No other publication covers the border and immigration politics with more depth, insight, and compassion than the Observer. You can find our ongoing coverage here.
Video Traveloque February 22, 2008 | Features
Dispatches from the border wall: Melissa del Bosque investigative reporter interviews border residents about Homeland Security's border wall
Holes in the wall March 7, 2008 | Features
Homeland Security won’t say why the border wall is bypassing the wealthy and politically connected.
No Wall Will Stop the Wave November 16, 2007 | Political Intelligence
Tucked into the 2005 federal Real ID Act is a little-noticed provision, Section 102, that gives the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security unprecedented power to suspend any law that stands in the way of building a wall along the border.
The Jaws of Life Jesse Bogan | October 5, 2007 | Features
Sometimes undocumented immigrants who cross the border find work and share the bounty with their families back home. Sometimes they die, leaving their families only questions that will never be answered.
Get Off the Fence September 7, 2007 | Editorial
Watching our top statewide elected officials grapple with the prospect of building a fence along the border brings to mind the Argentinian dictum, “They are all bald men in search of a comb.”
Habitat For Inanity Mary Jo McConahay | September 7, 2007 | Features
A border fence will separate families, wreck economies, and threaten wildlife, but it won’t stop illegal immigrants.
Border Seen Jesse Bogan | September 8, 2006 | Features
The town of San Benito lies in a region on the Texas/Mexican border with perennial bumper crops of single, teenage mothers, poor access to health care, and meager high school graduation rates. It's a case study in how Texas stubbornly neglects its poor.
They Die in Brooks County Mary Jo McConahay | June 1, 2006 | Features
As increased U.S. border security closes certain routes, undocumented migrants continue to come but squeeze onto fewer, more dangerous and isolated pathways to America’Äôs interior. One of these is the network of trails that bypasses the last Border Patrol checkpoint traveling north on Hwy. 281, in Brooks County. That change is having a dramatic ripple effect on the county (total pop: 7,685), and on people who have lived here for generations.
Wanted But Not Welcome Michele Wucker | March 23, 2007 | Books and the Culture
3 books bring different interpretations to the nation's struggle with immigration.
Northward Ho! Megan Headley | March 23, 2007 | Features
Halfway through the legislative session, the debate was thwarted, the anti-immigrant legislation dead on arrival. The story of how that happened speaks volumes about the economics of the state and the fissures running through today’s GOP.
Stitch by Stitch Karen Bernstein | December 1, 2006 | Features
When the unofficial river crossings were shut down in a panic over national security, the two distinct cultures of Terlingua and Boquillas, which had intertwined and shared the river for their livelihoods, were forced to confront the Rio Grande as a border. Fronteras Unlimited works to “stabilize the border area of the Big Bend using free trade commerce, education, and the cooperation that has traditionally made the Big Bend the uniquely peaceful border it has been in the past.”
Soldiers on the Border Mary Jo McConahay | September 8, 2006 | Features
President Bush announced Operation Jump Start: the deployment of 6,000 Guard troops from San Diego to Brownsville, an increase in Border Patrol personnel from its current strength of 12,000 to 18,000, and “bringing the most advanced technology” to the border line, including the kind used in Afghanistan and Iraq: more infrared cameras, motion sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles.
South Texas Hold 'Em Forrest Wilder | May 5, 2006 | Features
For the savvy investor looking for a growth industry, South Texas offers a sure thing. The business calculus is simple: More immigrants than ever are being apprehended. That means the federal government needs more detention centers and more people to run them. No matter how the national debate on immigration plays out in Congress, the corporations that have moved into the business of building and operating detention centers are likely to see a steady stream of revenue for years to come.
