Author: PJ Hefstadter
CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) – The windowless newsroom of The Phoenix, Loyola University Chicago’s newspaper, hums like an old refrigerator. The coffee pot purrs in the corner, and third-graders Julia Pentasuglio and Ella Daugherty lean on glowing laptops, updating Google Maps.
Each red pin marks a sighting of federal immigration agents around campus and surrounding communities.
Nearby, Editor-in-Chief Lilli Malone scrolls through reports from Rogers Park, a Chicago lakefront neighborhood where 80 languages are spoken. There were new leads to seven sightings that day alone — reports of vans speeding through alleys, masked immigration officers with guns drawn and students watching neighbors being taken away from campus dorm windows.
These young student journalists usually cover dorm room Thanksgiving recipes and local Christmas tree lighting, but have found themselves taking on a new role during Donald Trump’s presidency: documenting immigration raids. Their goal: to counter online rumors with facts and provide locals with a map of areas that are often targeted as panic spreads in recent months about who might be picked up next by immigration agents.
University newsrooms, independent and legacy outlets across Chicago are now collaborating in ways that upend decades of cutthroat competition, building tools to track law enforcement and information cooperation, students and veteran journalists say.
Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has ordered aggressive immigration sweeps in cities with large foreign-born communities, including Chicago, to fulfill a campaign promise to deport people living in the United States illegally.
Turn rumors into facts
Just weeks after Loyola students began school this fall, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago in early September, deploying Border Patrol agents armed with high-powered weapons and tear gas.
Local officials have objected, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the blitz “illegal and baseless,” and a new state law now allows Illinois residents to sue federal immigration agents if they believe their civil rights have been violated.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was targeting violent criminals who put Americans at risk and said more than 4,300 people had been arrested as part of the operation.
“Our efforts continue and we are not leaving Chicago,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
Even before the operation began, fear was spreading on campus. A few months ago, a man from the U.S. Census Bureau walked into the dormitory, sparking false rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrived, Malone and Pontasuglio said. Students reached out to Phoenix staff to ask if the rumors were true.
Some people have reason to worry. Loyola has long welcomed immigrants without legal status in the United States, including DACA students who came to the United States as children, particularly in its medical school — a point of pride for a Jesuit university with a social justice mission.
“People are scared and they need someone to validate what is real,” Malone said.
Loyola University officials did not respond to a request for comment.
So, in early October, Malone and Phoenix editor-in-chief Pontasuglio opened a blank Google Map and began placing pins — each one they said was confirmed through photos, time-stamped videos or multiple witnesses.
The pins give students and nearby residents a place to check rumors against fact — see which sightings have been confirmed and learn where agents have gathered in recent days so they can better judge which areas may be risky.
Each pin comes with a note – Oct. 12: Multiple armed agents were spotted in the 1200 block of Northwest Shore Boulevard at noon. Oct. 21: An arrest was reported at the North Lincoln Avenue Home Depot at 9:58 a.m.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that U.S. Border Patrol conducted enforcement operations on those dates and made arrests at those locations.
Elena Eisenstadt, associate editor at the University of Chicago, said the university newspaper, The Maroon, set up the Datawrapper tracker after reports emerged on social media such as Sidechat, a student app that allows users to chat anonymously.
“It feels like a wave,” she said. “When everyone is talking about something like this, you have to do something.”
At DePaul University, when ICE’s presence surged near the Lincoln Park campus, Jake Cox, managing editor of the DePaul campus newspaper, and other staff members relied on the social media accounts of students and others for tips.
Cox, who interned at Block Club, a nonprofit news organization in Chicago, built an ICE WhatsApp channel, a platform widely used by immigrants in Chicago where nearly 3,200 followers receive a steady stream of immigration stories, agent sightings and “know your rights” links.
Some journalists prioritize collaboration
Students are joining a broader wave of local mobilizations against Chicago ICE, which has included cyclists following unmarked vans in alleys, parents setting up checkpoints outside elementary schools and Pilates students yelling at police officers pulling people into SUVs while neighbors filmed them.
For months, local reporters covering immigration enforcement in Chicago have also been sharing story leads, safety tips and source contacts with rivals through encrypted communications systems, said Maira Khwaja, director of public impact strategy at the independent local journalism nonprofit Invisible Institute.
The story has grown too big, she said, and too few reporters are covering it. “The more of us there are, the better.”
At The Phoenix, when staffers get news outside their reporting area, they say they help get the information to other newspapers.
Erika Slife, a senior editor at the Chicago Tribune, the city’s largest newspaper, said she grew up in the old scoop culture, but the current journalism landscape sometimes leads to cross-media collaborations.
For example, after U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino left Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina, on Nov. 13, Charlotte Observer reporters contacted Tribune staff the next day to get insights and expectations, Tribune investigative reporter Gregory Royal Pratt said.
Platt and several colleagues were quickly on video conference calls with North Carolina reporters and shared what worked for them — from lining up safety equipment to tracking helicopter traffic and reviewing government information for accuracy.
“It still feels good to be No. 1,” said Slife, who oversees the paper’s immigration coverage. Now she tells reporters, “It’s more important to be right. We may not always be first, but we will do our best.”
(Reporting by PJ Huffstutter in Chicago. Additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington, D.C. Editing by Deepa Babington)
