Thank you! I think it's a really nuanced conversation, and I hope my piece got at that. I think content creators are doing great civic engagement work, however, small/local outlets are still getting left out by politicians nationwide.
As his final act in office, Gov. Murphy declined to sign
key immigrant rights protections into law, fearing it would open the state up to federal action. Advocates say this leaves swaths of families vulnerable as ICE enforcement escalates nationwide. njurbannews.com/2026/01/20/m...
“… it’s savvy of @mayor.nyc.gov to invite influencers into a privileged space…But wouldn’t it be equally smart if *our* outlets were centered in announcements…Community, ethnic & independent media are not asking for special treatment.”
@taylorjung.bsky.social
HT @bdlimm.bsky.social
CC @wbai.org
Thank you for reading and sharing!
Freelancing with a small community outlet that covered the protests in NJ! njurbannews.com/2025/10/20/n...
My latest, for @chalkbeat.org: El Puente, a leading environmental justice organization in Brooklyn, is fighting for its future after losing a $3M EPA grant due to cuts by the Trump administration. Decades of youth leadership and community work are at risk.
"Victoria Lee should be alive...we do not, today, find any hope or reason in the workings of the law in New Jersey." - Statement from AAPI NJ @dosocialjustice.bsky.social @njaij.bsky.social @zellieimani.bsky.social @stopaapihate.org @faithinnewjersey.bsky.social
@mixedlinguist.bsky.social dropping facts on multiracial people not fitting census categories:
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8h6Tk71/
Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral primary win is inspiring hope and action across the river in NJ. Organizers and young voters see his campaign as a blueprint for change. They're pushing local leaders to listen to working families. By Priyanka Bansal, edited by me: njurbannews.com/2025/07/02/m...
The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice released its landmark report on Juneteenth, providing sweeping policy proposals to enact reparations in NJ. It also provided a detailed history on why NJ is called “the slave state of the North.” My latest: njurbannews.com/2025/06/19/n...
Burning water, insufficient food, toxic air. These are the conditions people faced inside a Newark immigrant detention facility leading up to last week's protests. My latest:
Thank you for posting my story!
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey mayor is arrested at ICE detention center where he was protesting its opening, acting US attorney says.
60 Minutes found no criminal record for 75% of the Venezuelan migrants the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4lC4Vp5
Cory Booker urges Democrats to act in first public appearance after record-breaking speech newjerseymonitor.com/2025/04/05/c... via @taylorjung.bsky.social
@booker.senate.gov news is everywhere today but check out @bhulac.bsky.social's story for full context and fun facts you only get being there IRL.
@njspotlightnews.bsky.social
www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/04/book...
NEW: GEO Group, whose stock is valued at $4 billion, says that state minimum wage laws don’t apply to the cleaning services that it’s asked detained migrants to perform at facilities where they’re kept. @mckenziefunk.com
The Trump administration cut a clause from federal contracting rules that had been on the books since the 1960s: Companies are no longer explicitly prohibited from having segregated facilities
Families often wait a long time for justice--if they even receive justice. These grand jury decisions can take years to happen.
Advocates have fought hard for stalled police accountability bills. #AndrewWashington and #VictoriaLee were also fatally shot by police responding to their mental health crises over the last 2 yrs. Advocates say this underscores the urgent need for reform.
Over two years later, a state grand jury has decided not to criminally charge officers that killed #NajeeSeabrooks. His killing sparked a watershed movement in NJ, where advocates + communities pushed for police reform and non-law enforcement crisis emergency response programs.
Thank you for always supporting me and my work 🙏
After seven years, my time at NJ Spotlight News has come to an end. I'm leaving with immense gratitude for the stories I've told and the people I've met. I'm excited for what's next and remain passionate about social justice reporting.
thank you for sharing! 🤍
Mahmoud Khalil's case is, unfortunately, not unique. Families are showing up to NJ's detention center, only to find out their loved ones are no longer there. It's becoming more difficult for families and lawyers to locate detainees. My latest: www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/03/ice-...
Expired food. Drinking water from their hands. Conditions are deteriorating at New Jersey's only immigrant detention center. Advocates are sounding the alarm as plans move forward for a new facility that will quadruple the state's detention capacity.
“I was yelled at, intimidated by men with guns on their hips,” she said. “One man got right in my face and screamed that my attitude was fucking shit.” (From a reporter attempting to re-enter her own country.)
Then she asked me a question I hadn’t considered before. What is the difference between a bias and expertise? In a previous newsroom she worked in, there were a few people who had pilots’ licenses. When a plane crash happened, those people were looked to as experts. Similarly, newsrooms seek to hire people with military experience, seeing that as expertise as opposed to bias. Many news outlets sent reporters to cover Hurricane Maria who were either Puerto Rican or had lived in Puerto Rico. Ho believes she’s a better business reporter because she worked in banking for three and a half years. So why do we consider some lived experiences — being a woman, being a person of color, being queer, having had an abortion — biases, and others expertise? From: https://longreads.com/2018/03/29/is-journalism-a-form-of-activism/
The next time someone calls a reporter "biased" or an activist — especially someone who is a woman, a person of color, LGBTQ+, an immigrant, and/or disabled — ask them to articulate the difference between bias and expertise: longreads.com/2018/03/29/i...
being neurodivergent means figuring out every day (maybe every hour) what scrunched up position you're going to work in
ICE announced it will turn Delaney Hall into NJ's next detention center. Geo Group is the company which responded to ICE's original RFP. It also filed a complaint against NJ, which is currently battling CoreCivic over its law that (effectively) bans detention centers.
