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Ally Markovich on Muck Rack

Ally Markovich

Phoenix
As seen in: Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, The New York Times, HuffPost, The Washington Post, Yahoo Singapore, Princeton Alumni Weekly, Flipboard, San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeleyside, National Catholic Reporter, NewsBreak and
Covers:  Education, climate, housing, business, public health
Journalist Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting @ArizCIR Past: Schools @Berkeleyside 🇺🇦 Я говорю по-русски

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Ally Markovich’s Biography

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Freelance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Writing appears in TheOaklandside, Berkeleyside, The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Bold Italic, among other outlets.

Ally Markovich’s Journalist Portfolio

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What's lurking beneath Oakland's Lake Merritt? Strange creatures and more

What's lurking beneath Oakland's Lake Merritt? Strange creatures and more

Damon Tighe is no casual Lake Merritt visitor. The citizen scientist steps around picnickers, turns over rock…

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They Were Cleaning Up One Of America's Most Polluted Neighborhoods. Then Came COVID-19.

They Were Cleaning Up One Of America's Most Polluted Neighborhoods. Then Came COVID-19.

Margaret Gordon takes a deep breath of fresh air. After decades of working to improve the air quality in West…

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How will Oakland spend its $6 million in state cannabis equity grant funding?

How will Oakland spend its $6 million in state cannabis equity grant funding?

It's been four years since Oakland started the country's first cannabis equity program, an effort to undo the…

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The Racist History of Curfews

The Racist History of Curfews

In response to demonstrations protesting the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and coun…

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As more Ukrainians choose Kyiv Patriarchate, push intensifies for unified national Orthodox churc...

As more Ukrainians choose Kyiv Patriarchate, push intensifies for unified national Orthodox churc...

Archbishop Yevstratiy Zoria's long red hair is tied back, and a gold chain is draped over his black robe... -…

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Greek hospitality is put to a religious test

Greek hospitality is put to a religious test

Abdul rose just before sundown on one of the last days of the holy month of Ramadan. The 17-year-old refugee …

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Articles

Asylum win caps immigrant’s 2-year detention as courts weigh 3rd-country deportations

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By Ally Markovich
| Tucson Sentinel Verified
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting Celestin Dima arrives at U.S. Immigration Court in New York City on Sept. 23, 2026. Celestin Dima walks outside a U.S. Immigration Court in New York City on Sept. 23, 2026. Weeks after Celestin Dima was shackled on a plane and came within hours of being deported to a country where he had never lived, the Burkina Faso native has been granted asylum.
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Asylum win caps immigrant’s two-year detention as courts weigh third-country deportations

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By Ally Markovich
| Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
Weeks after Celestin Dima was shackled on a plane and came within hours of being deported to a country where he had never lived, the Burkina Faso native has been granted asylum. The decision caps a remarkable reversal for the African immigrant, freeing Dima after more than two years in ICE detention. Reopening his case already wiped away the removal order that allowed the government to try to send him elsewhere.
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Deporting at-risk migrants home could lead to persecution or torture

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By Ally Markovich, Adriana Navarro Verified
| Phoenix New Times Verified
This story was originally published by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. On an August day in 2025, Celestin Dima had reason to celebrate. A judge at Arizona’s Eloy Immigration Court had just ruled that sending the African asylum-seeker back to his home country would likely bring further persecution. He’d fled Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, where he was outed as gay, kidnapped, and later targeted by the military and tortured by police.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

I had an internship at the Kyiv Post in Ukraine's capital

Have you ever used a typewriter?

My friends dragged a type-writer into the house off the street last week. Oh, the streets of Berkeley offer endless gifts...

How is social media changing news?

False information spreads 10x as fast on Twitter. But it also allows for new voices to make the news and amplify underrepresented narratives.