonaro is under multiple investigations for alleged involvement in a money-laundering scheme and tax evasion.
asserted
Bolsonaro → launder → scheme
On Wednesday, Argentina’s federal migration agency said that Bolsonaro and his family entered the country from Brazil on Tuesday night.
asserted
Bolsonaro → say → night
The group then boarded a flight to Ecuador and, according to a US official who spoke to the New York Times, landed in Miami on Wednesday morning.
uncertain
who → board → morning
Bolsonaro and his family then got into an S.U.V. to leave the airport, hidden under umbrellas.
asserted
Bolsonaro → get → umbrellas
Bolsonaro—and, of course, Trump has denied the election results, despite the fact that Bolsonaro’s own party has since recognized left-leaning President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reelection.
asserted
party → deny → reelection
As Isabela wrote on Tuesday, Bolsonaro’s departure for the US isn’t a surprise:
asserted
departure → write → US
America has become the default destination for several Bolsonaro or Bolsonaro-adjacent figures on the radar of Brazilian authorities, including the grandson of a former military dictator and a far-right influencer once described as “the fake-news kingpin of Brazil” who is considered to be a fugitive from justice.
asserted
who → become → justice
Chiefly among them is Flávio’s brother, Eduardo, a key go-between of the Brazilian far right and Trump’s circle who’s been “self-exiled” in the United States since early 2025.
asserted
who → exile → 2025
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is gutting the legal visa system and enforcing a long list of new travel bans on immigrants and visitors over “foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism” concerns.
asserted
administration → gutte → concerns
In January, the State Department halted immigrant visa applications for people from 75 countries, largely from the Global South, claiming residents from those countries are of “nationalities at high risk of public benefits reliance.”
asserted
residents → halt → reliance
A federal judge in New York invalidated the visa ban in August, saying it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965’s prohibition on nationality-based discrimination in issuing visas.
asserted
it → invalidate → visas
“This latest attempt by the Trump administration to enforce its white nationalist worldview through US immigration policy is, like the others, equal parts retrograde and unlawful,” Baher Azmy, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told my colleague Sophie Hurwitz the day after the ruling was invalidated.
asserted
ruling → enforce → Rights
While Trump weaponizes the immigration system, it apparently helps to be an ally of the administration.
asserted
it → weaponize → administration
Maria Martha Bruno, the coordinator of international partnerships at Agência Pública, Brazil’s largest nonprofit newsroom, and Isabela wrote on Sunday that, under President Lula, the US has also hounded Brazil:
asserted
US → write → Brazil
The Trump administration imposed 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods and sanctions on judicial authorities as retribution for the alleged political “persecution” of Jair Bolsonaro.
asserted
administration → impose → Bolsonaro
It also revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to the United States, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, in retaliation for an alleged delay on the Brazilian government’s side to formally approve the administration’s new pick for the role.
asserted
It → revoke → role
The Aporia
