From the Nominator

Researchers from UC Davis and El Colegio de la Frontera Norte launched the Humanizing Deportation project in Tijuana, Mexico, to collect the stories of migrants who have been deported from the United States as part of the mass deportations. Since 2008, more than 3 million people have been deported from the United States. Many have been detained and separated from their families. 

The digital storytelling project allows individuals to share a message or tell the story of their personal experience with deportation. Through these stories, the project hopes to influence policy decisions, and connect people with legal resources. 

The Visual Communications team produced a video that highlights the impact of the project on both the deported subjects and the researchers, in a personal way. The team’s goal was to shine a light on the project’s main goal itself: humanizing deportation.

From the Judges

The team succeeded in its goal of reaching the audience on an emotional level to tell this story. They achieved this by using a documentary approach to illustrate the real, life-altering impacts of deportation. The video tells a unique story, putting faces to the issues of mass deportations. Not a typical research project, the filmmakers created a unique, digital storytelling project that allowed individuals who have been deported to share their personal experience. This eye-opening narrative was effectively conveyed, with on-location interviews that shed light on the dramatic effects of deportation on people’s lives, and some of the many wide-ranging repercussions that follow.