Jack Herrera

Jack Herrera

Jack Herrera is an independent reporter covering immigration, human rights, and Latinx issues. His work has appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Politico Magazine, and elsewhere. He’s a current I

16 posts
Can congressional representation benefit Native Hawaiians’ struggle for sovereignty?
Politics & Democracy

Can congressional representation benefit Native Hawaiians’ struggle for sovereignty?

Native Hawaiians remain skeptical that more representation in Congress will create meaningful change.

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6 Min
By: Jack Herrera
Do Black immigrant lives matter to the Biden administration?
Immigration

Do Black immigrant lives matter to the Biden administration?

Some of Trump’s most draconian deportation policies remain in place, continuing to put asylum-seekers and refugees in danger.

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5 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

How abolitionists are responding to the Capitol riot

The cause of abolishing police and prisons often gets challenged with questions of extremes: What will happen with serial killers? How do you stop a person with a gun? On Jan. 6, a violent mob descending on the United States Capitol presented one of these examples of extreme harm. How

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7 Min
By: Jack Herrera
Young woman laying in bed and using smart phone
Race

Community advocates work to combat Spanish language misinformation

The vast and bizarre diversity of conspiracy theories that spread in Spanish during the 2020 election would put a magical realist novelist to shame. In Florida, a buzzing swarm of WhatsApp chain messages warned, falsely, that Joe Biden intended to pass laws banning the Christian church. In South Texas oil

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4 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

Could the Georgia runoffs rewrite the narrative of the Latinx vote in the 2020 election?

In the 2020 presidential election, Latinxs nationwide voted about the same ways they have for the last four decades: Roughly 70% voted Democrat, and around 30% voted Republican. However, shocking results out of South Texas and southern Florida shook that reliable narrative. In heavily Latinx counties in the south of

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5 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

Black voters swayed the election in the Midwest. Getting there took incredible work

Esther Bush says the work to register Black voters in Pittsburgh began long before November 2020—decades before. “Every year, we have a get-out-the-vote campaign. Every year, annually,” Bush says.  Bush serves as executive director of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, a 100-year-old civil rights and social service organization

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6 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Immigration

White Mexicans have had a role to play in white supremacy

Just before he died this year, my grandfather told me a story about his childhood in Laredo, Texas. In the winters, the Rio Grande would flood its banks and water would pour over the ranch land on both sides of the border. My great-grandmother, a Mexicana named Francisca, would shake

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10 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

What’s the power of a conversation?

On a brisk day in March before the pandemic, MariaElena Fournier knocked on the door of a trailer home in rural Michigan. Fournier heard rustling inside, but no one came to the door. Looking down at their canvassing list, Fournier noted that the woman listed as the resident was over

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5 Min
By: Jack Herrera
What would ‘transitional justice’ look like in the United States?
Politics & Democracy

What would ‘transitional justice’ look like in the United States?

Something must happen after a civil war; the fall of dictatorship; the end of genocide. People who fought and killed one another must learn to live together again. Along with the buildings and the homes, civil society must be rebuilt.  Millions of people alive today have lived through this sort

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7 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

What about the Black Latinx vote?

Within hours of polls closing on the East Coast on the final day of the election cycle this year, newscasters had already begun discussing “the Latinx vote.” Early results out of Miami had shown a surprising turnout for Donald Trump, extinguishing Joe Biden’s hopes of winning Florida. Within hours,

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4 Min
By: Jack Herrera
The ‘Latinx vote’ might not really exist, but Biden still lost it
Immigration

The ‘Latinx vote’ might not really exist, but Biden still lost it

If you read any new coverage of Florida during an election year, going back decades, you’re likely to hear some version of the same fact: Cubans in Miami lean conservative. It’s part of the basic ethnic logic that gets regurgitated by the media: The idea is that in

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4 Min
By: Jack Herrera
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Politics & Democracy

Police violence in North Carolina follows 150 years of suppressing the Black vote

Melanie Mitchell says that when the police began pepper spraying the ground near her and her children’s feet, her five-year-old daughter was the first to feel the effect. The young child, terrified, took off running across the road. Mitchell’s 11-year-old daughter felt the effects next. She began crying

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3 Min
By: Jack Herrera

Showing 12 of 16 total posts

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