The national debate over immigration has raged for decades but often ignores the lives of actual immigrants. Drawing on an unprecedented poll, this series tells the stories of immigrants in America today — roughly 1 in 6 adult Americans — portraying the diversity of immigrant experiences and putting their voices in the foreground.
Immigrants to the U.S. face extensive challenges, but they still report high levels of optimism about their futures and trust in American institutions, a comprehensive survey has found.
California has positioned itself as a haven for both documented and undocumented migrants, but in some ways, life in Texas isn’t much different, a detailed poll of immigrant attitudes shows. There’s only so much one state can do.
Millions of immigrants — those here legally as well as unauthorized migrants — find their lives constrained by the complex, sometimes irrational, twists of U.S. immigration law.
We asked thousands of immigrants about their experiences and lives in this country. How would you answer those same questions?
Despite more than a decade of political and legal attacks, nearly 600,000 people are still receiving the benefits of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, renewing their DACA designations in two-year increments.
Jamaica native Winsome Pendergrass is part of a surge of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. She supports solidarity among Black Americans, but has been shunned in return.
The doom and gloom that many Americans offer up on social media and in politics betrays something fundamental about this country. These days, it’s immigrants who keep hope alive.
Carrying out the KFF/L.A. Times survey of immigrants required work far beyond the normal survey, but the result provides a unique source of information about America’s immigrant population.
Project credits
Art Direction: Joy Park
Design: Joy Park, Alex Tatusian
Illustration Art Direction: Patrick Hruby
Illustrations: Patrick Hruby, Ana Serrano, Marisol Ortega
Motion design: Jess Hutchison
Photographers: Irfan Khan, Dania Maxwell, Brittainy Newman
Photo Editor: Keith Bedford
Graphics: Hanna Sender, Abhinanda Bhattacharyya, Vanessa Martinez, George LeVines
Audience engagement: Samantha Melbourneweaver
Video: J.R. Lizzaraga
Spanish translation: Maria Antonieta Gutierrez
Editor: David Lauter
Additional editing: Matt Ballinger, Millie Quan, Nancy Rivera Brooks
Additional digital help: Beto Alvarez, Clint Fisher
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