Articles tagged: border
‘Not Celebrating Yet’: South Texans Wait for Biden to Cancel Trump’s Wall
The president’s pause on wall construction leaves questions unanswered in Texas.
In an interview last August, Joe Biden made a pledge: “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.” It was the first time the t...Read More
In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents
A new documentary tells one story of the border through three conflicted young Texans’ job prospects, and the result is emotional, relational, and hard to categorize.
“Here’s the schedule: Active shooter at 12,” says El Paso area high school teacher Louie Jimenez in the first minute of At the Ready. “Hostage negotiati...Read More
‘After the Last Border’ Reveals the Human Cost of Trump’s Draconian Immigration Policies
A new book from Austin writer Jessica Goudeau shows that U.S. refugee resettlement policy has always shifted with the political winds of change.
In 2017, the Trump administration’s Muslim ban effectively set U.S. immigration and refugee resettlement policy back more than 100 years. Trump’s reactionar...Read More
Migrants and Advocates Call to Close Detention Centers as COVID-19 Spreads
A new lawsuit argues that an outbreak in detention could overwhelm local health care systems.
As COVID-19 cases begin to permeate the immigration system nationwide, detainees in Texas are calling for better conditions and release. Their pleas became more...Read More
U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on ‘Remain in Mexico’
Following weeks of back-and-forth in the courts, SCOTUS has reversed the decision of an appeals court and allowed Remain in Mexico to continue.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, can continue while legal challenges play...Read More
In the Trump Era, Practicing Immigration Law is Like ‘Swimming in Molasses’
Veteran attorney Elise Harriger is learning how to lose, but she vows to keep on fighting.
Elise Harriger is fighting a cold and fatigue as she sits across from me at a Salvadoran restaurant in East Austin. “I’m too old for this,” Harriger says,...Read More
17 Great Books on the Border to Read Instead of ‘American Dirt’
There’s no shortage of talented Latinx writers with all kinds of stories to tell. Let’s make space for them.
If you’ve been online in the past few months, you’ve probably seen ads for American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins’ heavily promoted new novel about Mexican-Americ...Read More
Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on the Importance of Telling Complex, Nuanced Border Stories
A massive public art project lit up the sky over El Paso and Juárez this month, prompting conversations both funny and serious, political and personal.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer hates searchlights. They evoke surveillance and fear, and in the El Paso-Juárez borderlands, where his most recent artwork debuted this mo...Read More
To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border
The El Paso shooter wasn’t a “lone wolf.” His act of white supremacist terror is part of a century of racial violence targeting fronterizo communities.
In the immediate aftermath of the El Paso shooting—the largest massacre of Latinx people in the history of the United States—politicians of all stripes stoo...Read More