Melissa Sanchez

Opioid-related deaths in Cook County have doubled since this time last year, and similar increases are happening across the country. “If you’re alone, there’s nobody to give you the Narcan,” said one coroner.

Two years after a ProPublica investigation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services still is not complying with a federal court order to better serve Spanish-speaking families.

In 2018, ProPublica reported on how vehicle tickets in Chicago disproportionately harm low-income, Black residents. This latest set of reforms proposes lowering ticket costs and providing debt relief for low-income residents.

Some Afghan children at a Chicago shelter have hurt themselves or others, leaving workers overwhelmed. Employees say the shelter has never experienced this level of chaos and isn’t equipped to provide kids with services they need.

After ProPublica’s report that Afghan children at a Chicago shelter were hurting themselves, Sen. Dick Durbin asked federal officials to investigate. In the meantime, Heartland Alliance, the facility’s operator, now has interpreters in its shelters.

In 2018, ProPublica reported on how vehicle tickets in Chicago disproportionately harm low-income, Black residents. This latest set of reforms proposes lowering ticket costs and providing debt relief for low-income residents.

Here is our annual report on the breakdown of our staff and how we’re working to create a more diverse news organization and inclusive journalism community.

Nearly 200 Afghan children brought here without family by the U.S. government during the haphazard military pullout are languishing in federal custody.

Cities nationwide look to Chicago as officials wrestle with whether speed cameras have improved traffic safety enough to justify their financial burden on Black and Latino motorists.

A system intended to protect young immigrants while they wait for new homes has instead been overused, experts say, leading to prolonged stays in federal custody.

When an 8-year-old Nicaraguan boy was run over on a Wisconsin dairy farm, authorities blamed his father and closed the case. Meanwhile, the community of immigrant workers knows a completely different story.

A ProPublica investigation showed how language barriers contributed to authorities wrongly blaming a dairy farm worker for his son’s death. Lawmakers have responded.

After ProPublica found that a police investigation into a child’s death was mishandled due to language barriers, officials hope to improve how police interact with non-English speakers. Meanwhile, the boy’s family has settled a suit against the farm.

“If we suddenly kicked out all of the people here, the undocumented, our dairy farms would collapse,” one lawmaker said. “We have to come up with a solution.”

OSHA sometimes investigates deaths on small farms if they provide housing to immigrant workers. Other times the agency says it can’t take action.

Wisconsin’s exemption for small farms is one of many federal and state carve-outs that have historically left farm workers — and dairy workers in particular — with fewer rights and protections than others.

A ProPublica investigation in Wisconsin’s Dane County revealed how a grammatical mistake in Spanish led sheriff’s deputies to wrongly blame a Nicaraguan dairy worker for his son’s death.

Minnesota’s attorney general exposed conditions at one dairy farm where workers lacked heat and plumbing and dealt with mold in their homes. Housing like this is common on dairy farms, since dairy workers are excluded from many protections.

ProPublica reporter Melissa Sanchez reflects on what led her to investigate the many dangers and inequities faced by the immigrant workers without whom America’s dairy farms wouldn’t function.

Years after deputies in Dane County, Wisconsin, mistakenly blamed an immigrant worker for his son’s death on a dairy farm, the sheriff’s office has agreed to reforms meant to ensure that residents who speak limited English can get needed services.