In February, the country broke an ominous record: over 68,000 people were being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than ever before.
As immigrant families face detention, shrinking legal protections and the threat of deportation, Camp Hope offers children a rare chance to play, heal and dream. One former camper is headed to an opera conservatory in Italy.
Border grassroots organizing is winning in July; Who pays the price for Brownsville's tech and industrial boom? And Tijuana Art Week and NAFTA's lasting influence on Baja's landscape. Plus more!
Border barriers on the river could be fatal during floods, say Laredo landowners, a reflection on desert narratives and the U.S.-Mexico border, and become a sustaining member of The Border Chronicle today, get some cool, new merch, and help us hold those in power accountable.
The Trump administration is rapidly deploying billions to private contractors to build border walls and floating buoy barriers on the Rio Grande. All of this is happening with little communication with border residents, and the waiving of numerous federal laws that protect us and the environment. In the case of this week's story by Michael Gonzalez, a reporter based in South Texas, the Trump administration is not even requiring studies to be done on the flooding impact that walls and buoys will have on communities on both sides of the Rio Grande, in direct violation of the international treaty with Mexico and endangering countless lives along the river. You can read more about this in Gonzalez's excellent piece published Thursday, which he reported from Laredo, Texas.
We need your help to keep documenting and reporting on the rapid destruction occurring at the border, and to hold those in power accountable for this mess. We are almost entirely supported by our readers and rely on you to continue and expand our reporting, which is needed now more than ever. Become a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $59 a year to support our work at The Border Chronicle. If you become a sustaining member for $250 a year, we will send you a Border Chronicle tote bag and hat and our undying gratitude for supporting independent, community-based news. Like we always say, "We can't do this without you!"
Look at these new, awesome tote bags and hats, all proudly designed and made by the Tucson-based union print shop, The Gloo Factory. They could be yours if you sign up as a sustaining member of The Border Chronicle team today! (Also, bonus points if you spot the alien in the cactus, our previous merchandise model, haha. It was a windy day. đ)
Michael Gonzalez
Caroline Tracey
This April and May, you can volunteer to document plants and wildlife on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in the Border BioBlitz a community science effort to record as many species as possible 15 kilometers north or south of the international border. Check out this press release from the San Diego Natural History Museum to learn more.
Border grassroots organizing is winning in July; Who pays the price for Brownsville's tech and industrial boom? And Tijuana Art Week and NAFTA's lasting influence on Baja's landscape. Plus more!
Happy 250th America! In a new podcast, Melissa and Todd discuss surveillance, and unconstitutional policing migrating into the country's interior, and ancient rock art faces demolition in Texas. Plus more news from across the border region.
The efforts to preserve the desert's iconic plants, resist the destruction of ancient trees, and deal with the harassing border machine, even after deportation.
Latinos with DACA say they're being targeted in Texas, and a review of new Chicano vampire fiction by Laredo author Ito Romo, plus a rally in southern Arizona this weekend to save ancient cottonwoods from border wall destruction, and more!
Independent news, culture and context from the U.S.-Mexico border.
