Immigration
‘We sent 500 tests. They don’t answer calls’: Inside ICE’s coronavirus testing disaster
Internal emails show ICE rebuffed New Mexico public health officials offering to help contain COVID-19.
Staff
Biography
Laura C. Morel is a reporter for Reveal, covering immigration.
She previously was a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, where she covered criminal justice issues. She was a 2017 finalist for a Livingston Award, which recognizes young journalists, for an investigation with two other reporters into Walmart’s excessive use of police resources.
In 2016, Morel became one of Reveal’s inaugural investigative fellows. The program, aimed at increasing diversity among the ranks of investigative journalists, offers reporters embedded at their home outlets the training and mentoring to pursue an investigative project. Morel’s fellowship project exposed the extent of Florida’s gun theft problem.
Born and raised in Miami, Morel is fluent in Spanish. She is based in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Articles
COVID-19
How a national health crisis fell on the backs of local leaders
With a leadership vacuum in Washington, the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders led the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19
Divided states of the pandemic
The federal government’s failure to manage the pandemic shifted the burden to local officials. We look at state responses in California and Florida.
COVID-19
‘If the virus makes it here, this place is a ticking time bomb’
Part one in our weekly series with The Nib on inequity in the time of pandemic.
COVID-19
Detained and exposed
Social distancing and hand-washing are meant to keep us safe from the coronavirus. But in immigrant detention centers, those measures are impossible.
Immigration
Inside ICE lockdown: Face masks made of socks, no hand sanitizer and growing tensions
As the tally of detainees and staff testing positive for COVID-19 rises, asylum seekers in crowded settings continue to be denied parole.
COVID-19
How federal agencies put immigrants and immigration workers at risk amid coronavirus
As American life grinds to a halt, the immigration system – with agencies across two federal departments – has often continued with business as usual.
Immigration
Miami police reform how they handle immigrant victims following Reveal investigation
“When they are a victim of a crime, they need to know we’re going to help. We’re not going to be an obstacle,” says one police leader.
Immigration
Building a wall out of red tape
While debate has raged over the border wall, there’s less attention to invisible barriers affecting immigrants seeking U.S. visas and citizenship.
La visa U debe ayudar a solucionar delitos y proteger a indocumentados. Pero la policía la socava
El análisis de Reveal de las políticas de más de 100 agencias policiales que atienden a grandes comunidades de inmigrantes identificó que casi 1 de cada 4 crea obstáculos no previstos en el programa de visas U.