Michael Gonzalez is a writer for The Border Chronicle, based in Brownsville, Texas, where he covers issues affecting border residents in the Rio Grande Valley.
He also works as an independent photojournalist covering stories that range from immigration and border topics to environmental issues and politics. Michael has freelanced for various publications such as The Texas Tribune, The AssociatedPress, NRC, Getty Images, and the European Pressphoto Agency. As a certified drone pilot, he often incorporates aerial imagery into his reporting to provide greater context for stories about the border wall, the Rio Grande, and other issues affecting the Rio Grande Valley.
Outside of work, he enjoys traveling the world with his wife, watching historical documentaries, and printing black-and-white photos in his darkroom.
County leaders say tax abatements attract jobs. But some residents argue the incentives enrich billion-dollar corporations while they shoulder the costs of growth, pollution, strained public resources, and environmental loss.
With interior Border Patrol checkpoints to the north, and the border to the south, DACA recipients in border communities feel under threat by multiple layers of law enforcement, from ICE to local police. Nowhere more so than in Texas.
As federal officials fast-track billions in border wall construction and floating buoy barriers, local leaders and residents say they’re in the dark, and fear the worst.
Even sites once protected by Congress, including a butterfly refuge and a historic church, are slated for fencing funded by the “one big beautiful bill”—while the river itself is transformed by a floating barrier.