On the latest episode of The Journalism Salute, we're joined by Jackie Llanos. Jackie is an immigration reporter for NOTUS, which stands for News of the United States, a newsroom that covers significant national issues and politics.
This interview was taped before NOTUS’ announcement of its plans to rebrand and expand (which you can learn more about at their website and LinkedIn)
Jackie has been with them for 6 months on a two-year fellowship. Previously she was a reporter for States Newsroom based in Florida. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond.
Jackie talked about covering immigration from the bureaucratic perspective, focusing on the legal and legislative system, as well as a story she did in her previous job about a U.S. citizen being taken and imprisoned by ICE, which she learned about through a Facebook group.
An excerpt of the interview is below. Please listen to our full 30-minute conversation with Jackie.
I want to bring up a story you wrote before coming to NOTUS. It was in the Florida Phoenix and was about an American citizen being held by ICE under Florida's then-new anti-immigration law. He showed the court his ID and social security card, but the judge wouldn't release him. He was in jail for more than a day.
Can you explain how you found out about it and what happened as a result of your reporting?
I came across it on the local Tallahassee Latino Community Facebook group. Someone had posted a video of this man's mother crying and just saying, oh, my son has been arrested in Tallahassee and they're saying that he's undocumented and that ICE is going to deport him, but here's his birth certificate.
So that really caught my attention, and I ended up calling the phone number that they had posted on the Facebook group. This was a community organizer who was helping the family, and I told them I can meet you in the courthouse right away.
I met them in the court and just seeing how, even though the judge had seen the evidence of this being a real birth certificate and a real social security card, she didn't know what she could do.
There was a huge backlash from the community. That same day, there was a protest outside of the jail where he was being held and an ICE agent ended up calling me and asking me for information. I was like, well, aren't you guys supposed to know about this? And I ended up putting the family in contact with this ICE agent.
And that's who told them that he was being released. And what eventually led to the very emotional reunion between the mom and son.
What was it like as a human being covering that?
I was very invested in just seeing the whole story through. I just really wanted to be there. And I think that's what most journalists would feel like in that situation. But then also, just being respectful, telling them how I'm approaching the situation, telling them what I knew, asking them what they knew had happened.
And just asking for permission to record and take pictures.
How did the family respond to you? How did you get them to trust you so quickly?
I was the only one there. At first, they didn't even know what was going on. They didn't know where to even find him. So just being able to say, this is where the hearing is and just being there pretty much for every step of the way was really helpful.
I was lucky that my editor at the time allowed me to just devote my time to that.
As someone who is an immigrant herself, are you able to separate emotionally from everything that's going on and with all the stories that come out?
Something that I reflected on recently is just how different everyone's paths of migration are. Just because I'm an immigrant doesn't mean that I know about all the ways that people can enter the country, whether that's with or without authorization, and what all of that involves, immigration law and the processes of trying to obtain documentation. Is it every case? It's on a case-by-case basis.
So, I've just really appreciated my time covering this as an opportunity to learn about that and just kind of humble myself and not assume that I'm an expert just because I'm an immigrant.
What's the hardest part of doing this job that you're in right now?
The hardest part for me, especially being a young person and also being new to the scene in DC, is sourcing within the agencies. Because that's where a lot of information is coming out of. And that has definitely been the hardest part and something that I want to improve on. Just trying to get people with knowledge of what's going on right now to tell you what is going on is very hard.
What advice do you have for student journalists, aspiring journalists, who want to pursue things of that nature, like immigration reporting?
I would say to get involved as early as possible in your campus publications. That was just key for me as someone who comes from a family where no one is a journalist. And from my immediate nuclear family, I was the only one to go to college.
I did the Dow Jones News Fund internship when I was in college. That led me to interning for Nashville Public Radio, which eventually led me to interning for Virginia Public Media and also briefly working with Hearst in Connecticut. So, it's knowing that one thing leads to another and just getting involved in your campus publications as soon as possible.
And I would say to try to learn about immigration as much as you can because I think especially with people who are not on the beat, they might not understand about the differences between different programs and different visa types and just really the bureaucracy behind immigration and how all of that has been upended, not just from the illegal immigration side, but also the paths to legal migration.
Are there journalism issues that you're passionate about?
I'm passionate about mentorship and helping people who come from working-class backgrounds, whose parents didn't go to college just find their way to the industry. Because a lot of it can really be gatekept by people who are able to take unpaid internships and things of that nature.
I'm passionate about guiding younger people and that's also another reason as to why I was interested in this program at NOTUS.
How do you view journalism and your place within it?
As much as people may say that they dislike journalists or that they dislike journalism, those people are still reading the news. Those people are still consuming content that is brought to them by journalists, even if they're consuming it from an influencer who's not necessarily a journalist.
Those influencers are getting their information from journalists. I think it's just remembering that journalism is just an essential part of society. That's just my anthropological outlook there as someone who was an anthropology minor.
In 2025 we had a new episode each week and featured more than 60 guests. I don’t know that we were the most diverse journalist interviews podcast out there, but we certainly tried to be.
We look forward to bringing you more journalist interviews in 2026 but we can use your help. Tell a friend, a relative, a colleague about us and let them know that our episodes are worth their time.
A reminder to professors and teachers
You can find episode guides that you can use if you wish to integrate the podcast within your classroom. There are more than 50 available. Each one has suggested questions for discussion and activities a class can do.
I’m also happy to help you find an episode that would be appropriate for what you’re teaching. Reach out to me at [email protected].
Additionally, I’ve curated some of the 2025 episodes into groups. If you’re teaching a class or unit in any of these subjects:
- Investigative Journalism
- Feature Writing
- Covering government policy
- Social justice, immigration, and identity
- Local News
Check out the sets of episode guides that would be useful to you. I don’t have a good term for them, so I’m borrowing from Bluesky and calling them “Starter Packs” - sets of 5-8 episodes in each category that may be useful in your classroom.