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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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Pierce College students made use of the skills they honed in class to help hundreds of large, stressed-out animals.
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Santa Monica College is hosting a distribution event this week to provide free essentials to those who’ve been affected by local fires.
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Undocumented immigrants and mixed-status families are learning how to assert themselves — and prepare for worst-case scenarios.
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Students in L.A. and Ventura counties will get more time to apply.
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Newsom has signed an executive order meant to help students who’ve been displaced by the recent fires.
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As first responders work to put out the Palisades and Eaton fires, colleges across Greater L.A. have set up relief funds to provide support for students, faculty, and staff.
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Santa Monica College will hold a donation drive to gather aid for students, employees, and other community members who’ve been affected by recent fires.
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At an upcoming exhibition hosted by Cal State Long Beach, Greater L.A.’s next generation of artists are honing their skills and building community.
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The LAist education team this year worked to bring nuance to difficulties the state faces, and shine a light on solutions that can fly under the radar. Here's some of what we learned along the way.
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Students will receive the payments for one year. The program aims to bridge the gap between expenses and the region’s cost of living.
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There's no need to register. Students and families can just drop in.
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The L.A. Unified School District is hosting a three-day winter academy next week, open to students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade.
