In October 2022, Los Angeles Times immigration policy reporter Hamed Aleaziz spoke to an audience of journalism students at the University of Oregon about his career covering immigration, race, and civil rights, and the effects that policies made in Washington can have on families and communities. He also recalled his own journey as a journalist, from having his family's story covered by The Oregonian to establishing his career after graduating into the 2008 financial crisis.
About Our Guest Lecturer:
Hamed Aleaziz is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times covering immigration policy. Previously he was at BuzzFeed News, where he wrote about immigration and broke news on Trump and Biden policies and the effects of those policies on families and communities. Before that, he covered immigration, race, and civil rights at the San Francisco Chronicle, was a criminal justice reporter at the Daily Journal, and did a fellowship at Mother Jones magazine. A Livingston Award finalist in 2021, Aleaziz graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism.
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Find Hamed Aleaziz Online:
Los Angeles Times Author Page
BuzzFeed News Author Page
MuckRack Author Page
Mother Jones Author Page
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LinkedIn
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This podcast was transcribed automatically. The accuracy of this podcast may vary.
Hamed Aleaziz 00:04
Thank you guys for having me here today. I graduated from the University of Oregon 13 years ago, and I still look back fondly on my time here. I remember studying in the law library, running at the old Hayward field, and getting Dough Co late into the evening. Eugene is a special place. And I don't think I fully appreciated that until I moved away. I definitely didn't appreciate this beautiful campus enough. And I'm so happy to be back here and be able to walk around and see all the changes. I also can't believe there was a time in my life where I complained about having classes and homework. So I would say, you know, really enjoy this period of your career.
Hamed Aleaziz 00:56
I'm here today to talk about my career and some of the work that I've done. And I hope to impart a message that doesn't necessarily persuade you to go into journalism, though it really is the best, but to express how important is to go after your dreams whatever they may be, no matter what challenges come your way. The filmmaker and actor Mark Duplass said that at one point in his early career, he realized that, quote, "The cavalry wasn't coming." That is that no one was going to come out of nowhere and make his dreams come true. No one was going to come make his movies for him. He would have to figure it out himself. That line has always resonated with me. And it served me well for the ups and downs of my career. But I really wasn't thinking about my career and deep thoughts about life when I was a freshman or even a sophomore. It was mostly focused on Saturdays at Autzen and whether Dough Co would realistically deliver within the hour, late into the evening. I guess I was pretty obsessed with Dough Co. By the beginning of my senior year, those challenges started to come into focus. In the fall of 2008, the US was dipping into a historic recession and economic crisis not seen in decades. People had their houses foreclosed. The stock market tanked. And jobless rates jumped all the way to 10%. The scale of economic meltdown was massive. I remember realizing something was wrong. When the late Senator and former candidate for president John McCain suspended his presidential campaign because of the crisis that set off alarm bells in my head, like, Will I have a job after I graduate? The answer to that question was a resounding no. My then girlfriend, now wife had landed a job in the Bay Area. I moved to California to be with her. But before and after I graduated I applied to every job that I seemed moderately qualified for, researching, writing, literally whatever.
Hamed Aleaziz 03:18
I pretty much only received rejections. I remember feeling so discouraged the summer after I graduated, I felt like I would never land a job, especially in an economy where the jobless numbers increased. And the number of open jobs dwindled. But ultimately, I did get a job as a grant writer in San Francisco for a local nonprofit. I thought this was it. I was being paid. I had a job, I made it. This was the dream. But I was wrong. Within a few months, I realized that simply showing up to work, clocking in, doing what your boss wants you to do, and looking forward to that clock hitting 5pm was not for me. I felt like I was slowly withering away. You can't live life this way and expect to be happy. My office at the time was near the legendary San Francisco Chronicle building in downtown San Francisco. The Hearst Building has been there since the early 1900s. And certainly looks like it. As I walked for coffee or lunch, I'd see people walking in and out and wondering what it'd be like to work there, to be an actual journalist for a living. I'd sometimes go on to the Chronicle website, and every time found that there weren't any jobs for me to apply for.
Hamed Aleaziz 04:43
Journalism has always been a passion of mine. And for good reason. My family was kept together because of journalism. My older brother was born with severe disabilities and required specialty care. But when we were young kids, my father, who had come from Iran to study in the US, was ordered to leave the country because his visa had expired. That meant my family would be separated. My older brother, born in Corvallis, could not leave the specialty medical care available in the United States. He required 24/7 care. My parents would have to go back to Iran. My younger brother and I, also born here, would go with them. It was an unthinkably stressful time for my family. In 1998, an Oregonian reporter by the name of Katie Muldoon, heard about my family situation. Katie powerful piece about the scenario and soon others began to notice. Local TV news and other print outlets started writing about it as well. Suddenly, local activists or advocates got involved. Our senator voiced support for our family. The story, this one, directly led to increased support and awareness. And ultimately, an immigration judge granted my family a path the US citizenship. We stayed in the US and stayed together. Both my parents are now US citizens. I can quite honestly say that if it weren't for journalism, my family likely would have been separated. It was a powerful message for me as a young child about the importance of this work and the potential impact of journalism and journalists.
Hamed Aleaziz 06:42
But graduating in a recession, especially one in which room newsrooms began to close on mass was discouraging. Deep down inside, I thought my dream was unattainable. Especially because of the economy. It felt like a far off thing, like when kids talk about being an actor or an astronaut when they grow up, probably not attainable. I looked at bios of journalists and noted how many of them went to Ivy League schools and felt more discouraged. At one point I asked an experienced journalist, how I could break into the industry. And instead of offering advice, he warned me about the downsides of the field, like the lack of jobs and instability. Not exactly inspiring. But I kept walking by the Chronicle building, and I kept seeing real people walking in and out. They seemed cool. I read their work. I peeked inside whenever the door swung open. That year, 2009, the Middle East went through a historic upheaval, as protest movements led to the downfall of authoritarian regimes. I was mesmerized, and I felt an urge to get involved. I reached out to a well known expert in the Middle East and Iran. And basically said, I don't like my job right now. And I want to help you research. He shockingly agreed. I reached out to an editor of a news site that covered Iran and she said the same thing. When my first few pitches failed miserably, I began to get some pitches through and I published a few stories. At a certain point, I was doing more work for my side jobs than my actual job. And that was a terrifying experience. Lots of toggling through website tabs and pretend to be focused on my day job. I never got caught though. Pretty sure they knew I wasn't fully committed to grant writing. The story clips that I eked out led to me landing a fellowship at Mother Jones magazine as a fact checker. I was set. I thought this was a real journalism job. And my path was now guaranteed. After all, fellows before me now had jobs at Mother Jones and other national newsrooms. Factchecking was an incredible experience, and one that I think all young journalists are trying to do. I learned the ins and outs of a magazine and the value of getting every single fact right. This meant literally underlying facts in the story and researching them for weeks, like calling a farmer in Alabama to confirm details about his chicken house. This was tedious but without accuracy, journalism becomes meaningless. The fellowship I was in only lasted a year. Afterwards, despite several job applications, I got all the way through to interviews, I was unemployed. Several months past and I kept on applying and waiting for months. Again, I was discouraged. I was ghosted. I was rejected. At one point, I didn't get a job and I found out on Twitter after the person who got the job was being congratulated by a lot of people. Ultimately ended up working two jobs in news that didn't fit me. I had editors telling me that I wasn't cut out for reporting.
Hamed Aleaziz 10:18
By early 2014, almost five years into my career, I began to wonder if the industry was telling me something. Maybe journalism wasn't my calling. Maybe I should give up. A colleague of mine who has since won a Pulitzer Prize supported me during those times. She believed in me and encouraged me to keep going. Finding your people throughout your work life is so important. And one day I noticed the job of the San Francisco Chronicle that I thought I could qualify for. It was a big pay cu. It would only last a guaranteed two years. So I applied. It had been my dream. And to my surprise, I got the job. I often think about where my life would be if I'd given up instead of continuing to pursue my dreams. I worked as a breaking news reporter in San Francisco. And I actually consider this my first real journalism experience. I covered the news bright and early at 6am. And that meant going to crime scenes, disaster zones, and other odd stories of the day. For example, I once covered the story of a window washer who fell 11 stories who fell 11 stories toward the street, and luckily fell on a car and survived the fall. The person who helped the man before the paramedics showed up was a former Army colonel who just so happened to be walking through the neighborhood. There were other stories. Like, if a whale was beached an hour away, I drove up there and hiked out to the beach, and wrote about the scene. It was grueling, but it felt incredible to walk into the historic newsroom I once dreamed about being part of. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing when I first started. I remember going to a murder scene once with my notebook and pen out, ready to interview potential witnesses. I came up to one person who looked me up and down and asked me skeptically, are you a cop? I realized that I should probably ditch the notebook when I'm showing up to a crime scene. And when the news is really slow, or it's a weekend day, I'd be asked to go on the street and cover the weather. How do you cover the weather? That meant trying to get people to give me interesting quotes on how warm it was outside. I don't think I've ever been told to eff-off as much before in my life. But I can't think of many things that better prepare me for this job than those assignments that forced me on the street to talk to people. There's a difference between writing the news from an office and going to the news. You see the raw emotions that come out of tragedies. You feel things, you smell them, and you hear them up close.
Hamed Aleaziz 13:25
One of the toughest stories I ever covered was the death of 36 people in an Oakland warehouse and 2017. The warehouse had a concert that night, but tragically a fire swept through the building, and many of the concert goers died. I was one of the first reporters on the scene. And I remember smelling the smoke that emanated from that building, seeing the bodies rolled out, and witnessing the devastated family members who came to see whether their loved ones died. It's an honor to bear witness to these moments, and to tell the stories of the world. Despite how hard it is on a personal level to witness staggering loss of life.
Hamed Aleaziz 14:13
The course of my career changed when former President Trump was elected. I made a wall for myself as the San Francisco Chronicle covering immigration. That was the main topic of President Trump's campaign, to crack down on immigrants in the US and cities and states that aid those without status, and to limit immigrants from reaching the shores of this country. It didn't take long for me to realize that covering the Trump administration was going to be unlike anything I ever experienced. The first week of his administration, the government banned immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries. Due to lack of clarity and communication, there was chaos at US airports. People were being held up as they landed by customs officers trying to interpret the policies, and protesters across the region flocked to the airport to denounce the order and to support immigrants who were landing. At one point, a senior US official had to clarify that people with green cards--permanent residency in the US--could enter the country, even if they were from one of the country's band. I had never seen anything like it. I spent that weekend collecting the voices of families worried about their loved ones held up by customs officers and other immigrants who were worried about what the order would mean for their families already abroad. We track the cries of protesters and politicians who were livid about what they said was a bigoted policy. I spent the entire weekend calling people texting others and constantly updating our story. I think I worked 14-hour days that weekend. And I never complained. It felt like it was my duty as a reporter of a local paper to capture the voices of those who were caught up in this frenzied change. It I like a calling, a chance to write a version of history thatwould be shared down the line. We quickly saw the Trump administration would remake immigration enforcement of this country. Suddenly, nearly every undocumented immigrant became a target for potential arrest or deportation after years of a more limited approach by former President Obama. The Trump administration seemed particularly focused on California, attacking it as a state that provided sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. One of the people caught up in this web was a nurse in Oakland named Maria. She had come to the country in the '80s, had grown a family in the Bay Area, and worked her way to becoming an oncology nurse. She had no criminal history, but an immigration judge had ordered deported years ago. While the Obama administration said that she could stay because she wasn't a priority of theirs. Trump's ICE said no and ordered her out of the country and back to Mexico. I was lucky to spend time with Maria and her family, documenting her family's experience as they came to grips with the fact that she, along with her husband, would have to go while her kids stayed back. I tried to capture these emotions, of a family being separated by the immigration system in a series of stories. Soon a US senator got involved and advocates for her and advocated for her to remain in the country. It was hard not to think back to my own experience as a kid when a reporter from the Oregonian covering my family story. Though as a reporter, I focused on remaining objective and focused on writing the facts of the case and what I was witnessing. The intervention of the senator or the stories did not prevent her deportation. The scene of the airport the night she left the country was raw. Family hugged, prayed, and cried together the night before she and her husband departed to Mexico. You could see in her eyes the trauma of being separated from her children. I kept in touch with her and her kids in Oakland. My colleague and I pitched a story to document her new life in Mexico. And we spent some time writing in photographing them and describing what it means to be a family separated in two countries. We even spent a week with her in her village in Mexico. The project took months. But it is among the one of the proudest stories I've ever worked on. I actually have a video, one that my colleagues made as part of our story package. It's set in her village in Mexico and Oakland. This experience with Maria and her family was incredibly illuminating for me. It's important to see and witness the real life impact of policymaking and what decisions by politicians and government officials can mean for families.
Hamed Aleaziz 19:34
But I want to get behind the system and to learn more about what was being said behind closed doors in government rooms where policy was being shaped. I didn't want to rely on press releases from the government agencies to know what was happening. I reached out to BuzzFeed News's editor in chief at the Time, Ben Smith, and after many, many messages, he brought me on as a reporter covering the Department of Homeland Security. It felt like an opportunity to take the skills I learned at the Chronicle and apply them on a national scale. But it was daunting. The beat was competitive and Buzzfeed was often ridiculed as a place for listicles. I remember having to spell BuzzFeed out for many people over over the phone, only for them to say, Oh, the cat video place. I'd have to explain that, No, I was in fact a real life reporter working on real life news. And I was not doing a cat listicle. The administration also was not a fan of Buzzfeed after the publishing of the infamous Russia dossier. While it seemed like a challenge at first, it forced me to develop sourcing within the government and former government officials and experts to begin to appeal was happening at DHS under Trump. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of persistence. But I slowly developed a network of sources and I began to break news on upcoming Trump policies and memos revealing the plans the administration had for the border and throughout the country. At the same time, I was able to broaden my reporting trips. I once visited a tiny town in Nebraska to document what happens after a massive ICE raid sweeps through your town. This specific ICE raid led to the arrest of more than 100 undocumented immigrants, most of them without criminal records. What I found was a town divided and an immigrant population that was beleaguered. A local pastor who was helping the immigrant workers following the raid by providing them food at his church so that he was shunned by people in town. Even his friends and congregants would confront him about what he was doing. One immigrant worker told me that most families that had come here were going to leave, and soon they'd all be gone. It felt important to travel to these far off locations and fully reflect the human impact of law enforcement operations. As I grew my source base, I was able to do more accountability reporting. I got leak reports on conditions within border facilities, detention centers--internal reviews of flaws in the rollout of controversial border policies. The changes to immigration policy during Trump were dizzying, and I work relentlessly to keep readers informed of the government's upcoming plans. And I was often met with annoyance from government spokespeople. And while I tried to be kind to everybody I meet, I understood that this probably meant that I was doing my job well. I was finally learning information that I didn't know before and that the government couldn't control. There was a thrill in this, learning information for others and shedding light on unknown government reports that were revealing about the way our government was treating people who are often in vulnerable situations. It also meant that I was liable to get called out by trolls on Twitter and government officials on social media. I kept my head down and kept going, kept reporting. And during my reporting, I revealed how border agents pressured asylum officers to turn back migrants on the border, how government inspectors discovered border facilities that were severely overcrowded and dangerous. And how ICE deported 32 immigrant children to Guatemala after a judge said they couldn't. Then one day, I was informed that our news organization was subpoenaed regarding some of the work I had done. The government, in essence, asked for information on my sources. Our news organization said no, and we revealed the subpoena to the world shortly afterward. The moment was slightly terrifying when I realized that it was important to continue reporting without fear. I could not be intimidated and do my job well. I once read a speech by the legendary former Washington Post editor Martin Baron, who quoted the Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment. I often think about this quote when considering the work me and my colleagues do. In the First Amendment Justice Black wrote, The founding fathers gave the press--the free press--the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the government. The press was protected so they could bear the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. By the way, the Biden administration instituted a new policy in subpoena-ing media members, requiring that they receive approval from senior leadership before issuing any subpoenas to media members.
Hamed Aleaziz 25:27
This industry is a difficult one. And despite the incredible work my colleagues and I did at BuzzFeed News, and the Pulitzer that our newsroom won earlier this year, the newsroom began to have buyouts with many staff members. While I wasn't personally impacted, I was lucky enough to get a new opportunity with an amazing paper, the LA Times, covering immigration policy. It feels good to be in print again and part of a publication really dedicated to ambitious reporting.
Hamed Aleaziz 25:58
I can't say that my path or journalism has been easy. It's involved a lot of ups and downs. And there has been nothing simple about finding my foothold in this industry. There were many days where I felt like it wouldn't happen for me, especially as I clicked through countless rejection letters, but I kept working and kept learning. And I hope that you guys also do this and remain persistent and to not settle for any job, to really pursue what makes you passionate and to pursue journalism or any other career that makes you happy. So thank you for your guys's time.