Andrew Selsky, reporter, Salem, Oregon; Patrick Whittle, reporter, Portland, Maine; and Boston photographer Elise Amendola for impressive teamwork and collaboration across three continents and several states to tell the story of African migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers. When the migrants started showing up in remote areas of Texas, the immigration beat team deployed Selsky, a former Africa bureau chief. He found many of the African migrants being put on buses to Maine, where Whittle and Amendola picked up the story, covering Congolese and Angolan asylum seekers at a Portland gymnasium converted into a shelter. Selsky also coordinated relevant reporting from Europe, Africa and Latin America.
Team coverage of African migrants at US-Mexican border
Prince Pombo, with his wife, Thaiz Neri, and their daughter, Heaven, describes his family’s journey as migrants from Africa, at the Portland Exposition Building in Portland, Maine June 13, 2019. Maine’s largest city repurposed the basketball arena as an emergency shelter in anticipation of hundreds of asylum seekers who are headed to the state from the U.S. southern border. Most are arriving from Congo and Angola.
AP Photo / Elise Amendola