Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering courts and legal affairs. She focuses on how different New Yorkers interact with the civil and criminal justice systems. Her work explores whether justice is meted out fairly and whether programs within the courts can reduce incarceration and solve social problems. She also covers the federal immigration courts and how changes in immigration law affect New Yorkers under President Donald Trump's administration.
Beth started working at WNYC in 1995 covering city politics and spent many years covering public education. She is the author of Why cant u teach me 2 read? Three Students and a Mayor Put Our Schools to the Test (FSG Books) which grew out of a radio series on the low graduation rate for special education students. She also worked on the award-winning WNYC series “Being 12” and reported on efforts to promote integration in the New York City public schools. Follow her @bethfertig.
Beth is a New York City native who discovered her love for journalism at her college newspaper at the University of Michigan. She also has a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. She is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. She’s won many local and national awards, including the prestigious Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award for Broadcast Journalism for her series of reports in 2001 about an effort to privatize some struggling city schools.
Beth also won an Edward R. Murrow award for an investigation of a subway fire. And she’s won numerous awards from the city's Deadline Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the New York Press Club -- which gave her a special award after the 2001 terrorist attacks for a profile on the friendship of two WTC survivors.
Read Beth's latest reporting on Gothamist.
Beth Fertig appears in the following:
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
The Supreme Court weights the end of DACA.
Monday, November 04, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
Because cameras still aren’t allowed in federal court, media organizations rely on a small group of New York City artists to depict what happens at trials and hearings.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
A Honduran woman and daughter who were seeking asylum for HIV persecution may now be reunited, after their separation at the border last year.
Tuesday, September 03, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
This family is among hundreds the ACLU claims were wrongfully separated at the border, in the year since a judge blocked the Trump Administration from taking kids away from parents.
Friday, August 16, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
A Chinese restaurant worker claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated its own policy by detaining him as he pursued a federal lawsuit against a former employer.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
By
Mirela Iverac : Reporter, WNYC News /
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
New York City braced for immigration raids that didn’t come to pass on Sunday.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
After almost three decades of leadership by former Queens DA Richard Brown, the seven challengers running to replace him are competing to showcase their progressive credentials.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
There will be a debate among the seven Democrats running for Queens D.A. in the Greene Space on Wednesday. The question is: who will be the biggest reformer?
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
The American Bar Association says the nation's immigration courts are so overloaded they're "on the brink of collapse." Now new data show the backlog has grown to almost 900,000 cases.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
Omar Helalat has spent more than a year at an ICE detention center outside Buffalo, even though charges against him were dropped. His lawyer claims that’s unconstitutional.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
How are NYC's immigration court judges handling a backlog of cases and deluge of new legal frameworks from Washington?
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
Meet the new judges working in New York City's immigration court under the Trump administration's higher caseload demands and stricter asylum rules.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
In immigrant-friendly New York, migrants have historically had a much easier time winning asylum than in other cities. But that's been changing under President Trump.
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
The Trump Administration claims the nation's southern border is at the "breaking point" with so many migrants. Columbia Law School Professor Katherine Franke went to see for herself.
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
The strategy is putting additional pressure on immigrants, their attorneys and the newest judges in the nation's busiest immigration court.
Monday, March 25, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
There's a way for undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they're victims of crime. But applications to the program have fallen since President Trump took office.
Saturday, March 09, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
Eighteen-year-olds coming into the U.S. can be placed in adult detention centers, apart from their families. One young woman was denied entry while her mother and sister were allowed to seek asylum.
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
A story of a Honduran family of asylum-seekers.
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
New reporting from WNYC examines the persecution of people living with HIV in Honduras and how asylum proceedings can split families, even when they're fleeing for the same reasons.
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
By
Beth Fertig : Senior Reporter, WNYC News
They fled persecution in Honduras. Despite identical circumstances, they were separated at the Texas border, and the daughter was deported.