Longtime contributor Alma Campos has stepped into a new role at the Weekly as our new Lead Reporter and Project Editor for immigration coverage. Alma previously served as a senior editor and section editor, roles in which she helped shape the Weekly’s immigration reporting. A bilingual investigative journalist, her work lies at the intersection of immigration and systemic injustice, and has appeared in The Guardian, Univision Chicago, MindSite News, and more. In 2023, Alma received the Sara Boyden Public Service Award and was a finalist for several local journalism awards in 2023 and 2024.
In this expanded role, Alma will lead a year-long reporting initiative spotlighting immigrant communities on the South Side through investigations, cultural reporting, and stories rooted in history and place. The project will highlight not just the systems that shape immigrant lives, but also the art, memory, and everyday resistance that sustain these communities.
“I believe in the power of stories to preserve memory and challenge erasure,” Alma said. “Right now, immigrant communities are under mounting attack, fueled by dangerous myths and targeted aggression. This project is about pushing past the headlines to tell stories that hold systems accountable and affirm the history, creativity, and resilience of immigrants on the South Side.”
The new role is funded by Press Forward Chicago, a philanthropic initiative designed to catalyze local news and uplift community journalism.
The importance of covering immigrant communities could not be more acute at a time when the federal government is deporting American residents—documented or otherwise—without due process, challenging the bedrock Constitutional principle of birthright citizenship, and threatening media outlets with lawsuits for reporting the news. Your support of community journalism is as vital as ever. To help ensure we can keep telling the stories that affect your community, consider subscribing and supporting our mission at southsideweekly.com/donate/.