John Burnett
As NPR's Southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett covers immigration, border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.
Though he is assigned to the National Desk, his beat has sometimes stretched around the world.
He has filed stories from more than 30 countries since joining NPR in 1986. In 2012, he spent five months in Nairobi as the East Africa Correspondent, followed by a stint during 2013 as the network's religion reporter. His special reporting projects have included working in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, as an embedded reporter with the First Marine Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and continuing coverage of the U.S. drug war in the Americas. His reports are heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
Burnett's 2008 groundbreaking four-part series "Dirty Money"—which examined how law enforcement agencies have gotten hooked on and, in some cases, corrupted by seized drug money—won three national awards: a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Investigative Reporting, a Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists Award for Investigative Reporting, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for the accompanying website. His 2007 three-part series "The Forgotten War," which took a critical look at the nation's 30-year war on drugs, won a Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for Excellence in Reporting on Drug and Alcohol Problems.
In 2006, Burnett's memoir, Uncivilized Beasts & Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent, was published by Rodale Press. In that year, he also served as an Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida.
In 2004, Burnett won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting for his story on the accidental U.S. bombing of an Iraqi village. His work was singled out by judges for the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award honoring the network's overall coverage of the Iraq War. Also in 2003, Burnett won a first place National Headliner Award for investigative reporting about corruption among federal immigration agents on the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the months following the attacks of September 11, Burnett reported from New York City, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. His reporting contributed to coverage that won the Overseas Press Club Award and an Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award.
In 2001, Burnett reported and produced a one-hour documentary, "The Oil Century," for KUT-FM in Austin, which won a silver prize at the New York Festivals. He was a visiting faculty member in broadcast journalism at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in 2002 and 1997. He received a Ford Foundation Grant in 1997 for a special series on sustainable development in Latin America.
Burnett's favorite stories are those that reveal a hidden reality. He recalls happening upon Carlos Garcia, a Mexico City street musician who plays a musical leaf, a chance encounter that brought a rare and beautiful art form to a national audience. In reporting his series "Fraud Down on the Farm," Burnett spent nine months investigating the abuse of the United States crop insurance system and shining light on surprising stories of criminality.
Abroad, his report on the accidental U.S. Air Force bombing of the Iraqi village of Al-Taniya, an event that claimed 31 lives, helped listeners understand the fog of war. His "Cocaine Republics" series in 2004 was one of the first accounts to detail the emergence of Central America as a major drug smuggling region. But many listeners remember the audio postcard he filed while on assignment in Peshawar, Pakistan, after 9/11 about what it was like being, at six-foot-seven, the "tallest American at a Death-to-Americarally."
Prior to coming to NPR, Burnett was based in Guatemala City for United Press International covering the Central America civil wars. From 1979-1983, he was a general assignment reporter for various Texas newspapers.
Burnett graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
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A New Mexico county declared a state of emergency over fears that drugs are freely flowing after the U.S. Border Patrol, beleaguered by a surge of migrants, closed a highway checkpoint last month.
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Edgar Baltazar Garcia got into some serious trouble after he came home from war. Now, he faces deportation over a felony conviction unless an immigration judge decides to let him stay in the U.S. -
Migrants from Central America who end up in the U.S. must cross the Guatemala-Mexico border, where immigration control is light to nonexistent. Quicker journeys are spurring more illegal immigration. -
Central Americans streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border are traveling along well established smuggling routes through Mexico. Gracias a Dios, Guatemala, has become a busy smuggling staging area.
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At Mexico's southern border, migrants can cross over from Guatemala for a price. The U.S. threatens to close its border unless Mexico slows migrants' travels. Many make their way to El Paso, Texas.
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The Trump administration is sounding the alarm about "fake families" amid a surge of Central Americans crossing the southern border. Immigrant advocates say they're just trying to make it to the U.S. -
The Border Patrol is bringing in more agents and asking the Pentagon for help as thousands of migrants continue to cross the U.S.-Mexico border each day. -
El Paso is the new illegal crossing hot spot on the southern border. Officials say they have run out of room to process migrants, and they're encountering more and more infectious diseases.
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Jose Eduardo was separated from his daughter Yaimy after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border last spring. He was deported, but his daughter remained in U.S. custody. Now, he has returned to find her. -
The system is "overwhelmed," says Manuel Padilla, director of Joint Task Force-West. The migrants apprehended at the Southern border in February made for the highest monthly total in almost a decade. -
Agents apprehended some 60,000 people last month — about 12,000 more immigrants than they picked up in January. The majority arrested are families, and children traveling alone or without a parent.
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Thousands of unaccompanied migrant children have reported being sexually abused while in U.S. government custody. The numbers were detailed in documents released by a Democratic congressman.
