About Migratory Notes

Migratory Notes is an informed weekly guide to rapidly changing immigration news for journalists, policymakers, lawyers, academics, advocates, and immigrants themselves. You can subscribe here.

We are two experienced immigration journalists, Daniela Gerson and Elizabeth Aguilera, and we started the newsletter in 2017 days after President Trump took office and issued the first travel ban. We had never covered a time like this. The initial plan was to produce a pop-up newsletter — an insightful synopsis of important new stories to follow from across the country — and send it out once a week to immigration reporters for a month. We quickly found we were providing an important service as we received an outpouring of support for the initiative from people who work in varied fields related to immigration.

Since then, we have received funding from the Emerson Collective, and have been able to add to our small team Staff Writer Anna-Catherine Brigida, Special Projects Editor Yana Kunichoff, and finance manager Michele Henry. You can read about us below.

We are always appreciate story tips and resources.

• Daniela Gerson is editor and publisher of Migratory Notes. She is an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge with a focus on community, ethnic, and participatory media. She is also a senior fellow at the Democracy Fund. Before that she was a community engagement editor at the LA Times; founding editor of a trilingual hyperlocal publication, Alhambra Source; staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun; and a contributor to outlets including WNYC: New York Public Radio, The World, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, CNN, and The New York Times. She recently wrote about Five lessons from a bilingual, bicultural newsroom in Southern Indiana for Local News Lab. You can find her on Twitter @dhgerson
• Elizabeth Aguilera is executive editor of Migratory Notes. She is a multimedia reporter for CALmatters covering health and social services, including immigration. Previously she reported on community health, for Southern California Public Radio. She’s also reported on immigration for the San Diego Union-Tribune, where she won a Best of the West award for her work on sex trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico; and before that she covered a variety of beats and issues for the Denver Post including urban affairs and immigration. Her latest story is Drinking lead — why California may force all schools to test their water. You can find her on Twitter Elizabeth Aguilera
• Yana Kunichoff is staff writer for Chalkbeat. She’s an independent journalist and documentary producer who covers immigration, policing, education and social movements. She was project manager for Migrahack 2016 in Chicago. She has also produced feature-length documentaries and a pop-culture web series for Scrappers Film Group; worked as a fellow with City Bureau, where she won a March 2016 Sidney Hillman award for an investigation into fatal police shootings; and covered race and poverty issues for the Chicago Reporter. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard and Chicago magazine among others. You can find her on Twitter @yanazure.
• Michele Henry is the finance manager for Migratory Notes and a senior business analyst with USC Information Technology Services. In the past, Michele managed project budgets for community grants awarded to USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Through her experience at the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, Michele worked to support growth and competitiveness of Los Angeles area businesses through community events and by fostering community partnerships. Michele received her BA from Virginia Tech and her MBA from the University of Southern California.