The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: May 1
Happy May Day! An audio deep dive into the National Defense Areas and a human rights archeologist speaks on the politics of haunting and border deaths.
Newsletter
A River without Water: A Photo Essay by Eduardo Talamantes
A ferocious drought has struck Chihuahua, leaving its most important river, the Río Conchos, almost dry, and its people in dire straits.
3 min read
Read next
‘This Will Kill People’: Laredo Landowners Fight Wall and Buoy Plan Threatening Flood-Prone Communities
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.
Inside Trump’s Plan to Finish Walling Off the Rio Grande Valley
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.
Trump Announces “First New U.S. Refinery in 50 Years” at Port of Brownsville, Reviving Local Resistance
Environmental advocates and residents say the long-proposed refinery threatens air quality and public health in a region already ringed by heavy industry.
At the End of the Wall: A Reporter’s Notebook
Walking from a blasted mountain top--a planned site for new border wall construction--to a makeshift military camp along the border in a remote part of southern Arizona led to a tense yet revelatory moment.