Names make it tough to ignore human impact of news
These personal details help foster public understanding and add credibility
ONE LONGTIME TRUISM of journalism is “Names make news.”
That shorthand stems from the fact people better understand the significance and context of news when they learn about events and issues through the eyes and experiences of people they know or with whom they can identify.
The late Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark McCormick described the importance of this news tenet by noting how disclosing even sensitive private facts and names offers “a personalized frame of reference to which the reader could relate, fostering perception and understanding” and lends “specificity and credibility.”
Here are two heartbreaking examples from recent events:
First, while news reports in the last week focused on the 125+ people who died and some 150 others who remain missing after flash floods swept through the hill country of central Texas, the magnitude of the loss hits harder when you put names with the grim statistics.
Names like 8-year-old twins Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, who died at Camp Mystic, a summertime haven for girls; camp counselor Claire Childress, 18, who lost her life trying to protect young campers; Richard Eastland, 70, the camp director, who gave his life while trying to save the young girls who filled the camp’s picturesque cabins; and sisters Blair and Brooke Harber, ages 13 and 11, whose bodies were found 15 miles downriver, still holding hands, after being swept from their grandparents’ vacation cabin. The grandparents, Mike and Charlene Harber, 76 and 74, died, too.
Second, and closer to home, Pascual Pedro, 20, of West Liberty gave Iowans a heart-wrenching names-make-news lesson about the impact of the federal government’s push to deport undocumented immigrants.
Pascual was 13 years old when his father brought him to the United States from Guatemala. His father was deported later, but over the past decade the federal government permitted young Pascual to remain in West Liberty with his grandparents, who have resided there for more than 30 years.
DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN last year, Donald Trump vowed at one rally after another that he would seal the U.S. border with Mexico to keep immigrants from entering the U.S. without permission. He also vowed to swiftly deport what he portrayed as hardened criminals — the rapists, murderers, drug dealers, terrorists, crooks and thugs — who he said are destroying our country and taking jobs from U.S. citizens.
Iowa officials from our governor to our congressional delegation embraced the Trump promise.
Yet, Pascual Pedro was not one of Trump’s “animals.” He was, according to his friends, school staff, church leaders and neighbors, a well-mannered, well-liked, respectful, hard-working and religious member of the community.
Pascual graduated from West Liberty High School in 2024. There, he excelled in the classroom and on the athletic field. He played on the school’s soccer team that advanced to the state tournament. After graduating, Pascual began working for his grandfather’s siding company.
THERE IS ANOTHER important detail about Pascual you need to know: He had a spotless criminal record and never received even a traffic ticket.
Even so, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Pascual into custody on July 1, when he voluntarily showed up in Cedar Rapids for a routine annual check-in with ICE.
But this time, ICE took him to the jail in Muscatine. Within a few days they moved him to a federal detention center in Louisiana. Then, over the July 4 holiday weekend — before the family’s attorney could ask for a court hearing — Donald Trump’s federal government flew Pascual to Guatemala.
Since then, hundreds of people in eastern Iowa have held rallies and vigils to try to pressure the government and members of Iowa’s congressional delegation to return Pascual and to support reasonable and compassionate treatment of law-abiding immigrants who enrich their communities, contribute to Iowa’s economy and lack a criminal record.
Pedro’s supporters include his parish priest in West Liberty and Bishop Dennis Walsh, who heads the Catholic diocese of Davenport.
THEIR CALLS FOR HUMANE and just outcomes sound reasonable simply because they are.
Republican leaders in Iowa, including Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, made statements in support of the president’s promise on July 3 at the State Fairgrounds to protect undocumented, law-abiding immigrants working on farms and meat processing plants from deportation. They echoed the president’s statement that he never wants to “hurt our farmers. Our farmers are great people. They keep us happy and healthy and fat.”
The president put a good spin on that when he told reporters, “We can’t put the farms out of business. And at the same time, we don’t want to hurt people that aren’t criminals.”
Tell that to Pascual Pedro, if you can find him.
His story is not nameless, faceless or victimless.
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And tell that to people who thought they could believe Trump, and those who voted for him.