Journalism is inherently opportunistic.
As journalists, we hunt for stories, digest them, write them and move on. Many times, the people we interview are deconstructed into smaller, logical parts – a main source, an opposition source, etc. Despite these being real people, we compartmentalize them into cogs used to prove an argument or express a point.
And while that process has its flaws, it serves its purpose for a lot of articles. So that was the mindset I had when I first started reporting on this series. I had always approached undocumented immigration the same way I approached a lot of issues, with tacit support that fits into my neat portfolio of generally left-leaning, Democratic political tendencies. Not much had gone into it at first other than, “This will be a cool story.”
It’s that same mentality I carried with me to my first reporting stop, the University of California Summit on Undocumented students that took place in May. The idea was to get introductory sources and leads on where to take the project next. Throughout the two-day event, I proceeded with the standard reporting attitude, hoping to stumble upon something or someone that would give me a story or quote.