Raphael Romero Ruiz

Howard Fellow Raphael Romero Ruiz is a graduate student and journalist from Tucson, Arizona. He recently covered the border beat for The Arizona Republic, reporting on the 2024 presidential election, the first 100 days and beyond of President Donald Trump’s second administration, and how U.S.-Mexico border communities have been impacted by American immigration policy.

Prior to that, Ruiz began his journalism career shortly before graduating from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, earning a B.A. in Journalism with minors in Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and Digital Audiences.

For nearly five years, he focused his reporting on working-class Latine communities in metro Phoenix, spotlighting community activists, artists and everyday people shaping local culture. His journalism emphasizes the power of storytelling to uplift underrepresented communities like his own — the Rose neighborhood on Tucson’s southside.

He is excited to study data journalism to strengthen his reporting on immigration at a time when harmful narratives and disinformation heavily influence federal immigration policies. He aims to make complex and obscure data accessible to communities like his own, especially people like his parents — proud Mexican immigrants.