Immigration Reporter, Houston Chronicle
Panelist, Understanding & Interpreting the American Electorate
Lomi Kriel is the immigration reporter at the Houston Chronicle, where she was the first to uncover the Trump administration’s separation of migrant families at the border. She has written on all aspects of immigration, including the tightening of asylum and mass arrests of immigrants under Trump. She has reported on the backlogged immigration courts, impact of the 2014 influx of Central American children, attacks on refugees, and militarization of the border. She frequently reports from the border, and has also reported from El Salvador, Arizona and Washington D.C. Previously she was a reporter for Reuters in Central America. She holds a master of arts in political journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor of arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Born and raised in South Africa, she immigrated to Houston in 1998 and speaks fluent Spanish and Afrikaans.