FRONTLINE, ProPublica Premiere Timely, Two-Part Hour Offering an Inside Look at the Impact of the Trump Administration’s Immigration Policies on Venezuelans Living in the U.S.

Status: Venezuelan and Surviving CECOT premieres Tue., Dec. 9, 2025 on pbs.org/frontline, propublica.org, PBS App and FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s YouTube channels at 7/6c, and on PBS stations (check local listings) & the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel at 10/9c. www.facebook.com/frontline | Instagram: @frontlinepbs | YouTube: youtube.com/frontline

For months, Venezuela and its citizens have been at the center of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Nearly a million Venezuelans fled to the U.S. to escape their country’s political and economic turmoil and were granted temporary status under the Biden administration. But amid Trump’s crackdown, and as tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela intensify, that status is now clouded with uncertainty.

In February, the administration deported more than 230 men to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison in El Salvador notorious for its brutal conditions. And in the last few months, more than 500,000 Venezuelans living legally in the U.S. have lost their status.

Now, on Tue., Dec. 9, FRONTLINE and ProPublica will present a timely two-part hour that takes viewers inside the experiences of  Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., sharing powerful and harrowing firsthand accounts of how their lives have been transformed, and the fears they continue to have about their futures.

First, FRONTLINE and ProPublica will premiere Status: Venezuelan, a 40-minute film telling the story of one Venezuelan family in Florida trying to stay together — and stay documented — as they navigate rapidly shifting immigration policy decisions.

“To have your hopes suddenly cut off — it’s as if you’re standing on a rug that’s pulled from under you and you fall,” says Yineska, who is trying to preserve the life she had built in Florida with her partner, Eduard, and her two teenage sons.

From ProPublica’s visual journalist and filmmaker Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, Status: Venezuelan is part of FRONTLINE FEATURES, an effort from FRONTLINE dedicated to producing cinematic feature-length and short documentaries for global, multiplatform distribution. Earlier this year, Status: Venezuelan premiered at Double Exposure Film Festival.

The film follows Yineska and her family as their hopes and fears rise and fall with the changes to their protected status and their efforts to find ways to avoid deportation back to the country they fled. “How do you start from scratch with a situation like this?” Yineska says. “We are afraid of what might happen there when we arrive.”

In the second part of the hour, FRONTLINE and ProPublica will premiere Surviving CECOT. The short piece tells the story of three Venezuelan men — Juan José Ramos Ramos, Andry Blanco Bonilla and Wilmer Vega Sandia — who were branded by the U.S. government as Tren de Aragua gang members and deported by the Trump administration to CECOT. All three men said they had no connection to Tren de Aragua and were not gang members, and in U.S. government data ProPublica obtained, none were flagged as having a criminal conviction or pending charges.

Produced by ProPublica filmmaker Gerardo del Valle in collaboration with Alianza Rebelde Investiga, Cazadores de Fake News and The Texas Tribune, Surviving CECOT details what the men say they experienced inside CECOT – beatings, humiliation and abuse – and explores the lasting trauma of the ordeal on them and their families.

Both Status: Venezuelan and Surviving CECOT are a part of FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s ongoing multiplatform, joint reporting on the Trump administration’s immigration policy changes and actions and their impact. The collaborative reporting also includes text stories and a long-form documentary set to air in 2026.

Status: Venezuelan will be available to watch at pbs.org/frontline, propublica.org, in the PBS App and on FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s YouTube channels starting Dec. 9, 2025, at 7/6c. It will premiere on PBS stations (check local listings), that night at 10/9c and will also be available on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. Subscribe to FRONTLINE’s newsletter to get updates on events, podcasts and additional reporting related to Status: Venezuelan and Surviving CECOT.

Credits Status: Venezuelan is a ProPublica production for FRONTLINE FEATURES. The director is Mauricio Rodríguez Pons. The senior producers are Frank Koughan and Lisa Riordan Seville. Almudena Toral is ProPublica’s executive producer and ProPublica’s editor-in-chief is Stephen Engelberg. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

Surviving CECOT is a ProPublica production for FRONTLINE in association with Alianza Rebelde Investiga, Cazadores de Fake News and The Texas Tribune. The producer is Gerardo del Valle. The senior producers are Frank Koughan and Lisa Riordan Seville. Almudena Toral is ProPublica’s executive producer and ProPublica’s editor-in-chief is Stephen Engelberg. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 110 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

About FRONTLINE FEATURES An effort from the award-winning PBS series FRONTLINE, FRONTLINE FEATURES produces cinematic feature-length and short documentaries for global, multiplatform distribution. Building on FRONTLINE’s legacy as U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, FRONTLINE FEATURES brings impactful and deeply reported storytelling to global audiences and the big screen.

About ProPublica ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. With a team of more than 150 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics, focusing on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Its reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels. Since it began publishing in 2008, ProPublica has received eight Pulitzer Prizes, five Peabody Awards, eight Emmy Awards and 16 George Polk Awards.

Press Contacts: 

FRONTLINE, Anne Husted Blatt, Director of Marketing & Communications | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org

ProPublica, Alexis Stephens, Director of Communications | Alexis.Stephens@propublica.org