Editor’s note: The following is the final installment in a collection of six immigration reporting resources for new and experienced journalists covering immigration. This series is made possible through funding from the Catena Foundation. You can read the entire collection here.

After winning the race for U.S. president a second time, Republican Donald Trump vowed to keep his campaign promise to “fix our borders” by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. On the campaign trail, he promised to begin deportations on his first day in office.

“We’re gonna have to seal up those borders,” he told a cheering crowd in Florida after his sizable win against his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris. “We want people to come back in … but they have to come in legally.”

His promise to carry out mass deportations is a gut punch to 5.8 million mixed-status families that call the U.S. home. A recent report by the Center for Migration Studies said the deportations could potentially break up nearly 5 million American families and disrupt the nation’s economy and labor market. Legal and undocumented immigrants make up 18.6 % of the nation’s workforce and perform essential jobs in agriculture, construction and the service industry.

Fear of large-scale deportations hits close to home. I worry about my friend Estela and her family. An undocumented 53-year-old mother from Mexico, Estela has lived in my southern New Mexico community for nearly two decades. She is married to Pedro, a legal resident who repairs trucks. They have six children, ages 2 to 15, all born in the U.S.

Although Pedro filed a request three years ago for his wife to become a legal resident, they still await the government’s response. Her only proof is a letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, acknowledging receipt of the paperwork.

She is nervous. Who will look after their children while Pedro works if she is deported? Who will walk them to the school bus stop or take them to the emergency clinic? Who will cook, clean their trailer, do the laundry? Care for a sick child?

She told me that a few days after the election, her 15-year-old daughter reassured her with something she’d been told at school: The president-elect only wants to deport migrants who are a public charge, not migrants from working families like hers. Estela plans to seek advice on her status at a local Catholic services agency that assists migrants.

Mass deportations are just one of Trump’s hardline promises to curb immigration at the southern border. He has said he wants to deny entry to migrants from Muslim countries (as he tried to do during his previous term in office), outlaw sanctuary cities that protect migrants from deportation, resume workplace raids, use the National Guard to apprehend migrants in the country without legal authorization, and end President Joe Biden’s executive directives that have provided special status to migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.

The president-elect has provided no details on how he plans to implement his plans, or how to pay the billions required to carry out the mass deportation of 11 to 15 million people. Two recent studies have estimated the cost of locating, apprehending, housing, and repatriating so many migrants at $116.5 billion and $315 billion.

The ACLU plans to block most of the proposed restrictive immigration actions. Journalists can also expect legal challenges from immigrant rights groups.

In the meantime, journalists can start preparing to report on the implications of his immigration agenda by developing expert sources, becoming familiar with leaders and social workers in local immigrant communities, and familiarizing themselves with the intricacies of immigration law and research.

Here are some resources and story ideas that might be helpful moving forward.

The undocumented and foreign-born immigrants: Who and where are they?

I suggest you start by becoming familiar with data reports and research tools from U.S. government websites, immigration think tanks and research organizations that provide detailed snapshots of undocumented migrants, where they reside, what they contribute to the local and national economy through taxes, and what types of labor sectors rely on immigrant workers. This will provide valuable context and background for your local reporting.

The following offer a broad demographic picture of the undocumented and foreign-born, and some of them allow you to drill down to the state and local level.

• This recent comprehensive report from the Pew Research Center provides data on the undocumented in the labor force by state. The report shows that undocumented workers make up 23% of the foreign-born labor force.
• The Washington Post has analyzed 4.1 million immigration court records from 2014-24 and developed detailed U.S. maps showing the primary immigrant hubs (by nationality) and the number of immigration court filings pre- and post-COVID-19.
• Check out this Department of Homeland Security resource for yearly state-by-state breakdowns of immigrants by legal category (lawful residents, adjustment of status, nonimmigrant arrivals, naturalizations, refugees, asylees).
• To determine where immigrants live by state and county during 2018-2022, check out this interactive map from the Migration Policy Institute.
• The U.S. Census Bureau also provides reports and search tools on the foreign-born U.S. population. See this census report on foreigners by country of origin and where they reside in the U.S. The map presents total numbers by decade.

Story ideas

1. Ask a local social service, legal aid and religious organization in your community to help you find and interview mixed-status families for you to interview. Before the interview, establish ground rules with your editor on how you will protect their identities. Explain to the family how you plan to handle the details of where they live, work, go to school and how you will refer to them in your story. I learned this lesson early in my reporting career when I interviewed an elderly disabled migrant worker at the rent-free house where he lived on his employer’s farm in Central Florida. Later, a social worker called to say he was evicted for speaking to a reporter.

2. Two recent studies by the University of New Hampshire and the bipartisan American Immigration Council estimate that the proposed massive deportation operation could cost the country between $116 billion and $315 billion. Another impact would be the loss of millions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes paid by undocumented workers. Localize this story. Interview your local chamber of commerce, employers and businesses that rely on immigrant workers about the impact on the local economy. An example is this New York Times story about the impact on Arkansas.

3. Immigrant advocacy and legal services organizations are go-to places for immigrants seeking advice on regularizing their legal status. These organizations, some church or privately funded, have limited staff and resources. How will they deal with additional requests for assistance? Do they have plans to challenge the deportations in court?

4. Biden has already said he will not extend humanitarian parole and temporary protected status programs for 530,000 Venezuelas, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans when the programs expire next year. But Trump plans to end the programs soon after he takes office. Interview immigrants approved under these programs about their uncertain future. Venezuela and Cuba do not currently accept citizens expelled by the U.S. What would happen to them?

5. If you are reporting on a sanctuary city (see a complete list and map here) speak to city and county officials and local social service organizations that assist migrants about how they intend to deal with a federal mass deportation operation. Will local law enforcement refuse to help federal immigration officers or the National Guard apprehend and detain undocumented residents?