- http://www.vivelohoy.com/noticias/8104152/cronicas-del-medio-oeste-cronologia-de-jack-decoster-y-sus-multas
- http://www.vivelohoy.com/noticias/8105052/reyna-wences-sin-papeles-seguro-medico-y-miedo
- http://www.vivelohoy.com/noticias/8104813/la-lista-de-documentos-por-la-nota-sobre-jack-decoster-y-wright-county-egg
- http://www.vivelohoy.com/noticias/8103836/el-fantastico-senor-argueta-y-el-heraldo-hispano#image/1
Provide names of other journalists involved.
Octavio Lopez-translation and editing Rodolfo Jimenez-design Jon Lowenstein-photo Omar Robles-photo
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
The supplement ran on June 11, 2012. The stories in the supplement were published each day from June 11 to June 14, 2012. The links to the online pieces we are submitting include a video, a photo gallery, a collection of documents we used for the story about regulatory failure and a chronology. We are submitting them in Spanish because that is the language in which they were published on our site.
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
The stories look at the health experiences of Latinos in Midwestern cities and communities that had seen a growth in the Latino population during the past decade. On the one hand, we found Latinos enduring tremendous hardship, working for food companies that hired them in many cases precisely because of their legal vulnerability. We found an enforcement system riddled with holes. We found that there were thousands of Latinos working full time without health insurance. And we found Latinos in Beardstown still dealing with the collective trauma of a massive immigration raid five years earlier. At the same time, this was not a story of unrelenting victimization. We saw high levels of resilience among the Latinos we met. Many of these people devised creative strategies to meet their health care needs as well as those of their family members. Even there, though, there were limits to the impact of these efforts. We wrote about how a local coalition of public health officials, law enforcement and service providers worked together to shut down a notorious housing development for migrant workers in Rantoul. But the conditions for migrants the following summer were not fundamentally improved..
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
We submitted numerous FOIA requests for this project. For the story about Wright County Egg and regulatory failure we received data from OSHA and the FDA, and pulled Toxic Resource Inventory data to understand the environmental conditions. We also looked at wage violations data and at close to 100 cases involving the abuse of Latino workers. We analyzed 2009 census data for the story to determine the number of Latinos who were working full time and had no health insurance. These various documents and data helped ground the project in a national and statistically-based foundation.
Explain types of human sources used.
We spoke with young and adult undocumented people in PIlsen, one of the city’s most established Latino neighborhoods, with migrant workers and advocates in downstate Rantoul, with meatpackers and other community residents in Beardstown, and with egg workers in Clarion, Iowa. We also spoke with advocates, lawyers, government officials and academics.
Results:
We received extensive feedback from readers and from colleagues at national publication. We also used the reporting and the relationships we developed in Central Illinois as the basis for a 16-page supplement about demographic change in the region.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
We have not had to run a correction or clarification.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
I’d be wary of spending too much time digging through data and court cases at the expense of talking with community members. I’d also recommend publishing as you go, rather than waiting until the end. It helps generate an audience for the project that can lead to your receiving more information. It also creates a sense of momentum within the team