The Border Chronicle
@theborderchronicle.bsky.social
Independent journalism with analysis and context from the US-Mexico borderlands. Founded by @mdelbosque.bsky.social & @memomiller.bsky.social Read more and listen to our podcasts at https://www.theborderchronicle.com/
"Border walls & buoy barriers are killing the Rio Grande. I have a front row seat." Elsa Hull writes about raising daughters on a river under siege.
#RioGrande #BorderIssues #EnvironmentalJustice #SouthTexas
Read the full article🦂🔗:
#RioGrande #BorderIssues #EnvironmentalJustice #SouthTexas
Read the full article🦂🔗:
More Than a River
Border Walls and Buoy Barriers Are Killing the Rio Grande. I Have a Front Row Seat.
www.theborderchronicle.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:23 PM
"Border walls & buoy barriers are killing the Rio Grande. I have a front row seat." Elsa Hull writes about raising daughters on a river under siege.
#RioGrande #BorderIssues #EnvironmentalJustice #SouthTexas
Read the full article🦂🔗:
#RioGrande #BorderIssues #EnvironmentalJustice #SouthTexas
Read the full article🦂🔗:
Who's really behind the immigration enforcement operations happening across the U.S.?
Border Chronicle co-founder Melissa del Bosque breaks down the confusion at the AZPM Press Room.
For more in-depth border reporting and investigations on Border Patrol impunity, visit theborderchronicle.com 🦂🔗
Border Chronicle co-founder Melissa del Bosque breaks down the confusion at the AZPM Press Room.
For more in-depth border reporting and investigations on Border Patrol impunity, visit theborderchronicle.com 🦂🔗
Covering the border | Journalists talk about their experiences | The Press Room
YouTube video by AZPM
youtu.be
January 27, 2026 at 3:04 AM
Who's really behind the immigration enforcement operations happening across the U.S.?
Border Chronicle co-founder Melissa del Bosque breaks down the confusion at the AZPM Press Room.
For more in-depth border reporting and investigations on Border Patrol impunity, visit theborderchronicle.com 🦂🔗
Border Chronicle co-founder Melissa del Bosque breaks down the confusion at the AZPM Press Room.
For more in-depth border reporting and investigations on Border Patrol impunity, visit theborderchronicle.com 🦂🔗
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
“A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley … after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees—many of them children—poured into open areas of the facility chanting ‘Libertad,’ or ‘Freedom,’ according to an immigration attorney …”
Protest breaks out at Dilley immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos
A protest broke out Saturday at the ICE-run South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, where five-year-old Liam Ramos is being detained.
www.tpr.org
January 26, 2026 at 4:05 PM
“A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley … after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees—many of them children—poured into open areas of the facility chanting ‘Libertad,’ or ‘Freedom,’ according to an immigration attorney …”
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Frankenstein, meet your bipartisan maker.
Profitable Violence: A New Era of the Border Industrial Complex
In 2025, a dramatic increase in contracts to private industry correlates with increasing violence committed by border and immigration police forces.
www.theborderchronicle.com
January 26, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Frankenstein, meet your bipartisan maker.
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.
January 25, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Proud of this 2023 report on Border Patrol abuse and accountability that we published with the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative.
It has proved to be terribly prescient. And DHS has moved backwards on virtually all of its recommendations: www.wola.org/analysis/sec...
It has proved to be terribly prescient. And DHS has moved backwards on virtually all of its recommendations: www.wola.org/analysis/sec...
![January 13, 2023: An ill, unidentified migrant, who had reportedly become “agitated and began to kick the interior” of a Border Patrol vehicle died while being transported, shackled, through rural Arizona to receive medical attention. Agents did not realize he had died until they arrived.
March 14, 2023: Body-worn camera footage released by CBP showed a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing U.S. citizen Noe Mejia, the apparently unarmed driver of a car suspected of smuggling migrants, at point blank range in Sasabe, Arizona.
May 17, 2023: Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, an 8-year-old citizen of Honduras, died in a Harlingen, Texas Border Patrol facility while her family was in its ninth day of CBP custody. Anadith suffered from a chronic heart condition and sickle cell anemia, and tested positive for influenza while in CBP custody. Anadith was experiencing abdominal pain, vomiting and a high grade fever. Medical staff refused multiple pleas from Anadith’s mother to call her an ambulance. Anadith’s case was the first death of a child in CBP custody since 2019. In 2018 and 2019, six children died while in, or soon after leaving, CBP custody. [1]
May 18, 2023: Border Patrol agents shot and killed Raymond Mattia, a 58 year-old member of the Tohono O’odham nation, while Mattia was steps from the front door of his home in the community of Menager’s Dam (also known as Ali Chuk), Arizona. Three agents, part of a group accompanying Tohono O’odham Nation police, fired their weapons at Mattia, striking him nine times. Commanded to drop his weapon, Mattia tossed a sheathed machete or hunting knife toward agents. Commanded to take his hand out of his jacket pocket, Mattia pulled out his hand holding an object. The agents fired numerous times, killing Mattia. The object in his hand was a mobile phone.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t5hgkoxrsxpe3wfisqfeymg5/bafkreiaj2xphzklnmgja2syktktguj525midvj276hks5oaeogw5nmkyiq@jpeg)
January 26, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Proud of this 2023 report on Border Patrol abuse and accountability that we published with the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative.
It has proved to be terribly prescient. And DHS has moved backwards on virtually all of its recommendations: www.wola.org/analysis/sec...
It has proved to be terribly prescient. And DHS has moved backwards on virtually all of its recommendations: www.wola.org/analysis/sec...
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
For anyone wondering about what Border Patrol agents are doing in Minneapolis right now killing people with impunity and how they can get away with it, I strongly suggest you watch or listen to this podcast with former agent @jennbudd.bsky.social
A discussion with former agent Jenn Budd on Border Patrol and ICE impunity
Budd has investigated Border Patrol fatalities for years and the agency's efforts to cover up its crimes. Her work is now highlighted in a new documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border."
www.theborderchronicle.com
January 26, 2026 at 4:13 PM
For anyone wondering about what Border Patrol agents are doing in Minneapolis right now killing people with impunity and how they can get away with it, I strongly suggest you watch or listen to this podcast with former agent @jennbudd.bsky.social
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Remarkable work documenting a year of escalations, from @chrischirp.bsky.social. “a chart of actions over the last year – I’ve logged almost 200 and so have only been able to label the most significant”: christinapagel.substack.com/p/the-ice-st...
The ICE Storm: a year-long escalation
Funding, law, rhetoric, violence. How each has fed the other to lead here
christinapagel.substack.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Remarkable work documenting a year of escalations, from @chrischirp.bsky.social. “a chart of actions over the last year – I’ve logged almost 200 and so have only been able to label the most significant”: christinapagel.substack.com/p/the-ice-st...
So true.
Again with the citizen qualifier. Is it okay to shoot people without citizenship status in the back? Maybe Alex Pretti is dead because actions like the Border Patrol’s murder of José Rodríguez were deemed acceptable.
Did anyone actually vote to have masked Federal agents hold US citizens down and shoot them in the back?
January 26, 2026 at 3:47 PM
So true.
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
The ICE agent who shot Renee Good was a former Border Patrol agent. And today's murder was committed by a Border Patrol agent. This is violence and impunity that border communities have known all too well for years.
Man is shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown, National Guard activated
A federal immigration officer has shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
apnews.com
January 24, 2026 at 10:44 PM
The ICE agent who shot Renee Good was a former Border Patrol agent. And today's murder was committed by a Border Patrol agent. This is violence and impunity that border communities have known all too well for years.
📰 New site launch!
This week: New Mexico protecting ephemeral waters after Clean Water Act rollbacks, podcast with Biden advisor Andrea Flores on what went wrong at the border, ICE expanding powers, & more essential border coverage.
Read the full roundup🔗🦂:
This week: New Mexico protecting ephemeral waters after Clean Water Act rollbacks, podcast with Biden advisor Andrea Flores on what went wrong at the border, ICE expanding powers, & more essential border coverage.
Read the full roundup🔗🦂:
The Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup: January 23
Welcome to our new site! It's official.
www.theborderchronicle.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:35 PM
📰 New site launch!
This week: New Mexico protecting ephemeral waters after Clean Water Act rollbacks, podcast with Biden advisor Andrea Flores on what went wrong at the border, ICE expanding powers, & more essential border coverage.
Read the full roundup🔗🦂:
This week: New Mexico protecting ephemeral waters after Clean Water Act rollbacks, podcast with Biden advisor Andrea Flores on what went wrong at the border, ICE expanding powers, & more essential border coverage.
Read the full roundup🔗🦂:
👋🏼We’ve moved! We’re proud to unveil our new site, which is now live at🦂 🔗:
www.theborderchronicle.com
Come on over!🌵🏜️📰📲
www.theborderchronicle.com
Come on over!🌵🏜️📰📲
We've Moved. Come On Over to Our New Site!
Check out the new Border Chronicle and let us know what you think!
open.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:02 PM
👋🏼We’ve moved! We’re proud to unveil our new site, which is now live at🦂 🔗:
www.theborderchronicle.com
Come on over!🌵🏜️📰📲
www.theborderchronicle.com
Come on over!🌵🏜️📰📲
New Mexico lost federal protection for 96% of its waterways after the Sackett ruling. So the state created its own pollution permit system. When DC steps back, border states step up to protect ephemeral streams, the Southwest's hidden lifelines. 💧 ##WaterProtection #SouthwestWater
Full Story🔗🦂:
Full Story🔗🦂:
How New Mexico Learned to Love Its Ephemeral Waters
Rollbacks to the Clean Water Act may have affected the borderlands more than any other region. States are stepping up—but there’s still more to do.
open.substack.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:24 PM
New Mexico lost federal protection for 96% of its waterways after the Sackett ruling. So the state created its own pollution permit system. When DC steps back, border states step up to protect ephemeral streams, the Southwest's hidden lifelines. 💧 ##WaterProtection #SouthwestWater
Full Story🔗🦂:
Full Story🔗🦂:
Andrea Flores advised Democrats on immigration, including at Biden's NSC, but left when the administration wouldn't roll back Trump's policies. In this Border Chronicle podcast, she discusses what went wrong & what needs to change: "We're going on decades of that promise. Get more specific.”
🎙️🔗🦂:
🎙️🔗🦂:
An Autopsy of the Biden Years at the Border: A podcast with Andrea Flores
For years, Flores has served as an immigration policy advisor to Democrats at the national level, including President Biden. She talks about what went wrong, and what Democrats should be doing now.
open.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Andrea Flores advised Democrats on immigration, including at Biden's NSC, but left when the administration wouldn't roll back Trump's policies. In this Border Chronicle podcast, she discusses what went wrong & what needs to change: "We're going on decades of that promise. Get more specific.”
🎙️🔗🦂:
🎙️🔗🦂:
📰🌵Our Weekly Roundup is HERE!
Do not miss out on this week’s stories, a review by Caroline Tracey of an art exhibition by Sonora-born artist Miriam Salado & a reported analysis by Todd Miller about how a dramatic increase in private contracts figures into current border enforcement.
Full Roundup🦂🔗:
Do not miss out on this week’s stories, a review by Caroline Tracey of an art exhibition by Sonora-born artist Miriam Salado & a reported analysis by Todd Miller about how a dramatic increase in private contracts figures into current border enforcement.
Full Roundup🦂🔗:
Border Chronicle Weekly Roundup Jan. 16
An art exhibition in Mexico, billions of dollars of CBP spending on private contracts, ICE impunity, and more.
open.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:03 PM
📰🌵Our Weekly Roundup is HERE!
Do not miss out on this week’s stories, a review by Caroline Tracey of an art exhibition by Sonora-born artist Miriam Salado & a reported analysis by Todd Miller about how a dramatic increase in private contracts figures into current border enforcement.
Full Roundup🦂🔗:
Do not miss out on this week’s stories, a review by Caroline Tracey of an art exhibition by Sonora-born artist Miriam Salado & a reported analysis by Todd Miller about how a dramatic increase in private contracts figures into current border enforcement.
Full Roundup🦂🔗:
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
See here!
Former Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd discusses decades of agency impunity, fatal shootings with no prosecutions, and paramilitary culture now shaping ICE operations in U.S. cities. Featured in new HBO documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border.”
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂:
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂:
A discussion with former agent Jenn Budd on Border Patrol and ICE impunity
Budd has investigated Border Patrol fatalities for years and the agency's efforts to cover up its crimes. Her work is now highlighted in a new documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border."
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:38 PM
See here!
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
“The border industrial complex…is motivated by revenue, thrives off our era’s divisive and violent language and narratives, and becomes a force unto itself. As more companies gain contracts, they get the access… they lavish campaign contributions, and lobby for ever-increasing budgets.”
The border industrial complex hit $14.2B in contracts in 2025, a record. ICE boosted weapons spending 600%. Biden or Trump, the business of border enforcement keeps growing. Who's really profiting from border security?
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Profitable Violence: A New Era of the Border Industrial Complex
In 2025, a dramatic increase in contracts to private industry correlates with increasing violence committed by border and immigration police forces.
open.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 7:24 AM
“The border industrial complex…is motivated by revenue, thrives off our era’s divisive and violent language and narratives, and becomes a force unto itself. As more companies gain contracts, they get the access… they lavish campaign contributions, and lobby for ever-increasing budgets.”
The border industrial complex hit $14.2B in contracts in 2025, a record. ICE boosted weapons spending 600%. Biden or Trump, the business of border enforcement keeps growing. Who's really profiting from border security?
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Profitable Violence: A New Era of the Border Industrial Complex
In 2025, a dramatic increase in contracts to private industry correlates with increasing violence committed by border and immigration police forces.
open.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:45 AM
The border industrial complex hit $14.2B in contracts in 2025, a record. ICE boosted weapons spending 600%. Biden or Trump, the business of border enforcement keeps growing. Who's really profiting from border security?
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Read the full investigation🦂🔗:
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
We've said it before and nine federal courts have made it clear as well — you have the right to film ICE. EFF has joined 12 other free speech organizations calling on the Trump Administration to stop spreading the false claim that it is "illegal" to record ICE agents. ncac.org/news/free-e...
Free Expression Advocates Call on Trump Administration to Respect Public’s First Amendment Right to Record
The National Coalition Against Censorship leads a sign-on letter defending the First Amendment right to record ICE agents and hold power accountable. NCAC leads a national sign-on letter defending the First Amendment right to record ICE agents.
ncac.org
January 14, 2026 at 9:32 PM
We've said it before and nine federal courts have made it clear as well — you have the right to film ICE. EFF has joined 12 other free speech organizations calling on the Trump Administration to stop spreading the false claim that it is "illegal" to record ICE agents. ncac.org/news/free-e...
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Two Target employees detained by federal officers at Richfield store are U.S. citizens, Rep. Michael Howard said. Target declined to comment.
Gift link: www.startribune.com/target-emplo...
Reach me with tips at [email protected] | Signal: carsonhartzog.13
Gift link: www.startribune.com/target-emplo...
Reach me with tips at [email protected] | Signal: carsonhartzog.13
Target employees detained by federal officers were U.S. citizens, legislator says
Minnesota Rep. Michael Howard, who represents Richfield, said the employees also were injured in the incident.
www.startribune.com
January 14, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Two Target employees detained by federal officers at Richfield store are U.S. citizens, Rep. Michael Howard said. Target declined to comment.
Gift link: www.startribune.com/target-emplo...
Reach me with tips at [email protected] | Signal: carsonhartzog.13
Gift link: www.startribune.com/target-emplo...
Reach me with tips at [email protected] | Signal: carsonhartzog.13
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
The need for the Pentagon to pick up SOUTHCOM’s slack follows a deemphasis on civilian harm mitigation and corresponding budget cuts across the military as a result of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s efforts to gut programs to reduce civilian casualties.
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Southern Command is unable to cope with the volume of civilian casualty reports stemming from the military mission to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
theintercept.com/2026/01/13/c...
theintercept.com/2026/01/13/c...
U.S. Military Command That Attacked Venezuela Gutted Its Civilian Harm Team
Complaints about civilians killed or injured in the U.S. attack on Venezuela are instead being handled by the Pentagon directly.
theintercept.com
January 14, 2026 at 6:56 PM
The need for the Pentagon to pick up SOUTHCOM’s slack follows a deemphasis on civilian harm mitigation and corresponding budget cuts across the military as a result of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s efforts to gut programs to reduce civilian casualties.
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
If border studies as an academic discipline has shown anything over the last three decades, it’s that the border is wherever the sovereign authority says it is, and encompass whatever the sovereign authority wants it to.
I’m still not understanding how immigration agents have the right to roam streets in non-border areas or have the authority to detain US citizens who are exercising their 1A rights.
January 11, 2026 at 7:09 AM
If border studies as an academic discipline has shown anything over the last three decades, it’s that the border is wherever the sovereign authority says it is, and encompass whatever the sovereign authority wants it to.
Miriam Salado's "Legado de Fieras" transforms Sonoran Desert imagery into powerful commentary on violence. Plaster cattle hooves evoke both stampedes and the disappeared, while speculative drawings merge cacti with animal forms.
Through Feb 1 at Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro.
For full article🦂🔗:
Through Feb 1 at Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro.
For full article🦂🔗:
The Nature of Violence
Legado de Fieras, an exhibit by Sonoran artist Miriam Salado, reflects on the natural world and the artifacts of human violence.
open.substack.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Miriam Salado's "Legado de Fieras" transforms Sonoran Desert imagery into powerful commentary on violence. Plaster cattle hooves evoke both stampedes and the disappeared, while speculative drawings merge cacti with animal forms.
Through Feb 1 at Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro.
For full article🦂🔗:
Through Feb 1 at Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro.
For full article🦂🔗:
Reposted by The Border Chronicle
Ahead of tomorrow’s likely Senate vote on Venezuela War Powers, here’s a video explainer digging into
- scenarios that could lead to “boots on the ground” and an open-ended military mission, and
- the constellation of armed groups that US personnel might have to confront if those scenarios happen.
- scenarios that could lead to “boots on the ground” and an open-ended military mission, and
- the constellation of armed groups that US personnel might have to confront if those scenarios happen.
January 2026 War Powers Resolution Explained
YouTube video by WOLA: Washington Office on Latin America
www.youtube.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:20 PM
Ahead of tomorrow’s likely Senate vote on Venezuela War Powers, here’s a video explainer digging into
- scenarios that could lead to “boots on the ground” and an open-ended military mission, and
- the constellation of armed groups that US personnel might have to confront if those scenarios happen.
- scenarios that could lead to “boots on the ground” and an open-ended military mission, and
- the constellation of armed groups that US personnel might have to confront if those scenarios happen.
Former Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd discusses decades of agency impunity, fatal shootings with no prosecutions, and paramilitary culture now shaping ICE operations in U.S. cities. Featured in new HBO documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border.”
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂:
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂:
A discussion with former agent Jenn Budd on Border Patrol and ICE impunity
Budd has investigated Border Patrol fatalities for years and the agency's efforts to cover up its crimes. Her work is now highlighted in a new documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border."
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Former Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd discusses decades of agency impunity, fatal shootings with no prosecutions, and paramilitary culture now shaping ICE operations in U.S. cities. Featured in new HBO documentary "Critical Incident: Death at the Border.”
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂:
To watch the full discussion🔗🦂: