Reporting and commentary on immigration and the Texas-Mexico borderlands
If U.S. officials put an end to illegal trips across the Rio Grande at Boquillas, the enchanting border town will find itself caught between countries and cultures. Of course, that’s where it has always been.
THERE IS AN OBLIGATORY SCENE in every movie about the border between Texas and Mexico: A man draws a line in the dirt with his boot. The line means something different in each movie, and yet, there it is, a narrow little rut in the ground that the characters gesture
An Armey of opposition to the House majority leader; a spirited response to a Christian’s plea for understanding.
Keeping up the good fight.
To those who live on Mexico’s side of the Rio Grande, posing for portraits is not an occasion for smiles.
The disappearance of a University of Texas student in Matamoros led police to the discovery of a drug-dealing cult whose rituals were not only unholy but unthinkable.
The border’s self-appointed problem solvers promise new industry, more jobs, and better schools. So why won’t anyone listen to them?
While U.S. businessmen and Mexican bureaucrats see her as the answer to their economic prayers, factory worker Graciela Fernández just tries to get by—on about 66 cents an hour.
In his dream to create a dynastic empire along the Rio Grande, Chito Longoria went against the wishes of his family and the values of his native land.
In eight square blocks of Nuevo Laredo you can sample a cactus taco, hone your bargaining skills, and buy the best Christmas gifts on the border.
To Texans, it’s the border. To Mexicans, it’s la frontera. It’s a hot, dazzling world where cultures clash and you’re never sure just where you stand.
The race war on the range.
As these photographs show, in Mexico the strange is commonplace, and the commonplace, strange.
In my village in Oaxaca I had heard about those who made it big in El Norte, and I wanted to become one of them. But I didn’t know how hard life in Houston would be without papers, money, or a job.
The writer had no papers, but he wanted to get from Mexico to Houston. His best chance was to put his passage into the hands of a coyote, for a fat fee.
In death as in life, the Mexican revolutionary is still causing trouble. This time the border skirmish is over his death mask.
From all over the world, people are coming to Houston to find a better life. For a few of them—immigrants from Poland, Nigeria, and El Salvador—this is what it’s like.
Nuevo Laredo’s Boys’ Town, where lost innocence meets failed dreams.
Two men from Mexico inherit the legacy of all immigrants—grueling labor, low pay, and a bleak existence on the edge of the American dream.
The real Nuevo Laredo isn’t George Washington’s Birthday, Boystown, or throngs of tourists; it’s the street life.
The pioneers who came to tame the West met their match in the land of ‘Giant.’
Across the river and into the brush; an eyewitness account of the journey of two wetbacks.
The word going across the border is: Uncle Sam doesn’t want you.
What’s good for marijuana is good for Starr County.
We walk the line for you—from Matamoros to Juárez—to bring you the best of Mexican shopping.
Two self-styled Texas soldiers of fortune engineered one of the more bizarre jailbreaks in history. Here’s how it happened.
Pity the poor Vietnamese: so far from home, so close to Beaumont.
What makes them swim the Rio Grande?
