Caleb Hampton is an award-winning journalist, editor and photographer from California. He works as an assistant editor at Ag Alert, where he covers California agriculture. Previously, he was a staff reporter at The Davis Enterprise and reported on immigration and education for national publications such as The New York Times and the Guardian US.
In 2020, Caleb’s reporting on the deportations of more than a dozen Iranian students from U.S. airports was cited in numerous lawsuits that led to a congressional inquiry and a civil rights investigation at the Department of Homeland Security.
In 2021, Caleb was the first to report that the U.S. legal immigration system had all but collapsed as the pandemic, Trump administration policies and understaffing at consulates stranded hundreds of thousands of Americans’ family members abroad, where many faced yearslong waits for visa interviews. The story was followed by widespread news coverage and greater transparency about the backlog from the Department of State.
From 2019-2022, while covering higher education for The Davis Enterprise, Caleb broke stories that were picked up by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Guardian US, CalMatters and other major publications.
In 2018, his longform feature on proxy teaching in India was cited by government officials as they called for changes to the public education system. That story and a story about Afghan national soccer player Mika Sayfurahman won feature writing awards.
Before becoming a journalist, Caleb lived in Ghana for three years, where he studied photography under photographer Nii Obodai.
Caleb has a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Davis, California.
You may contact Caleb at calebmhampton@gmail.com.