immigration

For people untouched by federal immigration policy, the issue can feel distant. But a planned immigration jail in Uinta County has made the issue intensely local for the residents of Evanston.

Wyoming is one of the least racially diverse states in the country-but it wasn't always that way. A museum in Evanston chronicles a time when the state bustled with international immigrants.

Here's the story of an early 20th century Pakistani immigrant who created a life in Wyoming and set the path for others to follow. 

Maria came to the U.S. illegally with her mother when she was a little girl…so they could meet up with her father, who was working in the country legally. When StoryCorps came to Jackson last summer, Maria told her son Jorden about how she ended up in Idaho.

The story of 20th century Sheridan immigrant and entrepreneur Zarif Khan resurfaced in the last several years. After a 2016 New Yorker story that detailed Khan's life, University of Iowa jazz studies professor and musician John Rapson was inspired to tell Khan's uniquely American story along with composer Danyel Gaglione. 

This week the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a measure rejecting President Trump's emergency declaration so he can build his long-desired wall. There also seems to be enough opposition in the Senate to reject it, but neither chamber looks to have enough votes to override Trump's promised veto. But Senator John Barrasso is all in with Trump. 

A 25-year-old immigrant got a job working for a landscaping company in Jackson. One day, he was out mowing a lawn.

"I had an accident. A coworker drove over my foot with a machine," he said.

As an undocumented worker, he was immediately worried.

Allie Gross of the Jackson Hole News and Guide and Melodie Edwards of Wyoming Public Radio collaborated on a story about worker's compensation for undocumented immigrants. They joined Wyoming Public Radio's Caroline Ballard to discuss why they decided to co-produce this story.

Jackson is the most economically unequal city in the U.S. That's according to the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank. A study found in 2016 that the income gap between the bottom 99 percent and the top one percent is widest in Jackson.

That makes affordable housing challenging. When StoryCorps came to Jackson in June, friends Marcela Badillo and Cristina Briones sat down to talk about what that means for immigrant families. 

In her new book Girlhood in the Borderlands, associate UW professor Lilia Soto takes a deep look at the lives of teenage girls who grow up living between Mexico and the United States. In her research, she conducted interviews with teen girls who have "transnational" families, where loved ones live on both sides of the border.

Soto will be giving a talk about the book Wednesday, October 3 at 5 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Union East Ballroom as part of Hispanic Heritage month. She joined Wyoming Public Radio's Caroline Ballard for a conversation and said her own upbringing sparked her interest in the subject.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration put its zero-tolerance policy into place at the border, leading to the separation of immigrant parents and children. Now some people are looking back at history to try to understand how this policy truly affects those involved.