The State of Immigration Journalism: Insights & Advice for Reporters (and the rest of us)
On Tuesday, February 25, @ 12:00 PM: Join Caitlin Dickerson, Linda Dakin-Grimm, and myself for a lively discussion about immigration reporting in 2025. Registration is required. All are welcome.
Attention all journalists, journalism students, editors, academics, and anyone who wants to become a smarter consumer of immigration reporting!
You are invited to attend a panel discussion next Tuesday about the state of immigration reporting in 2025 with The Atlantic’s Caitlin Dickerson and attorney Linda Dakin-Grimm. The event is hosted by Harvard University’s The Journalist’s Resource and moderated by Carmen Nobel.
It promises to be a rich discussion. We will explore best practices for writing about immigration, provide examples of responsible ways to incorporate immigration data into news stories, and demonstrate how an understanding of the law can keep your writing factual and contextualized. Reporters will benefit enormously from this conversation, but so will anyone writing about immigration in these contentious times.
Before I tell you more about the event, let me share why I am excited about this discussion.
When I was younger, I was deeply skeptical of news reporting and suspicious of reporters. I don’t remember any personal negative experiences, but the general mistrust of the news—common in the community I grew up in and reinforced during college—shaped my perceptions. It didn’t help that I simply didn’t understand how news was produced.
All that changed for me. Over the past few years, I have had the good fortune to work closely with reporters and learn more about the challenging environment they navigate today. Local newspapers that give life and authenticity to communities are being bought up and shuttered at record rates. (Ghosting the News by Margaret Sullivan is an excellent short introduction to this phenomenon.) Our polarized information environment makes getting at the truth even harder. And many reporters—especially journalists of color covering immigration—are attacked by everyone from faceless trolls to the White House.
Despite these systemic challenges, I know many reporters who remain resilient and undeterred in their commitment to reporting the facts. Reporting on immigration is even more difficult given the complexity of immigration law, policy, and data. There are very few dedicated immigration reporters, even at national news outlets, and almost none at regional or local publications. It took me years of research to begin to understand how our convoluted immigration system works, so I can’t imagine how a local reporter goes from covering a mayoral campaign one day to reporting on immigration enforcement the next.
I’m not saying we should accept everything we read at face value. News outlets are imperfect—sometimes even broken. Reporters know this better than anyone. And we can’t ignore the fact that financial incentives and politics in the news industry can influence media bias. Nevertheless, I have found that journalists covering immigration genuinely strive to get the facts right. In short, my skepticism has largely been replaced by admiration and appreciation, and that has grown into a commitment to support journalists whenever I can.
As evidence of that commitment, since the start of the Trump administration, I have worked with journalists at more than a dozen newsrooms—big and small—to provide levelheaded, data-driven perspectives on immigration. This has resulted so far in news articles in AZ Central, Boston Globe (twice), Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News, El País, Mother Jones, Newsweek (twice), NPR, SFIST, Texas Tribune, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and Tucson.com. My latest longer-form interview was for The Majority Report with Emma Vigeland, which aired just yesterday.
Much of this media impact is now driven by my Substack articles—so if you support this newsletter with a paid subscription, you are having a direct impact on the news cycle. Thank you to all 200 paid subscribers and 7,000 (!!) total subscribers.
I refuse to give up on journalism and its essential role in American democracy. I also believe we need to support journalists who are covering immigration.
The Journalist’s Resource at Harvard University is a key partner in this mission. The Journalist’s Resource seeks to bridge the gap between academia and journalism and improve the overall quality of news reporting by bringing academics and journalists together. Whether you’re an academic trying to connect with journalists or a journalist trying to incorporate research into your reporting, you should know about The Journalist’s Resource.
This brings us to our event on February 25, 2025. The Journalist’s Resource is hosting a panel discussion with Caitlin Dickerson, Linda Dakin-Grimm, and me to discuss how journalists can elevate their immigration reporting.
We’ll cover the following topics (and more):
Where to find reliable immigration enforcement data—and how to interpret it.
Common errors in news stories about immigration.
Tips for localizing and humanizing stories about national immigration policy.
Ethical considerations when interviewing immigrants and asylum seekers.
And we’ll welcome your questions!
You can learn more about the event on the official webpage here: Covering Immigration Stories in 2025: Expert Insights and Reporting Advice. I encourage you to register soon to ensure you have a seat at the table. We will have slides and resources available to share, and the event will be recorded so you can refer back to it.
Let me introduce you to my amazing co-panelists.
Linda Dakin-Grimm is an attorney who has represented more than 100 unaccompanied migrant children and separated families in the U.S. immigration system and successfully challenged the first Trump administration in federal courts. She is the author of Dignity & Justice: Welcoming the Stranger at Our Border. You can learn more about Linda’s work in this interview with her, including her role in reuniting the Arredondo family from Guatemala and helping them successfully file for asylum. I have known about Linda’s work for several years, so it’s an honor to share the virtual stage with her.
Caitlin Dickerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and feature writer for The Atlantic who specializes in immigration coverage. Her name is synonymous with top-notch reporting on immigration. I have relied on her work for years, and her move to The Atlantic has allowed her to pursue more ambitious projects and write longer-form articles—something sorely needed in a media environment driven by sensationalist headlines. Caitlin is currently writing a book about the impact of deportation on American society, which I cannot wait to read. I encourage you to check out some of her recent work, such as these excellent articles:
"America’s Immigration Amnesia" – Despite recurrent claims of crisis at the border, the United States still does not have a coherent immigration policy.
"We Need to Take Away Children" – The secret history of the U.S. government's family separation policy.
The incredible Carmen Nobel is moderating the discussion. Carmen is the program director and editor-in-chief of The Journalist’s Resource. She truly understands the challenges facing journalism and has a vision for bringing academics and journalists into deeper conversation by helping journalists make sense of the dense world of scholarly research.
Please consider joining us next week!
If you have topics that you would like to make sure I cover in the presentation, leave a comment below and I’ll include it in my preparation.
Support Public Scholarship
Thank you for reading. Please subscribe to receive this newsletter in your inbox and share it online or with friends and colleagues. If you believe in this work, consider supporting it through a paid subscription. Learn more about the mission and the person behind this newsletter.
