By Harald Bauder International borders have become deadly barriers, rivaled only by war and major natural disasters in the number of fatalities they produce. The consortium ‘The Migrants’ Files’ has recorded more than 3,000 deadly incidents between 2000 and early 2016, during which an estimated 32,000 men, women, and children died or went missing while trying to reach Europe. In Australia the ‘Border Deaths database’, maintained by the Border Crossing Observatory at Monash University, has counted almost 2,000 deaths in the same period. Still more migrants have died in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, and in the jungles of southeast Asia. Nobody knows exactly how many people have died, because many deaths are unseen or undocumented. Continue reading

  By Kimball Taylor A house in the La Libertad neighborhood of Tijuana relies on the corrugated iron border fence erected under President Clinton for its back wall. The engineers who designed the fence in 1994 left three feet of American soil on the Mexican side, to allow for repairs without the need for diplomatic agreements. That means this home's inhabitants can pass freely between two nations under one roof. The matriarch jokes that, with the way her bed is positioned, she dreams in America while her feet remain squarely in Mexico. Continue reading

  By Jacob Sullum The Court's decision leaves motorists vulnerable to the whims of armed government agents who can stop them at will. Today the Supreme Court passed up an opportunity to impose limits on a disturbing exception to the Fourth Amendment that allows random detention of motorists within 100 miles of a border—a zone that includes two-thirds of the U.S. population. Since the rationale for these stops is immigration enforcement, they are supposed to be very brief. Yet in 2010 Richard Rynearson, an Air Force officer who brought the case that the Court today declined to hear, was detainedat a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Uvalde County, Texas, for a total of 34 minutes, even though there was no reason to believe he was an illegal alien or a criminal. Continue reading

  By Andrew J . Hawkins Just in time for spring break, Uber announced today that it would start taking passengers across the US-Mexico border for the very first time, from San Diego to Tijuana. But getting back will be trickier, thanks to the regulations that govern ride-hail companies like Uber. Continue reading

  By Nancy Montoya An unusual step by the U.S. Border Patrol in California to look into their own cases of excessive force charges, may have major implications here in Arizona. Continue reading

  By Tatiana Sanchez Leaders of the national Border Patrol union on Wednesday challenged the findings of a scathing report issued this week by a law enforcement task force that found U.S. Customs and Border Protection has done little to combat widespread corruption and lack of accountability within the agency. Continue reading

  By Morgan Cherry Sacramento State is endeavoring to be a diverse, inclusive campus community, but some undocumented students do not feel safe. On Wednesday, March 9, Rosa Isela Barrientos, a junior majoring in Chicano studies and government, said she walked by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol car parked in the vicinity of the WELL. As one of the 800 undocumented students currently attending Sac State, Barrientos feared not only for her safety, but also for the safety of her family and her fellow undocumented students. Continue reading

  By Michael Oleaga Opponents of immigrant detention centers are applauding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for initiating unannounced inspections at its facilities.   Continue reading

  By Jean Guerrero A panel of law enforcement experts found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has made little movement on a call to sharply increase the number of agents assigned to investigate internal corruption, calling it a mistake that could lead to a major scandal if it isn't addressed more quickly. Continue reading

  By Patricia Leigh Brown TIJUANA, Mexico — Weekday mornings at 5, when the lights on distant hillsides across the border still twinkle in the blackness, Martha, a high school senior, begins her arduous three-hour commute to school. She groggily unlocks the security gate guarded by the family Doberman and waits in the glare of the Pemex filling station for the bus to the border. Her fellow passengers, grown men with their arms folded, jostle her in their sleep.Martha’s destination, along with dozens of young friends — United States citizens all living in “TJ,” as they affectionately call their city — is a public high school eight miles away in Chula Vista, Calif., where they were born and where they still claim to live. Continue reading