The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: December 12

A DACA recipient in South Texas says life under the Trump mass deportation dragnet is “pure trauma.” And a former immigration judge, fired in November, talks about the future of immigration courts.

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

The Trump administration announced this week that it will further militarize the California-Mexico border by creating another national defense area, which will be under the control of the U.S. Navy.Interior Transfers Public Land to Navy to Support Border Security and National Defense U.S. Dept. of the Interior press release.

Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas, is now holding nearly 3,000 people in detention under deplorable conditions. The ACLU and other civil and human rights organizations are raising the alarm and warn that the administration will likely open other military detention camps soon.ICE Letter Regarding Ft. Bliss the ACLU & read local border coverage in El Paso Matters

After Trump pardon, Rep. Henry Cuellar restored to homeland security funding post The Texas Tribune

The Department of War is celebrating the fact that it has deployed 43,000 rolls of concertina wire to be installed across the entire southern border.Historic Border Security Milestone: Largest C-wire Delivery, Emplacement in U.S. Territorial History in Partnership with CBP The Dept. of War

DPS investigating fatal shooting involving Border Patrol in Starr County MyRGV.com

California’s Attorney General is asking people to report ICE, CBP and other federal agent misconduct.Report Misconduct by Federal Agents to the California Attorney General

‘I made my American dream in my country’: How Rancho Feliz is confronting the immigration crisis at the source Cronkite Borderlands Project/The Tucson Sentinel

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.

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.