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Julia Barajas
What I cover
I strive to bring nuance and context to the issue of immigration, which is often cast as a competition for limited resources or a concern for public safety.
Beholden to no political party, I document the impact of federal immigration policy on Southern California communities—including U.S. citizens of color—while holding our government accountable. My coverage centers human suffering and resilience, with an emphasis on how communities are taking collective action in response to this evolving landscape.
My background
I’ve covered a broad range of issues for English and Spanish-language news media—everything from environmental injustice to the arts. Most recently, I was LAist’s higher education reporter. My work has been recognized by the California News Publishers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club, the Press Club of Atlantic City, and the Society for Features Journalism.
My goals
I pledge to reflect SoCal’s economic, ethnic, racial, and linguistic diversity in my reporting. This means making it a point to include people who speak Armenian, Arabic, Farsi, Khmer, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Zapotec, and all the other beautiful languages in the place we call home—while acknowledging that Tongva is the first language of this land.
How to contact me
If you or your community have been affected by federal immigration policy, I want to know about it. Also, if you have ideas about stories I should be covering, I welcome your thoughts. You can reach out by email. I'm at jbarajas@laist.com. Or, if you have a tip you’d like to share more privately, you can reach me on Signal. My username is @jbarajas.68.
Stories by Julia Barajas
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Advocates on and off campus are preparing to help international students.
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Every year, Cal State Long Beach accounting students prepare taxes for dozens of classmates and other community members.
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Since January, the Trump Administration has taken a series of actions that touch virtually every aspect of higher education in Southern California, from campus protests to financial aid.
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Some services will be limited as thousands of employees walk off the job, including many healthcare workers.
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The number of Californians using the FAFSA has been lagging, so the deadline has been pushed back to April 2.
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Core emergency services will remain available, but some appointments will be delayed as 20,000 employees walk off the job, including many healthcare workers.
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Interns work on a project throughout the summer to gain hands-on experience, and participate in other activities related to environmental stewardship.
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All Los Angeles Unified campuses are now 'phone free' during the school day, and students say they’re seeing fewer devices.
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Los inmigrantes indocumentados y las familias de estatus mixto están tomando medidas para hacerse valer y prepararse ante situaciones adversas.
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Completion rates for FAFSA and other support are down compared with last year, though the deadline has been extended for many SoCal students.
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During the latest round of layoffs, the tiny team was among the hundreds let go. And though some parts of the educational program remain, educators across the country mourn what was lost.
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A closed-loop system aims to empower, not replace, professors in subjects including literature and physics. And it appears to be improving student outcomes too.
