Arizona
On the front lines of U.S. immigration enforcement, Arizona’s courts and detention centers process a disproportionate share of the nation’s cases. Reporters at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU’s Cronkite School documented conditions inside the system and the lives of people caught within it – from families in Phoenix to migrants held at remote facilities near the border.
Arizona State University
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Closed door justice
Story by Suzgo Chitete
Since President Donald Trump returned to office, advocacy groups, court observers and journalists have increasingly been barred from immigration court hearings.
Behind the Docket
Story by Project Staff
One month, six universities, 62 students, 1,025 proceedings: Scenes from an overstrained immigration system in America.
The cost of deportation
Story by Lilly Roseburrough
The cost of immigration enforcement for taxpayers is well known. But far less visible is the private cost borne by immigrants and their families.
Bonds without bounds
Story by Mia Osmonbekov
A middle-aged man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with no criminal record, a 15-year history with his local church, and a U.S. citizen wife and children, sat in an Eloy, Arizona, immigration court.
Children placed in adult detention centers
Story by Katrina Michalak & Sophie Schaeffer
The medical community has dismissed dental X-rays as an unreliable way to determine someone’s age; the government continues to use them.
Immigration courts face pressure to move faster
Story by Tymber Klahr
Photos by Ike Wood
Attorneys and former judges say Trump administration policies aimed at efficiency risk limiting fairness.
What we observed in U.S. immigration courts
Story by Griffin W. Fellows & Brenne Sheehan
Photos by Ike Wood
Lives in the Balance brought together six universities to document and observe immigration court hearings..