BRIAN STELTER (HOST): There's been a lot of attention on this subject of immigration, but I wonder if there's something missing from the conversation, if we're not hearing the voice of the people affected often enough. Let's talk about that with Amy Goodman. She's the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! Amy, one of the reasons why your program stands out is that I think you try to talk to protesters and immigrants and people that are affected by government policies. When you watch other news coverage, do you think we're missing the immigrant story --

AMY GOODMAN (HOST OF DEMOCRACY NOW!): Yes.

STELTER: The actual voices of DACA recipients?

GOODMAN: Absolutely, and I think that's critical, just following the basic rules of good journalism. Go to where the silence is, and it's often quite raucous, and it's loud, but the corporate media does not convey these voices. Like going to the Orange County detention center right now where Ravi Ragbir is in detention. He was in the Krome Detention Center in Florida. He's one of the immigrant rights leaders in New York who was just detained by ICE. And as an ambulance took him away, two New York City council members were arrested trying to protest his detention. 

STELTER: Right, right. But that was a local news story. It did get attention, I think, from the local stations. 

GOODMAN: But it's not local. It's national because what we're seeing right now is the Trump administration rounding up immigrant rights leaders. Jean Montrevil in New York was just deported to Haiti. I was just with Sandra Lopez, who is in Carbondale, CO. She is in the Unitarian Church parsonage there. She has taken refuge, taken sanctuary. That's another big story. You have people in sanctuary, in churches, who are in detention. Jeanette Vizguerra was in detention in Denver, CO. When she was named one of the most important Time 100 people, she was taking refuge in the Unitarian Church in Denver. We are seeing something frightening now. Right now, Maru Moro-Villalpando in Washington state, one of the leading immigrant rights activists, is in fear of deportation. And it's not just individuals, these are leaders. That inspires fear in the communities of millions of people. That does not make them safer, and it certainly doesn't make us safer.

STELTER: But certainly it's harder to cover folks who are literally having to seek sanctuary, who may not be able to go and be interviewed or get to a TV station.



GOODMAN: Very easy to go to any of the people in sanctuaries, but also --

STELTER: OK, you're saying go there.

GOODMAN: Absolutely. CNN's trucks, NBC's trucks --

STELTER: Sometimes I do see immigration debates on television where we do see activists, we see representatives of immigrant communities. Personally, what I think is missing sometimes are the voices of ordinary people who are working jobs and living in the shadows. 



GOODMAN: Oh, I completely agree with you because that is the power of the media. I mean, we know our family and friends, but the way we learn about the rest of the world and people outside of our own communities is through the media, and there is nothing more powerful when you hear a young Honduran child or a Mexican mother like Sandra Lopez who's lived here for a quarter of a century. You hear Ravi Ragbir. Again, we're talking about people who have lived here for decades, and you hear them telling their stories and talking about their families. 

STELTER: And yet, there were millions of deportations under the Obama administration. 

GOODMAN: There were.

Previously:

While covering DACA, morning shows fail to include the voices that matter

In reporting on DACA, outlets are uncritically lifting up anti-immigrant hate and nativist groups 

After Trump rescinded DACA, recipients made up less than 10 percent of cable news guests

VIDEO: Media Can't Ignore The Voices of Activists