Do you have questions about the recent buoy debacle on the Rio Grande? Our reporting has you covered, plus an important new hire at The Border Chronicle, and our new project Wall Watch.
As floodwaters swept hundreds of one-ton border buoys downstream, international bridges closed, commerce slowed, and officials struggled to get answers from DHS about a project advancing despite local opposition, environmental concerns, and treaty questions.
Hundreds of massive orange buoys staged for a controversial DHS floating barrier project broke free near Eagle Pass and are now drifting toward Laredo, threatening bridges, commerce, drinking water supplies and downstream communities.
Budd's new book "Against the Wall" takes an unflinching look at the systemic misogyny and racism in the Border Patrol, and overcoming a childhood of trauma and abuse.
For six years, Jenn Budd wore the green uniform of the U.S. Border Patrol. Before joining in 1995 Budd, who grew up in Alabama, says she knew little about the agency. Her harrowing experiences of misogyny, rape, sexual harassment, and with corruption at the agency would ultimately force her to resign.
But Budd says, leaving the Border Patrol was only the beginning on a long road of reckoning. Not only with her years as an agent but also with a childhood of trauma and abuse.
Her new memoir: Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist, takes an unflinching look at a Border Patrol riddled with corruption, racism, and misogyny. Raw and truthful, no one escapes judgement, not even Budd, who searches deep within herself to examine her own prejudices as a White southerner, and the role she played as a Border Patrol agent.
Budd’s book, which comes out in June, is also about healing from deeply inflicted traumas. After grappling with suicide, she eventually finds love and acceptance with her wife Sandy and becomes an activist for immigrant rights.
In this Border Chronicle podcast, Budd talks about her journey from Border Patrol agent to one of the Border Patrol’s fiercest critics.
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As floodwaters swept hundreds of one-ton border buoys downstream, international bridges closed, commerce slowed, and officials struggled to get answers from DHS about a project advancing despite local opposition, environmental concerns, and treaty questions.
Hundreds of massive orange buoys staged for a controversial DHS floating barrier project broke free near Eagle Pass and are now drifting toward Laredo, threatening bridges, commerce, drinking water supplies and downstream communities.
In February, the country broke an ominous record: over 68,000 people were being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than ever before.
As immigrant families face detention, shrinking legal protections and the threat of deportation, Camp Hope offers children a rare chance to play, heal and dream. One former camper is headed to an opera conservatory in Italy.
Independent news, culture and context from the U.S.-Mexico border.
