ASU student journalists, 5 partner universities uncover chaos inside America’s immigration courts
Collage by Lavanya Paliwal; photos by Ike Wood
Students in the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication participated in a six-university reporting collaboration offering a sweeping, ground-level examination of the U.S. immigration system titled “Lives in the Balance: Immigration in a Divided America.”
The project brought together nearly 100 student journalists to document the reach of that system from inside the nation's immigration courts and beyond. In addition to the Cronkite School, journalism schools involved include the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism, USC Annenberg, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Florida College of Journalism. These schools are all partners in the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.
Student reporters from the six schools simultaneously attended immigration court hearings in their home states from Jan. 28 to Feb. 28. They attended more than 700 hearings in 14 courtrooms, where they gathered the same data, compiled 31 datasets and analyzed those datasets for trends. While this data is anecdotal and nonscientific, it offers a snapshot of a system stretched at the seams.
Reporters wrote and produced more than 60 stories across multiple platforms, which can be viewed in four sections:
LISTEN:
Tune into a "Inside the courtrooms," a podcast episode where student journalists from across the country discuss what they saw while reporting on federal immigration courts this past year.
"On the Docket," which looks closely at what is happening inside America’s immigration courtrooms
"Enforcement," which puts a lens on ICE arrests and detention across American cities
"Journeys," which tells stories from inside America’s immigrant communities
"The System," which examines the immigration system as a whole
In Arizona, reporters from the Howard Center found that immigrant children are sometimes misplaced into ICE's adult detention centers due to "murky" science involving dental X-rays that expose the children to ionizing radiation. The reporters also analyzed data on immigrant bond amounts set by Arizona immigration judges and found that judges are given few guidelines for setting bonds, resulting in a patchwork system where an immigrant's ability to post bond often depends on which judge hears their case.
And that’s not the only cost immigrants facing removal encounter in immigration court. From attorney fees to lost wages, the cost of being deported by federal immigration judges in Arizona can be tens of thousands of dollars.
Howard Center reporters also looked at the impact of policy changes and mounting pressure to process immigration cases faster and deport more immigrants more quickly. In addition, reporters uncovered increasing restrictions on public access to immigration courts, a trend that is being challenged in a string of recent lawsuits.
“Visiting those courts was a visceral experience. It’s one thing to hear about the immigration system from articles, from academic research, from secondhand anecdotes. But it’s another thing to actually sit in these courtrooms. That really changed my perspective about the value of being there as a journalist in the room where things happen,” said Mia Osmonbekov, a Cronkite School graduate student in the Howard Center capstone course.
MORE:
Read stories by Howard Center ASU students here.
The Howard Center’s reporting team included three graduate and four undergraduate students. The reporters are Suzgo Chitete, Tymber Klahr, Katrina Michalak, Mia Osmonbekov, Lavanya Paliwal, Lilly Roseburrough and Sophie Schaeffer. Their reporting was overseen by Howard Center ASU leadership including Executive Editor Mark Greenblatt, Executive Producer Lauren Mucciolo and Ida B. Wells Professor of Investigative Journalism Angela Hill. Professor of Practice Evan Wyloge served as data editor, and Shelby Grossman, professor of AI and investigative journalism, provided reporting and editing support.
The full project is available at livesinthebalance.news.
You can also follow the project on social media:
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism based at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication was founded in 2019 to develop the next generation of investigative reporters by teaching them how to report and produce national multimedia investigations in partnership with professional newsrooms and university partners. The Howard Centers are an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer Roy W. Howard.
Contact ASU's Howard Center at [email protected], and visit us on X and Instagram @HowardCenterASU.