Solutions Journalism In Action 

When U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago in September, newsrooms put in motion this framework that covers responses to pressing systemic problems. These institutions and the people who power them embodied the four pillars of solutions journalism on behalf of local audiences impacted by the aggressive federal policing presence.

Chicago-area journalists and storytellers comprehensively covered a RESPONSE; communicated EVIDENCE through qualitative and quantitative data showing the effectiveness of the response to enforcement actions; provided INSIGHTS showing meaningful takeaways from community reaction and proaction, and illuminated LIMITATIONS, the rigor of this framework, by examining shortcomings that might light the way forward.

Chicago is not alone, of course. The immigration enforcement activity reached cities including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Memphis, and Charlotte, North Carolina, dubbed Operation Charlotte’s Web, with the expectation these surges will re-emerge or continue. Beyond immigration, this exercise in federal policing represents an unprecedented and controversial application of federal powers. 

Today it’s immigration. Tomorrow, what other issue might fuel fear about government overreach and questionable legality?

Learning From Best Practices

This Medill Solutions Journalism Hub Rapid Response Kit aims to codify what works when covering a systemic crisis the likes of this federal policing surge. Journalists and storytellers across the nation can learn from best practices cultivated by local reporters, photographers, social media managers, editors and producers during a time when they faithfully gave up their weekends and stayed vigilant while demonstrating what healthy collaboration between news outlets and community members looks like: Despite ongoing economic challenges and technological disruptions faced by local media everywhere, as documented and tracked by Medill Local News Initiative (LNI) research and others, Chicago witnessed coverage that was consistently urgent, authentic, contextual, proportional and complex, while centering the experiences of people affected most. These are qualities that define excellence in journalism.

So, what can we learn about covering the fire next time?

News, Safety and Trust: A Survey

Let’s take a look at how audiences looked for and engaged with news and information from traditional media channels and alternative information networks, such as rapid-response groups, elected officials, and through tools such as Signal or WhatsApp during this period. The Medill Solutions Journalism Hub commissioned a survey about news, safety and trust to understand how Chicago communities used information during the 2025 immigration enforcement surge. The 25-question survey yielded 1,068 responses strictly inside Chicago city limits from Nov. 5-14, 2025. The following analysis, News, Safety and Trust: Understanding How Chicago Communities Use Information During ICE Actions, was authored by John Volk, a Medill Local News Initiative research associate.

To achieve results better reflecting the Chicago community as a whole, we set quotas for 14 Chicago ZIP codes in the Brown Belt and beyond — Little Village, Pilsen, Brighton Park, Archer Heights, McKinley Park, New City, Belmont-Cragin and Hermosa) and South Shore, a predominately Black neighborhood that saw aggressive immigration activity. We captured a representative sample of Chicago as a whole. Even still, results overindex on Black and white respondents, and underrepresent the city’s Latino population, something worth exploring in a time when targeted groups may be reluctant to engage, especially on an issue cloaked in rhetoric around ethnic identity and migration politics, media experts say.

The 4 Pillars Applied

Using the Four Pillars of Solutions Journalism: Response, Evidence, Insight and Limitations, this Medill Solutions Hub Rapid Response Kit draws on best practices implemented by Chicago newsrooms to guide journalists and storytellers facing high community anxiety when systems collide.

Pillar 1: Response

Community-Centered Coverage

Local Interventions and Community Safeguards

Community journalism took center stage. Rather than investing in fear-based narratives, newsrooms covering ICE activity focused on how communities responded, not just what the government did. The relationship of news media to “official” sources evolved. Given the uncharacteristic framing of this federal policing surge and people targeted by it, news media could no longer accept official federal communications as fact without further validation. 

Local organizations formed rapid-response networks and served as another source of trusted information for community members. These groups have documented ICE interactions, held know-your-rights training and built safe routes for parents escorting children to school amid fear of arrests. Community organizations created innovative outreach through whistle networks, for example, formed by community organizations like Pilsen's MigraWatch and Belmont-Cragin United’s Whistlemania. Several outlets covered how the small-but-mighty whistle was deployed by neighbors newly empowered to alert others to ICE presence and provide additional resources. 

Journalists can put the Response pillar into action by:

• Mapping these community-led interventions
• Comparing local action models across cities like Los Angeles, Houston and Charlotte
• Reporting on legal and civic innovations that balance advocacy and accountability

Community media’s approach demonstrates solutions journalism writ large. For journalists across the nation, future coverage invites an opportunity to double down on this approach by pivoting from crisis headlines to solutions-centered documentation of how social systems adapt when federal action disrupts community life.

In Practice: Tiffany Walden, The TRiiBE Editor-in-Chief Describes Her Team's Approach to ICE Reporting

Identifying and Sharing Behavioral Patterns: The TRiiBE team focused on reporting on patterns of ICE activity (such as morning raids in the suburbs, moving into the city, targeting day laborers at Home Depot) to help the community know what to expect and look out for.

Validating community experience and rumors: The coverage helped verify people's observations (such as sirens or helicopters), confirming that what they saw was real and providing comfort by sharing information, even if incomplete.

Standardizing language: The team deliberately used the word “detained” instead of “arrest,” reflecting the reality that people were often picked up, driven around, and sometimes released or disappeared without being officially booked.

Fostering rapid, noncompetitive collaboration: Independent media saw themselves as part of the resistance, emphasizing collaboration over competition. They used private Signal chats to coordinate logistics, share information, and even rapidly push back and successfully lobby daily newsrooms to change problematic language in their reporting.

Pillar 2: Evidence

Verifying Effectiveness Over Amplifying Fear

Measuring the Impact of Responses

Recent evidence-based reporting has emphasized how journalists can verify effectiveness rather than amplify fear. Guidance from the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Journalism Ethics urges reporters to base immigration enforcement reporting on verifiable data points (confirmed detentions, court filings, hotline usage) instead of unconfirmed online rumors. Factual rigor helps reduce misinformation and panic spirals. 

The American public’s views toward immigration are softening, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In 2024, half of Americans surveyed viewed “large numbers of immigrants and refugees coming into the United States as a critical threat to the country’s vital interests.” In 2025, just over one-third overall (36%) think so. This shift suggests that evidence-based reporting might inform ideas about migration and citizenship. Such coverage certainly can help shape a nuanced understanding about the history, goals, limits and possibilities of the U.S. immigration process.

Every city has a unique character and set of values. In Chicago, two-thirds of residents disagree with ICE expansion and military deployments, according to a Hands Off Chicago survey. And clearly, some people in some places agree with this broad policing approach, though nationally, Americans are looking at these large-scale deportations with skepticism and now support pathways to citizenship. The value of the Chicago way of reporting on responses emphasizes the inherent agency of local residents and centering their dignity. In doing so, evidence aligns with values that prioritize humanity and community-based solutions.

Recommended reporting practices include:

• Partnering with trusted community data groups and university verification labs
• Building shared spreadsheets, Slack channels and secure(ish) channels like Signal and WhatsApp, to confirm ICE sightings
• Designing dashboards that merge quantifiable incident data with firsthand community accounts

In Practice: Facts Over Fear at Borderless Magazine with Nissa Rhee, Borderless Magazine Co-Founder & Executive Director

“Over the last year, fear and misinformation have spread through immigrant communities in Chicago and beyond. The fast-paced immigration policy changes, violent ICE raids and real concerns Chicagoans have about the rising costs of food have left our communities feeling overwhelmed and on high alert. In this atmosphere, an increasing number of Chicagoans are getting their news from social media rather than traditional journalism sources.”

“This year, Borderless doubled down on our promise to give our readers facts, not fear. We sent our field canvassers out to share stories with people at food pantries, train stations and community gatherings. We also greatly expanded our vertical video work to meet people where they are on TikTok and Instagram. Borderless empowers our readers with the information they need to make informed decisions for themselves. This information is critical now more than ever."

Pillar 3: Insight
From Reaction to Understanding

Learning from Systemic Patterns

Insight helps newsrooms turn reactive moments into structural understanding. For example, WTTW TV news coverage shows how ICE operations link to underlying issues of racial profiling, intergovernmental friction and broken trust in public safety systems. News media are familiar with diminished confidence as it relates to our work. As we continue to position ourselves as credible sources of information on this issue and subsequent crises that may emerge during this White House tenure, we would do well to continue to excavate notions of trust in other institutions and civic expressions.

Journalistic insight emerges by asking:

• How do federal-local conflicts over ICE shape civic trust?
• What new collaborations (such as city-sanctioned “ICE-free zones”) are changing local governance culture?
• What do immigrant families’ coping strategies reveal about resilience under coercive federal policies?

Documenting these lessons builds a durable journalistic record that guides other cities, towns and villages facing similar crises.

In Practice: Medill Prof. Ava Francesca Battocchio on the Invisible Infrastructure of Trust

Safety over official credibility: For immediate safety concerns, word of mouth (phone trees, texting, neighbors) is the primary information source. People prioritize making a swift decision ("better safe than sorry"), such as deciding whether to go out, based on immediate, though potentially unvalidated, neighbor reports of ICE sightings.

Layered media ecosystem: Information flows in a rhythm where different media fill different gaps: Social media/texting/word of mouth provide the quickest, most immediate alerts; local radio may offer daily updates, and newspapers/traditional news serve as a later means of validation and follow-up to assess if the initial word-of-mouth information was accurate.

Role of community connectors: In tight-knit, often marginalized communities, certain key people (e.g., long-term residents, landlords, neighborhood watch types) are seen as more trustworthy and play a crucial, informal “phone tree” role in circulating immediate safety information. These people often act as an “invisible infrastructure” until a crisis hits.

Self-reliant for a reason: Given that these are populations that have been historically marginalized and “left to their own,” reliance on community connectors and internal networks is expected, as they take care of their own rather than relying on external sources (news organizations) to do it.