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Wendy Fry

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Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on border and immigration issues. Previously she reported on inequality for the CalMatters California Divide team. Based in San Diego and Mexico, Wendy has been covering the California border region for more than 15 years and covers immigration, reparations and issues affecting San Diego-area families. 

She’s a board member of the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and has reported for the Watchdog team at the San Diego Union-Tribune from 2009 to 2012. 

For television, she worked as an on-air reporter, investigative producer and assignment editor at NBC San Diego from 2013 to 2018 — where she helped launch an investigative team and Telemundo20, the Spanish language news station — before returning to print journalism, covering Mexico and Baja California for the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2022.

Wendy won SPJ’s Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism in 2012 for uncovering corruption among construction contractors and elected officials at the Sweetwater Union High School District, resulting in indictments of about a dozen public officials. 

She also won the Grand Golden Watchdog Award from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association in 2017, for her coverage of dangerous levels of lead in water in the San Diego Unified and San Ysidro school districts. Her short documentary “Missing in Mexico,” about family members searching for the remains of missing loved ones, won a regional Emmy. 

A graduate of San Diego State, Wendy speaks English and Spanish.

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Latest Stories

A child, on the left side of the frame, places a toy fishing hook in to a small water well with other toys floating around, as his mother and father play next to him.
Inequality Insights
Which growing California communities will get the hottest?
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. California’s inland regions are experiencing dangerous heat waves, exacerbated by rapid population growth. As more people move away from the expensive coastal areas to more affordable inland communities, these regions are seeing significant demographic changes and spiking electricity bills. CalMatters reporters Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Arfa Momin covered […]
By • September 13, 2024
Migrants arrive to St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles on two buses traveling from Texas on Sept. 19, 2023. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters
Inequality Insights
California bill targets migrant drop-offs
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. Last year, our California Divide reporting team covered how cities were responding to migrants arriving unexpectedly. While many of the 900-plus migrants who arrived in L.A. from Republican states quickly integrated into the community, the few dozen who went to Sacramento found an under-resourced support system, CalMatters […]
By • September 6, 2024
A worker in a bright orange and yellow safety vest is helped by another worker in placing a tent into the back of a trash hauler at Cesar Chavez Park in San Diego.
Inequality Insights
Newsom-ordered encampment sweeps also impact asylum-seekers
Dear Inequality Insights readers, San Diego port officials hired a contractor to clear out a waterfront homeless encampment last week where about a dozen asylum seekers were living. For months, asylum seekers had been camping in the César Chávez Park in Barrio Logan, but the port’s Harbor Police told them they had to leave or […]
By • August 23, 2024
A view of the the front door of a building that's covered in a tarp and construction materials.
Newsletters
Tenants fight back: community land trusts offer rent relief
Happy Friday, Inequality Insights readers, thanks for reading. In case you missed it, California Divide’s Felicia Mello wrote earlier this month about California community land trusts. These organizations buy land and then sell or rent the buildings on it to low-income residents. According to the California Community Land Trust Network, their numbers have tripled in […]
By • August 16, 2024
Cellphones charging on a white table with a power outlet as migrants receive help from local volunteers at the Casa Familiar Civic Center in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on Sept. 25, 2023. Photo by Carlos Moreno/Sipa USA via Reuters
Inequality Insights
Will the CPUC give undocumented residents a lifeline?
Dear Inequality Insights reader, About 10 years ago, the California Public Utilities Commission decided they should stop requesting Social Security numbers from low-income residents applying to obtain subsidized cellphone service. Then, the commission never actually stopped requesting the information.  CalMatters Reporter Alejandra Reyes-Velarde reported in February that the cellphone program, California LifeLine, still excludes hundreds […]
By • August 9, 2024
A young boy hangs clothes to dry on a clothesline in front of a bright, light blue wall.
Inequality Insights
Time is running out on program protecting unaccompanied kids
Dear Inequality Insights reader, If state legislators don’t act fast, a program that protects children who immigrate to California by themselves will soon run out of funds. Without an attorney to represent them in immigration court, the vast majority of children are ordered removed. One minor helped by the project told us he was unable […]
By • August 2, 2024

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Wendy Fry - CalMatters
Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on border and immigration issues.
CalMatters
California, explained
Wendy Fry
Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on border and immigration issues. Previously she reported on inequality for the CalMatters California Divide team. Based in San Diego and Mexico, Wendy has been covering the California border region for more than 15 years and covers immigration, reparations and issues affecting San Diego-area families. She's a board member of the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and has reported for the Watchdog team at the San Diego Union-Tribune from 2009 to 2012. For television, she worked as an on-air reporter, investigative producer and assignment editor at NBC San Diego from 2013 to 2018 — where she helped launch an investigative team and Telemundo20, the Spanish language news station — before returning to print journalism, covering Mexico and Baja California for the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2022. A graduate of San Diego State, Wendy speaks English and Spanish.