How New Mexico Learned to Love Its Ephemeral Waters
Rollbacks to the Clean Water Act may have affected the borderlands more than any other region. States are stepping up—but there’s still more to do.
Border Militarization
167 articles
An Autopsy of the Biden Years at the Border: A podcast with Andrea Flores
For years, Flores has served as an immigration policy advisor to Democrats at the national level, including President Biden. She talks about what went wrong, and what Democrats should be doing now.
Profitable Violence: A New Era of the Border Industrial Complex
In 2025, a dramatic increase in contracts to private industry correlates with increasing violence committed by border and immigration police forces.
“We pay for borders with everything"
An interview with Russ McSpadden about his debut poetry collection, Borderlings.
“Telling the Truth about Immigration”: A Podcast with Isabel Garcia
“What we allow them to do on the border, is what they will do to you.”
La Junta de los Ríos: Reporter’s Notebook from Presidio and Big Bend
It is false that a river is a good political border. It is the opposite. A river attracts, creates, and foments life. This includes bears.
Trump’s Troops and the Border “Learning Lab”
How the Republican-led Operation Lone Star in Texas became Trump’s model for sending troops into Democratic-led cities.
Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime: A Podcast with Scott Warren
How did the first Trump administration crack down on providing water and aid for migrants? And what insights can we gain from that now?
The Tower and the Tarantula: Searching for a New Way Forward 24 Years after 9/11
A reflection on the development of a border war machine, its imposition, its fragility, and the necessity of finding another way.
A Reporter’s Journey through the Darién Gap: A Q&A with Author Belén Fernández
"As a microcosm embodying the chasmic and fortified gap between haves and have-nots, the Darién Gap is as good an expanded U.S. border as any."
Peacemaking in the Borderlands: A Reflection on the Farce of “Border Security”
Border “security” is an act of war. It’s time to look to the peacemakers, who just might hold the answers.
Night Exposures
Photographer Marni Shindelman’s series Restore the Night Sky illuminates America’s hidden detention centers from an unexpected angle.
‘They Want to Have a Police State’: Trump’s Rio Grande Military Zone
With Strykers and soldiers the Trump administration implemented its third National Defense Area in the Rio Grande Valley in June, alarming local groups.
