By Cat Carroll
When federal agents arrived at a Chicago elementary school January 24, 2025, panic erupted as news spread of what many believed to be the start of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
National outlets had already sounded the alarm the week before, reporting that ICE raids were imminent in Chicago following President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Campaign rhetoric transformed into frightening headlines, sending shockwaves through immigrant communities.
Within hours of the agents’ arrival at the school, media outlets reported the start of ICE raids in Chicago as fact. By the time the public school district clarified that the agents were actually from the Secret Service, the story had already spread across the city and nation.
Corrections from news organizations followed, but the damage was done. Families kept children home from school and a wave of fear rippled through Chicago’s immigrant communities.
This localized incident highlighted a broader challenge facing media organizations: how to responsibly report on sensitive immigration issues without exacerbating community tensions. As immigration becomes a top policy issue under the second Trump administration, media experts and researchers are determining how to best navigate coverage in a way that balances the need to inform with the responsibility to not stoke fear.
Navigating a highly contentious moment
National anxiety about changes to immigration enforcement is clear. Throughout January 2025, Google searches for “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” “ICE,” and “What is ICE” surged to their highest levels since 2004.
In the aftermath of the January 24 incident, Chicago-based Borderless Magazine, an outlet dedicated to covering immigration, published a letter about how they would be going about their coverage under the new administration.
Editorial director Mauricio Peña’s vow to the community was simple: “We want to give you facts, not fuel fear.”
Migrant Insider, a DC-based immigration outlet launched in October 2024, is taking a similar approach. All contributors are migrants themselves, something editor Pablo Manríquez says serves as a guiding principle in their work.
Manríquez says reporting on ICE raids as breaking news, or preemptively reporting on the potential of raids, is irresponsible. He argues that the situation demands a departure from standard breaking news reporting practices.
“The instinct to break the news of a possible deportation raid falls into the moral paradigm of which decision does the least amount of harm to the most vulnerable people,” Manríquez says.
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the outlet published an editor’s note explaining their process for covering ICE raids.
“We at Migrant Insider are going to err on the side of extreme caution when it comes to preemptively reporting on these raids because of the chilling effect false reporting has on migrant families,” the note reads. “ … We will not be in the business of helping the new White House, or any administration, harm migrants.”
Manríquez says journalists must understand the unique positioning of the current moment, particularly with how news articles are being used by national leaders to fear monger. To prevent this, he recommends journalists hold off on preemptive reports about the potential for ICE raids, as was done days before Trump took office.
“The administration is using these reports as a fear tactic,” Manríquez said. “ … The larger the newsroom, the further the administration can spread it, the deeper they can drive it, making people afraid ICE is going to show up.”
While some may take the position that news media plays a role in refuting rumors of raids, Manríquez cautions against this, saying the headlines alone can stoke fear. He says outlets must report with the goal of keeping immigrant communities safe, noting that this may mean reporting on a forthcoming raid if the information has been verified by multiple sources.
Beyond enforcement actions
Leslie Berestein Rojas first began covering immigration during the second Bush administration in the early 2000s and has observed how reporting on this topic has evolved across multiple presidencies. She says the current (and previous) Trump administration are distinct from other administrations because of an unprecedented level of inflammatory rhetoric around immigration issues.
Now teaching at the University of Southern California, Berestein Rojas equips journalism students with strategies for effective immigration reporting in this challenging climate. She particularly emphasizes the complex role of social media, which she describes as creating a “perfect storm” of misinformation and public anxiety that can complicate responsible coverage.
Quickly sharable visual and written messages contribute to feelings of fear surrounding so-called “raids,” and Berestein Rojas says journalists must be prepared to investigate reports of immigration arrests. Federal officials are not often forthcoming with information about arrests, but one way to check out rumors is to work with local immigrant resource centers who manage rapid response lines.
These community organizations play a crucial role in the ecosystem of immigration reporting. Founder and former director of the Central Ohio Worker Center Austin Kocher said these organizations often act as a “mediating presence,” helping confirm or deny information.
Kocher is now a research assistant professor at Syracuse University and focuses on the politics and policies of U.S. immigration policing. He says he sees these organizations as key partners for both journalists and immigrant communities.
Because of this, Berestein Rojas encourages journalists to build relationships with these community organizations, reporting on their work but also understanding their role within the immigration system at large.
In the case of ICE arrests specifically, Berestein Rojas said reporters can sometimes expect to see a press release published following an enforcement action to attract media coverage, though it can be difficult to get specific answers.
Any media coverage can then be used by federal leaders to stoke fear, as Manríquez described. If journalists are aware of this, Kocher says, they can avoid sensationalizing the raids themselves, focusing instead on how they affect immigrant communities.
“The Trump administration is going to want to represent their work as flashy as possible,” Kocher said. “The images are going to make it look very intense.”
Focusing on the impact to immigrant communities, rather than just the enforcement actions themselves, allows journalists to find stories that reach beyond statistics and common rhetoric around immigration, Berestein Rojas said. By capturing the complex experiences of immigrants, she says journalists can help readers connect with these communities over their shared humanity.
Cofounder and executive director at Borderless Magazine Nissa Rhee echoes these sentiments, saying journalists in every corner of the U.S. should tell stories related to immigration.
“All local news outlets should be covering immigration and reporting on immigrant communities because these are local issues,” Rhee said.
An ever changing beat
As newsrooms navigate a new set of ethical challenges reporting on immigration under the new Trump administration, Berestein Rojas says it’s important to also keep ethical reporting practices in mind.
For example, she encourages photographers working on immigration stories involving vulnerable sources to avoid identifying features and urges reporters to help sources understand what being identified can mean for an individual’s future in the U.S. Berestein Rojas says reporters should talk with their editors about their organization’s policy for identifying vulnerable people.
Blanket anonymity is not the norm, but many news organizations will allow first-name basis for people with genuine concerns, like fear of being deported. The rationale for this should be explained in the story, and reporters should confirm with sources how they will be identified at multiple points throughout the reporting process, Berestein Rojas said.
And for English-speaking journalists interviewing non-English speaking sources, Berestein Rojas says working with a fellow reporter who speaks the language is essential for allowing sources to fully express themselves.
Most importantly, she says journalists must always contextualize immigration stories. This can mean comparing data from years past or explaining a particular community’s background.
Kocher says newsrooms must understand the different types of enforcement ICE uses, and how the amount of enforcement activity may or may not differ from previous administrations. He says the term “raid” is overused, and that using it when an enforcement activity falls under a different category of enforcement can contribute to fear.
There’s a difference between a community sweep and a raid, Kocher said. A sweep is a systematic, prolonged enforcement action targeting multiple individuals in a community through various tactics like traffic stops, whereas a raid is an immediate, geographically focused operation that detains people in a specific location without necessarily having prior individual warrants.
“Raid has a very strong emotional pull to it,” Kocher said. “When immigration enforcement feels very intense, the word people gravitate toward is raid because it reflects how they feel about the intensity of immigration enforcement. But raids are really just one of many tactics that ICE uses.”
Rhee says ICE has long had a presence in Chicago, but that recent reporting would lead readers to believe they only recently showed up.
She adds that the complexity of the U.S. immigration system demands journalists constantly be learning. Newsrooms must weigh how to give clarity and context, telling stories in a way that makes sense for readers.
“We need to give journalists the space to develop their beat and expertise in these things because they are complicated, and you need time to learn about them,” Rhee said.
At Borderless Magazine, this means staying true to their mission of filling a gap in the media landscape through accountability journalism that promotes understanding. A key part of this is making sure that coverage is made accessible to immigrant communities by being available in more languages than just English.
“We really are trying to take the position of facts, not fear,” Rhee said.
Additional Resources:
- National Association of Hispanic Journalists: Guidelines for reporting on immigration raids
- Poynter: Journalists, immigration is about to become a huge topic. Here’s help covering Trump’s second term.
- Why Immigration Data Matters–And How Journalists Can Use It More Effectively by Austin Kocher
- Download an immigration reporting 101 reference sheet from Define American here
- Borderless Magazine’s Immigration Reporting Lab helps journalists prepare to report on immigration
- Herman Legal Group offers a guide for journalists covering immigration
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press tipsheet on immigration and deportation records
- Resources for journalists from Freedom for Immigrants
The Center for Journalism Ethics encourages the highest standards in journalism ethics worldwide. We foster vigorous debate about ethical practices in journalism and provide a resource for producers, consumers and students of journalism.