-
Listen Listen
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
-
Trades workers say the CSU system has failed to implement contractually obligated raises. CSU argues the raises were tied to state funding that wasn't made available.
-
Andrea Pitzer, who’s studied concentration camps worldwide, reflects on the utility of using the phrase to describe what’s happening in the U.S.
-
The National Labor Review Board’s decision comes after pushback from the university.
-
United in song, the activists expressed solidarity with families who've been affected by the Trump administration's mass deportation effort.
-
To serve the L.A. Community College District’s 210,000 students, Dr. Alberto Román taps into his lived experience.
-
Victor Correa had been watching videos of immigration raids on social media for months, with a combined sense of fury and heartbreak.
-
No GPA requirement. No essay. No letters of recommendation.
-
The lawsuit comes months after a failed attempt to exact more than $1.2 billion in fines from UCLA.
-
Building maintenance staff demanded the university honor pay raises.
-
The measure’s proponents promise a significant return on investment for California taxpayers.
-
The young activists say they’re walking out to stand up for their friends, their families and those who’ve lost their lives at the hands of federal agents
-
Educators and students worried for months about whether the programs would continue, and if faculty would stay employed.
