Notes From the Borderlands
Below is writing collected over the first six months of 2019, which I spent exploring the U.S.-Mexico border both intellectually via research and reading… and, since I live in New Mexico, physically. I drove south to the remote Antelope Wells port of entry where hundreds of asylum seekers have been apprehended by Border Patrol. I hiked to drop life-saving water along migrant trails in the Arizona desert as a volunteer with No More Deaths. I joined immigrant rights activists in marches to the Sante Fe Roundhouse to lobby New Mexico’s legislators. And along the way, I took notes.
Featured
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January 2019
- Jan 24, 2019 What Do You Have to Say? Jan 24, 2019
- Jan 25, 2019 Where Is the Emergency? Jan 25, 2019
- Jan 26, 2019 Love Has No Borders Jan 26, 2019
- Jan 27, 2019 Albuquerque Is a Small World Jan 27, 2019
- Jan 27, 2019 A Church in Las Cruces Jan 27, 2019
- Jan 28, 2019 Join Us in Santa Fe Jan 28, 2019
- Jan 29, 2019 Santa Fe Es Familia Jan 29, 2019
- Jan 30, 2019 Santa Fe Is Where It’s At Jan 30, 2019
- Jan 31, 2019 Santa Fe Isn't Too Far Jan 31, 2019
- Jan 31, 2019 Washington’s Another Story Jan 31, 2019
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February 2019
- Feb 1, 2019 Troops Deployed to the Border Feb 1, 2019
- Feb 2, 2019 Let’s Focus on the Bootheel Feb 2, 2019
- Feb 2, 2019 Their Citizens Here on the Border Feb 2, 2019
- Feb 2, 2019 We Feel There Is an Imminent Threat Feb 2, 2019
- Feb 2, 2019 With Mile-by-Mile Analysis Feb 2, 2019
- Feb 2, 2019 Unloading in Remote Areas Feb 2, 2019
- Feb 3, 2019 They Have a Legal Right Feb 3, 2019
- Feb 4, 2019 The Practice of Metering Feb 4, 2019
- Feb 5, 2019 They’re Gonna Have to Wait Their Turn Feb 5, 2019
- Feb 5, 2019 We Need Donald Trump to Listen Feb 5, 2019
- Feb 6, 2019 The State of the Union Feb 6, 2019
- Feb 7, 2019 I Was Disappointed Feb 7, 2019
- Feb 7, 2019 I Reject the Federal Contention Feb 7, 2019
- Feb 7, 2019 His Uninformed Campaign Promise Feb 7, 2019
- Feb 8, 2019 Not a Realistic or Effective Approach Feb 8, 2019
- Feb 9, 2019 The 27th Large Group of Migrants Feb 9, 2019
- Feb 10, 2019 Symptoms and Causes Feb 10, 2019
- Feb 11, 2019 We Have Exacerbated Underlying Problems Feb 11, 2019
- Feb 12, 2019 Imagine True Greatness Feb 12, 2019
- Feb 13, 2019 Don’t Just Imagine, Demand Feb 13, 2019
- Feb 14, 2019 Amor y Amistad Feb 14, 2019
- Feb 15, 2019 National Emergency, Personal Trip Feb 15, 2019
- Feb 15, 2019 El Paso Feb 15, 2019
- Feb 16, 2019 El Pasoans and Fronterizos Feb 16, 2019
- Feb 17, 2019 To Voyagers, Passers Through and Troubadors Feb 17, 2019
- Feb 17, 2019 Reclaiming the Border Patrol Museum Feb 17, 2019
- Feb 18, 2019 West of El Paso Feb 18, 2019
- Feb 18, 2019 New Mexico State Road 9 Feb 18, 2019
- Feb 18, 2019 The Last Populated Place on the Highway Feb 18, 2019
- Feb 18, 2019 Antelope Wells is Hardly a Place Feb 18, 2019
- Feb 19, 2019 Looking Out Across Expanses of Nothing Feb 19, 2019
- Feb 19, 2019 Population: Please Line Up Feb 19, 2019
- Feb 20, 2019 The 28th Large Group Feb 20, 2019
- Feb 20, 2019 Please Send Emergency Medical Services Feb 20, 2019
- Feb 20, 2019 A Citizen Co-Sponsor of the REMOTE Act Feb 20, 2019
- Feb 21, 2019 If That Isn’t a Crisis, Nothing Is Feb 21, 2019
- Feb 21, 2019 This Is Not an Emergency Feb 21, 2019
- Feb 21, 2019 You Want to See a Real Emergency? Feb 21, 2019
- Feb 22, 2019 Eating Honduras for Breakfast Feb 22, 2019
- Feb 23, 2019 Displacing People From Their Rural Livelihoods Feb 23, 2019
- Feb 24, 2019 Why So Many Are Coming Feb 24, 2019
- Feb 25, 2019 We Either Stay Home and Starve or We Make the Journey Feb 25, 2019
- Feb 26, 2019 The Products and Profits of Their Land Flowed Directly to the U.S. Feb 26, 2019
- Feb 27, 2019 Following Their Stolen Resources Feb 27, 2019
- Feb 28, 2019 Many Have Perished Along the Way Feb 28, 2019
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March 2019
- Mar 1, 2019 What Happened to the Migrant Caravan Mar 1, 2019
- Mar 2, 2019 Just in the Last Week Mar 2, 2019
- Mar 3, 2019 Please, Karie, Do Some Research Mar 3, 2019
- Mar 4, 2019 Get Your News From Other Sources Too Mar 4, 2019
- Mar 4, 2019 The Reactions Would Be Different Were All These Children of a Lighter Color Mar 4, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 From Remote Desert to the State Capital Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 House Bill 287: No Use of State Resources For Border Wall Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 Inside the Santa Fe Roundhouse Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 Symbol of Perfect Friendship Among United Cultures Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 This Is What Happens in New Mexico Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 5, 2019 My Name Preceded Me in the Capital Mar 5, 2019
- Mar 6, 2019 Friends With Plenty of Expertise to Share Mar 6, 2019
- Mar 7, 2019 Never Even Mentioned the Region’s Hotly-Debated Border Crisis Mar 7, 2019
- Mar 8, 2019 Border at ‘Breaking Point,’ New York Times Reports Mar 8, 2019
- Mar 9, 2019 Crossings Fall in Rural New Mexico, Increase in Urban El Paso Mar 9, 2019
- Mar 10, 2019 After Spending Two Nights Sleeping by the Fence Mar 10, 2019
- Mar 11, 2019 From Well-Dressed and Rested to Exhausted, Bedraggled and Extremely Fearful Mar 11, 2019
- Mar 12, 2019 Keeping Your Country Safe From Dangerous People Mar 12, 2019
- Mar 13, 2019 Torres Small Says More Customs, Border Patrol Agents Needed Mar 13, 2019
- Mar 14, 2019 Distant Figures Versus Human Faces Mar 14, 2019
- Mar 15, 2019 Tweeting “VETO” Moments After the Resolution Cleared Congress Mar 15, 2019
- Mar 16, 2019 When They Arrive at Our Border Mar 16, 2019
- Mar 17, 2019 It’s Like Playing Hide-and-Go-Seek, But You’re Always ‘It’ Mar 17, 2019
- Mar 18, 2019 Brutality Grew As the Number of Agents It Deployed Increased Mar 18, 2019
- Mar 19, 2019 My Mind Had Become So Filled With Violence That I Could Barely Perceive Beauty Mar 19, 2019
- Mar 20, 2019 Weaponizing the Geography and Terrain of the Borderlands Mar 20, 2019
- Mar 21, 2019 What Happens When You Weaponize the Land Mar 21, 2019
- Mar 22, 2019 How Many Migrants Die That Way in the Wilderness Mar 22, 2019
- Mar 23, 2019 Humanitarian Groups Cropped Up in Response Mar 23, 2019
- Mar 24, 2019 No More Deaths / No Más Muertes Mar 24, 2019
- Mar 30, 2019 On the Ground in the Desert of Southern Arizona Mar 30, 2019
- Mar 31, 2019 Mesquite, Cholla, Yucca, Tussock, Catclaw Mar 31, 2019
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April 2019
- Apr 1, 2019 Embrace This Bodily State and Carry On With the Week’s Water Drops Apr 1, 2019
- Apr 2, 2019 We’re Not the Ones Hiding Under a Tree With Rifles Apr 2, 2019
- Apr 3, 2019 Bushwhacking in Search of Bones Apr 3, 2019
- Apr 4, 2019 Ten Thousand Years of Desert People Apr 4, 2019
- Apr 5, 2019 When Blue and Red Lights Suddenly Flashed Apr 5, 2019
- Apr 6, 2019 Tacklings, Tasings, and Beatings, As Well As Dogs Dragging Them to the Ground Apr 6, 2019
- Apr 7, 2019 Nonprofit Report, Border Patrol Retaliation Apr 7, 2019
- Apr 8, 2019 Military-Style Crackdowns on Medical Facilities Apr 8, 2019
- Apr 9, 2019 They of Course Had an Agenda Apr 9, 2019
- Apr 10, 2019 Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime Apr 10, 2019
- Apr 11, 2019 How Law Enforcement Treats Border Crossers Apr 11, 2019
- Apr 12, 2019 Border Patrol Arrests You—What Happens Next? Apr 12, 2019
- Apr 13, 2019 Cells That Are Too Small, Dirty, and Kept So Cold They’ve Earned the Nickname Hieleras Apr 13, 2019
- Apr 14, 2019 Imprisoned Not More Than Six Months Apr 14, 2019
- Apr 15, 2019 Inside the Icebox Apr 15, 2019
- Apr 16, 2019 The Deadliest Immigration Detention Center Apr 16, 2019
- Apr 17, 2019 Barr’s Order Says They Should Be Held Indefinitely Apr 17, 2019
- Apr 18, 2019 720 migrants arrested in New Mexico in 24 hours Apr 18, 2019
- Apr 19, 2019 Militia in New Mexico Detains Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint Apr 19, 2019
- Apr 20, 2019 Wherever They’re Gonna Take Them, I Don’t Know Apr 20, 2019
- Apr 21, 2019 F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia Apr 21, 2019
- Apr 22, 2019 They Are Placed at the ‘Tent’ to Await Their Turn to Be Processed Apr 22, 2019
- Apr 23, 2019 Churches Have Been Providing Temporary Shelter for Migrants Released From ICE Detention Apr 23, 2019
- Apr 24, 2019 Volunteers and Donations Have Powered the Effort Apr 24, 2019
- Apr 25, 2019 The Church in Las Cruces Apr 25, 2019
- Apr 26, 2019 A Warehouse Converted Into a Hospitality Site Apr 26, 2019
- Apr 27, 2019 The Resources to Police and Incarcerate but Not to Aid Apr 27, 2019
- Apr 28, 2019 There’s a Huge Sentiment That We Want to Be Helpful and Supportive Apr 28, 2019
- Apr 29, 2019 This Strategic Exploitation of Our Nation’s Humanitarian Programs Apr 29, 2019
- Apr 30, 2019 The State is Legally Bound to Listen to Refugees’ Stories Apr 30, 2019
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May 2019
- May 1, 2019 What Is Unlawful is Turning Away Asylum Seekers May 1, 2019
- May 2, 2019 Asylum Officers Forced to Refuse Safe Haven to People Facing Peril May 2, 2019
- May 3, 2019 A Legal Challenge to Barr’s Order to Imprison Asylum Seekers Indefinitely May 3, 2019
- May 4, 2019 Strict—Even Cruel—Measures Will Not Stop Those Fleeing for Their Lives May 4, 2019
- May 5, 2019 Over 670 Apprehended by Border Patrol Within 24 Hours May 5, 2019
- May 6, 2019 New Tent Structures Built to Detain Migrants May 6, 2019
- May 7, 2019 Detention Settings Compound Previous Trauma May 7, 2019
- May 8, 2019 The Likelihood of Harm is Reduced Somewhat by the Mexican Government’s Commitment May 8, 2019
- May 9, 2019 And the President Laughs and Smirks May 9, 2019
- May 10, 2019 Multiple Remains Recovered This Week May 10, 2019
- May 11, 2019 The Bodies in the Brush May 11, 2019
- May 12, 2019 The Unbearable Weight/Lightness of the Desert May 12, 2019
- May 13, 2019 Demand They Drop All Charges Against Dr. Scott Warren May 13, 2019
- May 13, 2019 Urging the State to Drop the Charges Against the Tornillo Activists May 13, 2019
- May 14, 2019 A Pattern of Criminalizing Humanitarian Aid and Those Who Decry State Sanctioned Violence May 14, 2019
- May 15, 2019 A Secret White House Plan to Arrest Thousands of Parents and Children May 15, 2019
- May 16, 2019 A Few of the Acts the State Has Criminalized May 16, 2019
- May 24, 2019 A Throughline of White Nationalism May 24, 2019
- May 28, 2019 Take Responsibility for Actively Resisting May 28, 2019
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June 2019
- Jun 3, 2019 Desert Dream, Legal Nightmare Jun 3, 2019
- Jun 5, 2019 Our Dystopian Present Jun 5, 2019
- Jun 12, 2019 Recent Reports From the Border Jun 12, 2019
- Jun 15, 2019 A Utopia to the North Jun 15, 2019
- Jun 19, 2019 Violating Human Rights and International Law Jun 19, 2019
- Jun 21, 2019 Yes, the U.S. Is Imprisoning People in Concentration Camps Jun 21, 2019
- Jun 24, 2019 Literally the United States Is Warehousing Children Jun 24, 2019
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July 2019
- Jul 8, 2019 What Do We Do? Jul 8, 2019
- Jul 11, 2019 There Should Be Artwork Jul 11, 2019