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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The Department of Health and Human Services confirms the population at Tornillo, Texas, is down from nearly 3,000 adolescents last month to about 1,500. The camp is due to close at the end of January. -
The federal government remains partially shuttered as the president holds out for money for a wall along the border with Mexico. A new Congress is sworn in on Thursday. What does each side want?
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Mexico and the U.S. have come to an agreement that immigrants from third countries, who are crossing or approaching the border to seek asylum, will stay in Mexico while their claims are decided.
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Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico — regardless of country of origin — must wait in Mexico while their claims are heard. -
After an unexpected policy change, the Department of Health and Human Services plans to speed the vetting of sponsors so that more migrant children can be released from custody.
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With government shelters across the country nearing capacity, officials are considering a range of options from releasing the children more quickly to building more tent cities. -
Two sources implicate Trump in illegal campaign contributions. Nancy Pelosi agrees to a term limit to secure House speaker job. Government shelters are filled to near capacity with migrant children.
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President Trump has compared the influx of migrants to the U.S. with the migration crisis in Europe. There are big differences in the situations, and some parallels in the political and policy debates.
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When Vietnamese immigrants first arrived in Texas, they received a hostile reception from locals who were concerned about competition. Now that immigrant community is thriving. -
Migrant families arriving at the Southwest border earlier this year faced forced separations. Now the president plans to stop immigrants with troops, concertina wire, tighter asylum rules and threats of tent prisons.
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As a caravan of migrants continues north through Mexico, Texas border towns are preparing. Many are also skeptical about the deployment of U.S. troops to the border, and some say this is all politics.
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Large numbers of migrant families continue to cross illegally, and more are expected. The Border Patrol says they are overwhelmed and so do the non-profits that help immigrants.
