Meet the Team

Erin Siegal

Reporter, Fronteras Desk

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Erin Siegal is part of the Fronteras Desk reporting team, based in San Diego at KPBS. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, a Soros Justice Fellow, and a Redux Pictures photographer. She was a 2008-2009 fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Erin is the author of the award-winning book Finding Fernanda, (Beacon Press 2012), which examines organized crime and child trafficking in international adoption between Guatemala and the U.S. Previously, she wrote a column on public records and government accountability for the Columbia Journalism Review, "The FOIA Watchdog." She's contributed to various media outlets, including Univision, the New York Times, Time, Reuters, Newsweek, O Magazine, Businessweek, Rolling Stone, and more. She lives in Tijuana, Mexico. When she's not eating tacos or working, Erin can be found along the border at Rancho Los Amigos, riding horses and smoking cigars with her favorite vaqueros.

RECENT STORIES ON KPBS

Economy

This Tuscan startup sold all its olive oil in the U.S. Then came Trump's tariffs

Maria Aspan

Americans love olive oil — and import 95% of it. But tariffs are making it harder for Europeans to sell it to Americans.
Science & Technology

He said, she said, it said: I used ChatGPT as a couple's counselor. How did we fare?

Emma Bowman

Looking for backup, I turned to an AI chatbot for relationship wisdom. It took my side. It was only when I challenged the bot's biases — and my own — that we had a communication breakthrough.
Big Freedia takes bounce music to church on new album, 'Pressing Onward'

Ari Shapiro

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Sarah Handel

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Big Freedia about her new album, "Pressing Onward," and how her childhood singing in the church led her to this moment, fusing gospel with her signature bounce music.
National

Hurricane Katrina was a catalyst for change in New Orleans' public defender office

Ari Shapiro

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Sarah Handel

Hurricane Katrina exposed longstanding flaws in the New Orleans criminal justice system. In the 20 years since, there has been dramatic change in the public defender office.
International

Once stateless, a Rohingya refugee is out to prove he's worthy of a life in the U.S.

Ashley Westerman

Nurul Haque vowed to give back to the U.S. — the country he credits with allowing him to escape from one of the bleakest humanitarian crises in the world.
National

Tennessee readies for execution of man with working implanted defibrillator

The Associated Press

Gov. Bill Lee declined to grant a reprieve Monday amid uncertainty about whether the implantable defibrillator will shock Byron Black's heart when the lethal drug takes effect.