“President Trump Has Created an Environmental Crisis at the Border”
Jorge Villalba/Getty This piece was originally published in The Guardian and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. The survival of eight endangered and threatened species, including four kinds of endemic fish, is in doubt in Arizona, as massive quantities of groundwater are extracted to construct Donald Trump’s border wall. The 30ft-high barrier is under…
This Map Shows How Radically Trump Has Changed Immigration Detention
A guard escorts an immigrant detainee at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California.John Moore/Getty In 2016, Donald Trump ran for president on an immigration platform that promised to close the southern border, end the “catch and release” policy, and implement a “zero tolerance” approach to anyone crossing the border illegally. While the current immigration detention…
Our Defense Spending is Up Against a Wall—Trump’s Border Wall, That Is
President Donald Trump signs last year’s National Defense Authorization Act surrounded by soldiers in Fort Drum, New York.Thomas Scaggs/ZUMA It’s the last official week of the 116th Congress, and lawmakers are running out of time to finalize a military budget for the fiscal year that began October 1. The House and Senate each passed a version…
New from the Mother Jones Podcast: Trump Is Winning His Border Wars. For Now.
Fernanda Echavarri / Mother Jones The Trump administration touts its “Remain in Mexico” policy as a resounding success. Critics call it cruel and illegal. What’s unquestionable is that President Donald Trump has now made it virtually impossible for migrants to seek asylum in the United States, leaving tens of thousands of migrant families stuck in…
At a Protest in Arizona, Border Communities Are Fighting Trump’s Wall
Over 300 environmentalists, Indigenous activists, Samaritan groups and human rights defenders gather to protest new U.S.-Mexico border wall construction.Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity This piece originally appeared in High Country News and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. On a Saturday morning in early November, Edwina Vogan and a few of her friends…
Pramila Jayapal Doesn’t Want to Give Trump “a Dollar More” for His “Vanity Wall”
John Moore/Getty Forget about President Donald Trump’s wild dreams of fortifying his border wall with a snake-filled moat: The immigration policies he has implemented have wreaked havoc at the border and expanded a cruel detention system rife with health and safety violations. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) says this system is in desperate need of reform—and in recent…