Leslie Berestein Rojas Immigration and Emerging Communities Reporter
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Leslie Berestein Rojas is KPCC's Immigration and Emerging Communities Reporter.
An award-winning journalist with several years’ experience reporting on immigration issues, Berestein Rojas most recently covered immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She has retraced the steps of migrants along desert smuggling trails, investigated immigrant detention contractors, and told the stories of families left behind in Mexico’s migrant-sending towns.
A native of Cuba raised in Los Angeles, Leslie has also written for Time, People, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. She has reported from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Stories by Leslie Berestein Rojas
A reading (and listening) list for the Florida primary
It may or may not be a stretch to call it "the Latino primary," as some have called it, but there's no question that Florida's sizeable and evolving Latino electorate will play a big role in determining whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (the likely winner) or Newt Gingrich wins today's primary election in the Sunshine State.
Spanglish, the new language of Latino media and advertising?
Forbes contributor and social-technology consultant Giovanni Rodriguez, who spoke on a panel last week at KPCC, has an interesting piece in the magazine that addresses why media companies and advertisers are targeting not only Spanish-dominant Latinos, but English-speaking ones, too.
In the news this morning: Immigration in the Florida primary, Napolitano calls for reforms, Russell Pearce back in elected office, more
The Florida Primary and Immigration - Council on Foreign Relations An analysis of why immigration, while it's not the top issue among Latino voters, will matter in today's Florida primary election.
NSEERS and 'special registration' are gone, but long-term effects continue
Last spring, Homeland Security announced that it was officially ending what was perhaps the most controversial immigration-national security program implemented in the immediate wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
What is a 'wetbook?' Ask a 'librotraficante' (Video)
Not sure whether to add these terms to the evolving cultural mashup dictionary, but Texas writer Tony Diaz got creative with his displeasure upon learning that the Tucson Unified School District would be discontinuing its Mexican American Studies program recently - and as part of that, also striking several book titles from the program's extensive classroom reading list.
Q: What does it cost to deport someone? A: More than you might think
Immigration enforcement isn't usually argued in terms of dollars and cents, so a peek at the cost spreadsheet is always interesting, especially in an election year when talk of enforcement takes a prominent role on the campaign trail.
In the news this morning: Immigration not only issue for Latino voters, Kansas seeks waiver for undocumented workers, more
For Hispanics, it's not just about immigration - Miami Herald From the opinion piece: "Overlooked amid the loud immigration debate: Every major poll shows Hispanics are most concerned about jobs.
Posts of the week: Lunar New Year superstitions, 'self-deportation,' Obama's immigration talk, @MexicanMitt and more
For anyone who might have missed some of the more popular posts this week, or who wants to read them again, I'm trying this little experiment: At the end of each week, I'll be highlighting a few of the week's top posts in a short roundup.
A military-only version of the Dream Act?
Remember how GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested that he'd back a version of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act that didn't have a college component? Taking a cue from Gingrich, a Florida Republican Congressman has now introduced just that, a House bill that proposes conditional legal status for undocumented young people who enlist in the military.
Readers sound off on Obama and immigration, and then some
Screen shot from YouTube.com
The GOP's fight for Latino voters in Florida
As the Florida primary race intensifies ahead of next Tuesday's election, the Republican presidential candidates have been going all out in hopes of impressing the state's diverse Latino electorate.
Why doesn't Mitt Romney consider himself Mexican American?
Much has been made over whether or Mitt Romney is Mexican American, and if he were to win the White House, whether he'd be the nation's first Mexican American president. But this week, when questioned about it, the Republican presidential candidate made clear where he stands on his identity.
How well will Gingrich and Romney do with Florida Latinos?
Polls in Florida have shows a virtual dead heat between Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, but the results of a new Florida Latino voter study released by pollsters Latino Decisions with Univision and ABC News are showing Romney now in the lead, in spite of Gingrich's stronger outreach efforts and Romney's hardline stance on immigration.
In the news this morning: Florida a test for GOP on immigration, Jan Brewer scuffles with Obama over immigration book, more
Florida could test GOP's stance on immigration – USA Today Florida has ten times the number of Latinos than do Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined. And while its Latino voters run more conservative than in other largely Latino states, many of them tend to draw the line at immigration.
'I'm going to move to Gda?sk': More self-deportation satire (Video)
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's comment about "self-deportation" during Monday's debate in Florida, referring to what others have long called "attrition through enforcement," has by now drawn an equal share of criticism and cracks.
