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Understanding U.S. Immigration From the Border to the Heartland

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Understanding U.S. Immigration From the Border to the Heartland

Now with new, expanded lessons for 2024, this is an in-depth online course designed to help journalists, editors, educators, student journalists and others understand how immigration works in the United States. Learn at your own pace and on your own time.

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Overview

  • Newly updated for 2024!
  • Enroll in this online course — brought to you by Poynter and PolitiFact — for free.
  • Develop a solid understanding of immigration and accurately communicate about process, policy and people.
  • Learn at your own pace.

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SKU: NUSTD03-22 Tags: ,

Learning Outcomes

After six in-depth lessons, participants will be able to:

  • Understand immigration practices, terminology, key issues and legislation
  • Identify and learn to debunk existing myths and erroneous stereotypes about immigrants and immigration
  • Decipher immigration statistics and know where to find reliable data
  • Review examples of excellent storytelling about immigration
  • Use tips and tools from some of the nation’s top immigration reporters and researchers
  • Develop resources and sources to report on the border, both on the ground and from afar
  • Learn about challenges and backlogs and how four federal agencies award legal visas
  • Explain the call from private and public sectors for more immigrants to fill job shortages
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$0.00

Overview

  • Newly updated for 2024!
  • Enroll in this online course — brought to you by Poynter and PolitiFact — for free.
  • Develop a solid understanding of immigration and accurately communicate about process, policy and people.
  • Learn at your own pace.

Training five or more people?
Check out our custom training.

Newly updated for 2024!

Immigration is woven into the fabric of American society. It’s also complex, politically polarized and ever-evolving. This six-part, self-directed course will give journalists a thorough understanding of immigration and immigrants in the United States, as well as the skills and resources to produce strong, accurate storytelling. 

Through readings and activities, you will evaluate and contextualize existing immigration research and the latest U.S. census data about immigrants. You will explore immigration enforcement practices, legal immigration processes, the policy positions of advocacy organizations, as well as the status of existing proposals and pending legislation for immigration reform. 

In addition to developing a foundational knowledge about immigration in the U.S., you will analyze examples of effective journalism and fact checks about immigration to hone your own story ideas, whether it’s quick turnaround articles to more extensive investigations. 

You will think about how to get to know your local immigrant communities in their complexity — Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, African —  and how to approach them as a journalist. You will also develop strategies to obtain information and interviews from immigration officials, how to gain access to detention facilities, and persons in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Whether you’re looking to diversify your sources, tell more nuanced stories about your community, uncouple political rhetoric from policy proposals or simply level up as a well-rounded reporter, this immigration course is for you.

Questions about this training?

If you need assistance, please email us at info@poynter.org. 

Once you enroll in this course, you can start anytime and engage with lessons on your own schedule. There will be six lessons to complete. You can expect to spend 45 minutes to one hour on each lesson. Lessons include:

Lesson 1: Immigration polls, language use and debunking myths

You will gain an understanding of American attitudes toward legal and undocumented immigration and appropriate terminology and culturally competent language to use when covering immigrants and immigrant communities. 

Lesson 2: Immigration practices post-9/11, the rise of crimigration, and other critical issues

You will gain an understanding of how the federal government implements and enforces our nation’s complex immigration laws and policies, and the division of labor and responsibilities of federal agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.

Lesson 3: Covering the U.S./Mexico border 

You will learn essential facts and context about the 2000-mile southwest border, often described as a third country. You will understand what happens at border crossings and interior checkpoints. You will develop reporting strategies, resources and sources for reporting on the region, as well as gain insight into federal policies on apprehensions at the border.

Lesson 4: Immigration in the heartland 

In this lesson, you will learn about new migration patterns to the U.S., and about the many ethnic immigrant communities in cities and states across the U.S. You will understand how to effectively approach, report and write about these communities, and you will become familiar with existing databases and other useful tools.

Lesson 5: How Many, Which Ones? U.S. Refugee Policy and Immigration Reform

In this lesson, you will learn about various humanitarian programs for immigrants fleeing persecution and the important distinction between refugee status and asylum. You will also gain an overview of pending immigration reform efforts in Congress.

Lesson 6: Challenges and Backlogs in the Legal Immigration System

In this lesson, you will learn about the overall challenges and backlogs in the U.S. legal immigration system, how four federal agencies award legal visas and call from the private and public sectors for more immigrants to fill job shortages.

 

Who should enroll

People working in journalism who cover immigration, immigrant communities, labor, agriculture, government, education and more will benefit from this training. Anyone who wants to learn more about how immigration works in the United States is also welcome to enroll. 

Cost

This self-directed course is free, thanks to the support of our sponsor, Catena Foundation.

Instructors

Lead Faculty

  • Zita Arocha
    Professor Emeritus, University of Texas El Paso
    Zita Arocha is a bilingual journalist and was associate professor of practice in the UTEP Department of Communication from 2002 to 2019. She is founder...
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  • Miriam Valverde
    Deputy Editor, PolitiFact
    Miriam Valverde is a deputy editor at PolitiFact. Previously, she fact-checked claims about immigration, public policy, and COVID-19 as a PolitiFact staff writer. Miriam led...
    Read More

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