Investigative Reporter
New York, NY
Seth Freed Wessler is an investigative reporter and researcher who works at Colorlines.com and the Applied Research Center. He is a recipient of the Hillman Award for Journalism.
Seth has reported from Mexico, the Caribbean, and across the United States on immigration enforcement, the safety net, criminal justice and the human fallout of the financial collapse. He led a groundbreaking Colorlines/ARC investigation on the separation of families as a result of immigration and child welfare policy; the investigation led to a direct response from the federal government, as well as the introduction of state-level legislation and numerous advocacy campaigns. Seth was among the first reporters to write on the unprecedented buildup of immigration enforcement under the Obama administration, and his Nation Institute Investigative Fund-supported reporting on the hidden effects of welfare reform for families struggling through the recession gained national attention. Seth grew up in Maine where he skated on lakes, back when they froze. He now lives in Brooklyn where is often found talking to strangers.
Check out Seth's media appearances here.
Seth tweets at @sethfw.
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What Started a Mississippi Prison Riot? Depends on Who You Ask
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 22 2012, 9:37AM
A for-profit, Corrections Corporation of America facility holding non-citizen inmates is on lockdown after a weekend riot. Officials insist it was a gang feud. But reports from inside suggest a pattern of abuse and neglect that has recurred at privately run prisons.
Topics: Criminal Justice, Immigration
Feds Use Counter-Terrorism Laws to Fuel Deportation Machine
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 15 2012, 8:41AM
A decade after September 11, 2001, the government is wielding it’s broad counterterrorism powers against non-citizens who pose no threat and who face deportation as a result.
Topics: Immigration, National Security
Idaho Supreme Court Reunites Family Torn Apart By Deportation
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 8 2012, 1:03PM
Justice Daniel Eismann wrote that a lower court’s finding that the father had willfully abandoned his daughter and failed to maintain contact with his child is “clearly erroneous. In fact, it is absurd.”
Topics: /NOW Blog
Why Tea Party Lawmakers Are Trying to Conflate Poverty and Drug Addiction
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 7 2012, 10:07AM
Since 2010, a new meme has spread to dozens of states: Drug testing people who apply for safety net benefits. The goal is to change economic debates into a culture war over who does and does not deserve help.
Topics: ALEC, Drug Tests, Economy, Jobs Crisis, Politics
NYT Report: Prosecuting Moms for Drug Use Is Personhood in Disguise
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 26 2012, 2:43PM
Legislators can easily conjure up stories, with accompanying stereotypes, about crack-addicted babies and their mothers, but what’s really behind the antagonism toward moms?
Topics: Criminal Justice, Gender & Sexuality, /NOW Blog, Personhood
A Colorblind Supreme Court Hearing on Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant SB 1070
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 26 2012, 10:10AM
Supreme Court Justices seemed to be unconvinced that states like Arizona are breaking the law when they allow police officers to ask people’s immigration statuses if they suspect they’re undocumented.
Topics: Arizona's SB 1070, Immigration
Supreme Court Skeptical of Striking Down Arizona’s SB 1070
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 25 2012, 1:09PM
Arizona argues compellingly that with programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities, SB 1070 merely complements the federal government’s existing enforcement agenda.
Topics: Arizona's SB 1070, Immigration, /NOW Blog
Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments on Arizona’s SB 1070 Tomorrow
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 24 2012, 11:04AM
Colorlines.com will cover the hearing and offer analysis of what the High Court must decide. It’s a big day for immigration law in the United States.
Topics: Arizona's SB 1070, Immigration, /NOW Blog
California Pols Move to Keep Immigrant Families Unified During Deportation
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 24 2012, 9:36AM
In reaction to Colorlines.com’s investigation, a state Assembly bill seeks to strengthen parents’ rights to stay in contact with children and child welfare case workers while detained.
Topics: Immigration, Shattered Families
Georgia Governor Signs Welfare Drug Testing Bill Into Law
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 18 2012, 9:43AM
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal approved a bill on Monday evening that will soon require all applicants to the state cash assistance program to pass a drug test.
Topics: Jobs Crisis, /NOW Blog
Justice Delayed in Deported Dad’s Fight to Regain Custody of Kids
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 13 2012, 8:50AM
Weeks after his case gained national media attention, Felipe Montes says that the North Carolina’s family reunification system is actually set up to work against him.
Topics: Immigration, Shattered Families
Less Than Half of 3K Detained in ICE Sweeps Convicted of Felonies
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 6 2012, 10:01AM
Federal immigration authorities launched massive raids that netted over 3,100 detentions. But the Obama administration isn’t only focused on deporting so-called ‘violent criminals.’
Topics: Immigration
California Senate Moves To Protect Immigrant Families in Deportation
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 28 2012, 9:47AM
Nearly a quarter of the U.S. citizen children that Colorlines.com found stuck in foster care as parents moved through detention and deportation are in California. The state Senate is moving forward with a bill that would keep their families together.
Topics: Immigration, Shattered Families
Bloomberg’s Fear of Muslims Helped Drive the NYPD’s Shameless Spying
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 15 2012, 9:28AM
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s defense of the NYPD’s spying on Muslim communities shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Mayor’s had a tense relationship with Muslim and Arab communities for nearly a decade.
Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security
Bloomberg Basically Admits NYPD Spied on Muslims For No Reason Other Than Religion
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 9 2012, 1:05PM
The New York Police Department has spied on Muslim New Yorkers for no other reason than that they are Muslim. Yesterday, after months of near silence from federal officials, Attorney General Eric Holder called the program “disturbing”.
Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, /NOW Blog
A Closer Look at Ray Kelly’s Multi-Billion Dollar Army of Spies
by Seth Freed Wessler on March 1 2012, 10:33AM
New York Police Department has argued that it’s spending billions to spy on Muslim Americans in order to foil terror plots. That assertion simply doesn’t hold up against the few facts they’ve been willing to share.
Topics: NYPD Spying, National Security
Muslim Students Reeling From Shocking News of NYPD’s Spying
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 24 2012, 9:01AM
On campuses all over the Northeast, horrified students are discovering they were targets of surveillance, simply because they joined a Muslim student group. But domestic religious profiling is now routine for both NPYD and the FBI.
Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security
Deal Reached to Allow Drug Testing for Jobless Benefits
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 16 2012, 5:33PM
There goes your social safety net.
Topics: /NOW Blog
Deported Dad Begs North Carolina To Give Him Back His Children
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 14 2012, 10:38AM
Nobody argues whether Felipe Montes is a great dad. But the state doesn’t want to send his U.S. citizen kids to Mexico, so he may lose them forever. The Montes are among a growing number of families facing similar crises.
Topics: Immigration, Shattered Families
House GOP’s Jobless Image: Drugged Out, Lazy and in Need of a GED
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 14 2012, 9:07AM
That’s the picture Republicans want in voters’ minds, too, as Congress prepares for yet another brutal round of jousting over unemployment benefits.
Topics: Economy, Jobs Crisis
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