Author

Valeria Fernández/AZCIR

Valeria Fernández/AZCIR

Valeria Fernández brings more than a decade of experience as bilingual documentary producer covering Arizona’s immigrant community and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Her award-winning, independent reporting has taken her throughout the world, and has focused on topics ranging from migrant kidnappings to racial profiling. Fernández also contributes to CNN Spanish and Al Jazeera English, and has been published by newsrooms such as The Associated Press. In 2012, she produced the documentary “Two Americans,” which contrasts Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a 9-year-old U.S. citizen trying to stop her parents’ deportation. In 2014, she helped produce the international web documentary, “Connected Walls,” about life along the Arizona borderlands.

Eloy ICE detention center covid-19

COVID-19 cases increase after ICE assured judge of no suspected cases

By: and - April 16, 2020

Three days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials claimed in court filings that there were no longer any active or suspected COVID-19 cases in an Arizona immigration detention facility, four more detainees there tested positive for the virus.

La Palma COVID-19 fears

Tensions skyrocket as COVID-19 fears grip Arizona detention center

By: and - April 13, 2020

Rodrigo Martínez was certain he had a fever. Gasping for air, he said, felt like breathing pepper. It burned.