Soon, the construction of I-10 through the city divided them from La Calle. Then, while Otero was living in Los Angeles working as an electrician and becoming active in LGBT+ organizing, La Calle was torn down as part of Tucson’s urban renewal initiative.

Otero decided to become the person to tell these stories. They returned to Tucson to pursue a PhD in history at the University of Arizona, where they later worked as a professor of Mexican American studies. They are the author of four books, including: "La Calle, a history of urban renewal in Tucson"; "In the Shadow of the Freeway and L.A. Interchanges", both memoirs; and the new "Storied Property: María Cordova’s Casa", which tells the story of one woman’s resistance to urban renewal and her efforts to save what Otero calls “the most important house in Tucson.”

For this episode of the Border Chronicle Podcast, reporter and editor Caroline Tracey is joined by Otero to discuss their life and work.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone familiar with Tucson, Arizona and anyone interested in doing their own place-based historical research and memoir writing.

For Logan Phillips, however, Tombstone was once home. The Tucson, Arizona-based poet was born in the town and grew up nearby. His father worked at the town’s Historic Courthouse Museum; his uncle was an actor in Westerns. Phillips’s new book, "Reckon," out now from University of Arizona Press, examines what it means to be from a place that glorifies violent, colonial masculinity—and seeks to find a way forward though family, relationships to land, and reckoning with history.

In this episode of the Border Chronicle podcast, Caroline Tracey is joined by Phillips to discuss his new book and what it means to be born in the contemporary “Old West."

We analyze how these shocking immigration sweeps—such as the one in Minneapolis that killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti—extend the U.S. border into the interior. To understand these operations, it is essential to examine the extraconstitutional powers that the Border Patrol has long exercised in the borderlands, where the agency has enjoyed impunity for its abuses. The people of the borderlands and border crossers have faced this ironfisted authoritarianism for decades.

Today, the United States appears to be entering a new phase of expanded border policing—similar to the Operation Gatekeeper deterrence of the 1990s or the sweeping powers and massive budgets that followed 9/11. Now the border can be anywhere, and the guns pointed at anyone—all with the enthusiastic support of the defense contractors who stand to profit.

But the good news is, people have had enough.

This week, we were happy to bring you a review by Caroline Tracey of an art exhibition by Sonora-born artist Miriam Salado that touched on themes of natural resources and violence in the Sonoran Desert and a reported analysis by Todd Miller about how a dramatic increase in private contracts figures into current border enforcement. Melissa del Bosque also spoke with border activist and ex-Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd about the recent ICE killings and agent impunity.

Now and into the future, we appreciate your readership and support!

This week in The Border Chronicle:

Upcoming arts and culture events:

For those readers in Phoenix, Arizona, there are two art events that may be of interest to Border Chronicle readers. This evening—Friday, January 16—artist Karima Walker, whose work was featured in this January 2025 article about the Santa Cruz River, opens Seers, a solo show related to themes of surveillance and artificial intelligence, at Step Gallery.

At Casa Caracol’s Raíz Gallery, artist maryhope | whitehead | lee’s solo exhibition, “Deadly Crossing: Death and Disappearance in the Sonora|Arizona Borderlands” is on view through Saturday, January 24. There will be a closing reception and borders collage workshop that day from 3-6 p.m.

More News from the Border:

Trump warned of a Tren de Agua invasion. US intel told a different story. WIRED

The U.S. is pressing Mexico to allow U.S. forces to fight cartels. The New York Times

Cochise Cronyism, Pt.1: A rural Arizona sheriff, ICE, and a quarter of a million dollars. Cochise County News

Cochise Cronyism, Pt. 2: Sheriff used office to shill for Canadian drone company seeking to cash in on militarized law enforcement. Cochise County News

Straight out of Project 2025: Trump’s immigration plan was clear. Capital and Main

How Donald Trump has transformed ICE. The New Yorker

Medical examiner likely to classify death of ICE detainee as homicide, recorded call says. The Washington Post

ICE prosecutor who runs racist X account returns to Dallas immigration court. Texas Observer

‘ELITE’: The Palantir app ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid. 404 Media

Inside ICE’s tool to monitor phones in entire neighborhoods. 404 Media

Texas police invested millions in a shadowy phone-tracking software. They won’t say how they’ve used it. Texas Observer

You’ve heard about who ICE is recruiting. The truth is far worse. I’m the proof. Slate

ICE agents detain Navajo man in Arizona, ignoring US, tribal IDs. The Arizona Republic

Finally, while your holiday shopping might be finished, don’t forget to check out The Border Chronicle’s online Bookshop store to find something new to read! You’ll find the books we’ve covered as well as Todd, Melissa, and Caroline’s own books. A portion of all sales benefits our work.

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Border Patrol and its paramilitary culture are now very much in control of the ICE & Border Patrol occupations in various cities in America. We talk about what this means for the investigation of Renee Good’s murder in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, and what that means for Americans as these occupations continue. We also talk about the many years of fatal shootings at the southern border, and the fact that not a single agent has been successfully prosecuted for lethal force.

We also discuss previous efforts at reform and what can be done to hold the agents accountable for their crimes.

You can learn more about Jenn’s work in this important documentary “Critical Incident: Death at the Border” which is out now on HBO Max. You can also listen to our 2022 podcast with Jenn about her memoir “Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist” about her time as an agent in the Border Patrol and her transformation into an activist and one of the fiercest critics against the agency.

Additional context mentioned in our discussion:

How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids? The Trace

We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. ProPublica

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More News from the Border:

River wall: Feds deploying 500-miles of water barriers near Brownsville MyRGV.com

San Diego sues federal government over concertina wire fence at border KPBS

Trump’s deportation drive is straining the US public coffers and labor market El Pais

The Rio Grande Valley among Texas regions most impacted by expiring health insurance subsidies The Texas Tribune

‘Renee Nicole Good, presente’: Tucsonans hold El Tiradito vigil after ICE shooting death The Tucson Sentinel

El secuestro de Venezuela La Verdad de Juarez

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More News from the Border:

The Trump administration announced this week that it will further militarize the California-Mexico border by creating another national defense area, which will be under the control of the U.S. Navy.

Interior Transfers Public Land to Navy to Support Border Security and National Defense U.S. Dept. of the Interior press release.

Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas, is now holding nearly 3,000 people in detention under deplorable conditions. The ACLU and other civil and human rights organizations are raising the alarm and warn that the administration will likely open other military detention camps soon.

ICE Letter Regarding Ft. Bliss the ACLU & read local border coverage in El Paso Matters

After Trump pardon, Rep. Henry Cuellar restored to homeland security funding post The Texas Tribune

The Department of War is celebrating the fact that it has deployed 43,000 rolls of concertina wire to be installed across the entire southern border.

Historic Border Security Milestone: Largest C-wire Delivery, Emplacement in U.S. Territorial History in Partnership with CBP The Dept. of War

DPS investigating fatal shooting involving Border Patrol in Starr County MyRGV.com

California’s Attorney General is asking people to report ICE, CBP and other federal agent misconduct.

Report Misconduct by Federal Agents to the California Attorney General

‘I made my American dream in my country’: How Rancho Feliz is confronting the immigration crisis at the source Cronkite Borderlands Project/The Tucson Sentinel

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A former asylum officer for the Department of Homeland Security, Johnson was appointed as an immigration judge in 2017 under the first Trump administration. He is also the vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Until his firing, Johnson had a full docket and handled cases from the Eloy Detention Center, located midway between Phoenix and Tucson and run by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Johnson discusses the differences in working as an immigration judge under the two Trump administrations and the fate of the immigration case backlog, which currently stands at 3.4 million cases as more judges are fired. Recently, the administration started advertising for “deportation judges” and has deployed military judges to hear immigration cases, which constitutional experts say could violate posse comitatus. Johnson also discusses how the system could be fixed, noting that remaining immigration judges are wondering who will be next to be fired. “It is disheartening to see your colleagues being fired. People are worried that they will be next,” Johnson said. “If no cause is given, there’s no way to address the reasons to fire someone. So morale is extremely low.”

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More News from the Border:

3 people arrested after Border Patrol raids No More Deaths camp in Az The Tucson Sentinel

For additional context listen to our podcast with Scott Warren, a No More Deaths volunteer who faced 20 years in jail under the first Trump administration for providing humanitarian aid.

New Video: Border Wall Blasts Destroy Southern Arizona Jaguar Habitat The Center for Biological Diversity

Builders leader: Valley banks are also being impacted by ICE raids of construction sites Rio Grande Guardian

Senador de Ohio que nació en Colombia y gozó de la doble nacionalidad quiere prohibírsela a todos los demás Conecta Arizona

Liberan campesinos Aduana y puentes tras acuerdos; si nos incumplen volverán bloqueos, advierten La Verdad de Juarez

Border Report: The Unseen Cost of Detaining as Many Immigrants as Possible Voice of San Diego

A Tucsonan is Claiming Asylum in Canada. Her Case Could Reshape How LGBTQ+ People Seek Safety Abroad. Lookout

Gutting of key US watchdog could pave way for grave immigration abuses, experts warn The Guardian

Revealed: US veterans affairs to share immigration data about non-citizen workers with ‘appropriate agencies’ The Guardian

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What happens after an arrest? How many people have been detained? And what happens to asylum seekers?

And what exactly is Kafka’s merry-go-round of hell?

Laura St. John answers these questions and more.

But, perhaps most importantly, St. John provides practical answers for what concerned people might do about it. She offers an antidote to the “sense of hopeless inevitability” that the Trump administration is purposefully creating for undocumented people.

For 15 years, St. John has been working for the Florence Project—an organization that provides legal assistance and advocacy for undocumented people in detention.

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More News from the Border:

A Theology of Smuggling Places Journal

In the early 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration galvanized the Sanctuary Movement.

A drying-up Rio Grande basin threatens water security on both sides of the border Associated Press

RGISC warns border wall plan could disrupt Laredo’s river culture Laredo Morning Times

US and Mexican residents rally against border wall construction in Arizona Caló News

Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns Associated Press

The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal The Guardian

Nogales, Sonora, dismantles migrant camps at sports complex Tucson Sentinel

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As of the publish date of this piece on Tuesday, November 18, the Trump administration has killed an estimated 82 people in 21 strikes—a rapidly growing number since the first strike took place September 2, killing 11 people. The administration claims, without evidence, that the boats it is targeting are carrying drugs.

So how does this relate to the U.S.-Mexico border? For Miller, the boat strikes bolster Trump’s unilateral authority and expand the definition of the use of force, a project that began at the U.S.-Mexico border, where Miller and other Trump allies portrayed asylum seekers as “invaders” and “alien enemies” and advocated for a military response. The same model has now been deployed in the interior, where domestic policy is being “militarized” by the administration.

Do military deployments and occupations of U.S. cities mean the end of posse comitatus and that the military will now take a bigger role in domestic affairs? Now that the interior of the country is experiencing the Border Patrol’s violence and impunity, could this finally lead to the rogue agency being reined in? (Though obviously not during this administration.) These are just a few of the topics that we explore in addition to discussing Blitzer’s book Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America and the Making of a Crisis, along with how each U.S. administration has failed to acknowledge that U.S. policy and intervention are spurring much of the migration from Central America.

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After four years, we are excited about the notion of growing, but to be honest we’re also a little freaked out because we’re continuing to see a significant drop in paid subscribers. The drop was particularly steep in September when many of our annual subscription renewals came up, and it’s continuing to drop. Every dollar that we make from subscriptions goes back into our reporting at the border. And it allows us to hire more reporters, which we’d really like to do. We’ve recently received some foundation support but it’s our readers and listeners who we rely on to keep The Border Chronicle afloat. So if you haven’t renewed or are considering becoming a paid subscriber, please do so today! It’s just $6 a month or a discounted $60 a year. Or better yet, become a founding member for $150, which comes with two additional paid subscriptions for friends and family. Or if you’d prefer, you can send us a one-time donation. We are independent, and worker-owned, and can’t do this without you!

Also, a big thank you to everyone who filled out our survey. We appreciate you taking the time, and apologies for any technical issues you might have had with submitting it. We heard from a handful of readers that had trouble submitting the form. These surveys really help us at The Border Chronicle get a better idea of what is working for our podcast listeners and readers and what you all would like to see more of. For instance, we launched these Friday news roundups after the last survey results told us that readers wanted a summary of border news for the week and presto-change-o we made it happen.

What we learned from this survey is that you all are happy with the frequency of our postings, which are three times a week. This is good to know! A few readers said they’d like more explainer pieces about border policy, which is a great idea, and we’re also exploring how we could list community and cultural events, which many of you voted for. As a region-wide publication, we’re not yet sure what this would look like, or whether it would be too sprawling. But rest assured we are working on it. If you’ve got thoughts, input about how you think we’re doing or what we could do better. Please let us know, thanks!

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News on the Border:

Ken Paxton’s attack on Texas immigration nonprofits The Hill

San Diegans Living in RVs and City Go Head-to-Head Over Safe Parking Lot Voice of San Diego

How El Paso’s Mental Health Court integrates recovery in criminal justice system El Paso Matters

Trump administration plans to build border wall in Laredo, mayor says The Texas Tribune

Judge rules border wall lawsuit can move forward during gov’t shutdown Tucson Sentinel

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This Week at The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

ICE officials replaced with Border Patrol, cementing hard tactics that originated in California Los Angeles Times

Santa Barbara’s Día de los Muertos Parade Canceled Amid Immigration Enforcement Fears Santa Barbara Independent

Monarch butterfly begins ‘magical’ journey from Chicago to Mexico in time for Dia de Los Muertos ABC7 Chicago

Tohono O’odham Nation: DHS’ new fee for noncitizens could impact tribal members in Mexico KJZZ

Advocates warn immigrants could lose jobs as DHS stops automatically extending work permits Tucson Sentinel

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“What do people,” she asks, “know about immigration in this country?” This is the question that guides our conversation that spans decades, even centuries, but ultimately ends up assessing the current state of things under Donald Trump.

“What we allow them to do on the border,” she warns, ”is what they will do to you.”

Isabel is the co-chair of the organization Coalición de Derechos Humanos, and has been on the frontlines of border and immigrant rights since the 1970s. In this conversation, filled with story-telling and biting analysis, Isabel tells listeners how she debated John McCain in the 1990s and schooled Bernie Sanders at the border during his first presidential run.

She also challenges us to “imagine what we can be,” and talks about the coalition they are forming called Defensa y Resistencia, which has a Stop the Kidnapping Campaign that directly confronts current ICE tactics. “We are openly going to protect our neighbors.” Isabel challenges listeners to do just that, by speaking up and plugging in.

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We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. ProPublica

Opinion: Drone attack in Tijuana a glimpse of a new kind of narco war San Diego Union-Tribune

La embajadora de Palestina inicia gira nacional en Tijuana denunciando genocidio en Gaza Tijuana Press

Coast Guard launches Operation River Wall to control the border along the Rio Grande US Coast Guard News

Trump’s ICE Arrested a Whistleblower Who Exposed Sexual Assault in Detention. Now, He’s Left the Country. The Texas Observer

Judge permits questioning of top Border Patrol boss in lawsuit over treatment of protesters in Chicago. Chicago Sun Times

Border barriers making it harder for health care workers to reach people who use drugs El Paso Times/Puente News Collaborative/Texas Observer

Asylum-seekers now held for days – in a downtown San Diego basement Times of San Diego

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

Thank you to everyone who attended The Border Chronicle’s Fourth anniversary party Thursday night. We had a blast! And thank you to all of our readers and listeners who have made our existence possible! We rely 100 percent on our subscribers to power our reporting and analysis. If you’ve been reading us for a long time and have thought about becoming a paid subscriber, but haven’t, we can really use your help now! Independent fact-based media is under attack.

More News from the Border:

Starbase will take partial control of beach near Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site. The Texas Tribune

Texas border providers brace for rate of uninsured patients to balloon as federal policy changes loom. The Texas Tribune

DHS blocked from conditioning state disaster aid on ICE cooperation The Tucson Sentinel

Enviros: Most public comments oppose Trump rollback of ‘Roadless Rule’ in wilderness The Tucson Sentinel

Chula Vista Becomes First in County to Embrace AI in Policing Voice of San Diego

Tech giants Open AI, Oracle behind $165 billion data center campus near El Paso El Paso Matters

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Also on September 30, I (Todd) will be in conversation with filmmaker Rick Goldsmith after a viewing of his new documentary Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink. If you are up for a vivacious conversation about the state of journalism today, please come to the Marroney Theater (directly across from the Center for Creative Photography) on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson at 7 pm.

And on October 15, you will have the opportunity to see the prophetic movie Sleep Dealer (check out Tuesday’s podcast with filmmaker Alex Rivera!) on the big screen at the Fox Theater in Tucson as part of the Cinematic Borderlands Film and Conversation Series, presented by the Fox Theater, Cinema Tucsón, Cinema Tropical, Borderlands Cinematic Arts, The Border Chronicle, and other community partners. There will be a Q&A panel after the viewing.

Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime: A Podcast with Scott Warren

How did the first Trump administration crack down on providing water and aid for migrants? And what insights we can gain from that now?

In 2019 geographer and humanitarian aid volunteer Scott Warren faced 20 years in prison for doing humanitarian work on the border. After two long trials, a jury acquitted him in November of two felony charges of harboring and one count of conspiracy to harbor. Here, Warren reflects on what happened, giving a detailed account of how he became a humanitarian aid volunteer, what led to his arrest by the Border Patrol, the trial itself, and what he is doing now.

The trial took place during the first Trump administration. Now Warren offers a grounded and insightful perspective on the current situation at the border. We grapple with the question of how to effect real change when, as Warren puts it, “the popular-level consensus in the U.S. seems to be militarize and militarize and militarize no matter what.”

At the same time, he says, the border “is a place that does need peace and healing from the layers and layers of trauma stacked on top of the place, wove into it, and the dispossession of people.”

What can we do?

For the next year Warren will be pondering just that during a collaborative speaking and discussion series. If you are interested in having him come to your university, organization, or community group, contact him at scottdw1@gmail.com.

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The Border Chronicle is proud to announce that on October 15, viewers will have the opportunity to see Sleep Dealer on the big screen at the Fox Theater in Tucson as part of the Cinematic Borderlands Film and Conversation Series, presented by the Fox Theater, Cinema Tucsón, Cinema Tropical, Borderlands Cinematic Arts, The Border Chronicle, and other community partners.

In this podcast, Melissa del Bosque speaks with Rivera about what inspired him to make Sleep Dealer and about collaborating with his life and creative partner, Cristina Ibarra. Both were awarded MacArthur Foundation grants, often referred to as “genius grants,” in 2021. The two filmmakers created the innovative half-documentary/half-scripted film The Infiltrators in 2019 and founded Borderlands Cinematic Arts, a filmmaking lab based in Los Angeles that is part of Arizona State University’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School, where Rivera is also an associate professor. The lab focuses on creating authentic and nuanced cinematic works about the borderlands.

Sleep Dealer touches on many social and political issues, including the border security industrial complex, migration, and social and economic inequality. Check it out on the big screen on October 15 at 7 p.m.. The screening will be followed by a panel featuring Alex Rivera, Melissa del Bosque, and David Taylor, moderated by Vicky Westover, along with an audience Q&A with the filmmaker.

Also, don’t miss Ibarra’s wonderful documentary Las Marthas, about Laredo’s Society of Martha Washington Colonial Pageant and Ball celebration, screening on October 8 at 7 p.m. as part of the Cinematic Borderlands Film and Conversation Series. Last, don’t miss Take It Away, a documentary about the legendary Tejano music host Johnny Canales, screening on October 22 at 7 p.m.

You can buy tickets and learn more about the films here.

Watch a short film on the making of Sleep Dealer here

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Canada and Mexico agree to deepen ties amid Trump trade war BBC

60 violations in 50 days: Inside ICE’s giant tent facility at Ft. Bliss The Washington Post

First section of new border wall in Az's San Rafael Valley visible Monday The Tucson Sentinel

Texas troopers are doubling their salaries under Abbott's border effort, even as crossings hit new lows Austin American-Statesman

Fort Bliss ‘assessing potential risks’ after city of El Paso deploys Chinese-made drones next to Army post El Paso Matters

South County Report: Democracy Is Dying? Not in National City Voice of San Diego

Independent media and our democracy are under threat. Support independent journalism from the U.S.-Mexico border today. Become a paid subscriber for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Support our reporting and independent journalism from the U.S.-Mexico border. Subscribe today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Every Friday, The Border Chronicle hosts a discussion on Substack Live about our stories from the week and share more news about the border from around the web.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:“Operation Lone Star 2.0”: DPS arresting thousands of undocumented immigrants across Texas to aid Trump’s mass deportation The Texas Tribune

Did Fort Bliss once house a World War II internment camp for people of Japanese, Italian and German descent? El Paso Matters

Amid student fear and uncertainty, Arizona colleges split on clear policies for ICE on campus Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

The eyes of Chihuahua The Texas Observer

This month The Border Chronicle is celebrating its 4th anniversary. Help us continue providing crucial news from the border with a paid subscription today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Support independent journalism from the U.S.-Mexico border. Subscribe today for just $6 a month or $60 a year. Help us keep the lights on.

More News from the Border:

Mexico-US initiative seeks to standardize water quality data as contaminated river threatens both nations Tijuana Press

Arizona’s Cochise County, known for election turmoil, may challenge state laws again ahead of 2026 The Tucson Sentinel

How an embezzlement scheme fumbled $50 million meant for Southern Ariz colonias The Tucson Sentinel

2 El Paso County DACA recipients challenge ICE detention as families plead for justice El Paso Matters

The last corridor: How conservationists are protecting wildlife in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley amid border wall construction News 21

What ICE agents can and cannot legally do during arrests NPR

This month The Border Chronicle is celebrating its 4th anniversary. Help us continue providing crucial news from the border with a paid subscription today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

More News from the Border:

ICE Is Using Taylor Swift’s Loophole To Hide Deportation Flights The Lever

DHS rap video introduces new ICE vehicles featuring Trump's name in gold RawStory

Breaking News – Border Wall Construction to Begin in September, County Officials Say Patagonia Regional Times

Trump administration bans drones in Nogales area until February Nogales International

Peruvian in Fort Bliss ICE detention says ‘American nightmare’ began after selling ceviche in Miami Beach El Paso Matters

Mystery surrounds $1.2B Army contract to build detention tent camp Associated Press

Environmental Laws Waived to Build Border Wall in Texas Wildlife Refuge Inside Climate News

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This book comes at a crucial time as the Trump administration attempts to carry out a mass deportation plan that will be financed by an estimated $45 billion budget, via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

We discuss all of this: the billions made not only by major prison companies like Geo Group and CoreCivic but also by subcontracted services such as food, medical care, and commissary. The authors highlight that substandard food and health services are part of the business model. We discuss the financial dependencies that local governments have developed through their revenue-sharing agreements with ICE. Additionally, we examine the rapid growth of the detention industry—from 7,000 people in the early 1990s to 60,000 today—and how this growth has accelerated in the last eight months under Trump.

Finally, the authors suggest solutions. “Chip away that detention is effective or necessary … this is really a false narrative,” Hiemstra says, and “peel away what makes detention profitable, and peel away the ability to make money off it.”

Hiemstra is also the author of Detain and Deport: The Chaotic U.S. Enforcement Regime. Conlon and Hiemstra also coedited the book Intimate Economies of Immigration Detention.

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More News from the Border:

Military Preparing Attacks on Mexican Cartels Ken Klippenstein

Mexico Between Drones and Extraditions: Strategic Cooperation or Hidden Submission? Pie de Nota

A Venezuelan Was Detained as a “Documented” Gang Member by ICE, which Refused to Provide Proof Texas Observer

ICE to purchase AI tech that scans eyes to increase deportations AZFamily

Trump wants US-Mexico border wall to be painted black to stop climbers BBC

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More News from the Border:

Federal judge appears ready to dismiss 2 of 14 charges in Henry Cuellar’s bribery case The Texas Tribune

Quién Es Tu Gente: The Performance Artists of the RGV Trucha RGV

Gannett buyouts claim Arizona Republic's top political & opinion writers Tucson Sentinel

A new detention facility at Fort Bliss is set to open this week after problems that may preview issues to come as ICE ramps up for mass deportation. NBC News

CETYS University Advances Cross-Border Academic Partnerships Beyond Borders Gazette

Border Patrol Agent Arrested and Charged with Domestic Violence in Laredo, Texas (Spanish text) Laredo Daily News

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Franzblau spent years documenting rights abuses in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands for the organization’s Transparency and Human Rights Project. He now advocates for better immigration policies in Congress.

In this podcast, Franzblau explains how the U.S. became home to the world’s largest immigrant detention system, and how it was built by both Republicans and Democrats. From the beginning, private prison corporations such as CoreCivic and the Geo Group built immigration detention, which has become its own booming industry, especially now that Trump’s massive spending bill, passed on July 4, will pour billions into the detention and deportation system over the next four years. In addition to defining the problem, Franzblau shares how the for-profit immigrant detention economy could be dismantled.

For more context:

* A guide for members of congress visiting detention facilities: https://immigrantjustice.org/press-release/ice-detention-oversight-toolkit-release/

* An explainer on the impact of HR1 funding: https://immigrantjustice.org/research/explainer-how-congress-codified-hateful-and-extreme-anti-immigrant-policies-by-passing-trumps-budget-bill/

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We rely 100% on our readers and listeners to support our work at the U.S.-Mexico border. Become a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels New York Times

Watch: New border wall going up over existing barrier in Rio Grande Valley Border Report

New Arizona jaguar sightings a 'positive sign' despite border wall, UA researchers say Tucson Sentinel

Fort Bliss army base on US southern border to take 1,000 ICE detainees The Guardian

Border Patrol and ICE Agents Are Arresting U.S. Citizens in Immigration Raids Capital & Main

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We rely 100% on our readers and listeners to support our work at the U.S.-Mexico border. Become a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

2 customs officers plead guilty to allowing drugs to enter the US through their inspection lanes The Associated Press

Trump Wants a New Border Wall. It Would Block a Key Wildlife Corridor. The New York Times

285 acres of Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge taken over by Navy in border security move The Tucson Sentinel

Venezuelan deportees say they endured months of abuse inside a Salvadoran prison The Texas Tribune

International bridges in Valley, border regions seeing fewer crossings MyRGV.com

San Diego County’s Schools Have 27,000 Fewer Students Than a Decade Ago. It Will Get Worse. Voice of San Diego

Rio Grande Valley’s biggest free health clinic event of the year is canceled due to federal cuts The Texas Tribune

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The discussion was spurred by the passage of the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which designates $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement over the next four years (also see how Melissa put this bill into a deeper historic context last week). This enforcement will be funded, in part, by significant cuts to U.S. health care, including the possible cancellation of insurance coverage for 12 million people.

Does security mean more walls, more technology, more armed agents, and a border that resembles a military base? Or, as Melissa and Todd discuss in the podcast, could peacemaking play an important role in creating real security for everyone? Peacemaking is not just about ending conflict; it also means creating a world where people can be healthy and flourish.

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Thanks to everyone who joined us this morning for our live roundup discussion on our reporting this week, and on the latest news happening in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

The United States is definitely in one of those history-making eras. But not the good kind. Melissa’s first post after returning from summer break, is a reflection from a road trip to Denver where she learned about another dark chapter in American history — the Sand Creek Massacre. Caroline who grew up in Denver didn’t learn about this tragedy until she was in university. And most Americans have never heard of it. More than 160 years later, many White Americans still don’t accept that it happened. Melissa also speaks with activists from across the border about how they’re meeting this moment, and how they cultivate hope and healing to weather this new dystopian chapter in U.S. history.

In brighter news, Caroline interviewed Mexicali activist Denahi Valdez about citizen-led efforts to make one of the hottest cities in North America more bike friendly, and more resilient to climate change.

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More News from the Border:

Military to establish national defense area in Yuma AZ Family

DOI Announces Land Transfer to the Department of the Navy for National Defense in Southeastern Arizona U.S. Dept. of the Interior

Tejano singer Bobby Pulido forms exploratory committee for South Texas congressional bid The Texas Tribune

Valley woman faced traumatic hospital stay prior to murder charge for self-induced abortion My RGV.com

Claim: Federal agents in plain clothes aimed guns, handcuffed Tucson Samaritans Arizona Daily Star

Feds plan to build nation’s biggest migrant detention center at Fort Bliss The Texas Tribune

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To learn more about Alix’s new memoir, listen to our May podcast with Alix and her co-author Antero Garcia. Also check out their excellent Substack “La Cuenta.”

Also, a big thanks to our readers and listeners for supporting our work by becoming a paid subscriber or donating to The Border Chronicle. We rely almost solely on our subscribers to fund this work. The Border Chronicle is the only border-wide publication in the country providing on-the-ground reporting, context and analysis from a border perspective. If you haven’t already, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $60 a year. Everything goes directly to our reporting and research. Thank you!

Yes, I want to support independent journalism today!

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

The Rio Grande Valley as Heart of LGBTQ+ Resistance and Joy The Texas Observer

Property owners express concern, confusion over Starbase zoning ordinance MyRGV.com

Mexico’s president threatens to sue over SpaceX debris from rocket explosions The Guardian

Pentagon to set up 2 more military buffer zones near border in Arizona and Texas ABC News

National Defense Area established in South Texas Air Force press release

ICE Is Arresting 1,100 Percent More Noncriminals on the Streets Than in 2017 Cato.org

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Stay to the end of the conversation, when we turn to alternatives and what people can do to make the world a better place. Amali talks about her visit to Arizona and Sonora last year, when we visited the binational fair trade coffee cooperative Café Justo in Agua Prieta. As you’ll hear, this is a thriving example of an alternative to border militarization and an assertion of the right to stay home.

Amali says that in the 10 years that she’s been looking at the intersection of climate and displacement, she sees “blatant hypocrisy from countries seemingly supposedly caring about saving the planet for future generations to come” while they are simultaneously undermining “all those goals and plans and adaptations and all these wonderful things we are supposed to be doing for the so-called existential threat.”

Instead, she continues, “When it comes to war and militarism, when it comes to borders, when it comes to keeping people out, it’s incredible how we only have language and infrastructure and architecture to do that.”

Here are links to sources mentioned in the conversation: a look at climate change in Israel/Palestine, and the IPCC report and one by Amali on the Mediterranean basin as a climate hot spot. And here is Amali’s piece written in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, “If Black Americans Were to Seek Asylum, They Could Qualify.”

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In Texas, home to some 1.7 million undocumented workers, mixed-status families in the Rio Grande Valley are caught between the Mexican border and interior checkpoints—an inescapable trap that has compounded their fear and anxiety amid daily raids.

In this audio feature, Pablo De La Rosa speaks with border residents to explore what life looks like under the constant threat of arrest and deportation.

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Her story embodies multitudes, from social justice activist to social worker to mother, grandmother, and founder of Salvavision, an immigrant advocacy organization in Tucson, and cofounder of Casa de la Esperanza, a migrant resource center in Sasabe, Sonora.

To this impressive list of accomplishments, Rodriguez can now add author. On Saturday, July 5, at 10:00 a.m., her new memoir Dora: A Daughter of Unforgiving Terrain, cowritten with Abbey Carpenter, will be released during a celebration at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, where the Sanctuary Movement started, spurred by the deaths of 13 of Rodriguez’s traveling partners, who perished in the desert south of Tucson.

In this podcast, Rodriguez talks about fleeing El Salvador, her rescue in the desert, and her role as an advocate and campaigner for human rights at the border. She also talks about what keeps her fighting and how she remains inspired by everyone who works alongside her in the struggle for social justice. “There might be a big ugly, tall wall, but in our hearts, we know we are a community, and we will continue to build bridges,” she says.

Dora: A Daughter of Unforgiving Terrain (Resilencia Publishing, 2025) is an inspiring book and a must-read at this critical moment in history, as an increasingly repressive U.S. political administration targets immigrant communities across the country.

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Also, a big thanks to all of you who have answered our call in recent weeks for paid subscribers to support our reporting at The Border Chronicle. Without you, our subscribers, we wouldn’t exist!

We’re proud of our work and believe that the U.S.-Mexico border needs a publication that connects communities across the region and highlights the perspectives and experiences of the people who live here and migrate through here.

Thanks to you, we are now closer to our goal of 2,000 paid subscribers but still have about 650 more subscribers to go! If you’re able to, and want to support independent reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border, please sign up to support The Border Chronicle as a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $60 a year. Help us keep the lights on. Mil gracias!

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

As legal fight over Guard deployment plays out, Noem vows to continue Trump’s immigration crackdown San Diego Union-Tribune

Villalobos: I’m gonna start ruffling feathers over the ICE raids in the RGV Rio Grande Guardian

DHS memo details how National Guard troops will be used for immigration enforcement NPR

DHS, Military hold press conference in El Paso on strategy to arrest border crossers in National Defense Areas. Watch full video of the press conference KVIA.com

CBP is flying surveillance aircraft over ICE operations Tucson Sentinel

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As mentioned in the video, here’s a link to sign up for next year’s Migrant Trail Walk from Sasabe, Arizona to Tucson.

Also, as promised some fabulous photos by Kathleen Dreier from the binational protest on May 31 in southern Arizona against the Trump Administration building a 30-foot wall through the San Rafael Valley, a vital wildlife corridor for endangered species like the jaguar. Left to right, participants on both sides imagine a migratory pathway without barriers, a cross-border volleyball game, and Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway speaks on the importance of a binational border culture.

Since we launched The Border Chronicle in September 2021, it has been our goal to reach 2,000 paid subscribers. Why 2,000 subscribers, you might ask? Because that would be nearly enough funding to provide us (cofounders Todd and Melissa) with a sustainable salary to run The Border Chronicle full time. Imagine what we could do focused on our media outlet 100 percent?! It would be amazing.

But … we’re not going to lie. It’s been a tough climb to reach our goal. We are still 700 subscribers short. Yesterday, we posted a heartfelt request for more paid subscribers to reach our magic number — 2000. Thank you to everyone who has pledged your support so far! And thank you for your encouraging messages. Here are just a few of them.

"The Border Chronicle is essential reading for its in-depth analysis combined with a deep love for the diverse social and natural worlds of the borderlands.”

— Liz O

"On the ground, grassroots reporting is what you do so well. There is so much misinformation about the border and immigration in these current political times. I value and trust the reporting Border Chronicle does. Thank you.

— James M

"Hi, I had been following your work for years and I believe it's beyond important. Thank you so much for your labor!"

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We hope these good people and their kind remarks — and our in depth and on-the-ground reporting — will convince you to support our work. It’s just $6 a month or a discounted $60 a year. Or even better, become a founding member for $150 and you’ll receive two additional paid annual subscriptions. A deal! Just click on the button below.

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Decision to undo Texas’ policy allowing Dreamers to pay in-state tuition is not just a bad legal move; it goes against the values we cherish as Americans Rio Grande Guardian

U.S. gunmakers get Supreme Court shield from Mexico’s cartel violence suit The Tucson Sentinel

Army surveillance balloons spotted over Tucson raise privacy concerns from advocates The Arizona Mirror

Border Report: Questions Swirl Over Baja Governor’s Cancelled Visa Voice of San Diego

Votar o no votar: México ensaya la primera elección judicial de su historia La Verdad

Federal judge in El Paso acquits Peruvian migrant in Texas military zone trespassing case El Paso Matters

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Trump's military zones could complicate search for missing migrants near US-Mexico border El Paso Times

Danger by Design: How Climate Injustice Harms Displaced People at the U.S.-Mexico Border IRAP, Las Americas

ICE detains people after immigration court hearings in San Diego: ‘Bait and switch’ Capital & Main

Border Patrol arrested a Detroit student on a field trip. He now faces deportation. Detroit Free Press

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In the last month, as reported here at The Border Chronicle, we’ve seen active-duty military deployments and the creation of new militarized “national defense areas” at the southern border. The Trump administration is moving quickly, pushing the military into domestic law enforcement duties, violating federal laws, and acting without the approval of Congress. What should we be concerned about moving forward? And is this unprecedented?

Sociologist Timothy Dunn is one of the top experts on border militarization in the United States. And he will answer those questions, and any others you might have about this rapid militarization happening right now at the border. Dunn’s books include The Militarization of the U.S. Mexico Border 1978-1992: Low Intensity Doctrine Comes Home and Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement.

Email questions for Timothy Dunn to theborderchronicle@protonmail.com And he will answer them via video in our weekly roundup on May 30. Don’t forget to put “ask an expert” in the subject line of your email.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

$160 Billion to Detain and Deport: Congress’s “Reconciliation” Bill is a Betrayal of Priorities and Will Harm the Most Vulnerable WOLA

Trump's DOD ends hunting, hiking at the border. Hunters wonder 'Am I going to get shot?' USA Today

Pentagon approves 1,100 more troops for southern border mission Military Times

Pide Artículo 19 protección para Semanario Zeta ante nuevas amenazas TijuanaPress.com

Agency tasked with protecting immigrant children is becoming an enforcement arm Tucson Sentinel

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In her new memoir, The Cost of Being Undocumented: One Woman’s Reckoning with America’s Inhumane Math, cowritten with Stanford University sociology professor Antero Garcia, Alix Dick tallies the costs—spiritual, mental, physical, and economic—of being undocumented in the United States, especially as the Trump administration escalates its cruelty and persecution of people living without legal status.

Alix and Antero discuss how they decided to cowrite her memoir, why they chose to publish it now, and how Alix worries that she might be unable to promote it publicly because of Trump’s harsh crackdown. She also explains why many immigrants supported Trump in the election. “I believe when a society is so desperate for answers and leadership, and they lack identity, they will follow whoever seems the strongest,” she said.

The two also run a Substack called La Cuenta, which is one of our recommended Substacks at The Border Chronicle. La Cuenta, launched in 2022, highlights the experiences and perspectives of people living without documents in the United States. It’s crucial reading for Americans, especially in this era. The Cost of Being Undocumented will be released June 17.

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In the last month, as reported here at The Border Chronicle, we’ve seen active-duty military deployments and the creation of new militarized “national defense areas” at the southern border. The Trump administration is moving quickly, pushing the military into domestic law enforcement duties, violating federal laws, and acting without the approval of Congress. What should we be concerned about moving forward? And is this unprecedented?

Sociologist Timothy Dunn is one of the top experts on border militarization in the United States. And he will answer those questions, and any others you might have about this rapid militarization happening right now at the border. Dunn’s books include The Militarization of the U.S. Mexico Border 1978-1992: Low Intensity Doctrine Comes Home and Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement.

Email questions for Timothy Dunn to theborderchronicle@protonmail.com And he will answer them via video in our weekly roundup on May 30. Don’t forget to put “ask an expert” in the subject line of your email.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Judge Dismisses ‘Trespassing’ Charges Promoted by Trump in Border ‘Defense Area’: The New York Times

The Big Takeover: inside secret plans to create a nation-wide militarized law enforcement system under Trump's command: Cochise Regional News

Migrant Drug Seizures by Border Patrol Incredibly Rare, Data Shows: Project on Government Oversight

Military Presence Arrives to SCC: Nogales International

Also, mentioned in today’s video roundup discussion:

We rely on our readers to continue. If you believe in our work at The Border Chronicle, please support us today for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

In the last month, as reported here at The Border Chronicle, we’ve seen active-duty military deployments and the creation of new militarized “national defense areas” at the southern border. The Trump administration is moving quickly, pushing the military into domestic law enforcement duties, violating federal laws, and acting without the approval of Congress. What should we be concerned about moving forward? And is this unprecedented?

Sociologist Timothy Dunn is one of the top experts on border militarization in the United States. And he will answer those questions, and any others you might have about this rapid militarization happening right now at the border. Dunn’s books include The Militarization of the U.S. Mexico Border 1978-1992: Low Intensity Doctrine Comes Home and Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement.

Email questions for Timothy Dunn to theborderchronicle@protonmail.com And he will answer them via video in our weekly roundup on May 30. Don’t forget to put “ask an expert” in the subject line of your email.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

‘No meaningful treatment’: Doctor says San Diego County jails are the worst he’s ever seen: The San Diego Union Tribune

SpaceX workers in South Texas vote yes to create City of Starbase: The Texas Tribune

As Starbase, Texas voted into reality, opponents gather on Boca Chica Beach: MyRGV.com

Outbound inspections back up border traffic at northern border: The Northern Light

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Over the last month, as reported here at The Border Chronicle, we’ve seen an amping up and expansion of the militarization of the border. Needless to say, questions about this abound. What is happening exactly? Are we onto a new phase of border militarization? How is it different from the past? And what should we be concerned about moving forward?

Sociologist Timothy Dunn is one of the top experts on border militarization in the United States. His two books are The Militarization of the U.S. Mexico Border 1978-1992: Low Intensity Doctrine Comes Home and Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement. Dunn’s work has been crucial in its investigations of the whys and hows of border militarization over many decades, and he can provide in depth and contextual analysis to everything happening right now.

Email us your questions about border militarization for Timothy Dunn. He’ll answer your questions via video in our weekly roundup on May 30. Don’t forget to put “ask an expert” in the subject line of your email. Send your questions to theborderchronicle@protonmail.com

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Jews and Border Communities Unite for Passover Seder Against Militarization Frontera Federation

First migrants charged with entering restricted military zone at border The Washington Post

Second National Defense Area established in Texas U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs

International Tribunal Condemns U.S. Border Officials for Torturing, Killing Immigrant Capital & Main

Jury finds BP agent guilty of corruption for helping smuggle drugs through I-19 checkpoint Tucson Sentinel

Photos from May Day March in Tucson

On May 1, thousands gathered in Tucson as part of a National Day of Action to protest the Donald Trump administration. This action corresponded with May Day marches for workers and workers rights around the world. Here, in the borderlands, there was a clear and loud focus on border rights issues. Some chants included “Donald Trump, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here” and “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.” And elder border and rights activist Isabel Garcia said from the stage that “We need to invest in human needs at the border, not more surveillance and militarization.” The Border Chronicle was able to capture some of this spirit in the following photos from the march and rally.

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The International Boundary and Water Commission is a binational agency responsible for managing and enforcing treaties between the U.S. and Mexico that manage water sharing, infrastructure, pollution and other transboundary issues.

Last week, Maria-Elena Giner, the U.S. Commissioner for the IBWC abruptly posted a letter of resignation addressed to President Donald Trump. Giner told The Washington Post that the Trump administration had demanded her resignation that same day without reason.

Giner's sudden departure came as a shock for many. In 2021, Giner was appointed to a severely underfunded agency with no long-term plan for investing in and maintaining vital infrastructure. In a few short years, Giner gained impressive momentum forging agreements with Mexico for water releases in Texas, and working on the creation of a binational wastewater treatment plant in California.

The first Latina to be appointed as U.S. commissioner, and a fronteriza from Ciudad Juárez/El Paso, Giner relied on deep cross-border community building to broker these binational agreements. Many of her major projects were coming to fruition when she was ousted by the current administration.

In this interview, Giner discusses the numerous infrastructure needs on the border. She also touches on binational water politics, and how the lower Rio Grande river basin, which was just designated as endangered, might be saved.

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Earlier this month, Erick Meza, borderlands coordinator for the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, discovered that one of the sections slated for the upcoming border wall is southern Arizona’s San Rafael Valley, a critical wildlife corridor for endangered species, including jaguars. “It’s an ecological catastrophe,” he said of the proposed construction in the grassland valley. Meza spends much of his time traveling the borderlands documenting wildlife and the impacts of the border wall on an ecosystem under extreme stress from climate change and militarization.

In this podcast, Meza discusses the proposed wall construction and its impact on the San Rafael Valley, as well as other areas where the wall is slated to be built. He also shares what biologists and conservationists are learning about the effects on wildlife and the environment from previous wall construction, and how this knowledge will inform their work in the future.

What You Can Do

Sign a Sierra Club petition against the building of border wall in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley. Sign here.

Contact your congressional leaders and express your opposition to further border wall construction. Contact them here.

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Among the topics covered are Stryker armored vehicles deployed in El Paso, including one conducting surveillance from a garbage dump; DHS secretary Kristi Noem recounting an epiphany about a Target store by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele (this epiphany helps Bukele justify the 40,000-person capacity “terrorist” prison accepting U.S. deportees); the chilling surveillance tower known as the Torre Centinela looming over Ciudad Juárez; a DOD spokesperson telling Melissa that “you know more than we know”; and Todd sharing the story of how he got kicked out of the Border Security Expo 10 years ago (yes, there is some good old-fashioned humor as well).

Militarization, surveillance, privatization, water, and climate change are all addressed as The Border Chronicle attempts to grapple with what has happened, what is happening, and what’s to come.

And since there is so much to discuss, we’d love to hear your perspectives about the last 100 days. Please feel free to comment below. What are your thoughts and opinions? Border residents, what have you seen? Anything of note? Please don’t be shy about adding to our conversation.

Also, here’s a few of Melissa’s favorite signs from the “Hands Off” protest in Tucson last week as mentioned in the podcast.

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Last year, media were banned from the event but Miller attended anyway. This year, the expo granted access to media only a few days before the event. On Thursday, Miller will have a full write up on the conference, which included Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as invited speakers.

Stay tuned for more…

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Both Urrea and Nabhan offered fascinating insights into their writing and research, and the long history of cultural resistance in the borderlands. Their talk was followed by a Q&A with the audience.

The event was part of the “Peek Behind the Curtain” borderlands speaking series created by Voices from the Border and Sierra Club Borderlands which The Border Chronicle has moderated since 2022. At the beginning of this podcast, you’ll hear Maggie Urgo with Voices from the Border making a case to the audience for supporting The Border Chronicle and local border journalism. This event was also a fundraiser for the Patagonia-based nonprofits Voices from the Border and the Patagonia Creative Arts Center.

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As promised, immigration expert Austin Kocher has answers for some of your most confounding immigration questions. We sent Austin your questions and he chose three of them to answer. We also tried something fun by doing this via video. Thanks so much to our readers who sent in your questions. Every one of them was great! And thanks Austin for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

Hundreds of troops could be headed to Presidio County, but officials lack firm details The Big Bend Sentinel

Trump team makes plans for military to hold migrants at border The Washington Post

A Deadly Passage Texas Monthly

Video: Bishop Michael Hunn Responds to Department of Homeland Security: Defending Our Border Ministry

“A mi país ya no regreso”: Juárez, de paso de migrantes a ciudad de refugio La Verdad Juarez

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Bier, a former senior policy adviser for a Republican congressional member, also talks about what it’s like in Congress right now, and how the unfettered push to build Trump’s mass deportation machine will lead to unbridled corruption. “Republicans still think this [mass deportations] is a winning issue and that they should lean into the messaging about an invasion … And Democrats are running from this issue still. … It’s incredible how Democrats have shrunk from this moment,” Bier said.

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According to García Hernández, however, Trump’s narrative didn’t appear out of thin air. “Trump is at the extreme edge of a decades-long campaign by elected officials, by intellectuals, by pundits to embrace this notion of migrant criminality, of dangerousness,” he says. Associating migrants with criminality or other unsavory traits, indeed, has been a longtime U.S. pastime. Look at Ronald Reagan, García Hernández points out, who called Central American migrants (many from Nicaragua) the “leading edge of the Soviet invasion.” Or George H. W. Bush, who described Haitians as “contagions.” Or Bill Clinton and his allies “going on and on about super predators,” and, subsequently, “the idea that young people coming from Latin America specifically … [will] engage in criminal activity.”

Perhaps there is no better person to assess the moment we are in than García Hernández, whose book Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the Criminal Alien (New Press, 2024), is a deep dive into, and rebuttal to, this narrative that Trump has come to master. His previous book, Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants (New Press, 2019), also masterfully deals with issues of utmost importance to this moment. As does his first book, Crimmigration Law (ABA, 2015). García Hernández is the Gregory H. Williams chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

In the podcast, García Hernández not only assesses Trump’s foundations but also examines the first three weeks of his new term in office. He also speculates on where we might be headed, including what resistance there might be.

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Texas-based civil rights advocate Bob Libal, an U.S. consultant for the international nonprofit Human Rights Watch, has been monitoring Operation Lone Star since it began. In this podcast, Libal explains in depth what Operation Lone Star is and its many impacts on Texas and its border communities. “Every aspect of this program is utilized for maximum publicity and to gin up anti-immigrant sentiment that is increasingly radical,” Libal says. He also talks about the incredible resiliency of border communities and how they have fought back against the threats to their civil and human rights. “I think the rest of the country can learn from Texas border communities,” Libal says.

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And now she joins us again (actually her third time; her first in 2022 was on the impact of surveillance). This time, she’s bringing an on-the-ground and insightful analysis about the first year of Trump and an assessment of Joe Biden’s last years in office. We discuss the exiting president’s border legacy, Trump’s plans for mass deportation, and the invasion narrative, which has invaded political and media discourse. Pinheiro makes the point that, far from the “open borders” narrative that droned on for four long years, “the Biden administration really teed up with infrastructure and a set of policies that will make the second Trump administration exponentially worse than the first.” She also talks about the potential for opposition, and its possible pitfalls, and she offers suggestions on how people can respond. In other words, Pinheiro offers a perspective simply not found anywhere else.

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We wanted to examine how border militarization, including Texas’ Operation Lone Star, contributes to the growing number of drowning deaths in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo.

As a longtime border reporter, I had never encountered a comprehensive, binational investigation of this issue, so a year ago, we set out to document what was happening, especially in the Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras corridor on the Rio Grande, which has seen the highest number of drownings.

The investigation began November 15, 2023, when I and my colleagues Daniel Howden, director at Lighthouse Reports, and Justin Hamel, an independent photojournalist, set out from the boat ramp at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass. Leading us down the river was Jessie Fuentes, owner of Epi’s Canoes and Kayaks. We set out at sunrise as fog drifted across the river, lending it a ghostly, ethereal ambience. But we were soon met with a cold, hard reality: desperate families stranded on islands in the middle of the river. We came across a family of four, the father with a toddler on his shoulders, standing in the freezing water. Soldiers in Texas yelled at them to go back to Mexico. During our investigation, we found that in 2023, one out of every 10 people who died in the river was a child. Our trip down the river was a heartrending experience, one I’ll never forget.

In this special Backlight & Border Chronicle podcast, I discuss our investigation’s findings with my Lighthouse colleagues Beatriz Ramahlo da Silva and Tessa Pang. And please check out the full investigation published by our media partners The Washington Post and El Universal. You can also read about how we undertook the lengthy data collection and analysis for this project at Lighthouse Reports.

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This is but one point of many discussed in this podcast episode. Melissa and Todd talk about Trump’s mass-deportation promise and the Democrats’ uninspiring ironfisted campaign on the border. Todd talks about what it was like to cover Election Day from the Mexican side of the border. And Melissa analyzes the election results in Arizona. As always, there is a bit of a media critique and a recommendation on where to look for hope and solutions: the border communities themselves.

Please feel free to use the comment section as a discussion forum for any of your own concerns, thoughts, or observations about the election and what’s to come. We appreciate the collective knowledge and wisdom of our subscribers. Also, we wanted to let you know that we will be pausing for a week for the Thanksgiving holiday. We are grateful to have you here with us.

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So where does “border security” fit in to this? Part of the answer is that borders do not produce security but subordination. This point has been made for two decades now by sociologist Nandita Sharma (see the essay “Why No Borders?,” which she cowrote with Bridget Anderson and Cynthia Wright). The point of borders is not to keep people out but to keep them in line. Borders are foundational to a global system fraught with injustice.

The struggle for no borders, Sharma explains, is a practical political project.

Sharma is the author of two books, Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of “Migrant Workers” in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2006) and Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants (Duke University Press, 2020). She teaches at the University of Hawai‘i.

During our conversation, I wondered aloud whether “no borders” is still a practical political project, now that Donald Trump will take office for a second term. She responded without hesitation, “It’s not only a viable step, it’s the only step.”

As we concluded, we discussed the provocative quote from Italian thinker, philosopher, and Marxist Antonio Gramsci: “The old world is dying. The new world is struggling to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”

Those monsters are easy to identify with the incoming Trump administration and the nation-state it represents, along with increasing climate catastrophe. “This is the moment of solidarity,” Sharma said. “This is the moment for mutual support.” Indeed, she hinted, the moment has arrived to not only imagine but also to work for another possible world.

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We also discuss Kamala Harris’s tough stance on border security and the bipartisan bill rejected by Trump, and the broader implications of this for human rights and migration. And we get into misconceptions about “open borders,” and we talk about the role of “robodogs” and other technology in border enforcement. And much more.

Give it a listen and leave a comment. How are you feeling leading up to November 5?

Also, during the podcast, neither Todd nor Melissa could remember the name of a great book on immigration policy under the Trump administration  (it’s been that kind of a month): it’s Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael Shear. It’s chock-full of details about what went down inside the administration during that chaotic era. And here’s a post featuring the infamous robodogs from March, when Todd crashed the annual Border Security expo in El Paso, Texas, even though the expo banned journalists.

And one last thing—don’t forget to vote. Our democracy depends on it!

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The event kicked off an exciting new oral history project called “The Border Before,” which aims to elevate the voices and perspectives of border residents and examine how politics, migration, and border security policies have affected border communities in the last two decades.

“The Border Before” is the brainchild of the nonprofit organization Voices from the Border, with the help of the Sierra Club, The Patagonia Museum, La Linea art studio, the Pimeria Alta Museum, and We Love Nogales. A very special thanks to Maggie Urgo, India Aubry, Evan Kory, and others for organizing this event.

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According to the Snapshot of ICE Detention: Inhumane Conditions and Alarming Expansion, an NIJC briefing released last week, these facilities are notoriously abusive. Since 2021, 23 people have died in ICE custody, and there has been a 50 percent increase in solitary confinement. Now the Biden administration has requested proposals from private industry to further increase detention space.

This is why today The Border Chronicle is talking with the NIJC’s senior policy analyst, Jesse Franzblau. He conducts investigative research on rights abuses in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands for the organization’s Transparency and Human Rights Project.

Franzblau and the NIJC were part of a large coalition of rights organizations, accompanied by past detainees, who converged on Washington on September 23 for a national day of action and advocacy. The coalition called for the Biden administration to halt its plans to open new detention prisons and expand deportations, to close down detention centers known for rampant abuse, and to release incarcerated people and allow them to navigate their cases outside the prison walls.

Franzblau talks about all this, and much more, on today’s podcast. He said the immigration detention and deportation apparatus “hasn’t always been this way. It was in the ’80s when it started to take shape during the Reagan administration, then during the ’90s it grew even further, and it grew directly parallel to the growth of the mass-incarceration system.” And now federal funding for ICE detention is five times what it was two decades ago.

Her new book, out this month, The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy, is a must-read, especially during our most consequential presidential election in generations. In this podcast, Pishko talks about her new book, the right-wing constitutional sheriff’s movement, and how it was founded. And she talks about why this is important to border communities: because sheriffs in this movement have embraced far-right militia groups, white nationalists, and former president Donald Trump, who sees them as allies in his plans for mass deportations if he is elected. You can also read more of Pishko’s work at her excellent Substack, Posse Comitatus.

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The other important thing that we had in Tuesday’s post was a survey that we’re hoping more people could take the time to fill out. So if you could, please let us know how we’re doing by clicking on the button below. Many thanks!

From Green Beret to Human Rights Activist on the Border: A Podcast with Mike Wilson and José Antonio Lucero

Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson’s story gives us a compelling, personal, and geopolitical glimpse into the borderlands across a history of militarization, resistance, and transformation.

How does one go from a U.S. Special Forces Green Beret in El Salvador to doing humanitarian aid work on the border? This is where Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson begins this podcast conversation, with a profound and personal story of transformation. It happened at the height of the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in 1989, when Wilson accepted an invitation to eat dinner at a family’s house in Sonsonate, where he was stationed. At first Wilson took this as part of a military tactic to win the hearts and minds of the local population. But little did he know that it was his heart and mind that would be changed.

In this conversation, Wilson is joined by University of Washington political scientist José Antonio Lucero, a native of El Paso and chair of the UW’s Comparative History of Ideas Department. Lucero is the coauthor of their compelling and extraordinary new book What Side Are You On? A Tohono O’odham Life Across Borders. We conduct this audio interview in the same style of the book, with Wilson talking about his life story and the portrait it paints of the borderlands, and Lucero framing it in a broader geopolitical and historical context.

There is much to cover, since Wilson’s story starts with growing up indigenous in the segregated mining town of Ajo, Arizona in the mid-20th century, to the grave consequences of U.S. foreign policy in Central America in the 1980s, to the militarization of the border in the 1990s and 2000s, and finally to the humanitarian aid work that he still does to this day. We talk about all this, with the added bonus of hearing their thoughts on the U.S. elections and what it means for the borderlands.

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In this podcast, Chaparro and I discuss not only the El Mayo story, with its many twists and turns, but also how the notion of a “drug cartel” has become old fashioned, since these are now massive, multinational criminal enterprises, controlling markets for everything from avocados to water. We also talk about the dangers faced by reporters in Mexico, especially those who try to document the corruption of politicians and businesses who participate in criminal organizations. And Chaparro talks about the incoming Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and compares her stance on the DEA and its “kingpin strategy” in Mexico, in comparison to policies of the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The latter has an extremely frosty relationship with the agency, which investigated whether he received drug money during his 2006 presidential campaign.

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In the conversation, we hit on a lot of points, on Kamala Harris’s positions, particularly on the border, the root causes of migration, and what they are (including, in Aviña’s analysis, the historic context of U.S. military and economic violence, especially in Central America).

And we talk about what will happen in Mexico under a Sheinbaum administration, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s mixed record, especially on border and immigration enforcement, and what this means going forward for the relationship between the United States and Mexico.

And finally, Aviña tells us where he finds optimism: in the transborder communities of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The hope is to find alternatives to what Aviña calls the Children of Men scenario, referring to the 2006 film that imagines a dystopic future broiled in climate change, refugees, and intense border surveillance (among other things). You’ll have to listen to see what Aviña means by this, but maybe these alternatives won’t be found in the White House or Los Pinos.

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Here, she shares her in-depth and historical knowledge about how immigration enforcement, the prison-industrial complex, and deportations function and intersect with the criminal justice system. And she offers sharp insight into the current moment, talking about the simultaneous gutting of the asylum system and the ramping up of border enforcement, and the good immigrant–versus–bad immigrant narrative that shows up so often in campaign talking points.

But don’t miss the last part, when Shah offers a new framework beyond these stale talking points, and focuses on creating a world where every person can thrive. As Le Guin writes in The Dispossessed, “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

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At the very least, Isacson says, journalists such as the New York Times’ Nikolas Kristof should acknowledge policy alternatives that would preserve protections for asylum seekers. “None of these columns talks about making the U.S. asylum system viable, and faster, adjusting it to a new era of historic worldwide migration. They don’t even mention it as an option to be discarded,” Isacson wrote recently.

In this podcast, we discuss solutions to fix the asylum system, and Isacson shares insights from a recent trip to Colombia and the impact that organized crime has on migration routes, including the Darién Gap. We also talk about migration at the border as extreme summer temperatures take hold.

Isacson directs the Defense Oversight Program for the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin America, in Washington, DC. He also contributes to WOLA’s Migration and Border Security program, which tracks the impact that policies have on migrants’ human rights, including their access to asylum.

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But it’s tough these days for journalism. Publications of all sizes are closing around the country in the midst of one of the most consequential elections in history.

The Border Chronicle began three years ago this September with a vision to cut through that chaos, but we can’t do it without your help.

Migration, humanitarian work, and the border region are being used by authoritarians to fearmonger and intimidate Americans into voting away their freedoms in this next election.

As we near our publication’s three-year anniversary and celebrate the people and communities whose stories we’ve had the privilege of sharing, we’re asking you to help us reach The Border Chronicle’s original funding goal.

More than 900 of our readers have already committed to the paid subscriptions that have made these stories possible so far. We need 2,000 members of our community in total, including these 900, to make it possible for Todd and I to do this work full time and to take The Border Chronicle to a level above what it is today.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to The Border Chronicle. A subscription is just $6 a month or $60 a year.

We also have a founding member tier for $150, which comes with two additional paid subscriptions for friends and family and a very stylish Border Chronicle tote bag sewn by the women’s cooperative DouglaPrieta Works in Agua Prieta, Sonora (available in black or beige).

We’re proud of our work and we hope you’ll continue reading about the communities in the big and beautiful U.S.-Mexico border region and staying informed. Thanks for watching and supporting The Border Chronicle!

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It is essential to know about border technology and its evolution, and how it affects people crossing borders and people living in borderlands around the world. Molnar, on the leading edge of reporting and analysis on this issue, helps us understand how border tech connects to larger political and economic power structures, and how it is not a humane alternative to a wall.

She splits her time across the hemispheres, in North America and Europe, which brings a global perspective to the book, and underscores the omnipresence of surveillance. And this is not Molnar’s first appearance at The Border Chronicle, check out her article on robotic dogs from 2022. You should also see her work at the Migration Tech Monitor and the Refugee Law Lab.

After we recorded the podcast, we took a trip to the border in Nogales. Lengthwise across the bollards was a narrow metal track that looked exactly like the encasement for a sensor system that I saw displayed by a company at the Border Security Expo. It was the first time I had seen this addition to the wall. Indeed, the walls do have eyes.

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There must be a better way. This was John Washington’s thought as he launched his latest book project, The Case for Open Borders, which takes a deep dive into more humane responses to global migration and examines the history of borders and nation-states, which are relatively recent in human history. Washington, based in Tucson, Arizona, is a longtime border journalist and staffer at the nonprofit journalism outlet AZ Luminaria. He is also the author of The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond.

When it comes to border and migration policies, Washington notes, “People are hungry for ideas on what we could push for—other than a defensive posture. … But what do we want? How do we have a more just and open world?”

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In the following interview, The Border Chronicle talks to Shura and David Damian Figueroa, who directed the film alongside Kayvon Derak Shanian. When you are on the border, Figueroa says, “the Border Patrol has machine guns, the border security for the construction company has machine guns, sometimes the vigilantes are out there and they have machine guns, and also right across the wall or the fence, or whatever you want to call it, is the cartel, and they are packing machine guns as well. The Samaritans are out there doing the work, and they have water and they have food.”

The documentary, he says, is “a love letter to the Samaritans.”

Our interview follows the same spirit. Both David and Shura recall how they first met, talk about the importance of humanitarian aid and the importance of kindness, among many other things.

Shura, besides being a humanitarian aid volunteer (30 hours a week!), is also a black belt in karate and a Buddhist Jew. She is originally from Illinois but has been in southern Arizona since 2001. The documentary begins with Shura quoting the Dalai Lama: “Kindness is my religion.” David is an artist, filmmaker, author, activist, photographer, and humanitarian aid volunteer. He grew up in a family of farmworkers in southern Arizona and has been involved with social justice and civil rights his entire life.

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In this podcast, Todd and Melissa get into real border issues that remain unaddressed in this year’s presidential election. And they talk about some of the biggest stories at the U.S.-Mexico border—including a new investigation, Smoke and Lies, which Melissa worked on with news outlets Lighthouse Reports, La Verdad in Ciudad Juárez, and El Paso Matters in Texas, as well as Todd’s reporting on climate change and water scarcity in the borderlands. We hope you’ll give it a listen and leave a comment on what you think are the most pressing issues facing the borderlands.

*Also, become a founding member today for $150 (which comes with two additional paid subscriptions) and you’ll get a limited edition Border Chronicle tote bag. They’re going fast! (They also come in black).

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Lauren Markham has also written the award-winning The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life. Her writing and journalism can be found in many places including The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New York Times Magazine.

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The rare and elusive creatures once lived throughout the American Southwest. But they’ve nearly disappeared over the past 150 years due to habitat loss and government programs to protect the livestock industry.

For decades, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity has worked to protect jaguars, successfully lobbying for them to be listed in 1997 as an endangered species. And in December 2022 the center petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce jaguars to New Mexico and designate more critical habitat in New Mexico and Arizona.

In this Border Chronicle podcast, McSpadden discusses this exciting new discovery and the work that the center and others are doing to bring back the endangered jaguar population in the United States.

So often the result of this theater is a reductive conversation in the media: While some aspects of the border receive hyper attention, others—such as the massive border surveillance apparatus and its corporate sponsors—do not. Luckily, today we are joined by the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Resistance Lab, Mizue Aizeki, to help us see the bigger picture. The Surveillance Resistance Lab is a think and act tank that builds research, strategy, campaigns, and networks of collaboration to scale up people’s ability to take on the threat of surveillance. Mizue is also coeditor of the book Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence (out this month from Haymarket Books), as well as coauthor of many reports, such as The Everywhere Border: Digital Migration Control Infrastructure in the Americas and Smart Borders or a Humane World? Mizue mentions all these works in our conversation—as we look at the border, its digitization, its externalization and expansion, and omnipresence in an election year that by all indications will put the border front and center.

Throughout the conversation, Mizue flips the border theater narratives on their head. She asks, “What if we acknowledge that borders are a form of state violence that enforce global inequality and unequal access to life? … What if the rules people are being asked to follow are fundamentally unjust, exclusionary, and punitive? … Just like most reasonable people wouldn’t see Jim Crow or apartheid as neutral legal regimes, we have to start seeing the U.S. immigration regime in the same way.”

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—Steve Bannon, February 2018.

Folks, it’s hard to watch the national media take the bait with Texas governor Greg Abbott’s grandstanding on the border in the town of Eagle Pass.

Since 2020, MAGA Republicans have been rolling out a concerted messaging campaign around an invasion at the border, backed by the MAGA media ecosystem, which is in overdrive this election season as the GOP implodes.

In December 2022, there was a similar showdown at the Arizona border with former Republican governor Doug Ducey, who dumped a three-mile junkyard wall of shipping containers in the middle of a federally protected forest. Political sabers were rattled, and a fantastical lawsuit filed by Ducey claiming an invasion at the border and that the federally owned “Roosevelt Reservation” in fact belonged to Arizona. For weeks, headlines were dominated by rhetorical gibes over whether federal officers with U.S. Fish and Wildlife would stop Ducey’s illegal junkyard wall.

But there were no dueling pistols at the hokey corral. Residents and activists occupied the construction site, slowing the junkyard wall’s advancement. The courts sent Ducey and his lawsuit packing. A lame-duck governor, with Democrat Katie Hobbs taking office in January, Ducey finally agreed to remove the shipping containers. Hobbs was left with the cleanup and costs, which were more than $200 million for Arizona taxpayers.

Honestly, Ducey’s great wall of junk just didn’t make good visuals for the MAGA-media sphere. Not like Abbott’s multibillion-dollar police and military apparatus at the border under Operation Lone Star, which comes with uniforms, miles of razor wire, and military equipment. Abbott’s Lone Star is the perfect meme-able backdrop for the MAGA invasion fever dream, perpetrated by Bannon and other former Trump cabinet members, and underwritten by the same millionaires and billionaires who are supporting Trump’s 2024 candidacy.

It’s time to flush the toilet on Bannon and his crew.

This all leads me to the question: How did right-wing media hijack the narrative around the U.S.-Mexico border? You’ve probably heard the terms “military age men,” “invasion,” and “Biden’s open borders” bandied about in the media and among congressional leaders. These deliberately dehumanizing terms have shaped the way Americans view the U.S.-Mexico border as the 2024 election season unfolds. In a 2022 poll, NPR found that more than half of Americans believe there’s an invasion at the southern border. The poll found that 76 percent of those who identified as Republican believed the narrative. NPR found that these beliefs hinged on party affiliation and on whether a person watched right-wing media outlets like Fox News.

In his research, AJ Bauer focuses on right-wing media and conservative movements in the United States. We talk about mutual aid movements in New York and Chicago and the trajectory of right-wing media from fringe to mainstream and its domination by the MAGA movement. Bauer, an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama, holds a PhD in American studies from New York University and is coeditor of News on the Right: Studying Conservative News Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2019). In addition to academic venues, Bauer has written for The Texas Observer, the Guardian, TV Guide, Politico Magazine, and Bloomberg. He’s currently writing a book about the history of conservative press criticism in the United States, called Making the Liberal Media.

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In this interview, she offers an on-the-ground perspective from the California-Mexico border, assessing both 2023 border trends while pondering and prophesizing about what we might expect in 2024.

Erika stresses that we have to look at “how the border is being framed,” which lately has been “this narrative of border chaos and overwhelm.” This narrative comes, she says, while enforcement agencies have more resources than ever before and while fewer people crossed the border in 2023. Yet “this narrative of overwhelm is not challenged by the media by and large.” She wants that to change, as you’ll see here, and offers specific examples of what we can do.

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Well, today we have the perfect person to talk to about that: author, writer, and journalist Anna Lekas Miller. In this podcast, she explains how people attempt to manage this daunting circumstance, sometimes against all odds. She starts the conversation talking about her own romance and how that inspired her new book, Love Across Borders: Passports, Papers, and Romance in a Divided World. She tells us about how she fell in love with Syrian journalist Salem Rizk, now her husband, in Istanbul. Just as their romance was getting started, the Turkish government began a crackdown on both Syrians and journalists, of which Salem was both. Authorities kicked him out of the country. As Anna puts it, they went from “fun and flirty” to “how are we going to be together?”

This forced Anna to think about other people across the world who are in a similar situation: in love but divided by borderlines. Here, she gives us a taste of the stories she details in the book, and while doing that she talks about passports, statelessness, Gaza, and the strange plot twist with her own attempts to get papers with Salem.

At the end, Anna offers a solution. One that, rest assured, would be a wonderful holiday gift for so many people:

“If we had this political imagination to decriminalize borders the way that something like marijuana has been decriminalized in many places in the United States, I think that could change a lot of people’s lives for the better.”

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But a historic number of people continue to arrive. In Lukeville, Arizona, people from all over the world line up to be processed by Border Patrol with the aim of applying for asylum, while in Matamoros, Mexico, migrants wait for months in camps with no running water or toilets for an appointment on CBPOne. And in Tijuana, and other border cities, wait lists grow for vulnerable migrants, just as they did for Title 42 exemptions. “I’ve never seen it so complex as it is now,” says Caitlyn Yates, a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology at the University of British Columbia, who released a new report, along with fellow migration expert Stephanie Leutert, giving us a snapshot of the increasingly complicated puzzle that is asylum policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yates joins us from Panama, where she studies the migration flow through the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous migratory crossings in the world. This year, the jungle crossing will have seen a historic number of migrants, she says, most of whom are on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border.

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At first, the Sidewalk School focused on educational programs for children living in migrant camps in the Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, right on the other side of the Rio Grande. Five years later, in addition to offering education programs, the Sidewalk School has grown into a provider of food, medical services, shelter, and even tech troubleshooting for the U.S. government’s glitch-filled CBPOne app, which asylum seekers in Mexico are required to use to request an appointment with U.S. border officials.

Rangel-Samporano doesn’t see the need ending anytime soon, and she worries that disinformation is playing an outsized role in shaping Americans’ views about the border and the humanitarian needs there. It’s also affecting asylum seekers who are starved for accurate information about the U.S. immigration system, Rangel-Samporano says. Both the federal government and the Texas state government, which is investing billions in apprehension and detention under its Operation Lone Star initiative, should provide that information so that asylum seekers can make the best choices for their families, she says. “Giving people correct, accurate information,” she adds, “will do way more than giving them no information and putting up barbed wire and walls.”

Rangel-Samporano also talks about the lack of visibility and resources for Black migrants, who face racism and harsher treatment on their journeys. And she says that family separation is still occurring at the border. “It happens all the time and in so many ways.”

“If you really want to know what’s happening on the Mexican side of the border, follow the humanitarian groups like the Sidewalk School, who are working there,” Rangel-Samporano says. “We are there every day, seven days a week.”

Follow the Sidewalk School on Facebook or on X at @SidewalkSchool

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In this conversation, as we approach the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates (that begins on November 30), Amali offers a provocative reframing of climate change and its impact on people. Climate change, she says, is a form of oppression for the majority of the world. By placing climate as an equivalent to persecution (similar to political, economic, or racial persecution), she challenges prevalent Global North narratives and offers new ways to view, think about, and tackle climate and displacement in the world. She asks listeners to consider this following question when thinking about people on the move: “How has the situation risen to such an oppressive level that I have absolutely no recourse but to leave my home country?” And, finally, Amali insists that it is the people with these lived experiences who should be leading the important climate conversations.  Listen to this podcast and you might not think about climate and migration in the same way again.  

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Chishti discusses how the system could be meaningfully changed, including how Congress could make it both more humane and responsive to the country’s needs.

The United States, he says, is facing two fundamental crises when it comes to migration. The first is that the workforce is aging, which means we need to bring in younger workers, which will have the added benefit of keeping social security alive. The second crisis is that, globally, many people see the asylum system as the only way to enter the United States. “It’s become this default mechanism,” he says. “Not only for people to enter the United States but also for our labor market.”

“Asylum is the defining nature of our country. People came here seeking refuge,” he says. “We are in danger of losing it if we don’t correct it.”

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What follows is the legendary storyteller’s observations from more than 30 years of living in the rural borderlands, what it’s like to walk every morning through diverse biomes, what it’s like to see a bear, a coatimundi, or a box turtle; what it’s like to experience a forest of saguaros or a forest of oak trees.

In other words, a description of the borderlands that is much different from what we usually get, with sparse adjectives like dusty and desolate. Petey is an expert storyteller who lets the words tumble out of his mouth in all directions—a chaotic, coherent, sweet, and joyful poetry—and this interview is no different.

It was a joy, as it has been for decades, to hear his descriptions and see with fresh eyes what a unique and beautiful place the borderlands is.

He also talks about all the changes that he’s seen in his time here. “When I moved here,” he says,

“I had a friend who had a ranch on the other side of the San Bernardino in Mexico. We just jumped back and forth through the barbed-wire fence—to go in and out, in and out—to look at plants. Wait, there’s a plant on the other side of the border, but it’s in Mexico. It would just crack you up. It’s so sweet. I’m in Mexico. I’m going back and forth. And, you know, there’s always the history—of course, workers came through. People expected them to come through. I don’t know how it all went to hell. And became such dreadful, angry, hateful thing.”

On a side note, I am moving (within Tucson) and somehow lost my recorder. I apologize if the sound is off at all. I think it still sounds pretty good, especially because of the magic of our audio editor.

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Taylor, who is also a professor in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, joined Melissa and Todd from The Border Chronicle for a fascinating conversation and Q&A with the audience in August at Patagonia’s Tin Shed Theater. Among many things, Taylor talked about his work Complex, which looks at massive immigrant detention facilities from a drone’s eye view. He also discussed DeLIMITations, a work in which he embarked on a cross-country journey with Mexican artist Marcos Ramirez ERRE placing steel obelisks along the U.S.-Mexico boundary as it existed in the early 19th century, ranging from Brookings, Oregon, to the mouth of the Sabine River near Port Arthur, Texas.

The Border Chronicle wishes to thank Voices from the Border, Sierra Club Borderlands, Hilltop Gallery, and La Linea Art Studio for sponsoring this talk, and a very special thanks to Maggie Urgo and India Aubry for their organizing efforts.