Perhaps no year in living memory presented greater challenges and opportunities to the press than 2017, and Capital & Main was no exception. In response to the Trump presidency, we expanded our coverage well beyond California, while continuing to investigate the fault lines that undergird the nation’s most populous state. We also deepened our reporting on immigration, hate and white nationalism and climate change – issues that will define the Trump era. And we began a long-term commitment to examining business and social responsibility.
Here are 10 series and stories from 2017 that offer a window into how Capital & Main made sense of an extraordinary year in the history of our nation and state.
Perhaps no year in living memory presented greater challenges and opportunities to the press than 2017, and Capital & Main was no exception.
Today we continue our look back at 2017 through Capital & Main’s photos and stories.
The death of an undocumented laborer raises questions about detention translation protocols for non-English speakers, delays in providing needed care and inadequate medical staffing.
Capital & Main has launched a new investigative project examining detention deaths, just as ICE signals a move toward even less openness than it has previously displayed.
Co-published by Newsweek
Undocumented laborers who worked in Wine Country vineyards are now finding the only assistance they can hope for, following Northern California’s recent wildfires, is mostly private charity.
President Trump has jeopardized the lives of 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who came here seeking better opportunities. There’s not much more to be said than that—except that it’s also a big moneymaker for a handful of private investors and corporations.
Conditions at Adelanto Detention Center, a privately operated prison currently used to detain undocumented immigrants, are said to be grim. Nine detainees, all of whom came to the U.S. seeking asylum, were so fed up that they staged a hunger strike. Guards responded with violence and pepper spray.
Conditions at Adelanto Detention Center, a privately operated prison currently used to detain undocumented immigrants, are said to be grim. Nine detainees, all of whom came to the U.S. seeking asylum, were so fed up that they staged a hunger strike. Guards responded with violence and pepper spray.
By reclassifying certain nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors, Proposition 47 has helped undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Even one day of a sentence reduction can make a difference between being deported or not.
After holding a short prayer service under the watchful eyes of San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies, a group of activists was told to get off the Adelanto Detention Facility’s property.
Hear reporter Robin Urevich speak on WNYC/PRI’s The Takeaway program about what she discovered during a recent visit to ICE’s Adelanto Detention Facility.
Many California officials have fought hard to oppose the new anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. That power is limited, however, presenting a painful challenge to immigrants caught in the cross-hairs, and to those trying to defend them.
Co-published by The American Prospect
Juana was on a train headed to work when she saw a Facebook post about ICE’s presence at Union Station – a stop she wasn’t headed toward but which, nevertheless, is on the same line she was riding. She avoided public transportation entirely for the next five days.
Co-published by Fast Company
Immigration detainee Norma Gutierrez says she wasn’t hospitalized after suffering a seizure at the Adelanto Detention Facility. Instead, she was taken in handcuffs to a cold room with a bed, a toilet and two blankets. Gutierrez says she remained alone there for four days.
For decades white nationalists were a fringe element in American politics. But now anti-immigrant extremists with ties to white supremacists hold key positions at the highest level of government.
Co-published by The American Prospect
In California, the potential impact of workplace raids is enormous. Of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, over 2.6 million live in this state – almost one in every 10 California workers is undocumented.
Co-published by Newsweek
Some California cities are rethinking their law-enforcement relationships with ICE, but others are likely to continue their joint operations with the agency because of the additional personnel, intelligence-gathering capacity and cash that it brings to crime fighting.
Co-published by Newsweek
The Adelanto Detention Facility, operated by a private, for-profit prison company for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is California’s largest immigrant detention center. Recently two detainees died within weeks of each other there.
Co-published by Newsweek
California citizens have declared they will defy the federal government to protect the estimated 2.6 million undocumented immigrants woven into the state’s civic, economic and spiritual life. Here the nationwide wave of resistance to President Donald Trump has become a tsunami.