By Melissa del Bosque

I’m still riding that hopeful feeling from last week’s midterm election. It’s a feeling I don’t often get when it comes to politics. So much damage has been done by this administration. And in many cases, it’s further compounded long-festering problems like our broken immigration system. When Democrats take control in January, there will be a lot to fix, and Trump is already selling red veto hats on his website for $55 a piece. (No kidding.) But it’s not just Trump who stands in the way of progress; there’s also always the danger that Democrats won’t act boldly enough while they have the chance. This week we published two in-depth articles and a podcast explaining what’s at stake. For at least a decade, U.S. policy has pushed Mexico to receive tens of thousands of deported people, persecuting the working poor who are seeking better living conditions while fueling the militarization of Mexico’s southern border. Meanwhile, in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Trump Administration is bulldozing saguaros and flattening the desert landscape to build a double wall. And in this week’s podcast we travel even further north to the U.S.-Canadian border where a conservative Republican finds himself opening an underground railroad to help people seek asylum in Canada. This remarkable story is the subject of geographer Reece Jones’ new book, “Smuggler: Drugs, Gangs, and Refugees at America’s Northern Border,” which he co-authored with attorney George Boos. In this week’s podcast, Todd has a fascinating conversation with Reece about how Bob Boulé, the subject of his book, became the owner of the Smuggler Inn, and how his case led all the way to The Supreme Court. It gets even wilder from there. You’ll just have to listen to find out the rest. Oh, and Happy Friday the 13th!

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

How the U.S. Is Exporting Its Deportation Regime to Mexico

And turning the Mexican government into an accomplice. By Liliana Frankel

A Second Wall, Expanding Surveillance, and an Oasis Under Threat: A Dispatch from Arizona’s Organ Pipe National Monument

From bulldozed saguaros to new surveillance cameras, The Border Chronicle’s Wall Watch is tracking the expanding footprint of border militarization in the Sonoran Desert. By Dugan Meyer

How the Road to Impunity is Paved: A Podcast with Reece Jones

His new book “Smuggler” shows how a vivid, bizarre, and strangely inspiring border case on the U.S. northern border opened the way for a Supreme Court decision that allows ICE and Border Patrol to violate constitutional rights. By Todd Miller