@itscaitlinhd
@itscaitlinhd
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Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and feature writer at @theatlantic , via @nytimes & @npr . Cdickerson @theatlantic .com.
Brooklyn
Joined October 2011
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Pinned Tweet
1/ I've spent the last 18 months investigating how our government reached the point of taking children away from their parents as a way to discourage migration to the United States. Here's my story about how and why it happened, and who's responsible.
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4/The implications cannot be overstated. At press time, the parents of 185 separated children still had not been found. Even those who have been reunified remain, in many cases, profoundly traumatized. Both parents and children are struggling with severe mental illness.
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3/It's easy to blame family separations on a few hawks and a chaotic administration, but they were co-signed by dozens of high ranking political appointees and bureaucrats. Some actively supported the idea, but many simply declined to push back, figuring that someone else would.
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8/When I asked government officials how this could have happened, many told me they had no idea how badly awry separations would go. But government records show the opposite-everything that went wrong was documented in advance warnings. Still, the administration forged ahead.
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12/And the work is ongoing.
@iamfannygarcia
and
@NaraMilanich
are recording the oral histories of separated families to ensure that their stories are preserved.
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5/For years we've been told that separations were done humanely and without incident. That's not true. Neris González, a Salvadoran consular worker, recalls kids being physically pulled back and forth between their parents and agents; she worried some might get hurt.
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2/ Beyond the answers to those initial questions, I came away with a new understanding of the government processes and procedures that exist to prevent bad policies from being implemented--systems that in this case, were dismantled, disempowered or ignored.
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9/This piece is the continuation of a body of work by many reporters who helped to uncover family separations before they were publicly acknowledged, during the many months when government officials were misleading congress and the public about what they were doing.
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7/González can still hear the children's ear-piercing screams. She recalls getting ready to leave the facility at the end of the day. The children hugged and clung to her, begging her not to leave them in the detention center alone.
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11/There are too many to name, but among them
@JuliaEAinsley
@lomikriel
@jacobsoboroff
@gingerthomp1
@mariasacchetti
@nickmiroff
@dlind
@jonathanblitzer
@haleaziz
and of course,
@nixonron
@mirjordan
@shearm
and
@juliehdavis
. The list goes on and on. Please add to it.
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A judge has ordered that Kirstjen Nielsen be deposed in a lawsuit over family separations.
BREAKING: Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's Deposition Approved by Court, Citing Compelling Evidence of "Bad Faith" in Family Separation Practices. Learn more in our press release:
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6/She says the CBP processing center where she worked was virtually locked down while separations were underway. No one outside of government was allowed in to see what was going on.
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13/This story couldn't have happened w/out my brilliant colleagues, starting w/ the unparalleled
@sstossel
.
@AndrewAoyama
's research was indispensable, as was a copy and checking army, plus our photo, art and experimental storytelling departments. I'm so lucky to work with them.
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Texas officials acknowledge that they are taking fathers away from their spouses and children. And some Texas troopers are wearing green uniforms, confusing families who think they're turning themselves over to immigration agents.
Exclusive: Texas troopers have split up at least 26 families at the border by detaining fathers on trespassing charges, while the other members — including small children — are transferred to Border Patrol, sources tell
@JustJhair
and me
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1/The WaPo ed board to congress in response to our story on family separations: "Mr. Trump pushed to revive it, and he could do so again if he wins a second term. There has been no accounting for the officials who conceived, pushed and carried it out..."
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1/T-42 coverage depicting migrants as inherently threatening--ppl who will take your jobs, your safety, your health, your *something*--plays into centuries-old xenophobic stereotypes that have never been borne out by facts.
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We tend to forget that the last president to oversee record breaking numbers of migration prior to Biden was Trump.
A strange thing about media coverage of Trump and the border: It largely erases his term as president. He didn't fix anything. He too released many migrants. He couldn't get his own plan passed *with unified GOP control.* My new piece gets into this:
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I am being asked at NABJ if I would ever be interested in audio. The erasure must stop!
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This implications of this change in Florida law are massive. Here's a (2020) story that looks at the dangerous consequences of mixing fear of immigration enforcement with healthcare. w/
@lynseyaddario
Florida hospitals will now ask about your immigration status. What to know, how to answer
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I'm so honored to have won this year's Livingston Award for National Reporting. And I implore you to go read and watch the work of my fellow winners--I'm in awe of them.
Congratulations to Caitlin Dickerson -
@itscaitlinhd
of The Atlantic our 2023 National Reporting winner for “We Need to Take Away Children”. Read more about Dickerson's story here 👉
@UMichiganNews
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Less than 5% of border crossers are from Muslim-majority countries, yet
@Haleaziz
found that they made up more than *60%* of people charged over 18-months in Del Rio, TX under a rarely used, and especially harsh, border crossing statute.
We uncovered a federal effort that disproportionately prosecuted migrants from Muslim countries at the border.
The migrants, like Afghan journalists/activists, were jailed for months.
DOJ stopped after our inquiry.
“Why is it just us in detention?”
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2/ "...Nor has the U.S. government offered the traumatized families permanent legal residence in the United States, even as a means of reuniting deported parents with their children. It is past time for Congress to address these issues."
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1/If you want to make a movie about the impact of journalism, I would start by incorporating a single person consuming journalism… having their assumptions challenged, discovering nuance they didn’t realize existed before, being moved. I saw none of that in Civil War.
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3/ The real winners from the senate negotiations (whether or not the border bill passes) are Trump’s anti-immigrant advisers, who successfully leveraged his messaging abilities to shift the national debate, such that Dems are now embracing ideas that were once considered fringe.
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1/ Coming out of my writing hole to say: It’s important in pointing out Trump’s efforts to undermine bipartisanship that we don’t accidentally imply the Senate Border Bill would magically fix decades of immigration issues.
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So very honored and grateful to have been selected as part of the phenomenal new class of New America fellows. And congratulations to my fellow class members! Can't wait to start working with you.
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A periodic reminder to be skeptical if someone tells you a simple narrative about how border crossings are up or down bc of X. Is their evidence merely correlative? What motivations may they have to push the narrative? Any factors they may be leaving out, intentionally or not?
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From now on, when I'm asked why our country's immigration system is still broken, I'm just going to quote this column by
@hwypol
:
()
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Here's my interview with
@arishapiro
on
@npratc
about our
@TheAtlantic
cover story on family separations carried out under the Trump administration.
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1/ICYMI: Matt Albence, an enthusiastic proponent for Zero Tolerance who tried to stop separated families from being reunited (writing, “We can’t have this”) is poised to join GEO, a private prison company that is federally contracted to detain migrants.
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1/Happy belated pub-day to
@rachelswarns
and her powerful new book, The 272. It painstakingly details how the American Catholic church simply would not exist as we know it today if it had not owned and sold (not freed) enslaved people--often tearing families apart in doing so.
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Beyond honored to have been selected by the
@silversfound
judges, and to be in the company of such brilliant colleagues. Onward. And thank you.
Caitlin Dickerson
@itscaitlinhd
is a winner of the 2023 Robert B. Silvers Prize for Journalism. The judges praised Dickerson for her “dogged, exhaustive reporting, which illuminates the magnitude of America's ongoing immigration crisis.”
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I'll be on
@CNN
at 10pm to discuss the week's news. To recap: Yesterday, Trump suggested he would reimpose family separations if elected again. Tomorrow, the pre-textual Title 42 policy ends. (Oh and Monday I won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on immigration.) Hello!
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A must read for New Yorkers (and anyone concerned about the US border):
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Since 2020, public servants who've spent careers working to protect elections "have been harassed, intimidated, and in many cases driven out of office..."
Now, they are "wondering if anything can stop the collapse of our most essential institution."
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Nobody keeps it real like Linda! I loved and treasure the opportunities I had to learn from her.
News: Linda Wertheimer is retiring after 53 years at NPR. She directed the very first day of All Things Considered, and later hosted it.
NPR exec Edith Chapin writes: “None of us would be here today without Linda’s commitment.” We celebrate her tomorrow on Morning Edition.
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3/Don't just take pictures of people at their worst, looking desperate. Talk to economists and business owners. Schools. Transportation. Hospitals. Find out what this really means for American life; don't vaguely imply a looming doomsday.
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Deterrence:
"It seems like this is the worst ever tragedy we’ve seen in the Mediterranean."
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4/For ex., my sources in NYC migrant shelters say that newcomers are typically employed within days of their arrival, heading to work 6-7 days a week for jobs in construction, food delivery, cleaning, gardening.
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5/Doomsday coverage is great for local pols who now have an excuse for why they haven't successfully addressed homelessness in their cities (distracting from the fact that this was the case before anything changed at the border--see Invisible Child, for ex.)
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Always read
@JerusalemDemsas
...
So many parallels here to the intractability on border issues:
Voter frustration empowers politicians who promise to "crack down" -- which has no discernible impact on the problem, for anyone.
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2/The resource strain at the border and in some cities (including mine) is real, but it's not the full, fact-based picture of how newcomers would impact American society. It's a tiny fraction of it.
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This rare 18 minute (!!) TV hit summarizes years of reporting on family separations, with some bonus material on the growing challenge of forced migration worldwide. Thank you so much for having me
@AmanpourCoPBS
and
@NPRMichel
.
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4/ The fact that Trump's concern with immigration stems only from its ability to help him win elections is well documented old news. He may kill this bill & win a battle that helps him in Nov, but the folks writing his immigration policies are thinking (and winning) much bigger.
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Big news
NEW
Trump administration officials Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielsen ordered to testify on family separations
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7/Further reading on the impact of fear-mongering, which is as old as our country:
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Since backing away from settlement negotiations, Biden's DOJ has been arguing zealously in court against separated families who've sued the government for damages. They're doing so using arguments that are provably untrue.
NEW: In court filing last week, as Biden task force works to reunite hundreds of families still separated after being torn apart by Trump admin, Biden DOJ argues lawsuits filed by families should be tossed because policy was "adopted" for "perceived humanitarian considerations."
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6/Such coverage is also wonderful for pols who promote the great replacement theory and its euphemistic variants, scaring the audience without providing them with important context.
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4/My husband who works in film says I shouldn't spoil the ending, so I'll just say that the actions of the "writer" character (who doesn't write a single word in the film) made me say something like "that's so stupid" out loud in the theater.
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🙏🏾😭!
ASME Awards 2023:
@TheAtlantic
nominated in Public Interest category for "We Need to Take Away Children.," by
@itscaitlinhd
#ASMEAwards
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1/ Some eye-popping details from
@vanromo
's write up of Florida's new immigration law: The Florida Policy Institute estimates that without undocumented workers, the state's GDP would drop by $12.6 billion in one year
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An *essential* read by
@JerusalemDemsas
on border policies.
If you cover politics, don't throw up your hands when immigration comes up--"it's complicated!"--and get worked by the refs (to quote JD).
Instead, read her piece, ask smarter qs, and inform your audience effectively.
On May 11, Title 42 expired and the entire political establishment and commentariat braced for chaos at the border.
But chaos never came.
My latest for
@TheAtlantic
>>
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2/ To that end, it would be cool to see some evidence-based analysis of the border bill and its potential for success/failure/something else. (It’s a bill with consequences, after all, not just a political football.)
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5/I know it's a movie and exaggeration is expected. But at this moment in history and with a budget this large, these depictions matter, so I'm willing to be tough on a project with so much potential.
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A small but mighty
@TheAtlantic
contingent --
@devillenews
and I -- will be at
#NABJNAHJ22
. DM us to set up a meeting if you’re interested in learning more about The Atlantic!
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Charles Ogletree was from my home town; his scholarship helped me pay for college. Grateful to have been able to learn about his life's work at a young age. May he rest in power.
RIP to Charles Ogletree - a legal giant, who learned from Thurgood Marshall and mentored a student named Barack Obama.
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Also (duh!)
@ahylton26
,
@anniecorreal
,
@bylizrobbins
,
@mollymotoole
,
@mollyhf
,
@priscialva
,
@juliaprestonnow
,
@tedhesson
,
@BobMooreNews
and more and more. (Hate these lists bc it's so hard to capture all). Not to mention
@kannoyoungs
and
@camiloreports
more recently. On and on.
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2/The film depicted journalists getting each other killed for the thrill of a beautiful photo (and the photos were beautiful.) But I saw no sense of mission in those journalists, just competition for competition’s sake, with deadly consequences.
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I'm so very excited and fortunate to be a Shorenstein Center Fellow this semester at the Harvard Kennedy School while I work on a book. Pinch me. And/or send book writing tips.
We're thrilled to welcome our new and returning Spring 2023 Shorenstein Fellows to the center:
@itscaitlinhd
@adamlashinsky
@okapifilm
, and
@brianstelter
&
@jonathan_c_ong
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.
@ByFernandaS
asking the right qs of how this is being covered and what end it's meant to serve: "The only people who seem to not have a say in all of this are the bus passengers... No one asked whether they want to be filmed and photographed as they disembarked in New York."
The dirty politics of busing migrants is officially an emergency — and that’s what the governors of Texas, Florida and Arizona have wanted all along. My latest for
@PostOpinions
:
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3/Of course a lot of the film was familiar: The tradition of mentorship. Maladaptive impacts of PTSD. Risk. But without a discernible point to all that (informing the public! hello!) they seem like vapid thrill seekers.
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The 272 "journeys to slavery’s heart of darkness... But it is also the moving human story of some of the people who endured."
Congratulations to my
#1
journalism mentor
@rachelswarns
on this richly-deserved NYT review!!
You really must read her book.
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"High housing costs have a way of making every problem a housing problem."
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A thousand times yes. Everyone here did amazing work.
Excited for
@itscaitlinhd
hard work getting the well-deserved attention! Small thread crediting a fraction of the tireless efforts that went into publishing it:
@yurivictor
led the editorial web with
@aithnefeay
,
@lizziehart
, and
@devillenews
1/3 🧵
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2/Before this appointment, Albence continued to work in immigration detention, having collaborated with the Biden administration as a representative of his consulting company, GrindStone--even though he has been sued for his role in family separations.
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Shout it from the rooftops
Special shout-out to The Atlantic’s Scott Stossel, who has now edited Pulitzer Prize-winning stories in two consecutive years — last year’s Sept. 11 essay by
@JenSeniorNY
and this year’s article by
@itscaitlinhd
on Trump’s family-separation policy
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Happy pub day! From Sudan to Kenya to the US,
@achut_deng
's journey is so much more profoundly moving than I could have imagined during our first interview for the NYT two years ago. She and
@akghutton
have created an extraordinary book for young readers. It's out today.
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Another beautiful, heartbreaking story from Jen Senior. Don't delay!
Whole generations of adults were lost to institutionalization. They were warehoused, hidden away, forgotten. So many of us colluded in their erasure.
This piece is my small attempt to un-erase one of them. 8/8
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more news about Albence
INBOX: ICE admits that officials (incl. Thomas Homan, Ronald Vitiello, and Matthew Albence) wiped their phones bw 2019 and 2021, even after ICE received a public record request for text messages related to an ongoing federal criminal prosecution -- per
@weareoversight
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3/It’s common for former immigration enforcement authorities to work for private prisons companies. Albence is one of many. He did not respond to a request for comment.
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Yesterday, Jim Acosta asked Chad Wolf, who served as chief of staff to Kirstjen Nielsen during Zero Tolerance (and later, acting DHS Secretary) about family separations. Wolf was non-committal on whether he thinks about those separated children and if the policy should come back.
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I'll be on the great
@BrianLehrer
show (guest hosted today by
@NancySolomon2
) from 10-10:35ish. There's just nothing like public radio. Call us and chat about what is happening (and what is not) on immigration reform.
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Jeff Self, the Border Patrol chief who spearheaded a pilot program to separate migrant families, appears to have been listed online as a fellow at
@UTEP
according
@BobMooreNews
, who also reports that the chief's name has been removed from the site.
UPDATE: A second research fellow has been removed from the website of UTEP's Center for Law and Human Behavior. Jeffrey Self had been a key player in a pilot test of the Trump administration's family separation policy,
@itscaitlinhd
has reported.
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YES! Congrats to
@19thnews
and one of our industry’s absolute best,
@ByFernandaS
.
I could not be more excited that
@ByFernandaS
is
@19thnews
' new managing editor! Please join me in welcoming her!
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Come out and see this urgent conversation about the border--live and online this Thursday as part of
#TAF23
What is the best way to address border security and immigration? Representative
@JoaquinCastrotx
will be in conversation with the Pulitzer Prize–winning Atlantic staff writer
@itscaitlinhd
to discuss the subject at
@TheAtlantic
Festival. Purchase a festival pass here:…
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My longer winded explanation is here:
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Amazing opportunity!
Job Alert! Are you an experienced immigration reporter? Want to work among the best investigative journalists in the country? We've got an opening.
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ICYMI Trump pledged to end birthright citizenship and "launch the largest immigration roundup" in history if reelected. DeSantis will also campaign on immigration restrictions, so how will Biden/Dems respond? So far, we hear mostly defensiveness w/o a coherent, proactive message.
Former President Donald Trump today pledged to challenge a long-standing interpretation of the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to end birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants if he defeats President Biden in the 2024 election.
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When I met
@achut_deng
, few knew what she had overcome to build stability for her 3 boys. But after nearing dying from Covid, she decided to share that story--from Sudan to South Dakota--with her own children and beyond.
On her new book with
@akghutton
:
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@ChadFWolf
Hi Chad, this piece summarizes the policy goals that Trump's immigration advisors have been discussing publicly in recent months and says that if reelected, Trump would fairly assume those policies are "precisely what the American people want."
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Me in my natural state--gesticulating wildly and discussing my abiding love of spreadsheets--with this year's Knight-Wallace fellows.
Happily deep in the journalism weeds, discussing tools and strategies for organizing complex investigations with
@itscaitlinhd
Applications for next year’s
#KnightWallaceFellows
open later this month. Is
@UMWallaceHouse
on your mind? We should be.
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Great day to regain access to my Twitter account after two months of being locked out. Pardon the delayed retweets and thanks that are coming. They're only a few days late but on here that feels like ages...
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and 2/ the same group estimates that 130,000 Floridians are married to immigrants w/out status. So a U.S.-born spouse traveling from out of state could be charged with a 3rd-deg. felony for transporting their spouse, as could farmworkers who travel together or with family
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🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
Some professional news: I'm thrilled to share I have been named the Global Race and Justice Editor at
@Reuters
. I'll start my new role in early September. I'm excited to step into a leadership opportunity that will allow me to shape coverage across Reuters' global report.
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It's not fair how amazing it is to attend IRE. Always my first recommendation to journalism students. (See you soon!)
Gearing up for
#IRE23
tomorrow and I can hardly contain my excitement. Can’t wait to be awash in knowledge and wisdom from the best in the biz.
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2/What I admire most is the lengths Rachel went to learn the stories of people who were forced into slavery--their personalities, quirks, joys and sorrows--and the intimacy with which she recounts them, defying the too common assumption that these details are lost to history..
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To that end, thanks for this story .
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4/On background, DHS officials said, the agency “prioritize[s] the health and safety of everyone in our custody,” and conducts multi-layered oversight of the private companies with which it works.
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And again
Again and again and again … | U.S. Is Said to Consider Reinstating Detention of Migrant Families
President Biden has turned to increasingly restrictive measures as his administration prepares for the end of Title 42
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Presidential candidate
@RonDesantis
's immigration platform.
NEW: GOP presidential candidate
@RonDeSantis
shares his plan for border w/
@FoxNews
- Mass deportations. Says Trump admin failed to deliver on this promise.
- Border wall, partially funded by taxing remittances
- Cut off federal funding of NGOs
- End catch & release
-…
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Instagram vs. reality:
FL Rep. Rick Roth "still supports a strict anti-immigration law he backed... but now fears the new leg. could be causing a 'major problem' as migrants flee the state."
"The bill has a lot of negative consequences," said Roth.
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PS: Sign up for the fifth draft newsletter to read more about my first book, which the fellowship will support!
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4/And the resilience of those families, who loved and cared for each other even when it was dangerous to do so. They carefully imparted their life stories to descendants, knowing the truth could help future generations and that it might even come to light one day. Now it has.
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I hope it goes w/out saying that this applies to Democrats, Republicans, advocates, Border Patrol agents, school teachers , your mother... everyone.
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Very proud of my girl
@JenParker393
who has been working hard on this for a long time. And as a reader--I cannot wait!
Hi everyone! We’re excited to introduce Hammer & Hope, a magazine of Black politics & culture, co-created by
@KeeangaYamahtta
&
@JenParker393
. For those who care about the Black freedom struggle – the sign up is liveeeee!
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