Sam Dolnick, a grandnephew to former Times publisher Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, is going to join the metro desk's immigration beat. He'll work with reporter Kirk Semple who joined the beat two years ago.

Mr. Dolnick started at the Times last year--his first day was Sept. 14, 2009--and has been covering a mix of Bronx stories and general assignment pieces for the metro desk. Times metro editor Joe Sexton said in a memo announcing Mr. Dolnick's new gig that the department was "blessed" to have him.

"Immigration is a sprawling, hugely important, too often oversimplified topic," wrote Mr. Sexton. "Sam will dive into it with much enthusiasm and no preconceptions. But he will synchronize that dive with some work in the coming weeks on the state comptroller's race. Sam came to Metro despite other options, and he has, in addition to working his tail off, bought a house in Brooklyn and started a family."

He added, for good measure: "We're blessed to have him in the fold, and we're thrilled to see what he will do with his new beat."

Mr. Dolnick joined the Times newsroom from the Associated Press. He was once a Village Voice intern and worked for Wayne Barrett who absolutely loved him. "He's really a sweet guy," said Mr. Barrett in an interview last year. "He came to me as a raw reporter. It was at the very start of his reporting career, but he really had the right instincts."

Mr. Dolnick is the son of Lynn Dolnick, a former director of the Smithsonian Zoo; his younger brother, Ben, is a fiction writer, according to a New York magazine piece about the Sulzberger-Ochs family.

Mr. Dolnick and A.G. Sulzberger are the only Sulzberger-Ochs family members who work in the newsroom.