The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: August 8

Another National Defense Area declared in the Rio Grande Valley. What will this mean? And the philosophy behind a provocative housing project in Mexicali for those who dream another world is possible.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

A surveillance tower of the Hellenic Coast Guard on the coast of Corfu, Greece. The Mediterranean Sea is the world’s deadliest border crossing. (Photo credit: Todd Miller)

Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels New York Times

Watch: New border wall going up over existing barrier in Rio Grande Valley Border Report

New Arizona jaguar sightings a ‘positive sign’ despite border wall, UA researchers say Tucson Sentinel

Fort Bliss army base on US southern border to take 1,000 ICE detainees The Guardian

Border Patrol and ICE Agents Are Arresting U.S. Citizens in Immigration Raids Capital & Main

Authors

Reports from the Texas-Mexico border for The Border Chronicle. Print and radio journalist with bylines in NPR, Texas Public Radio, MSNBC, The Texas Standard, Lighthouse Reports and more.

Todd Miller is Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of The Border Chronicle. He is the author of four books that examine border militarization and its externalization, surveillance technology and industry, climate change, and the search for alternatives. His books include Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders (City Lights, 2021) Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (Verso, 2019),  Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2017), and Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014).

Todd’s forthcoming book is a deep examination of water as a border issue in an age of climate-induced heat waves and drought. It will be published by Seven Stories Press in 2027.

Besides The Border Chronicle, articles by Todd have appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Guernica, TomDispatch, and Al Jazeera English, among other places. He has also authored and co-authored reports on border surveillance, the border industrial complex, and climate change for the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, where he is a fellow.

Todd’s book Storming the Wall received the Izzy Award in 2018 for “path-breaking and in-depth reporting.” He also received first place in “Community immigration reporting” by the Arizona Press Club in 2013. Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Journalism from Prescott College, where he is also an adjunct professor.

In his spare time, Todd likes to travel, read, philosophize, and hang out with his two kids—whether it be going to a dance recital or being a basketball coach.