What I Cover

I write about immigrants and low-wage work in the Midwest. In this second Trump administration, I plan to pay attention to deportations, including deportations of people in the criminal justice system. I am based in Chicago.

My Background

After joining ProPublica in 2017, I led a project that examined Chicago’s punitive ticketing and debt collection system; that reporting helped prompt major reforms, including the cancellation of 55,000 driver’s license suspensions and millions of dollars in debt forgiveness. In 2018, I was part of a team of reporters who examined conditions at shelters for unaccompanied immigrant children; some of that reporting was included in a ProPublica series on the impact of President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

I was among the first reporters to document the growing number of Central American teenagers who work in factories. Most recently, I worked with my colleague Maryam Jameel to examine conditions for immigrant workers on Wisconsin dairy farms; that reporting prompted a federal civil rights investigation and led to the creation of an $8 million fund to build housing for farmworkers. The series was a finalist for an Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, among other recognitions.

I previously worked for The Chicago Reporter, Catalyst Chicago, El Nuevo Herald in Miami and the Yakima Herald-Republic in Washington. I am the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador and speak Spanish fluently.