Molly O’Toole is a Pulitzer-winning journalist and author from San Diego, California. She most recently worked for more than four years as the Immigration and Security Reporter for The Los Angeles Times, in Washington, D.C. She is currently working on a nonfiction book about migration from around the world, through Latin America, to the U.S. border, for Crown Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint, as well as an accompanying podcast.
Her book, “The Route,” is set to publish in 2025.
About
Molly O'Toole is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, working on "The Route," a nonfiction book on global migration through the Americas to the United States, for Crown Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint. She recently was an immigration and security reporter for The Los Angeles Times, and a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, George Washington University, and the Logan Nonfiction Program. She has also taught at Cornell University and the Poynter Institute. She previously was a senior reporter at Foreign Policy and The Atlantic’s Defense One, and an editor at The Huffington Post.
From Latin America, West Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, O’Toole has written and worked for outlets such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Newsweek, The Intercept, the Associated Press, Reuters, and more. She was awarded the first-ever Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting in 2020 with This American Life and Emily Green. Her work has also been recognized by the Livingston Awards, the National Press Club, the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and the Silvers Grants for Work in Progress, among others. She is a graduate of Cornell and New York University, and is based in Washington, D.C., but she will always be Californian.
Work
Molly has covered migration, security and foreign policy worldwide for more than a decade, for newspapers, magazines, wires and websites. Here are some of her favorite stories.
The Out Crowd - This American Life
Nov 15, 2019
Reports from the frontlines of the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. We hear from asylum seekers waiting across the border in Mexico, in a makeshift refugee camp, and from the officers who sent them there to wait in the first place.
This episode won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting, the first ever given for audio journalism.
Asylum - Biden’s got an app for that
June 6, 2021
An exclusive report revealing that the Biden administration had quietly deployed an app for asylum seekers — CBP One — with privacy risks and surveillance beyond the border.
Read at The Los Angeles Times.
The Nepali man who came back from the dead
Oct 28, 2020
From Nepal to Saudi Arabia, reporting how a dead man came back to life — and unearthing the dark truth of modern slavery.
Read at The Los Angeles Times.
And the “Reporter’s Notebook” story-behind-the-story, here.
Article Archive
A selection of stories.
Exclusive: Biden has quietly deployed an app for asylum seekers. Privacy experts are worried Los Angeles Times - June 6, 2021
‘Sitting ducks for organized crime’: How Biden border policy fuels migrant kidnapping, extortion Los Angeles Times - April 28, 2021
Biden promised change at the border. He’s kept Trump’s Title 42 policy to close it and cut off asylum Los Angeles - Times March 19, 2021
Trump put migrants in border limbo. So far, Biden’s kept them there. Los Angeles Times - Jan 20, 2021
‘Betrayed’ Black asylum seekers say Trump administration is ramping up deportations by force and fraud Los Angeles Times - Nov 27, 2020
The Nepali man who came back from the dead Los Angeles Times - Oct 28, 2020
A renewed surge of migration from Central America could pose early test for a President Biden Los Angeles Times - Oct 27, 2020
Family separation returns under cover of the coronavirus Los Angeles Times - May 27, 2020
Under Trump policy, U.S. plays custody keep-away with migrant children Los Angeles Times - May 18, 2020
In El Salvador, gangs are enforcing the coronavirus lockdown with baseball bats Los Angeles Times - April 7, 2020
Central America fears Trump could deport the coronavirus Los Angeles Times - March 29, 2020
$35 million in Pentagon aid hasn’t reached Ukraine, despite White House assurances Los Angeles Times - Nov 19, 2019
The Out Crowd — Reports from the frontlines of the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" asylum policy. Los Angeles Times - Nov 15, 2019
Trump administration appears to violate law in forcing asylum seekers back to Mexico, officials warn Los Angeles Times - Aug 28, 2019
Facing Trump’s asylum limits, refugees from as far as Africa languish in a Mexican camp Los Angeles Times - July 8, 2019
John F. Kelly says his tenure as Trump’s chief of staff is best measured by what the president did not do Los Angeles Times - Dec 30, 2018
“The Route” coming in 2025
“The Route,” a work of narrative nonfiction, will take a look at one of the most consequential issues of our time — the mass movement of people around the globe in the face of climate change, civil unrest, and more, with tens of thousands of migrants from Africa and Asia attempting the same treacherous route through South America and Central America each year to reach the U.S.-Mexico border in hopes of gaining entry to America. To show the complicated, powerful set of dynamics that spur people from all corners of the world to head for the United States, but also stand in their way of making it, the book will follow a set of migrants along the new migrant underground. This deadly gauntlet for refugees from around the world stretches from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border, carved out by the fixers and officials cashing in on a billion-dollar black market, and held together by the thread of the American dream.
Crown Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint, will publish “The Route” in 2025.