Documenting Jay: 17-Year-Old Deported

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter, Off Mic

Published November 13, 2007 at 5:57 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Reporting on illegal immigration isn't easy. People aren't always eager to talk and the paper trail is often thin. This is one of those stories. When we met Jay, he'd recently been deported to Tijuana for the second time. He was a few months from turning 18.

Jay grew up in Fontana, California. His mother brought him from Mexico to the United States illegally when he was 2. His mother and sister are now legal U.S. residents. Jay was working on getting his papers, but he got in trouble with the law and that derailed the process.

Both times Jay was deported, he'd committed crimes in Fontana and that tipped off immigration authorities. "Jay" is an alias and we weren't allowed to show his face because he is a minor. This video documents the challenges we faced in reporting Jay's story.

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View more photos of Jay and the youth shelter in Tijuana.

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

See stories by Amy Isackson