AP journalists have worked tirelessly across formats and locations to chronicle the stories of immigrant parents and children struggling to reunite after being separated at the border as a result of White House zero-tolerance enforcement policies. Their work paid big dividends last week with exclusive images, videos and stories about separated families and White House policies by reporters Martha Irvine and Michael Tarm, Chicago; Morgan Lee, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Elliot Spagat, San Diego; photographers Charlie Arbogast, Chicago; and Matt York, Phoenix; and video journalist John Mone, Houston.
Lee, Mone and York convinced a source to let them inside an El Paso shelter where more than 30 immigrant parents were staying while waiting for word about their children. Spagat doggedly worked sources from the border to break news about the impact Trump administration's zero-tolerance tactics. And Irvine and Arbogast obtained exclusive images from one of the signature moments of the family separation crisis – the reunion of a Brazilian mom who'd been separated from her son for a month.
Irvine and Arbogast spent a good part of Thursday, June 28, alone with immigrant Lidia Souza, getting interviews, photos and video ahead of a court hearing the next day in which she got her child back. They also were able to get permission to use a photo from a visit with the child earlier in the week, the first time she had seen her son since their separation. Irvine, who was doing double duty shooting video and reporting for the text story, also was able to watch a video of that reunion for inclusion in the print story.
Lidia Karine Souza hugs her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, at a Chicago law firm during a news conference shortly after Diogo was reunited with his mother, June 28, 2018. A federal judge had earlier ordered the immediate release from detention of 9-year-old Diogo, who was separated from his mother at the U.S.-Mexico border in May.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza and her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, walk past a panhandler during their first full day reunited, June 29, 2018, in Chicago.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza and her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, take a selfie in front of Annish Kapoor's “Cloud Gate” sculpture, also known as “The Bean,” while they spend their first full day reunited, June 29, 2018, in Chicago.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza kisses her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, on the neck as they wait for lunch during their first full day reunited, June 29, 2018, in Chicago.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Diogo De Olivera Filho, 9, is embraced by his mother, Lidia Karine Souza, during a news conference shortly after Diogo was reunited with his mother in Chicago, June 28, 2018.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza and her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, smile at each other during a news conference shortly after Diogo was reunited with his mother in Chicago, June 28, 2018.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza and her son, Diogo De Olivera Filho, center, cross Chicago's Michigan Ave. after spending time in Millennium Park during their first full day reunited, June 29, 2018.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, shows a tattoo of her son's name as she talks in Evanston, Ill., June 27, 2018, about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time since they were separated.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza, center, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, huddles with her legal team, attorney Jesse Bless, left, and paralegal Luana Mazon, in Evanston, Ill., June 28, 2018. An emergency hearing was scheduled for the following morning in which Souza's attorneys would argue that the government is imposing unlawful requirements for the reunification of migrant parents with their children.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, sheds a tear during an interview with The AP in Evanston, Ill., June 27, 2018, as she talks about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time since they were separated. It took Souza weeks to find Diogo after he was taken from her at the Texas border in late May and sent by the government to a Chicago shelter.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
After a judge ordered the child to be returned the following day, Arbogast, Irvine and Tarm provided multiformat coverage of the news conference in which the mother and child appeared together. Arbogast and Irvine also were able to meet up with Souza and her attorney at their hotel – the only journalists allowed to do so. Arbogast got more exclusive photos as the family explored Chicago.
On the same day, Lee, Mone and York were the first journalists to get into a shelter near the border in El Paso that housed several immigrants who were separated from their children. Inside, they asked several immigrants from Central America to describe their ordeal as they waited around a phone for calls about their children, sent for vital documents from Central America and got on buses to stay with family members in hopes of reunited with their children. The result was compelling all-formats coverage of the story that was prominently used in newspapers in New Mexico, Texas and beyond.
Melvin, foreground, and Iris, both from Honduras, listen as other immigrants tell of their separation from their children at the border during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, June 25, 2018. Thirty-two parents waiting to be reunited with their children were released by the U.S. Border Patrol to the shelter, about 10 blocks from the Mexican border.
AP Photo / Matt York
Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House, speaks with migrant parents, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas.
AP Photo / Matt York
Joselaine, a migrant mother from Brazil, waits to speak at the Annunciation House, June 27, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. A U.S. District judge issued an injunction that gives the government 30 days to reunite all children forcibly separated from their parent under the zero-tolerance enforcement policy. Joselaine was one of the plaintiffs in the law suit brought by the ACLU.
AP Photo / Matt York
A migrant parent wears an ankle monitor bracelet above his donated flip-flops at the Annunciation House shelter, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas.
AP Photo / Matt York
Miriam, from Guatemala, recounts her separation from her child at the border during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, June 25, 2018.
AP Photo / Matt York
Miriam, from Guatemala, recounts her separation from her child at the border during a news conference at the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, June 25, 2018.
AP Photo / Matt York
Migrant parents socialize at the Annunciation House, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas.
AP Photo / Matt York
Migrant parents socialize outside the Annunciation House, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas.
AP Photo / Matt York
Honduran immigrant Wilson Romero sits on a bench drinking a soda outside the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, June 26, 2018. Romero is waiting to be reunited with his 5-year-old daughter Nataly, along with 31 other parents separated from their children who are staying at the shelter about 10 blocks from the Mexican border. Romero was told his daughter was being held in Arizona.
AP Photo / Matt York
Wilson Romero, left, and Daniel Montes, both from Honduras, arrive at a bus terminal early June 27, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. Romero, separated from his 5-year-old daughter, and Montes, separated from his 6- and 7-year-old sons at the border in El Paso, were leaving Texas for New Mexico and California to stay with family members until they can be reunited with their children.
AP Photo / Matt York
On Sunday, Spagat was the first to report on the June border apprehension numbers that were an important indicator of the success of the White House's zero-tolerance policy of separating families. Fox News did a segment on the numbers, and Bloomberg credited the AP in its own piece.
The reunion of the Brazilian mother was the lead story on APNews, and the APNewsbreak on the story was liked more than 2,000 times from the AP Twitter feed.
For exclusive multiformat coverage of families affected by immigration policy, and for expanding AP's reach on this closely watched story, Irvine, Lee, Tarm, Spagat, Arbogast, York and Mone share this week's Best of the States award.