Over the next four weeks, the Status Pending team is going to share a series we did last spring, called “Making Wisconsin.” It’s about how immigration has shaped our city, state and country. It provides some really helpful context for this moment. Stay tuned as WUWM continues to bring you conversations and stories about immigration.

Faith communities help newly-arrived international teachers and immigrant families find apartments, furnish their homes and navigate the health care system. 

How do you think about the future when you have no clear path to citizenship in the country you call home? Hear from a young undocumented woman who has lived in the U.S. since she was a child.

If you or someone you know needs help, you can reach the National Domestic Violence hotline at 800-799-SAFE. When a crime is committed against someone without legal status in the U.S., it can open a pathway to a green card for the victim. But it comes at the cost of proving your abuse.

Two Nigerian teachers moved to Milwaukee to teach in Milwaukee Public Schools. Now, changes to H-1B visas have forced the district to pause hiring international teachers.

Over the past year, there may be no pathway to U.S. citizenship that has changed more than that of refugees. So, what did it used to mean to be a refugee? And what's changed? 

Gal Dahan has lived in Milwaukee for six years, most of that time as an international student. Now she’s trying to figure out if there’s a path for her to stay.

Meet two sisters, "A" and "S," from Mexico, who have lived in Wisconsin since they were young children. "When DACA came out, it was like this golden ticket," A remembers. DACA allowed them to legally work and drive, but it was temporary — they had to reapply every two years. And in 2024, A and S got married to U.S. citizens, but that didn’t mean they automatically got green cards. What came next was an expensive, complex application process. Learn what it took for the two sisters to navigate the U.S. immigration system.

There’s a line we hear when people talk about immigration. A phrase that’s repeated over and over: “Do it the right way.”  

 But what does that mean? And what’s the “right way” in a time like this, when the rules seem to always be changing?    

On Status Pending, we’ll break down the different ways people come to this country, the hurdles that have existed for years, and the new ones people are facing in real time.  

The limited run series starts November 12th, with new episodes each Wednesday. 

Status Pending is produced by Jimmy Gutierrez, Emily Files, Audrey Nowakowski, Xcaret Nuñez, Katherine Kokal, Maria Peralta-Arellano, Valeria Navarro-Villegas and Samia Saeed. Editorial support from Ann-Elise Henzl and Michelle Maternowski. Design support from Erin Bagatta. 

A group of Wisconsin legislators spent more than five hours Thursday listening to experts, advocates and residents who gathered in Racine . The topic was water quality and how to improve it. Water quality has become a buzz phrase in Wisconsin. During his first state of the state report, Gov. Tony Evers declared 2019 "the year of clean drinking water." Weeks earlier Assembly Speaker Robin Vos began setting up a task force to determine the key sources of water contamination and ways to remedy them. READ: Scientist Hopes Study Helps Solve Kewaunee County Well Contamination Challenge The Speaker's Task Force on Water Quality has been traveling Wisconsin to gather input. The latest was Thursday in Racine where extra chairs had to be hauled into the cramped meeting room. Milwaukee resident Terry Wiggins traveled construction-strewn Interstate 94 to share her top water quality concern: “That we have a moral responsibility to improve the quality of the water coming through our pipes in