President Obama's announcement in June that some young, undocumented immigrants will no longer face deportation has stirred hopes for hundreds of immigrant families in the Northwest, many of whom have lived in the shadow of possible detention and deportation for years.
KUOW’s Liz Jones, working in collaboration with Carol Smith, has this report on the impact of Obama’s recent announcement on a Kirkland family with two high-school age girls.
Their report is part of a larger look, coming in August, at what goes on inside the Northwest Detention Center – a facility that looks like an industrial warehouse on East J Street in Tacoma, but that houses thousands of detained immigrants who are facing deportation. Smith and the News Tribune’s Lewis Kamb have spent months tracing the expansion of the privately owned facility and its impact on the region’s immigrant populations.
Prior to joining The News Tribune’s staff, Kamb helped launch InvestigateWest. This project marks the first collaboration between InvestigateWest and The News Tribune. KUOW is one of InvestigateWest's core news partners.
Jason was InvestigateWest's associate director. A veteran of technology projects and online strategy for the nonprofit sector, he is a graduate of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and Graduate School of Journalism.
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In other parts of the country, the welfare checks have resulted in children being taken out of their homes and put back into government custody
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