Letter From the Editor: Facts, Not Fear

When Donald Trump was sworn in, we saw fear consume our immigrant communities in Chicago and beyond.

For weeks, his administration threatened Chicago with “massive raids.” Then, days before his inauguration, immigrants, advocacy organizations and local news outlets were on high alert as a steady stream of leaks published by national outlets shared sparse details of immigration operations planned for Chicago.

We scrambled as an industry to provide updates where rumors were rampant and details were sparse.

When federal agents showed up at a school on Chicago’s South Side on Jan. 24, local news outlets’ desire to be first to break the story fed into our community’s fear and the spread of misinformation. Chicago Public Schools initially said ICE agents were denied access to the school but later clarified that it was the Secret Service, not ICE. By that point, however, the damage had already been done. False news of a school raid had spread widely, fueling the fears that our immigrant communities had already been feeling.

There’s no way around it. The last two weeks have been heavy and confusing for those of us who care about immigrants. And that was the point: overwhelm people with edicts and misinformation and let fear spread.

Since Trump took office, Borderless Magazine’s editorial team has been fielding tip after tip of potential immigration enforcement activity. Like many local news outlets, we initially chased these leads and checked their legitimacy.

But we quickly paused our breaking news efforts. We found that many of the tips were unfounded or simply had too many outstanding questions for officials to give our readers a full picture.

The decision was simple: We didn’t want to add to the chaos without any concrete answers.

Last month, I wrote about the deep fear our communities are feeling. Veronica, who has been here for over two decades, told me she’s had countless sleepless nights wondering what will happen under a second Trump presidency.

“Fear,” she told me, “is the most powerful weapon you can imagine.”

Borderless Magazine wants to allay those fears by empowering our readers with information to make the best decisions for themselves. This information is critical now more than ever.

Our editorial team constantly discusses where we can fill information gaps and provide critical information to our readers. That work doesn’t stop at reporting and writing; it also means creating social media videos and having our field canvassers distribute this information to our communities.

Our vow to our community is simple: We want to give you facts, not fuel fear.

We have never shied away from hard stories and challenging topics. But we will not report a story until we can verify its accuracy and provide our community with as much true information as possible.

As we navigate Trump’s second term, Borderless is committed to reimagining immigration reporting for a more just future for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. We will continue to honor our roots and never lose sight of who we do this work for.