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…
“Our President Is Unstable”: Sen. Jeff Merkley Makes the Case That “It’s Getting Worse”
© Zach Roberts/ZUMA Wire Senator Jeff Merkley has witnessed some atrocious scenes at migrant detention centers along the Texas-Mexico border. He described one where “hundreds” of children were ripped out of their parents’ arms and sorted into chain-link cages, standing in single-file lines from shortest to tallest. “The shortest one was in front and he…
Trump Is Willing to Do Whatever It Takes to Get the Border Wall Built
Christopher Brown/Zuma The United States Army Corps of Engineers has built 60 miles of border fencing since President Donald Trump took office. But Trump wants to accelerate that to 440 more miles completed by the 2020 election, and he’s willing to bypass legal procedures to make it happen. Under the president’s direction, Trump’s aides have…