Univision 41 Unveils ‘I-TEAM’.

Univision 41 (WXTV) in New York has fielded the “I-Team.” The “I-Team,” or, “Equipo I,” as it is called in Spanish, will report on immigration, a subject of interest to a great many Hispanic residents of the New York area. The “I-Team,” fronted by reporters Alex Roland and Roberto Lacayo, will be a regular feature of the Tuesday night 11 pm broadcast of “Noticias Univision 41” (Univision 41 News), WXTV’s local news broadcast with anchors Rafael Pineda and Denisse Oller. The “I” in “I-Team” stands for “Inmigracion, Informacion, Instante.” The English translations of each word also begin with “I” – “Immigration, Information, and Instant.”

The decision to make the “I-Team” a regular feature of “Noticias Univision 41” follows a successful “I-Team” test during the May 2005 sweep. The 11 pm “Noticias Univision 41” attracted an average of 273,440 viewers nightly during the May 2005 sweep, double the average audience of the competing Spanish-language newscast at that hour.

“We got tremendous viewer feedback from the May test of the ‘I-Team,’” said Univision 41 news director Norma Morato. “It was unprecedented.”

“I-Team” reporters Alex Roland and Roberto Lacayo may be unique among local news reporters in the expertise they bring to the beat. Both have been caught up in the experience many Hispanic area residents endure with the nation’s immigration system. Lacayo comes from Nicaragua. In November 2003 he went undercover as an undocumented worker for a week-long report on the human, social, and economic aspects of undocumented labor. Roland became an accidental victim of “security” policy in December 2003 when a Lyndhurst, New Jersey policeman detained him in a traffic stop, claiming that Roland was in the United States on an expired visa based on information provided by the federal government to the New Jersey department of motor vehicles. As it turned out, the New Jersey motor vehicle department’s information was out of date. Roland, a native of Colombia, lives in the US on a grant of political asylum. Ironically, the day before he was detained, Roland had covered a campaign by the American Civil Liberties Union to block state motor vehicle departments from using information such as what led to his detention because it is often out of date and results in improper detentions.