Articles
Major projects at The San Diego Union-Tribune
Selected articles from The San Diego Union-Tribune
(You can also visit my staff page on the UT site.)
- San Diego woman fills home with donations for Afghans seeking safety in U.S.
- Reporter’s Notebook: What I learned by listening to asylum seekers from around the world
- U.S. border officials have been turning asylum seekers away at ports of entry despite new rules
- Desert town holding areas the last in San Diego County to empty of migrants as border crossings slow
- Hundreds of migrants held between San Diego border walls as Title 42 ends
- Uncertainty reigns at border just before Title 42 lifts
- ‘System error’: As smartphone app becomes only way to request asylum, it locks out many migrants
- Afghans evacuated during the withdrawal are able to renew temporary permission to be in the United States
- Restrictive border policy Title 42 ends this week but leaves imprint on future of asylum
- Rancho Peñasquitos neighbors team up to support refugee family. ‘This is something we could do’
- Migrants say Border Patrol is keeping them between the border walls for days without food or shelter
- Border Patrol investigating after humanitarian volunteers say agents destroyed supplies left for migrants
- Women march through Tijuana to condemn high rates of femicide and assault
- ICE detainees allege retaliation after speaking out about medical conditions at Otay Mesa Detention Center
- Reporter’s Notebook: Bárbara was an asylum seeker stuck in Tijuana for years. Now she has a green card and business in Miami
- U.S. residents can now sponsor refugees. Here’s what you need to know to participate.
- Asylum seekers in Tijuana are scrambling through mobile app error messages for few appointments into the U.S.
- Persecuted in Russia for her faith, Jehovah’s Witness wins asylum in San Diego
- CBP to begin requiring mobile app for asylum seekers to request protection at ports of entry
- Facing prison in Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses are waiting in San Diego to see if the U.S. will protect them
- Federal officials leave dozens of migrants at bus stations across San Diego County
- This San Diego migrant shelter has become an integral part of the border. Other cities are taking notice.
- Requesting asylum is supposed to be free. But corruption in Tijuana means many have to pay
- What could asylum processing look like after border expulsions end?
- At international human rights hearing, United States declines to argue details of 2010 border killing
- Venezuelans struggle with new reality in Tijuana after expulsions from United States
- Before Border Angels founder retired, two women alleged sexual harassment
- Reporter notebook: A conversation with an Afghan woman on choosing to stay
- Afghan evacuees in San Diego live in limbo, look to Congress for a path to permanence
- First confusion, and finally some relief, as ‘Remain in Mexico’ begins to wind down in San Diego
- ‘Remain in Mexico’ drags on despite Supreme Court decision
- ICE has resumed deporting unsuspecting immigrants at routine check-ins
- Once a symbol of binational unity, Friendship Park could close to cross-border reunions forever
- Supreme Court rules ‘Remain in Mexico’ can end. Now asylum seekers wait in Tijuana to see if it really will
- He tried to reunite with his Syrian refugee family in Tijuana, just briefly. Mexico said no
- Afghans face insurmountable challenges in fleeing to U.S., a stark contrast to arriving Ukrainians
- For Haitian migrants, waiting in Tijuana brings fear, discrimination, even death
- With father in immigration detention, Vista family faces eviction
- A voice message in a laundromat, and a rebirth across the border. One trans woman’s journey to U.S. soil
- Customs and Border Protection organizes to process a limited number of particularly vulnerable asylum seekers
- Biden administration expands use of Title 42 expulsions after moving to end them
- UCSD trauma doctors say migrant injuries and deaths rose sharply as the border wall grew taller
- Dozens of Ukrainians stuck in Tijuana after U.S. policy change
- A Ukrainian woman was sent to a Louisiana detention center. Then everything changed at the border.
- A Ukrainian minor’s separation from caregiver at San Diego border shows trauma behind policy
- CBP begins rapid processing of Ukrainians at PedWest border crossing
- Hundreds of Ukrainians are waiting in Tijuana to request protection in the United States
- After officials bulldozed a Tijuana tent camp, migrants ended up in shelters, apartments and more tents
- Ukrainians only: Racial disparities in U.S. border policies grow more obvious
- Ukrainian family fleeing war allowed into U.S. after being turned away twice
- Ukrainian family fleeing Russian invasion turned away from U.S. border
- Children needing serious medical care are denied entry to U.S., despite doctor recommendations
- CBP staffs up San Diego border line as Russians, others try to drive across to reach asylum in U.S.
- ‘Remain in Mexico’ hearings off to a bumpy restart in San Diego
- U.S. failure to follow Remain in Mexico rules show program hasn’t changed as promised
- First two asylum seekers returned to Tijuana in ‘Remain in Mexico’ are Colombian
- ‘Remain in Mexico’ program returns to the San Diego-Tijuana border
- Jamaican asylum seekers in Tijuana facing racism, homophobia while they wait
- Biden administration to restart ‘Remain in Mexico’ program and expand to include Haitians
- Mexico asks U.S. to make humanitarian guarantees before looming MPP restart
- Child allowed into U.S. for urgent cancer treatment, a rare grant of humanitarian parole
- Reporter notebook: Trek up Otay Mountain reveals risks border crossers take
- After crossing the border in Texas, migrants are flown to San Diego. Then expelled to Mexico — again.
- What it was like working with migrant children inside the San Diego Convention Center
- Fear mounts for San Diegans with loved ones left in Afghanistan as U.S. prepares to leave
- Biden expelling asylum-seeking families with young children to Tijuana after flights from Texas
- At San Diego migrant shelter, support for arriving asylum seekers is around-the-clock effort
- Two San Diego pastors are lost to the coronavirus, and the grief extends across the border
- Asylum seekers desperate for help set up camp outside Tijuana port of entry
- First ‘Remain in Mexico’ asylum seekers enter U.S. at San Ysidro
- Trapped in Mexico, asylum seekers watch with hope that Biden will let them enter U.S.
- Despite public outcry, many Cameroonians and Congolese deported on a flight
- Cameroonian asylum seekers fear looming deportation flight means certain death
- Border officials send newborn US citizen back to Mexico with mother
- Asylum seekers stranded in Tijuana struggle to hang on amid the pandemic
- Children learn computer coding as asylum-seeking families ‘remain in Mexico’
- First ICE detainee dies from COVID-19 after being hospitalized from Otay Mesa Detention Center
- Federal detainees at Otay Mesa say they aren’t isolated while waiting for coronavirus test results
- COVID-19 concerns prompt hunger strikes, protests inside Otay Mesa Detention Center
- As coronavirus spreads in federal detention center, calls for widescale release grow
- Detainees at Otay Mesa Detention Center were offered masks, but only if they signed contracts
- Immigrant detainee, second employee at Otay Mesa Detention Center test positive for COVID-19
- Employee at Otay Mesa Detention Center tests positive for COVID-19
- Coronavirus stalls asylum system and exacerbates conditions of migrants waiting in Mexico
- International case over border killing accuses high U.S. officials of cover-up plot
- Grandmother separated from 2-year-old when released into U.S. after being in ‘Remain in Mexico’ program
- San Diego migrant shelter finds more permanent home
- Cameroonian journalist wins asylum with help from Casa Cornelia pro bono attorney
- Asylum seeker who won case after ‘Remaining in Mexico’ is released, not yet free
- San Diego nonprofit’s legal help a tiny dent in asylum aid needed
- Tijuana asylum line reaches highest count on record as migrants protest long waits
- Judge orders DHS to keep man in U.S. for immigration hearings instead of returning to Mexico
- Asylum seekers spent 18 days in holding cells, video shows port of entry conditions
- San Diego immigration court ‘overwhelmed’ by Remain In Mexico cases
- Asylum seekers forced to ‘remain in’ Mexicali face long journey to court hearings
- One year after notebook appears in Tijuana, confusion and anxiety continue in asylum line
- Scheduling glitch affects first hearings for ‘Remain in Mexico’ returnees
- First asylum seeker from Central America returned to Mexico
- Local sponsors provide 'oasis' for asylum seekers hoping for new life in U.S.
- Pilot program brings asylum screening to San Ysidro port of entry
- A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families. Here's what she saw.
- New guidance for asylum officers could send thousands back from the border
- 49 military personnel and family members take citizenship oath on USS Midway
- CoreCivic moves to expand Otay Mesa Detention Center
- How likely are Central Americans from the caravan to win their asylum cases?
- What happens when someone asks for asylum at the border
- Before migrant caravan reaches border, 90 request asylum at San Ysidro, more wait outside
- Tijuana man crossed border daily to pursue aerospace engineering degree, career at NASA
- Immigrants adjust to life in U.S. with determination and humor
- At long last, deported veteran becomes U.S. citizen, ready to start new life
- Deported veteran leader Hector Barajas is 'coming home'
- San Diego has the most noncriminal immigration arrests in the country
- Spouses of H-1B holders fighting to keep work permits after Trump administration threatens policy change
- ACLU sues immigration officials over family separation
- Grandmother with mental health condition in ICE solitary for 3 months
- Smugglers use rocks and fog to thwart Border Patrol
- UCSD dreamer detained after accidentally going to Mexico
- Berkeley student arrested by Border Patrol while visiting girlfriend in Chula Vista
- Border wall prototype anti-climb testing begins
- Asylum-seeking fathers separated from children by ICE
- Iraqi sculptor hoping for new life in U.S.
- Pregnant woman released from detention in surprise move by immigration officials
- Lack of immigrant workers could hobble racing industry
- Dreamers say they will not go quietly
- Trump administration ends DACA, San Diego dreamers vow to fight
- Pregnant woman fears miscarriage in immigration detention
- Dreamer gets glimpse of homeland as DACA deadline looms
- Last stop for America's most complex immigration cases? Congress
- Teen commutes daily across border to pursue tennis dream
- Syrian refugee family celebrates Ramadan, but misses son
- Why don't unauthorized immigrants become citizens? They can't.
- Congolese refugee family faces daily struggles, welcomes peace
- What does 'get in line' mean in immigration debate?
- Syrian family's harrowing journey brought them to El Cajon
- Grandmother, 'backbone' of veteran's family, sent back to Mexico
- Organized resistance is forming to Trump's immigration crackdown
- Amid immigration tumult, 8 asylum seekers gain U.S. entry
- First chartered flight of Somali deportees in years sent this week
- A lot depends on Trump's definition of ‘criminal’ and ‘immigrant’
- Afghan interpreter arrives in America after years-long visa effort
From my work at The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa
From my graduate work at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University