Filed
6:00 a.m. EDT
05.06.2026
She has reported on this crucial concern for almost twenty years alongside the southern United States and in Mexico.
Lauren Villagran, who for almost twenty years has reported about immigration alongside the southern U.S. border and in Mexico, will be part of The Marshall Undertaking to anchor its protection of the nation’s immigration enforcement and detention system and people it impacts most deeply.
Villagran’s hiring represents The Marshall Undertaking’s newest and most vital funding in protection of the immigration system. The best way immigration enforcement operates — and the way it impacts civil liberties — more and more intersects and overlaps with the prison justice system, which has been on the coronary heart of the information group’s mission since its founding almost 12 years in the past.
Villagran comes from USA At the moment, the place she has led its nationwide immigration protection, producing distinctive enterprise and accountability work, together with insightful beat reporting. Beforehand, she reported alongside the border and within the Western U.S. for the El Paso Instances, Searchlight New Mexico and the Albuquerque Journal.
She additionally lived and labored in Mexico as a freelancer for 5 years, chronicling how excessive drug violence ignited a surge of migration to the U.S. She has edited two books in regards to the border and Mexico.
“We consider Lauren’s superlative observe file and expertise working on the border, mixed with The Marshall Undertaking’s wealthy historical past of manufacturing human-centric and high-impact investigative journalism centered on authorities overreach, will add a wanted voice to the nationwide debate,” stated Jennifer Peter, The Marshall Undertaking’s editor-in-chief. “We will’t look forward to her to affix our group, which has already ramped up its protection of the excesses of the immigration crackdown and its influence, notably on kids.”
Villagran brings to The Marshall Undertaking an encyclopedic information of the immigration system — its historical past, authorized workings and politics. She has investigated the deaths of individuals crossing the border, reported on the enlargement of the detention equipment, and detailed insurance policies which might be additional criminalizing immigrants. Her work displays the numerous views on this concern, from immigrants and the attorneys and volunteers advocating on their behalf, to a father and his three grownup kids, who all work as ICE brokers.
“I’m thrilled to affix TMP’s group of award-winning journalists presently of speedy change within the nation’s immigration enforcement and detention system,” Villagran stated.
Villagran, who will likely be based mostly in El Paso, Texas, will start her work with The Marshall Undertaking on Might 26.
