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.
Private corporations and the Trump administration will make the world's largest immigrant detention system even deadlier. But it can be stopped, says Jesse Franzblau
Jesse Franzblau is the Associate Policy Director at the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants and advocates for their rights.
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:
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.
