Investigative Reporter
New York, NY
Seth Freed Wessler is a reporter in New York who currently writes for Colorlines.com. Seth has reported from across the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean on immigration, the safety net, criminal justice, national security and the human fallout of the financial collapse.
Seth led a groundbreaking investigation that revealed the thousands of U.S. citizen children stuck in foster care whose parents have been detained or deported by federal immigration authorities. The investigation, for which Seth won a Hillman Prize and other honors, Along with Seth's series of follow-up stories, led to a direct response from the federal government, as well as the passage of state-level legislation. Seth worked until 2012 as a researcher for the Applied Research Center, where he authored research reports on racial inequality and the financial collapse, segregation in the restaurant industry and the corrosive effects of immigration policies on child welfare systems. Seth often discusses his reporting in national broadcast, and his stories and investigations for Colorlines have been cited by outlets including the Associated Press, the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and NPR. He has produced stories for GOOD Magazine, the Texas Observer, NPR’s LatinoUSA, The Huffington Post, The Root and other outlets. In addition to the Hillman Prize, Seth was a finalist for a Casey Medal and has won several Ippies Awards. He was the recipient of a reporting fellowship from USC Annenberg's Institute for Justice and Journalism.
Check out Seth's media appearances here.
Seth tweets at @sethfw.
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How ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ (Not So) Quietly Became the Center of NYC Politics
by Seth Freed Wessler on June 18 2012, 9:00AM
Thousands gathered on Father’s Day for a silent march to protest the NYPD’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ program. The move helped crystallize how over a decade of organizing against police brutality has made the issue a focal point of the city’s upcoming mayoral election.
Topics: Criminal Justice, Stop-and-Frisk
A Deported Dad’s Father’s Day Letter to His Sons
by Seth Freed Wessler on June 15 2012, 9:01AM
After Felipe Montes was deported to Mexico, his three sons were taken away by North Carolina’s foster care system. Here’s his heartfelt letter to his boys.
Topics: Immigration
Georgia Asks Employers to Rat Out Job Seekers Who Fail Drug Tests
by Seth Freed Wessler on June 5 2012, 9:25AM
The state’s one of several that’s using hyped up fears about drugs to weaken unemployment insurance programs.
Topics: Drug Tests, Economy
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, Felipe Montes
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, Felipe Montes
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, Felipe Montes
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
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