Documented | Humanizing the Impact of Immigration and National Security Policy

Immigration policy is one of the most polarizing topics out there today. Too often, coverage of it is written through a binary, legislation-centric lens that frames it as good news for one party, bad news for another. It’s a charged issue that tends to illicit extremely passionate, charged responses from across the political spectrum.

For all of the emotion it stirs, though, it remains one of the more misunderstood beats in journalism. Coverage, largely due to resource constraints, is generally reactive — a policy is proposed or enacted, and journalists examine how a given community will be affected. While this coverage will often include a relevant anecdote about how a local family is impacted, it’s almost always done in a reactionary manner, and as a result of a breaking news topic. It’s an important reporting tactic, but there aren’t currently many reporting alternatives for not an educating the public on how immigrant communities exist within broader populations, and how interwoven those communities really are with the population at large.

Documented, Civil’s newest Newsroom, aims to flip this model on its head. It will produce dedicated, proactive coverage focused on the day-to-day lives of immigrants, how they’re impacting society around them and how it is in turn impacting them. Its coverage will focus on building bridges with often-marginalized communities — and finding and reporting on important, untold stories.

“We want to contribute a relentless pursuit of how existing policies are affecting normal people. And we want to do it by connecting the dots through a vivid, familiar style of reporting,”

— Max Siegelbaum, Documented co-founder

To begin, Documented will focus specifically on the New York City metropolitan area, home to the world’s largest number of foreign-born residents. Its team, which is deeply committed to looking into how immigration policies are shaping the lives of all New Yorkers, has a deep background in local, international, investigative and policy coverage — and includes staff fluent in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic) to better reach more communities that too often exist at or beyond the fringe of mainstream coverage. It will also be contracting a deep bench of freelancers with additional language fluencies to better reach the diverse array of communities that make up New York City.

Documented’s core team is comprised of:

Mazin Sidahmed, Co-Founding Editor and Senior Reporter: He was previously a reporter at The Guardian US, where he focused on Muslim American issues and was also a member of its Mobile Innovation Team. He has also worked as a reporter for Politico New York and The Daily Star in Lebanon.

Max Siegelbaum, Co-Founding Editor and Senior Reporter: He started reporting in post-revolution Egypt. He’s had bylines published in Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and VICE. Has also written for the The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and The Denver Post. Other bylines include The Trace, STAT News and Bloomberg Law.

Felipe De La Hoz, Reporter: Started out as a videographer in Brazil before attending NYU and interning / freelancing at amNewYork, New York Observer, The Wall Street Journal, Gotham Gazette and Village Voice. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese fluently and loves data.

“We want to capture the many different fabrics of New York City, and tell stories that underscore how interwoven we all are. One way we’ll do this is by partnering with ethnic media outlets based in New York. We want to ensure the reporting we’ll be doing will be read by the people it impacts the most.”

— Mazin Sidahmed, Documented co-founder

Documented will begin publishing on Civil, along with all other First Fleet Newsrooms, this spring. It will publish one story per day, as well as a daily newsletter.

To stay up to date on its launch, sign up for Documented’s mailing list here.

Documented is also looking for freelance writers, newsroom collaborations, photographers, tips and story ideas. For pitches, reach them at: pitches@documentedny.com.

For everything else: info@documentedny.com.