A Prize, a Puzzle, and an Ode

Last September, when we published Caitlin Dickerson’s magnificent cover story, “ ‘We Need to Take Away Children,’ ” on the origins and execution of the family-separation policy, I did not fully believe that Trump could have a plausible path back to the presidency. Such is the deluding power of hope. We originally asked Caitlin to write what became a nearly 30,000-word investigation because we thought it necessary to document for future generations a homegrown human-rights grotesquerie. But now that Trump has a clear chance to again win his party’s nomination, I’m especially proud that we published this story. I hope our readers will share it with all Americans of goodwill. And I’m pleased to say that Caitlin recently received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for her work. We did not publish this story to win prizes, but I’m overjoyed to see Caitlin and her editor, Scott Stossel, receive such acclaim, and such an endorsement of their revelatory work.