The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: April 3
A critical DNA database to identify missing migrants vanishes, the US military is closing off the border to Americans, and lots of border wall news.
Newsletter
Hidden Humanitarian Emergency: A Search and Rescue on the World’s Most Dangerous Border
Crew members on the humanitarian ship Sea Eye 4 give an on-the-ground account of rescuing 114 migrants on the European border, and their detainment by Italian authorities.
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Thou Shall Not Pray for Peace: The Bombing of Iran and the U.S.-Mexico Border
A few days after the United States launched Operation Epic Fury in Iran, the Border Patrol changed its policy on visits to the border wall, denying a church group permission to pray there, “for their own safety.”
A War Zone, Minus the War: One Year Into the Military Buildup of the U.S.-Mexico Border
An investigation into how President Trump’s emergency declaration along the southern border expanded military power, blurred legal lines, and helped spread the use of military-grade technology.
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.
What’s Next?
An immigration judge fired by the Trump administration searches for meaning at the southern border.