These journalists share vital reporting with thousands of US immigrants – all by text and WhatsApp

Independent outlets are leaning on social media, chat and other nontraditional methods to fight disinformation

W hen Allan Marrero, an asylum-seeker from the Cayman Islands , was released after five months in immigration detention, there was only one journalist he invited to his celebration: Eileen Grench, a reporter with the independent, non-profit news outlet Documented.

Grench had previously reported on Marrero , who was detained after interviewing with federal officials for a marriage-based green card. But beyond covering his detention struggles, she humanized him, emphasizing his and his husband’s love story.

“Most folks in these situations aren’t just victims; they’re fighting and being resilient and maintain the beautiful things about their life, too,” said Grench.

The Marreros’ trust in Grench and Documented resulted in full access and rich reporting that received much attention; even NYC’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, tweeted Grench’s story upon Allan’s release. “To see their story kind of lifted up on to that city stage was really gratifying,” Grench said.

Documented is one of many immigrant-serving news outlets across the US meeting the moment when many legacy and mainstream publications are not, whether due to layoffs, lack of resources or being out of touch with immigrant communities. These independent local news organizations are using social media, chat apps and other nontraditional methods to connect directly with immigrants and non-English speakers – especially during recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surges – and they are leaving an impression.

“The impacts are phenomenal for relatively new media outlets, and part of it is because they’re operating on such a hyper-local level,” said Angie Chuang, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Immigrant communities know what they need. They might not be able to access it or make it happen, but they can articulate their own needs. What these outlets are doing is just understanding how amplifying the community’s voices can help them.”

Last year, Documented and the Spanish-language news service Conecta Arizona launched the Immigrant News Coalition (INC) with the Listening Post Collective , the Bay Area’s El Tímpano , and the Minneapolis-based Sahan Journal to share strategies and resources for serving immigrant communities – and to ensure their outlets’ survival. Their work has since been bolstered by a $1.5m award from the Press Forward Foundation to “test and spread effective revenue models for immigrant-serving newsrooms” and additional funding from Democracy Fund.

“Misinformation thrives when there is a vacuum of good information, and immigrant communities are so vulnerable because of the lack of alternatives,” said Madeleine Bair, the founder of El Tímpano. “We’re not translating news into other languages.