Hannah Dreier, Iván Valencia and Gregory Bull: To the Border and Beyond

In 2023, a record-breaking number of migrants braved the harrowing journey to the U.S./Mexico border in hopes of being granted asylum in America. In this episode of the Pulitzer on the Road Podcast, we hear from three Pulitzer-winning journalists who covered different stages of this experience. 

First, two contributors to the Associated Press’s 2024 Feature Photography Prize-winning staff entry on migration offer revelatory glimpses of the milieux chronicled in their photojournalism: Iván Valencia walks us through the dangerous journey migrants experience crossing the Darien Gap — and the concomitant mental health challenges surmounted by embedded journalists throughout the route — while Gregory Bull explores the panoply of concerns that migrants and journalists face at the U.S. border, including the ethics of requesting permissions from his subjects: "[Many] of them have a lot of very good reasons why they don't want their photo and their name out there."

Finally, two-time Pulitzer winner Hannah Dreier of The New York Times sheds light on her 2024 Investigative Reporting Prize-winning series concerning the exploitation that unaccompanied migrant children often face after successfully entering the U.S. "[One] of the really sad things is that a lot of these kids qualify for work permits," Dreier said. "[...] But they’re so disconnected from any sort of resources that they don't know they can ask for that. And instead they end up doing these other kinds of jobs that children should never do because it's the only kind of work that they can get without legal paperwork." According to Dreier and The Times, migrant children as young as 15 have operated "heavy machinery capable of amputating fingers and crushing bones" at a beef jerky processing plant, while a litany of household brands have extensively employed migrant children — often in arduous overnight shifts that leave little time for rest and study. 

Dreier also offers harrowing accounts of pre-teen children working in physically perilous situations.  She added: "Ten, 11 years old. [...] Those younger kids tended to be sort of the most proud of the work that they were doing. Those were the ones who would tell me, yes, you know, I'm in the factory all day long. Yes, I have chemical burns on my hands, but I feel really good because I'm supporting my baby sister back home. I was just so struck again and again by how these kids didn't have a concept of themselves as a victim at all."

A transcript to this episode is available here.

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The Pulitzer on the Road Podcast is a production of the Pulitzer Prize Board and is produced by Pineapple Street Studios. Our host is Nicole Carroll, Pulitzer Board member and professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Senior producer is Justine Daum, and executive producers are Bari Finkel and Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller.

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