The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: September 26

Our 4th anniversary party was a blast, Filmmaker Alex Rivera on his border sci-fi cult classic ‘Sleep Dealer.’ And humanitarian Scott Warren talks about his high-profile trial and the aftermath.

Every Friday, The Border Chronicle hosts a live video discussion to keep you informed on our latest articles and podcasts, and other important news from across the U.S.-Mexico border region.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

Thank you to everyone who attended The Border Chronicle’s Fourth anniversary party Thursday night. We had a blast! And thank you to all of our readers and listeners who have made our existence possible! We rely 100 percent on our subscribers to power our reporting and analysis. If you’ve been reading us for a long time and have thought about becoming a paid subscriber, but haven’t, we can really use your help now! Independent fact-based media is under attack.

More News from the Border:

Starbase will take partial control of beach near Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site. The Texas Tribune

Texas border providers brace for rate of uninsured patients to balloon as federal policy changes loom. The Texas Tribune

DHS blocked from conditioning state disaster aid on ICE cooperation The Tucson Sentinel

Enviros: Most public comments oppose Trump rollback of ‘Roadless Rule’ in wilderness The Tucson Sentinel

Chula Vista Becomes First in County to Embrace AI in Policing Voice of San Diego

Tech giants Open AI, Oracle behind $165 billion data center campus near El Paso El Paso Matters

Authors

Melissa del Bosque is Co-founder and Executive Director of The Border Chronicle. Melissa has written about the U.S.-Mexico border since 1998 for various media outlets, including ProPublica, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Texas Observer, and The Intercept.

Her work has been recognized with numerous U.S. and international journalism awards, including a Gabo Award and the Internacional Rey de España de Periodismo award, as the U.S.-Mexico investigations editor for Lighthouse Reports. In 2020, del Bosque received the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award as part of a ProPublica group reporting project “Inside the Border Patrol.” In 2016, she received the Hillman Prize for her investigative feature “Death on Sevenmile Road” about the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2015, del Bosque’s four-part series with The Guardian on migrant deaths in South Texas won an Emmy and a National Magazine Award. 

Del Bosque is also the author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty. She has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s in Public Health from the Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health, and a Bachelor’s in poetry and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

In her spare time, Melissa loves to travel, spend time with her family, and explore the Sonoran Desert.

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.