Los Angeles immigration reporter Memo Torres left L.A. TACO after allegations of a secret romance with Democratic Sen. Sasha Renee Pérez and claims she helped write stories under his byline.

The 46-year-old multimedia journalist abruptly parted ways with the left-leaning outlet this week following an internal probe into repeated policy and standards violations, according to a detailed New York Post account of the split.

L.A. TACO said the firing followed nearly five months of talks. Torres had covered ICE raids across Southern California for roughly seven years and built a high profile on that beat.

Central to the dispute are claims of a secret romantic relationship with Pérez, the 34-year-old Democratic state senator and youngest lawmaker in the California Senate, plus allegations she was allowed to help write or edit pieces that ran under his name. Both reject the ghostwriting charge.

Outlet points to repeated standards breaches

L.A. TACO published a Saturday statement drawing a hard line on the personnel decision.

The outlet stated:

"Memo Torres did important work here, and we’re grateful that he rose to the challenge when ICE began their siege of our city. But we fired him for repeated violations of our policies and our basic journalistic standards. That’s it. That’s the reason."

Management also said tensions peaked this month after a confrontation over a significant journalistic error and what it described as his refusal to accept responsibility. An alleged failure to complete a required ethics course formed part of the internal case as well.

On his final day, the outlet claimed, Torres said he was ready to go independent and that the move better fit his goals. Officials said they believed the separation ended on good terms and offered generous severance plus public support for his next chapter.

Torres told LA Material a different story on the accountability piece.

He said:

"I have no idea what they are talking about. I have never refused accountability about anything."

He announced the exit on social media under the caption “End Of An Era,” then launched an independent Substack that climbed into the platform’s top three U.S. news charts within days. Fans left supportive comments, including one calling the exit a blow and another saying Los Angeles owed him a debt.

Senator acknowledges past relationship, rejects writing role

Pérez strongly denied any hand in the journalism itself.

The senator said:

"I did not write any articles or control the editorial decisions of L.A. Taco."

She added that anyone suggesting she wrote pieces for the outlet was trying to undermine her work and attack Torres’s integrity. Pérez did acknowledge a prior personal relationship with him. She said L.A. TACO management asked the two to limit communication about six months ago and that they honored the request.

A source close to Torres rejected the ghostwriting claims outright, arguing a veteran reporter would never let another person write under his byline. That source also claimed executives knew of the relationship as early as February and treated it as a pretext amid internal disagreements over immigration coverage.

Senate Democrats have faced other personal-conduct storms in recent years, including when Kyrsten Sinema admitted repeated encounters with a married bodyguard while in office.

Favorable coverage tracked her detention bills

The professional overlap raises clear conflict questions even on the timeline both sides partially share. In early 2026 Torres produced a series of stories as Pérez pushed legislation on detention-center oversight.

On Feb. 6 he promoted an oversight bill she introduced. That story later carried an editor’s note saying it had been amended to meet editorial standards. Less than two weeks later he covered her press conference. The following month he highlighted the legislation again.

In May the two appeared publicly together when Pérez presented L.A. TACO with a journalism award at the 2026 Latino Spirit Awards. Reports said they walked arm in arm onto the state Assembly floor.

Readers watching California Democratic offices have seen separate staff controversies, including a $207K chief of staff facing HR complaints after a crude attack on a journalist.

L.A. TACO pushed back hard against any suggestion it was retreating from ICE reporting. The outlet called that rumor a lie and a dangerous one, insisted it is hiring new reporters, and declared it will never stop covering ICE, immigration, and attacks on the communities it serves.

Officials also warned that a false narrative was dividing the community Torres claims to serve and asked how canceling one of Los Angeles’s only independent newsrooms helps the broader movement. “Memo, you’ve always said you stand for the truth. Then tell it,” the statement read.

Independent launch and competing narratives

Torres framed the departure to followers as a blindsiding end to an era rather than a mutual launchpad. The California Post said it reached out to him for further comment beyond the LA Material remarks.

Absolute calendar dates for the firing and the Saturday statement remain unspecified in available accounts, as do the precise text of the journalistic error and the full evidence behind the ethics-course claim. No charges or formal government actions against either Torres or Pérez appear in the reporting.

Personal fallout from political entanglements can escalate quickly, as when Sinema’s ex-bodyguard later faced a felony charge tied to alleged property destruction.

L.A. TACO closed its public message by insisting the matter was never about one person but about a community that deserves the truth. Torres’s new platform continues to draw readers who followed his ICE-raid work.

Democratic-linked flashpoints keep surfacing in other corners of the party as well, from an Ilhan Omar staffer drawing backlash over comments on a CEO killing to heated public confrontations involving senior senators.

When a reporter covering a lawmaker’s bills is simultaneously tied to that lawmaker by romance and byline questions, readers are right to demand clean lines. Ethics rules exist for exactly these collisions of access, affection, and published work.