Mike Haddad
The COVID-19 pandemic has rightly consumed us this year, and the awful carnage that we’ve experienced and that still awaits us as the White House remains effectively vacant takes up a lot of airtime. (Nero fiddled while Rome burned, etc.) So many of our stories at the Prospect have been about how the coronavirus has affected all our lives: how it has made it harder to put food on the table and to make rent; how it has spread like wildfire in prisons and ICE detention centers; how it has crushed state and local budgets, shuttered local businesses, and overwhelmed the health care system; how it—coupled with the twin epidemic of racism—pushed thousands into the streets; how it has forced reliance on mutual aid networks and forced us to be creative in our relationships; how it has affected the election and how it will shape our country in the future. Yeah, there was also a presidential election this year. (Hello, Prospect Cabinet Watch.)
Likewise, some of my favorite stories of this year reflect just this focus, while others explored issues that were more overlooked. Here are the highlights:
“Cleveland’s Plain Dealer: 50 Years of Union Busting”
I grew up reading the Plain Dealer, so writing this story felt especially personal. Just as the pandemic was truly starting, Ohio’s biggest newspaper was doing another big round of layoffs—only this time it would be the end of the union, too. The story chronicles the newspaper’s history and its owners, and how this pattern of union busting and efforts to create one-newspaper towns were hardly one-offs. It’s also the story of local journalism in one Midwestern city, and how an eye on the powerful is critical to a city’s success.
“After Uighurs Escape China, They Face the U.S. Asylum System”
Highlighting one family, this story illustrated yet another obscure and arcane Trump immigration rule. In this case, the story showed how tweaking the rule to extend the wait time to apply for a work permit financially devastated a family. There are dozens if not hundreds of changes like this implemented by the Trump administration that have, as a whole, effectively dismantled much of the immigration system.
“The Loneliness of the Immigration Lawyer”
This feature homed in on an underreported aspect of the immigration crisis since Trump took power. While the attacks on immigrants have been clear from the start, less obvious is how these attacks undermine immigration attorneys, neutralizing their efficacy. Under Stephen Miller’s direction, the administration instituted a barrage of administrative changes that turned tiny mistakes into a green-card denial or worse. Dozens of the changes were challenged in court, causing whiplash as courts ruled and the administration appealed. A politicized immigration court system (including the decertification of the immigration judges’ union) and Attorney General Barr’s reversals of decades of asylum law precedent wrought a cruel and unworkable system. In response, the story chronicles lawyers’ choices—some who changed their focus and others who left the practice of law altogether.
“Election Day, Philadelphia: Getting Out the Vote”
I traveled to Philadelphia on Election Day and shadowed several UNITE HERE members—the hotel workers’ union—as they canvassed city neighborhoods. These hotel workers were all laid off as part of coronavirus cuts, but their union UNITE HERE paid them to canvass in four key swing states, including Pennsylvania. The workers were often knocking doors in their own neighborhoods, and many had experienced loss due to COVID-19—both of which made them convincing advocates to get out the vote. Many said Joe Biden wasn’t their first choice in the primary, but they agreed that in the general he was the only choice. As the election retrospectives rolled in, it became clear that hotel workers’ canvassing—when the campaign itself largely eschewed the work—had been key to Biden’s victory.
BONUS! “How to Counteract the Court” (Co-published with The Intercept)
Co-authored with Rachel Cohen, this story outlines a playbook for Congress to take back power from the Supreme Court—and offers a solution to Democrats and liberals despondent over the new 6-3 conservative majority. Highlighting several key areas—including voting rights, climate change, labor, and antitrust—the story shows how Congress can effectively nullify Court decisions on statutory interpretation by revising and updating the law. This is thought of as an unremarkable part of lawmaking, and lately it has fallen by the wayside—barring the notable exception of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which overturned a Supreme Court decision by extending the statute of limitations. Though often unglamorous, statutory overrides offer a road map to lawmakers looking to make meaningful change in policy, even without comprehensive reform.
