Inside the “National Defense Areas”: A Podcast with Investigative Reporters Sonner Kehrt and David Roza

With more than 40 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border now under military authority, we discuss our Border Chronicle/The War Horse investigation examining this unprecedented expansion of federal power and its impact on border communities.

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The Border Chronicle Podcast
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April 30, 2026

In January 2025, the Trump administration declared a national emergency at the southern border and directed the military to take control of large expanses of the border—including major cities like El Paso, McAllen, and Brownsville—and designate them as “National Defense Areas.” A recent Border Chronicle investigation titled  “A War Zone: Minus the War,” produced in collaboration with the nonprofit The War Horse, which serves military communities, examined the impact this military presence is having on border residents, the types of surveillance and hardware being rolled out in the national defense zones, and the impact the zones are having on migration at the border, including federal prosecutors attempting to charge migrants for trespassing.

For this discussion, Melissa del Bosque is joined by Sonner Kehrt, an investigative reporter with The War Horse, and David Roza, an independent journalist who covers the U.S. military. The reporters discuss their recent collaboration and catch listeners up on more recent military developments, including the Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson hosting Space Force Guardians and Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista, Arizona, which is developing a new mission for U.S. Space Force and whose somewhat bizarre official song— yes, this is real— you can listen to here.

Listen to the podcast here!
Author
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.

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