Tag: photography

  • The Miracle We Refuse to See

    The Miracle We Refuse to See

    Jane Graupman has spent nearly four decades helping immigrants and refugees rebuild their lives—and watching Minnesota become stronger because they did. Her story reveals the people behind the politics: health-care workers, separated families, newly arrived refugees, and communities connected from St. Paul to Kakuma.

  • The Freedom to Go to Work

    The Freedom to Go to Work

    “Because here, people can go to work.” For most Americans, those words would hardly seem worth mentioning. But for Bernardo, a Cuban immigrant who has built his life in Austin, Minnesota, they reveal a troubling reality: a town that depends on immigrant workers, even as those workers live with the fear of immigration enforcement.

  • When Fear Closed Doors, They Opened Theirs

    When Fear Closed Doors, They Opened Theirs

    When fear drove immigrant families in Austin behind closed doors, Flor and Maria kept showing up—bringing food, answering calls, guiding neighbors through uncertainty, and reminding us what it means to help when others are afraid.

  • Seeing the People Behind the Policy: Why I am creating Witness: The Human Impact of Immigration Enforcement

    I am creating *Witness* to document the human impact of immigration enforcement through portraits, interviews, and reporting. By sharing these stories, I hope readers better understand lives often hidden behind politics and headlines, and that understanding leads to a more humane conversation. If you have a story that should be part of this project, I…

  • They Come Because They Have To. They Contribute Because That’s Who They Are.

    They Come Because They Have To. They Contribute Because That’s Who They Are.

    In this interview, Laura Cooper cuts through the noise around immigration. We talk about why people leave home, what they face when they arrive, how families rebuild, what immigrants contribute, why citizenship means safety, and why Minnesota was ready to stand up when the pressure came. At the center is a simple truth: immigrants are…

  • Inside the Crowd

    Inside the Crowd

    Inside the crowd, the protest breaks apart into something more immediate: Voices overlapping, bodies pressed together, moments of tension, humor, and defiance unfolding at once. These images move between the crowd and the stage to show what it felt like to be there.