Bellagio Residency: October 2023
Project: “The Route: How American policy, a billion-dollar black market, and human ingenuity are bringing the world’s refugees to the U.S. border”
Molly O’Toole is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who recently traveled more than 20,000 miles alongside asylum seekers undertaking the planet’s longest human migration. She visited Bellagio in October 2023 to work on a book and podcast project about the new migrant underground, a deadly gauntlet for refugees from around the world that 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. Molly has previously reported for outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the Associated Press, and Reuters.