Wall Watch combines geospatial mapping, archival research, and community participation to provide the public with an accurate, continually updated record of border wall construction along nearly 2,000 miles of the international border.
Bulldozing has started in the iconic Big Bend National Park, and protestors try to save the last of 200-year old cottonwood trees in Arizona as the border wall advances, plus we launch our community mapping project, Wall Watch, on Tuesday!
Worried about the future of democracy in the United States? Look to Indigenous histories; they have much to teach us about the struggle between liberty and empire.
In a lively conversation, The Border Chronicle founders grapple with the last three months of militarization and surveillance, and ponder what’s to come.
What is happening on the border three months into the Trump administration? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here, Border Chronicle founders Melissa and Todd spend the hour discussing just that.
Among the topics covered are Stryker armored vehicles deployed in El Paso, including one conducting surveillance from a garbage dump; DHS secretary Kristi Noem recounting an epiphany about a Target store by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele (this epiphany helps Bukele justify the 40,000-person capacity “terrorist” prison accepting U.S. deportees); the chilling surveillance tower known as the Torre Centinela looming over Ciudad Juárez; a DOD spokesperson telling Melissa that “you know more than we know”; and Todd sharing the story of how he got kicked out of the Border Security Expo 10 years ago (yes, there is some good old-fashioned humor as well).
Militarization, surveillance, privatization, water, and climate change are all addressed as The Border Chronicle attempts to grapple with what has happened, what is happening, and what’s to come.
And since there is so much to discuss, we’d love to hear your perspectives about the last 100 days. Please feel free to comment below. What are your thoughts and opinions? Border residents, what have you seen? Anything of note? Please don’t be shy about adding to our conversation.
Also, here’s a few of Melissa’s favorite signs from the “Hands Off” protest in Tucson last week as mentioned in the podcast.
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Wall Watch combines geospatial mapping, archival research, and community participation to provide the public with an accurate, continually updated record of border wall construction along nearly 2,000 miles of the international border.
Worried about the future of democracy in the United States? Look to Indigenous histories; they have much to teach us about the struggle between liberty and empire.
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.
Independent news, culture and context from the U.S.-Mexico border.
