Melissa Sanchez
I report on immigration and labor, and I am based in Chicago.
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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.
What Happened in Whitewater
How immigration is affecting one small Wisconsin city.
Vino a EE.UU. para pagarle el tratamiento a su hijo enfermo. Lo detuvieron. Luego desapareció.
Como la mayoría de los más de 230 venezolanos deportados a una prisión salvadoreña, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas siguió las normas de inmigración estadounidenses. Pero Trump cambió las reglas.
He Came to the U.S. to Support His Sick Child. He Was Detained. Then He Disappeared.
Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to a Salvadoran prison, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas had followed U.S. immigration rules. Then Trump rewrote them.
A Doctor Challenged the Opinion of a Powerful Child Abuse Specialist. Then He Lost His Job.
A Minneapolis pediatrician said he felt pressured to “fall in line” with child abuse specialist Dr. Nancy Harper and her team. Then he was given a choice: resign or be fired.
El gobierno de Trump sabía que la gran mayoría de los venezolanos enviados a la prisión de El Salvador no había sido condenada por crimen alguno en EE.UU.
Los registros del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE.UU., revelan que más de la mitad de los 238 deportados estaban catalogados sólo como infractores de las leyes de inmigración y no tenían prontuario criminal alguno en Estados Unidos.
Trump Administration Knew Vast Majority of Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Had Not Been Convicted of U.S. Crimes
Homeland Security records reveal that officials knew that more than half of the 238 deportees were labeled as having no criminal record in the U.S. and had only violated immigration laws.
Empacados: Retrato de una comunidad de inmigrantes que viven bajo la amenaza de ser deportados
Los nicaragüenses que sostienen las granjas, los restaurantes y las fábricas de Wisconsin han empezado a enviar a su país natal sus más preciadas posesiones, preparándose contra posibles deportaciones masivas.
Boxed Up: A Portrait of an Immigrant Community Living Under Threat of Deportation
The Nicaraguans who keep Wisconsin’s dairy farms, restaurants and factories working are sending home their most prized possessions, bracing for potential mass deportations. “We don’t have much, but what we do have is important.”
Immigrants’ Resentment Over New Arrivals Helped Boost Trump’s Popularity With Latino Voters
Across the U.S., Latino immigrants who’ve been in the country a long time felt that asylum-seekers got preferential treatment. “Those of us who have been here for years get nothing,” said one woman from Mexico who has lived in Wisconsin for decades.
El jefe de policía y el inmigrante
Antes de que Springfield, Ohio, se convirtiera en un punto central en el debate sobre la inmigración, Trump instrumentalizó la solicitud de recursos de un jefe de policía para asegurar que Whitewater sufría una “invasión”. La verdad es más compleja.
What the Data Reveals About U.S. Immigration Ahead of the 2024 Election
Recent years have seen a big increase in migrants crossing the U.S. border. But that’s not the most significant change. It’s that many are coming from new countries and with more legal ways to be here. All this is shaping the 2024 election.