Case studies from the Field
Written reflections and video testimonials from journalists who have covered recent immigration-related activities provide valuable firsthand insights into the practical and emotional realities of this work. By sharing their experiences, challenges, and coping strategies, these journalists help others learn how to navigate difficult assignments, process their experiences, and build healthier approaches to long-term resilience.
Stephanie Keith
Stephanie Keith is an award-winning news photographer and videographer based in New York City. She extensively covered immigration and law enforcement in 2025 and 2026.
“I worked almost every day at 26 Federal Plaza [in Manhattan] from June 2025 to the middle of October 2025. However, my most recent experience with ICE has been at Delaney Hall [in New Jersey], on and off for the past several months in 2026.
In comparing the two experiences, I would say that working in 26 Federal Plaza was more emotionally difficult while Delaney Hall was more physically difficult. At 26 Federal Plaza, you are right next to the immigrant who is being affected, who is being torn away from their family as the children scream and cry. There are looks in people’s eyes, the moment they realize they are being detained, and the screams of the children and the tears flowing as the family leave the courthouse without their loved ones that I will never forget, those images will be seared into my memory forever. I remember bursting into tears after some of the really emotional arrests and the ICE agents looking at me like they couldn’t understand why I was so sad. Being at 26 Federal Plaza didn’t change me so much as it strengthened my resolve to continue to cover these difficult but important scenes. But these scenes are difficult for your mental health. Working as a freelancer, I didn’t have any support from a newsroom. As a freelancer, you have to create your own support network. The photographers do this by creating text groups where they can discuss what’s going on. I think it’s also important to have a life outside of photography. I have children and a family in town plus after 20 years in the same house I have many community members in my life. Getting outside photography and having family and community connections helps to balance my life with this difficult work.
At Delaney Hall, you don’t see the immigrants at all, you only interact with either ICE or police or the people running Delaney Hall, all of whom are violent against protesters and press. They are not specifically targeting press but they don’t differentiate between protesters and press. If you are there, you can be subject to violence, period. The number one aspect of this coverage is to have the appropriate safety gear. ICE used a very intense kind of pepper spray that was mixed with oil. It would stick to your skin and would take hours to get out of one’s hair and off of one’s skin all the while burning you. You had to make sure that you had a full-face respirator and other coverings. You have to decide if you are prepared for the consequences of getting close to ICE. You can also choose to photograph from a distance which I saw several people do successfully. But if you choose to be close to ICE, which I feel is important because that’s how you tell the story, you must be practiced in wearing appropriate safety gear. Again, as a freelancer, I provide my own safety gear, but at other times when I was on assignment, my news room would either provide the safety gear or would reimburse for the safety gear. I have seen an improvement in newsrooms taking safety gear seriously. The proliferation of safety training has also helped. I could see more safety trainings as a way to help journalists. Safety trainings that also consider mental health as important as all the other gear like respirators. Once when I was at Delaney Hall, an ICE agent lifted his baton above his head as if he was going to violently hit me. Fortunately, it was an idle threat, but it was scary. Posting the photos and talking about it with my colleagues and community helped a lot.”
In comparing the two experiences, I would say that working in 26 Federal Plaza was more emotionally difficult while Delaney Hall was more physically difficult. At 26 Federal Plaza, you are right next to the immigrant who is being affected, who is being torn away from their family as the children scream and cry. There are looks in people’s eyes, the moment they realize they are being detained, and the screams of the children and the tears flowing as the family leave the courthouse without their loved ones that I will never forget, those images will be seared into my memory forever. I remember bursting into tears after some of the really emotional arrests and the ICE agents looking at me like they couldn’t understand why I was so sad. Being at 26 Federal Plaza didn’t change me so much as it strengthened my resolve to continue to cover these difficult but important scenes. But these scenes are difficult for your mental health. Working as a freelancer, I didn’t have any support from a newsroom. As a freelancer, you have to create your own support network. The photographers do this by creating text groups where they can discuss what’s going on. I think it’s also important to have a life outside of photography. I have children and a family in town plus after 20 years in the same house I have many community members in my life. Getting outside photography and having family and community connections helps to balance my life with this difficult work.
At Delaney Hall, you don’t see the immigrants at all, you only interact with either ICE or police or the people running Delaney Hall, all of whom are violent against protesters and press. They are not specifically targeting press but they don’t differentiate between protesters and press. If you are there, you can be subject to violence, period. The number one aspect of this coverage is to have the appropriate safety gear. ICE used a very intense kind of pepper spray that was mixed with oil. It would stick to your skin and would take hours to get out of one’s hair and off of one’s skin all the while burning you. You had to make sure that you had a full-face respirator and other coverings. You have to decide if you are prepared for the consequences of getting close to ICE. You can also choose to photograph from a distance which I saw several people do successfully. But if you choose to be close to ICE, which I feel is important because that’s how you tell the story, you must be practiced in wearing appropriate safety gear. Again, as a freelancer, I provide my own safety gear, but at other times when I was on assignment, my news room would either provide the safety gear or would reimburse for the safety gear. I have seen an improvement in newsrooms taking safety gear seriously. The proliferation of safety training has also helped. I could see more safety trainings as a way to help journalists. Safety trainings that also consider mental health as important as all the other gear like respirators. Once when I was at Delaney Hall, an ICE agent lifted his baton above his head as if he was going to violently hit me. Fortunately, it was an idle threat, but it was scary. Posting the photos and talking about it with my colleagues and community helped a lot.”
