The border is often reduced to a political talking point. We believe it is something much more complex: a vast and diverse region where millions of people live, work, raise families, blend cultures, build communities, and experience the consequences of decisions made far beyond their own neighborhoods.

The Border Chronicle exists to tell those stories while investigating how policies, institutions and forces are shaping life along the border.

Our journalism

We produce independent, investigative, and community-centered journalism that informs, connects, and holds power accountable across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands through reporting with depth, accuracy, and humanity.

We report on the issues that define and transform the borderlands, including migration, border enforcement, surveillance, the border wall, climate change, environmental justice, Indigenous communities, arts & culture, binational life, and the people who call the region home.

Our reporting goes beyond the daily political cycle. We investigate how government policies are implemented on the ground, follow public money and contracts, examine the consequences of border infrastructure and enforcement, and bring readers the voices and experiences that are often missing from national coverage.

We believe good border journalism requires time, context and proximity. That means reporting from communities rather than simply reporting about them. It means examining documents and data in concert with firsthand accounts. And it means asking not only what happened, but who made the decision, who benefits, who bears the consequences, and what happens next.

Rooted in the borderlands

The Border Chronicle was founded in Tucson, Arizona, in 2021 by longtime border journalists Melissa del Bosque and Todd Miller because they believed that the U.S.-Mexico border needs an independent outlet that focuses on the region with the complexity and nuance that it deserves.  And from the perspectives of the people who live here and migrate through the borderlands.

Our staff consists of experienced local journalists rooted in their border communities who report on the big issues challenging our region, such as climate change, economic inequality, government surveillance, and the rapid growth of the border security industrial complex. We also feature arts coverage that amplifies the richness and diversity of border culture. We believe that communities closest to an issue have important knowledge that is too often missing from the national narrative about the border. Our reporting seeks to make that knowledge part of the public record.

Independent and nonprofit

The Border Chronicle is an independent nonprofit newsroom. We are supported by readers, members, foundations and other charitable contributors who believe in independent journalism.

We maintain a clear separation between fundraising and editorial decision-making. Our commitment to editorial independence is fundamental to our work.

Read our Funding & Transparency page and Editorial Standards to learn more about how we operate.

Journalism with depth and humanity

The border is a place of complicated histories, competing interests, and deeply personal experiences. We strive to report on those complexities without reducing people to political labels or statistics. Our journalism centers people while holding institutions and those in positions of power accountable. We seek out perspectives that are often excluded from mainstream coverage and approach our reporting with curiosity, rigor and respect.

Building connection across borders

The borderlands do not stop at an international boundary. People, water, wildlife, economies, families and cultures move across borders every day. Decisions made in Washington, Mexico City, Phoenix, Sacramento, Santa Fe or Austin can have profound consequences in communities far from where those decisions are made.

The Border Chronicle helps connect those dots. Through investigative reporting, explanatory journalism, video, podcasts, community events, and collaborations, we create journalism that helps readers understand the forces shaping their communities and the connections between places on both sides of the border.

We want to hear from you

The Border Chronicle is not just for residents of the border but for anyone who cares deeply about the state of the world. The U.S.-Mexico borderlands are a place where the local meets the national and the international. It is a place where U.S. foreign and domestic policies can be hashed out and cross-border solidarity strengthened.

Let us know how we’re doing. Also, if you’ve got a story idea or something you think we should dig into, write us an email at TheBorderChronicle@protonmail.com or go the old-school route and send a letter to 9095 E. Tanque Verde Rd. Suite 171-157, Tucson, AZ 85749. (We like letters!)

Support our work

Independent journalism depends on people like you, who believe in accurate, community-centered news that holds the powerful accountable. By becoming a member, subscribing, sharing our reporting, or supporting our nonprofit newsroom, you help The Border Chronicle continue reporting from the borderlands with the depth, independence, and persistence that our communities deserve.