Giving Thanks at The Border Chronicle

We are thankful to you for supporting the only independent border-wide publication owned by journalists. Plus, read a new CJR article about us, and listen to our podcast interview with Laura St. John

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Newsletter
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November 26, 2025
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It’s a short publishing week here at The Border Chronicle as we enjoy some time off with our families. We hope that you have a restful break, despite all of the turmoil happening in our country. It is important to reflect on— and appreciate — what we do have and to be thankful for our friends and family. We are also thankful for you, our readers and listeners, for supporting us since we launched this small but mighty publication in September 2021. As we have been hinting recently, we have big plans for growth in 2026. Recently, we hired Brenda Machado, our first audience engagement staffer. We also have a new podcast editor, José Olivares. Besides being a pro at audio editing, José is also a highly accomplished investigative reporter who has written for numerous publications including The Guardian and The Intercept. Welcome José!

José Olivares, our fabulous new podcast editor!

Some more good news. This week we received a wonderful write up in the Columbia Journalism Review about our work, which highlighted reporting by Pablo de la Rosa in South Texas. The article also delves into the origin story of why The Border Chronicle was created and our plans for future growth. We hope you will give it a read! Also, if you have the means please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription or donation. One big goal for 2026 is to raise enough funds to keep Pablo de la Rosa reporting from South Texas for The Border Chronicle and to support Caroline Tracey who has been doing amazing environmental and arts and culture coverage for us. An annual or founding member subscription goes a long way for us, because we know we can count on that income for the year. Every dollar goes back into our reporting and helps us expand our coverage at the border.

If you believe that local independent journalism is important for a functioning democracy, and you believe in The Border Chronicle’s journalism, please support our work today for just $6 a month or $60 a year. Or even better, become a founding member for $150 a year and receive two additional paid subscriptions for friends and family.

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You can also donate to The Border Chronicle through PayPal or make a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor Homelands Productions.

This button hires more journalists

And if you’re unable to give this season, we appreciate you sharing our work with friends and family. It will help us reach more readers and listeners. Thank you!

And finally, listen to this incredibly informative podcast interview that Todd recorded this week with Laura St. John, legal director for the nonprofit Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona, which provides legal assistance and advocacy for undocumented people in detention. St. John explains the many terrible ways that Trump’s mass deportation dragnet is impacting immigrant families, including deporting people to third countries like the small African nation of Eswatini, which is being paid by the Trump administration to detain people deported from the U.S.

Authors
Melissa del Bosque

Melissa del Bosque is Co-founder and Executive Director of The Border Chronicle. Melissa has written about the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998 for various media outlets, including ProPublica, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Texas Observer, and The Intercept.

Her work has been recognized with numerous U.S. and international journalism awards, including a Gabo Award and the Internacional Rey de España de Periodismo award, as the U.S.-Mexico investigations editor for Lighthouse Reports. In 2020, del Bosque received the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award as part of a ProPublica group reporting project “Inside the Border Patrol.” In 2016, she received the Hillman Prize for her investigative feature “Death on Sevenmile Road” about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2015, del Bosque’s four-part series with The Guardian on migrant deaths in South Texas won an Emmy and a National Magazine Award. 

Del Bosque is also the author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty. She has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s in Public Health from the Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health, and a Bachelor’s in poetry and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

In her spare time, Melissa loves to travel, spend time with her family, and explore the Sonoran Desert.

The Border Chronicle
Todd Miller

Todd Miller is Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of The Border Chronicle. He is the author of four books that examine border militarization and its externalization, surveillance technology and industry, climate change, and the search for alternatives. His books include Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders (City Lights, 2021) Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (Verso, 2019),  Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2017), and Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014).

Todd’s forthcoming book is a deep examination of water as a border issue in an age of climate-induced heat waves and drought. It will be published by Seven Stories Press in 2027.

Besides The Border Chronicle, articles by Todd have appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Guernica, TomDispatch, and Al Jazeera English, among other places. He has also authored and co-authored reports on border surveillance, the border industrial complex, and climate change for the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, where he is a fellow.

Todd’s book Storming the Wall received the Izzy Award in 2018 for “path-breaking and in-depth reporting.” He also received first place in “Community immigration reporting” by the Arizona Press Club in 2013. Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Journalism from Prescott College, where he is also an adjunct professor.

In his spare time, Todd likes to travel, read, philosophize, and hang out with his two kids—whether it be going to a dance recital or being a basketball coach.

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