Award-winning journalist Hinojosa: U.S. suffers from decades of poor immigration policy

Joseph Luchok

November 15, 2020

The U.S. has suffered from decades of poor immigration policy under both Republican and Democrat administrations, but the problems now are acute, award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa said Thursday during a National Press Club Virtual Book Rap.

"We have an international human rights crisis that has been perpetrated by this government on people whose only crime is not being born in this country," Hinojosa told Club Vice President Lisa Matthews in the hour-long program.

Maria Hinojosa talks about her book with Lisa Matthews

President-elect Biden has said within the first 100 days of his administration he will reunite children who were separated from their families at the border.

"This is a massive undertaking," Hinojosa said. "What I will not accept is that the world's most advanced country does not have the capacity to find the parents of children."

Maria Hinojosa, broadcast journalist and author of the book "Once I was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America," tells National Press Club vice-president Lisa Matthews the Trump campaign this year aggressively campaigned for Hispanic votes in Florida and south Texas. Photos by Alan Kotok

In her new book, “Once I was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America." Hinojosa recalls her family's experiences against the backdrop of the history of immigration in the United States.

Hinojosa moved from Mexico to the United States as a baby when her father, a medical doctor, took a research position at University of Chicago. Her mother later recalled the challenges of the move as a manifestation of the prejudices of the time. When the family's flight from Mexico City landed in Dallas, her mother noticed immigration officers looking them over to see if they were "clean." Noticing the baby, Hinojosa, had a rash, the officer want to separate the child from the family. Hinojosa's mother confronted the agent and the family was allowed to continue on to Chicago.

Hinojosa's father also wrestled with prejudices. On an earlier trip to the United States, Hinojosa's father found himself confronting race at a rest stop in Texas. Confronted by two bathrooms designated by race, he debated internally which he should use. Hinojosa said he opted for the "whites" bathroom, the bathroom of "privilege," but he wondered whether there would be a "Mexican" door some day.

Newsrooms must do more to ensure they are covering the diversity within their communities, Hinojosa said. Hinojosa, who has worked for media organizations including CBS and CNN, founded Futuro Media Group in 2010 to produce multimedia journalism that gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience. Futuro covers stories often overlooked by mainstream media, she said.

For example, she said, journalists must devote more coverage to the impact of COVID-19 on hard-hit Latino and Black communities.

"The reason why you need to have more diversity in journalism is because the future of our country is that," Hinojosa said. "We need to be representing and telling those stories."