Reporting Between Borders: A Conversation with Journalist Anna-Catherine Brigida

Roosevelt House and The Pulitzer Center are pleased to present a discussion—presented in person and on Zoom—with leading immigration journalist and Pulitzer Center grantee Anna-Catherine Brigida. Examining U.S. border policies and their wide-ranging impact on migrant communities, the event will be moderated by the Director of the Hunter College Journalism Program Sissel McCarthy.

From Central America to Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers faced with additional challenges and risks—brought on, according to critics, by the immigration policies of the current and previous federal administration. Among those policies cited are those that close borders and courts, exclude undocumented immigrants from the stimulus package, deny parole to immigrants in detention, and continue deportation flights.

In her work for The Texas Observer, Anna-Catherine Brigida has asked the vital question—what do these policies mean for migrants and their families? Among those considered in her work are migrants living under the Migrant Protection Protocols, who are said to be confronted with increased exposure to crime and depleted aid in Mexican border cities; asylum seekers in El Paso, dealing with extended wait times for judges’ decisions; an Indigenous community in Guatemala who lacks access to healthcare; and, in Houston and other immigrant enclaves, families struggling to put food on the table and pay for aging parents’ medication in their home countries.

Anna-Catherine Brigida is a freelance journalist based in Honduras who has reported on migration from the region since 2015. She has covered migrant caravans, deportations, migrant deaths, and family separations for the Washington Post, The Guardian, TIME, Texas Monthly, Al Jazeera, and more. She has reported from nearly every part of the migrant trail—from Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Tapachula, Mexico to the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2019, she received a grant from the International Center for Journalists and the Border Center to report on the deaths of Guatemalan minors at the U.S. border as part of a project called Reporting the Border. She has also received reporting grants from the Pulitzer Center, the International Women’s Media Foundation, Food and Environmental Reporting Network, and Solutions Journalism Network.

Sissel McCarthy is an award-winning international business journalist and Director of the Journalism Program at Hunter College, where she is also a Distinguished Lecturer. Founder of NewsLiteracyMatters.com, an online platform dedicated to teaching people how to find credible information in the digital age, McCarthy spent more than a decade before her teaching career as an anchor and reporter. She anchored CNN International’s flagship business programs World Business Today and World Business This Week and worked for CNBC as a correspondent reporting on international business and politics. She began her career as a writer and producer for CNN’s Moneyline.

This event will be held in person at Roosevelt House and online via Zoom.

Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination will be required for all who attend, and masks must be worn at all times in Roosevelt House.

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