The White House crackdown on immigration has forced some U.S. cities to delay or cancel public events for Hispanic Heritage Month. NBC News’ Maggie Vespa explains how fear and uncertainty are causing cancellations while some cities like Chicago say they’ll work to keep crowds safe. (Credit: NBC News)
With arrests and abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and pushback by some localities and civil liberties groups, this seems like an opportune time to discuss “ICE and the Press.”
It’s also a good time for us to remember Ron Harris, and to meet again in person.
Our next Journal-isms Roundtable is scheduled for this coming Monday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. Eastern. It will be in person as well as by Zoom, and if all goes as planned, simulcast on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RPjournalisms/.
As reported in the Journal-isms column:
“On June 26, amNewYork reported on federal agents using intimidation tactics inside 290 Broadway as photojournalists documented ICE detainments. The report detailed threats made against media members observing agents arresting immigrants. Agents also photographed reporters’ city-issued press credentials and sought to prohibit photographers from accessing public areas,” Dean Moses reported for the free daily New York newspaper amNY.
And while many think of this issue as mainly affecting Latinos, Haitians and Africans are also affected, and an AI summary of the effect on Black journalists says, “while there isn’t evidence of ICE explicitly targeting Black journalists, broader issues of potential harassment, intimidation, and the marginalization of diverse voices in immigration reporting remain concerns within the journalistic community.”
Consider:
- Christina Carrega, Capital B: Chicago’s Black Immigrants Face New Wave of ICE Arrests and Uncertainty
- Kaitlyn Ross, Mike Nicolas, WXIA-TV, Atlanta: Recently engaged, beloved barber arrested by ICE | How his immigration story is questioning the system [Also: Newsweek story])
- Matthew Mpoke Bigg, New York Times: Why African Countries Keep Making Deals to Accept U.S. Deportees
Our panelists are:
- Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald immigration reporter
- Giovanni Diaz, attorney for Salvadorian reporter Mario Guevara, who has been imprisoned for more than 50 days, “the only journalist in the U.S. to have been held in ICE custody after being arrested in relation to his work
- Seth Stern, director of advocacy, Freedom of the Press Foundation, who is quoted in the Journal-isms piece.
- Ray Suarez, veteran journalist and broadcaster an author who last year published “We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century—an Oral History:”
Also in the room:
- Mickey H. Osterreicher, Esq., general counsel, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)
- Dave Levinthal, investigative reporter, author of “ICE May Be Breaking the Law to Stonewall Reporters” (Columbia Journalism Review)
We also want to take time to remember Ron Harris, for whom services were taking place in Memphis today.
