PBS News Hour's Coverage of U.S. Immigration Policy Receives a Peabody Award

PBS News Hour's Coverage of U.S. Immigration Policy Receives a Peabody Award

Arlington, VA (April 23, 2026)--PBS News Hour was today named a recipient of a Peabody Award for its coverage of President Trump's changes to U.S. immigration policy during the first year of his second term. The George Foster Peabody Awards are administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. A live ceremony for the 86th Annual Peabody Awards will take place on Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Beverly Hills, California.

"We are deeply honored to be recognized by the Peabody Award judges for this work. The immigration changes in this country have been happening in big and small ways, often times hard to capture and confirm. With this ongoing series, we focused on the direct impact of these policies on people's lives, those who have received a great deal of attention and others who have received very little. We will continue telling these important stories and are so grateful to our public media supporters for making this work possible," added PBS News senior executive producer Sara Just.

About PBS News Hour's Peabody Award-winning immigration coverage:

PBS News Hour presented sustained and multidimensional reporting on one of the most consequential shifts in U.S. immigration policy in decades. Beginning on Day 1 of the second Trump administration, federal policy changed with dizzying speed – from executive orders on birthright citizenship, refugee resettlement, and asylum procedures to the groundwork for mass deportations, military deployments to U.S. cities, and institutional realignments inside immigration enforcement agencies.

News Hour kept pace with calm, detailed, and comprehensible reporting and analysis throughout the year. Its reporting offered the public not just breaking news coverage, but deep historical context, policy analysis, institutional accountability, and – crucially – the real-world impact of it all by sharing stories of people directly affected by the administration's sweeping executive actions on immigration. The work did more than document change; it traced cause, intent, and consequence over time.

Segments included in "Immigration Crackdown":

• A look at the history of U.S. immigration policies that led to today's complex system
• Fear spreads in immigrant communities as raids and deportations escalate
• The history and legacy of birthright citizenship in the U.S.
• California sues Trump, calling National Guard deployment unconstitutional and immoral
• Immigration raid protests spread to more cities as Trump threatens additional deployments
• Homeland Security official on the Trump administration's immigration policy changes
• Venezuelan immigrants in Chicago live in fear after loss of temporary legal status
• How Trump's immigration policies are affecting caregivers and nursing homes
• 'My husband is not a threat': ICE detains man married to U.S. citizen
• ICE escalates aggressive raids in Chicago as Trump moves to deploy National Guard
• Mother speaks out after teen with disabilities mistakenly arrested in immigration raid
• Border Patrol's expanding role in Trump's immigration crackdown
• As ICE boosts recruitment, critics concerned over changes to hiring and training standards
• Fraud scandals and Trump's rhetoric escalate fears in Minnesota's Somali community

Credits:

Amna Nawaz, Co-Anchor & Co-Managing Editor; Geoff Bennett, Co-Anchor & Co-Managing Editor; Marcia Biggs, Special Correspondent; William Brangham, Correspondent; Lisa Desjardins, Correspondent; Liz Landers, Correspondent; Fred de Sam Lazaro, Correspondent; Stephanie Sy, Correspondent; Laura Barrón-López, Correspondent; Emily Carpeaux, Senior Producer; Murrey Jacobson, Senior Producer; Matt Loffman, Senior Producer; Beth Summers, Senior Producer; Mike Fritz, Deputy Senior Producer; Courtney Norris, Deputy Senior Producer; Gretchen Frazee, Senior Broadcast Producer; Doug Adams, Producer; Jonah Anderson, Producer; Eliot Barnhart, Producer; Ryan Connelly Holmes, Producer; Andrew Corkery, Producer; Karina Cuevas, Producer; Juliet Fuisz, Producer; Jackson Hudgins, Producer; Saher Khan, Producer; Sonia Kopelev, Producer; Simeon Lancaster, Producer; Sam Lane, Producer; Maea Lenei Buhre, Producer; Kyle Midura, Producer; Claire Mufson, Producer; Shrai Popat, Producer; Layla Quran, Producer; Ali Schmitz, Producer; Sam Weber, Producer; Winston Wilde, Producer; Kaisha Young, Producer; Harry Zahn, Producer; Ian Couzens, Associate Producer; Nana Adwoa Antwi-Boasiako, Production Assistant; Tsehai Alfred, Production Assistant; Jenna Bloom, Production Assistant; Taylor Bowie, Production Assistant; Unda Dittaboot, Production Assistant; Jiaya Echevarria, Production Assistant; Amalia Huot-Marchand, Production Assistant; Leila Jackson, Production Assistant; Laken Kincaid, Production Assistant; Zoie Lambert, Production Assistant; Katie Marlow, Production Assistant; Mark Anderson, Editor; David Bentley, Editor; Stuart Cohen, Editor; Jeff Cook, Editor, Matt DeVries, Editor; Gary Ezard, Editor; Guy Federico, Editor; Hamada Hanoura, Editor; Bob Hartman, Editor; Ali Jafaar, Editor; Dan Knapp, Editor; Jon Miles, Editor; John Morgan, Editor; Larry Sindass, Editor; Christie Smith, Editor; Kojo Boateng, Graphics; Bobby Cohen, Graphics; Daniel Davis, Graphics; Mike Harry, Graphics; Christian Parr, Graphics; Wesam Sorour, Graphics; Tyler Bedgood, Camera; Rob Gourley, Camera; Joe Harewicz, Camera; Elie Khadra, Camera; Erik Ljung, Camera; Eric Miller, Camera; Devin Pinckard, Camera; Sean Patrick, Director; and Sara Just, Senior Executive Producer.

Media contact: Ella Richardson, Richardson (at) newshour (dot) org