Isabelle Taft covers immigration for New York Focus. She's also a corps member with Report for America, a national program that places reporters in local newsrooms. She previously covered national news as a fellow at the New York Times, worked on the health team at Mississippi Today and fell in love with local news at the Biloxi Sun Herald on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Her reporting with ProPublica on Mississippi's involuntary commitment system helped change state laws.
Three months after the state legislature ended session without passing immigration protections, 15 elected officials faced down arrest to protest ICE and state inaction.
So far this year, the state’s county jails have held six times more people for federal immigration authorities than they did in all of 2024.
New Yorkers are suing to reverse a Trump administration policy change that has upended the futures of tens of thousands of young immigrants.