Call for Pitches: Immigration and Elections
We want your pitches! Making Contact is assembling a team of freelance journalists to examine how immigrants in the U.S. participate in politics and are responding to the 2016 elections. Two freelancers have already joined the project. Their work will specifically examine issues Latino/a communities are confronting in the upcoming elections. We’re looking for character-driven stories that focus on how other immigrant...
The Border: thoughts on place and identity
“There was a wall…Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed I have been thinking a lot about borders. The borders I know come to being at the airport—at the security line where my belongings and body are scanned, at the booths of the immigration officers who take my fingerprints, my picture, my...
For Undocumented Women Seeking Reproductive Healthcare, Policing and Politics Create a Maze of Barriers
In September 2015, an undocumented woman arrived at a healthcare clinic outside of Houston, Texas for a routine follow-up exam. Blanca Borrego handed a false driver’s license to the receptionist at the Memorial Hermann women’s clinic upon check-in and waited to be called into the examination room with her two daughters at her side. They sat in that waiting room for two hours. Finally, when her name was called, her daughters stayed...
Making Contact team wins SPJ Excellence in Journalism Award!
Every year the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards recognize the best stories and most innovative projects from media outlets around the country. These awards are where some of the most celebrated names in journalism recognize the crucial, enlightening work being done by their peers. We’re excited to announce that a team from Making Contact has won a Feature Storytelling award from the SPJ...
Meet our immigration and elections reporters -Valeria Fernandez and Marco Vera
We’re moving full steam ahead with our Immigration and Elections project and now’s the time to join in. Your contributions help us hire all these special reporters. Meet the first two journalists: Welcome Valeria Fernandez and Marco Vera! Both journalists are experienced multi-platform media makers with deep roots in immigrant communities. They each bring a wealth of knowledge and energy to this project. We’re already impressed with...
Let’s talk about immigration and elections
Immigrants and Elections a special miniseries Part 1 From Dreamers in Arizona to Muslims in Michigan: Immigrant Communities Upholding Democracy From Dreamers in Arizona to Muslims in Michigan, we’ll meet immigrant communities upholding democracy. We’ll also have a conversation with the Brennan Center for Justice President and author of the Fight to Vote, Michael Waldman about how immigrants throughout history have expanded the right...
