With the 2020 election likely to shape the direction of U.S. immigration policy, this AP all-formats team examined the profound ways President Donald Trump has altered the immigration system in America.
President Donald Trump has altered the immigration system arguably more than any U.S. president, meaning this year’s election could have major implications for future immigration policy and for those trying to enter or stay in the U.S.
In the run-up to the election, AP’s immigration team unraveled four key policies that have upended lives: reduced refugee numbers, restrictions on international students, a virtual shutdown of asylum and the curbing of legal immigration.
Spearheaded by San Diego-based immigration team leader Elliot Spagat, reporters and visual journalists used unmatched source work and the breadth of AP’s global footprint to find would-be refugees who are stuck overseas, speak to migrants on the record about trying repeatedly to cross into the U.S., score a rare interview with Trump’s lead immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, and nab extensive interviews with the chiefs of the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Spagat, along with Chicago-based reporter Sophia Tareen, Phoenix’s Anita Snow and San Diego’s Julie Watson, wove together the stories of people affected by immigration policy, including an Iraqi woman whose father helped the U.S. military but can't get her refugee case approved. The AP team used data and interviews with officials to give a deeply reported look at how Trump’s policies have pulled America back from its humanitarian role and a diminished its image as a country prized for educational and job opportunities.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Justin Castrejon gestures as he describes the difficulties of climbing a new section of the border structure, background, near Tecate, Calif., Sept. 24, 2020. Castrejon says migrants pay $8,000 to $10,000 to be guided through the mountains from the border town of Tecate, Mexico, then picked up by a driver once they reach a road.
AP Photo / Gregory Bull
In Tijuana, Mexico, Oct. 8, 2020, José Edgar Zuleta shows a photo of his 21-year-old son. Zuleta, whose business selling religious jewelry in the Mexican city of Puebla dried up when the pandemic hit, climbed the 30-foot (9-meter) border wall with a special ladder. He moved through brush in a heavily patrolled area for about a half-hour with two women before getting caught. His son, who cleared the wall ahead of him, was picked up hours later.
AP Photo / Elliot Spagat
Houses in Tecate, Mexico, are seen through a new section of border wall, Sept. 24, 2020,
AP Photo / Gregory Bull
Migrants expelled from the U.S. board a city bus in Tijuana, Mexico, Oct. 8, 2020. With immigration laws suspended at the border during the pandemic, people who enter the U.S. illegally are immediately expelled.
Migrants expelled from the U.S. board a city bus in Tijuana, Mexico, Oct. 8, 2020. With immigration laws suspended at the border during the pandemic, people who enter the U.S. illegally are immediately expelled.
Aisha Kazman Kammawie, of Ankeny, Iowa, takes the oath of allegiance during a drive-thru naturalization ceremony at Principal Park in Des Moines, Iowa, June 26, 2020. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has transformed under President Donald Trump to emphasize fraud detection, enforcement and vetting, as the administration sought to cut legal immigration by making it more dependent on employment skills and wealth tests.
AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall
Dodeye Ewa, 16, studies in the family library in Calabar, Nigeria, Oct. 13, 2020. Ewa is bothered by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and his policies toward international students, most recently a limit on their stays to two or four years in the U.S., with uncertainty over visa extensions.
AP Photo / Daniel H Williams
Dodeye Ewa, 16, works out inside her family compound in Calabar, Nigeria, Oct. 14, 2020. She is troubled by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and his policies which have diminished the image of the U.S. as a country prized for educational and job opportunities.
AP Photo / Daniel H Williams
Illinois Institute of Technology student Wofai Ewa, originally from Nigeria, poses for a portrait at the institute’s library in Chicago, Sept. 18, 2020. America was always considered the premiere destination for international students, with the promise of top-notch universities and work opportunities. Yet, 2016 marked the start of an alarming decline of new enrollees, attributed to fresh rules limiting student visas, competition from other countries and a haphazard U.S. coronavirus response.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Sophonie Bizimana, center, a permanent U.S. resident who is a refugee from Congo, poses for a photo at his home in Kirkland, Wash., Oct. 14, 2020, along with six of his children. He displays a smartphone photo of his wife, Ziporah Nyirahimbya, who is in Uganda and has been unable to join him in the U.S. For decades, America admitted more refugees annually than all other countries combined, but that reputation has eroded during Donald Trump’s presidency as he cut the number of refugees allowed into the country by more than 80%.
AP Photo / Ted S. Warren
Lili Montalvan, left, of El Salvador, holder of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), poses for a photo with her 6-year-old daughter, Roxana Gozzer, at their home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Oct. 25, 2020.
AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee
Hala Baqtar, right, takes the oath of citizenship from a district judge during a drive-thru naturalization service at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters in Detroit, June 26, 2020.
AP Photo / Carlos Osorio
U.S. Border Patrol agent Justin Castrejon stands near a section of new border structure near Tecate, Calif., Sept. 24, 2020.
AP Photo / Gregory Bull
Images from a Border Patrol ride-along by San Diego photographer Gregory Bull and portraits by Daniel Williams in Nigeria, Ted Warren in Seattle, Charles Rex Arbogast in Chicago and Wilfredo Lee in Miami brought the stories to life, along with video by Omar Akour in Jordan and Francois Duckett’s striking graphic on people making repeated border-crossings.
The stories were widely used online by MSN, Yahoo, ABC News and the San Francisco Chronicle and others, and were featured on the front pages of papers, including the Denver Post and Santa Cruz Sentinel.
For timely, in-depth coverage of immigration issues that likely hang in the balance as the election is decided, the team of Spagat, Tareen, Snow, Watson, Bull and Akour wins this week’s Best of the States award.
