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.
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
Immigration
How law enforcement agencies undermine the U visa
How U visa certification requests were handled in the 10 states with the largest immigrant populations.
Immigration
The U visa is supposed to help solve crimes and protect immigrants. But police are undermining it
Among more than 100 law enforcement agencies serving large immigrant communities, nearly 1 in 4 create barriers never envisioned under the program.
Kids on the Line
N.C. shut down a group home last year. The US just gave it a contract to house migrant children
As the Office of Refugee Resettlement rapidly expands its shelter network, it’s adding providers with little experience and troubling track records.
Kids on the Line
Government isn’t reuniting migrant children with legal guardians
The court ruling that forced the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the border applies only to parents, excluding legal guardians.
Kids on the Line
‘They used the kids to get to parents like me’: How ICE’s human smuggling initiative targeted parents and children
A review of the operation by Reveal casts doubt on the official narrative.
Immigration
Salvadoran man has evidence he’s not a gang member. US still separated him from his kids
The government hasn’t provided any proof of its claim that the man is affiliated with MS-13. He hasn’t seen his two kids in three months.
Immigration
No one on the inside can talk about what’s happening at the tent city for migrant kids
Lack of access to the pop-up federal detention camp has frustrated town residents and alarmed advocates who question the conditions there.
Immigration
Government could hold migrant families indefinitely in unlicensed detention centers under new plan
New regulations would affect the nearly 13,000 children currently in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Immigration
The government won’t talk about its training for officers and troops at the border
We asked what training are officers and troops at the border getting. The government didn’t answer.
