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Investigative reporter Natalie Yahr learned that having a lawyer greatly increases the chances of immigrants being able to stay in the U.S, once they have been put into deportation proceedings. Yahr talks about the role that lawyers play in immigration cases, and how she reported this story. Video by Alisa Ivanitskaya / Wisconsin Watch

• Related story — Stuck in detention: For immigrants without lawyers, justice is hard to find

• Read more from our Behind the story series.

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Alisa Ivanitskaya joined the Center as an Edmund S. Muskie fellow in 2019. She was a Fulbright scholar from Russia and obtained her master’s degree in multimedia and science journalism from the University of Arizona. Ivanitskaya is passionate about documentary filmmaking and podcasting. In Russia she covered science for the Open Media project and as a freelance writer contributed to Esquire (Russian Edition), and Kommersant newspaper. Alisa also previously interned with Deutsche Welle in Bohn, Germany.