Sarah Betancourt

Freelance reporter, Formerly worked for CommonWealth

About Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a long-time Latina reporter in Massachusetts. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Sarah was a breaking news reporter for The Associated Press in Boston, and a correspondent with The Boston Globe and The Guardian. She has written about immigration, incarceration, and health policy for outlets like NBC, The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and the New York Law Journal. Sarah has reported stories such as a national look at teacher shortages, how databases are used by police departments to procure information on immigrants, and uncovered the spread of an infectious disease in children at a family detention center. She has covered the State House, local and national politics, crime and general assignment.

Sarah received a 2018 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for her role in the ProPublica/NPR story, “They Got Hurt at Work and Then They Got Deported,” which explored how Florida employers and insurance companies were getting out of paying workers compensation benefits by using a state law to ensure injured undocumented workers were arrested or deported. Sarah attended Emerson College for a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Communication, and Columbia University for a fellowship and Master’s degree with the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.

About Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a long-time Latina reporter in Massachusetts. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Sarah was a breaking news reporter for The Associated Press in Boston, and a correspondent with The Boston Globe and The Guardian. She has written about immigration, incarceration, and health policy for outlets like NBC, The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and the New York Law Journal. Sarah has reported stories such as a national look at teacher shortages, how databases are used by police departments to procure information on immigrants, and uncovered the spread of an infectious disease in children at a family detention center. She has covered the State House, local and national politics, crime and general assignment.

Sarah received a 2018 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for her role in the ProPublica/NPR story, “They Got Hurt at Work and Then They Got Deported,” which explored how Florida employers and insurance companies were getting out of paying workers compensation benefits by using a state law to ensure injured undocumented workers were arrested or deported. Sarah attended Emerson College for a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Communication, and Columbia University for a fellowship and Master’s degree with the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.

Stories by Sarah Betancourt

Budget provision sets standard on visa document

Requires law enforcement agencies to respond in 90 days

Franklin County shuts ICE detention center

Says closure was a financial, not a political, decision

Restaurants face light punishment over COVID rule violations 

Some even get state grants following liquor license suspensions  

Boston center’s gang database lists 3,853 people.

Advocates hit lack of transparency at City Council hearing

Health insurers to promote 2017 birth control provision

Measure allows women to obtain 12-month supply of pills

Sudders: Mass vaccination sites short-term solution

Says they won’t serve primary role in distribution

Lawmakers grill governor on website problems

Senator calls it a failure, but Baker blames lack of vaccine supply

New pandemic take on undocumented immigrant licenses

Backers push need to drive, avoid subways and buses

Healey, feds sue over alleged immigration bond scam 

Complaint says company has 'cheated immigrants' released from ICE detention

Judge denies injunction to cut prison population

Leaves door open to for additional petition from prisoner advocates

State nudges along design process for new women’s prison — again

Ex-prisoners, advocates say $50m should go for treatment instead

Baker ‘pissed off’ as vaccine website struggles

Many receive message ‘this application crashed’

Oversight panel to scrutinize Baker vaccine rollout

Spilka wants info on plans for teachers, people of color

Advocates push vaccine equity for black and Latino residents 

Groups call on Baker to do more to serve communities hardest hit by COVID 

Everett plan to vaccinate teachers goes awry

City had hoped to inoculate educators over a weekend

Curative at center of vaccine snafus in Danvers, Springfield

Lawmakers criticize firm’s management of mass vaccination sites

Reggie Lewis Center to have neighborhood days

Baker says he’s trying to increase minority vaccinations

Biddinger analyzes vaccine rollout challenges

About two-thirds of Phase 1 residents inoculated