Los Angeles Times reporter Andrea Castillo will discuss media coverage of global immigration on April 6 at Washington State University’s 46th Edward R. Murrow Symposium.
Castillo, an award-winning federal immigration reporter, is a founding member of the Times’ Latino Caucus, which seeks to improve media coverage and newsroom representation for Latino communities. Castillo co‑authored a four‑part series in 2018 on the lives of immigrants under the Trump administration. Her 2020 investigation found assaults against immigrants in ICE detention centers were rarely prosecuted. She currently covers federal immigration policy in Washington, D.C. for the Times.
A graduate of the Murrow College, Castillo has documented the lives of stateless children in Colombia, reported on migrant caravans at the borders of Venezuela and Colombia, and covered the devastation in the aftermath of a 2017 earthquake in Mexico City. Castillo has produced ground-breaking exposes on the conditions of immigrants in private Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, as well as the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on farmworkers, meatpackers, and detainees.
“Few journalists today can match Andrea’s insight into the complicated and politicized world of immigration,” said Benjamin Shors, chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Production at the Murrow College. “Her work exemplifies Murrow’s legacy of fearless reporting and moral clarity.”
Castillo’s talk is sponsored by the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication through the Charlotte Friel Memorial Communication Lecture series. The lecture was established in 1973 by Jack and Catherine Friel in memory of their daughter, Charlotte Friel, a 1951 graduate of WSU. The purpose of the lecture series is to create an opportunity for a professional in mass communications to discuss current news media trends with WSU faculty and students.
