Claudia Rivera Cotto is a bilingual journalist covering politics, government, and immigration in North Carolina for Enlace Latino NC as a Report for America corps member. She is also a Law and Justice Journalism Project fellow, examining the role of local agencies in immigration enforcement, building on her reporting on rising traffic stops of Latino drivers in NC.
Her enterprise reporting includes coverage of the displacement of 140 mobile home families by a luxury housing developer and the impact of federal funding cuts on local schools, which placed second and third in the Report for America Awards. She has also investigated conditions affecting H-2A visa workers and farmworkers in North Carolina, including coverage featured in Associated Press reporting.
Previously, she worked on research and reporting for Watchdog Writers Group fellow Mya Frazier. Claudia’s reporting has also appeared in the Columbia Missourian, The News & Observer, Carolina Public Press, KBIA, and WUNC. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English from the University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in investigative and data journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
