Unflinching reporting shows the barriers migrant women face to finding work  

By Bianca Vázquez Toness

With remarkable detail, education accountability reporter Bianca Vázquez Toness showed the difficulties migrant women have finding a job in the U.S. — especially one that is not sex work.

When Toness set out to show how one community — Aurora, Colorado — was responding to an influx of migrants, she was struck by the number of times women mentioned having been propositioned for sex work. Many of them came to the U.S. to provide a better life for their children, and quickly found they had few options for work — legal or otherwise. Because sex trafficking and sex work aren’t often discussed, Toness used a narrative to show how pervasive “the business” is in these women’s lives.

In a piece built on impeccable sourcing and rich details, Toness verified and told a migrant woman’s story of being taken to Kentucky by a Cuban couple who attempted to traffic her. She also walked with the woman down Colfax Avenue, the main Latino drag in Aurora, bearing witness as the woman was rejected from jobs because of her nationality. 

Toness was the first national journalist to focus on Aurora, and she’s still really the only one to do it in an in-depth, nuanced, character-driven way. Her reporting is incredibly rare in mainstream journalism — raw, powerful details of trying to avoid sex work, truthful accounts of the difficult life that many immigrant women find in this country, yet a story of human dignity and agency. Wrote one reader: “You’ve given a window into a journey that people don’t fully know but judge very swiftly.” Wrote another: “You don’t need to hear it from me but thank you for your work. We need more journalists like you.”

Judges praised Toness’ work for humanizing the ongoing story of immigration in a nuanced, beautifully crafted way.

For producing a raw, unflinching and honest story that was at once deeply human and contextualized, Toness earns this week’s Best of the AP — Second Winner.   

Visit AP.org to request a trial subscription to AP’s video, photo and text services.

For breaking news, visit apnews.com.