Border Stories is a series of short documentaries about life on the US-Mexican border, none longer than 6 minutes. The subjects are: drug addicts on the border (warning: graphic images), electronic music group Nortec Collective, hospital costs of fence jumpers, lonesome Minuteman, Mexican emigrant safety patrolman, ranchowners whose land is an immigration throughway, US-raised 18 year-old sent back to Mexico, virtual vigilantes, two old men provide water in the desert, dangers of journalism in Ciudad Juarez, graveyard of US tires in Mexico, drug ballads, hardened border policy hurts cross-border community, another cross-border community fears closing of footbridge, working illegally in Laredo, mayors of the two Laredos, migrants' safe house, hand-pulled ferry, dentistry in Nuevo Progreso, Brownsville high school teacher protests border fence, golf course with the border on three sides & fishermen on the mouth of the Rio Bravo. Border Stories also has a blog about immigration issues.
posted by Kattullus on May 21, 2009 - 18 comments

Archaeologists and Native Americans race against the border fence. The REAL ID act authorized government agencies to bulldoze long-standing environmental, cultural and anthropological standards. But a team of activists worked delicately behind the scenes to win millions of dollars in federal funding and the go-ahead for a last-ditch effort to study ancient artifacts. Archaeologists have faced similarly rushed projects elsewhere along the fence route.
posted by univac on Mar 31, 2009 - 46 comments

What has long been touted as the world's longest undefended border (that running between Canada and the United States) has undergone many changes since 9/11. In an effort to secure its Northern border, the U.S. now employs Predator drones, Blackhawk helicopter patrols, high speed boats, and Google searches. There may even be a big fence in our future. More troubling still are increased demands for information on Canadian citizens, and increased searching powers of U.S. border guards. And don't ask them to say please either.
posted by stinkycheese on Mar 7, 2009 - 111 comments

Texas executes Mexican national who was denied consul visit. [more inside]
posted by mrducts on Aug 6, 2008 - 121 comments

Peace Without Borders. Colombian singer Juanes put together a concert calling for peace, as a result of the recent crisis between Colombia and Ecuador (and tangentially, Venezuela). Remarkably, it was held from the bridge between Venezuela and Colombia, in what is normally a very problematic border, and it featured the great Carlos Vives, the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra, and others. [more inside]
posted by micayetoca on Mar 16, 2008 - 16 comments

YouTube Hijacking: A RIPE NCC RIS case study is the definitive look at how actions of Pakistan Telecom caused the global outage of YouTube Sunday the 24th of Feb. 2008. This incident has exposed weaknesses of the Border Gateway Protocol as is outlined by Danny McPherson from Arbor Networks as well as on the Renesys blog.
posted by gen on Mar 2, 2008 - 33 comments

The president of The University of Texas at Brownsville has refused to sign a right of entry request granting access to surveyors planning the U.S./Mexico border fence. This comes shortly after Cameron County landowners were forced to allow the government access to their land. Meanwhile, landowners in Hidalgo County are filing the next wave of lawsuits.
posted by fiercecupcake on Feb 6, 2008 - 46 comments

As the immigration debate rages, Anti-Latino hate crimes rose by almost 35% between 2003 and 2006. Here are a few dozen of them. To some, this trend may seem perfectly FAIR.
posted by hermitosis on Dec 18, 2007 - 50 comments

It's border-smuggling re-packaged as a tourist experience. According to the New York Times, this is "one of Mexico’s more bizarre tourist attractions: a make-believe trip illegally crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States." Perhaps your fully-paid border simulation will soon include being shot at...
posted by BLDGBLOG on Feb 4, 2007 - 18 comments

Who needs a fence when you have webcams? The state of Texas now has a virtual border watch online and is asking for your help spotting illegals crossing the border. It looks like Arizona has a similar program as well with pimped out ATV's. Let the hunt begin. Warning: The Texas site seems to require IE, an ActiveX plugin and registration.
posted by itchylick on Nov 4, 2006 - 16 comments

Worried about that border fence? While you'd be in good company, it doesn't look like any money has been appropriated for this project. More worried about the fence not being built? That's ok, because enraged citizens are taking the task onto themselves.
posted by shownomercy on Oct 30, 2006 - 79 comments

"They say, 'get bent,' we say, 'let's fight!'" A protest at Columbia University and Minutemen (NYT link) are forced off stage.
posted by Smedleyman on Oct 9, 2006 - 192 comments

The world's longest undefended border apparently gives the U.S. enough freedom to send in the FBI for routine investigations in another country. Of course, this is not the first time that American authorities operated illegally in Canada. How would Americans feel if it was the other way around? Pretty funny, eh?
posted by Kickstart70 on Oct 5, 2006 - 42 comments

¡Viva Border Volleyball!
posted by chunking express on Sep 28, 2006 - 8 comments

Free The Tucson Two. Or don't. If you find someone lost and dying in the desert, should you help them? What if they turn out to be attempting to enter the country illegally? Then is it OK to leave them to die? These folks say no, not really. And these folks say yes, probably. Previously discussed immigration fun on MetaFilter: 1 2 3
posted by bokeh on Jul 14, 2006 - 75 comments

The Border Film Project. "For three months last summer, three filmmakers with ties to Arizona passed out hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups: [...] undocumented immigrants on the perilous journey to enter the United States and Minuteman volunteers determined to stop them." [article] [previously]
posted by milquetoast on Mar 18, 2006 - 20 comments

Auger-Loizeau: Recognizing that for each placated consumer of technology there is an unsatisfied, complicated or strange one.
posted by signal on Nov 16, 2005 - 5 comments

Delete the Border Pictures and links about worldwide action taken against border controls.
posted by BuddhaInABucket on Sep 16, 2005 - 24 comments

Mexico publishes Migrant/Illegal Immigrant Guide A new comic-book-style guide for migrants produced by the Mexican government is designed to help immigrants cross the border illegally into the United States. (NPR) This is proving a little controversial. Deaths are common on the crossing.
posted by fluffycreature on Jan 7, 2005 - 38 comments

Benefit Concert: Calexico in Calexico. The band Calexico will play for the first time ever in the City of Calexico July 9th in a benefit concert promoting border crossing death awareness. Since the U.S. Border Patrol began to document these deaths in 1999, over 2000 illegal immigrants have died in search of a new life in the United States. Calexico, formed by Joey Burns and John Convertino, will donate all proceeds to a non-profit organization supporting humanity.
posted by labotsirc on Jul 6, 2004 - 10 comments

I feel safer already! A US requirement for foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed is being expanded to include citizens from America's closest allies, starting September 30th.
posted by johnnydark on Apr 2, 2004 - 22 comments

Amazing security! They’ll screen you at airports, they’ll check your emails, they’ll arrest and hold you without obvious reason. Yes, they say this is the way to make America safer. But, hell…
posted by acrobat on Sep 12, 2003 - 20 comments

Economic migrants trying to cross into the U.S from Mexico are being driven to risk ever more hazardous routes. Bizarrely, the clampdown on illegal border crossing has led to an Indian (Asian) hanging himself in a Guatemalan jail. Where was that border again?
posted by Fat Buddha on Jul 25, 2002 - 32 comments

Utah politics you don't know whether to laugh or cry. From Paul Rolly's column in the Salt Lake Tribune "The Republican state convention delegate was discussing with a prominent Utah GOP elected officeholder the issue of immigration when the delegate whined that a fence should be constructed to span the entire USA-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants. "What happens when they climb the fence?" asked the politician. "You electrify it," said the delegate. "Then they won't touch it." "But what if they touch it? You would let them die?" "It would be their choice," said the delegate. "What about a mother with a baby strapped to her back? You would let the mother and the baby die?" "It would be the mother's choice to kill that baby," said the delegate. "Then you're in favor of abortion?" asked the officeholder. Dead silence. "
posted by onegoodmove on Apr 28, 2002 - 24 comments

Cybracero: Wave of the future . No longer will immigrants have to cross borders to do manual labor thanks to this visionary and exciting technology. Telerobotics mean that manual labor from 3rd world countries can now do their work from home! Check out the video and technology pages for examples of how this revolutionary idea will change the world!
posted by cell divide on Feb 4, 2002 - 4 comments

Border crossing monitor Driving from Ontario to the U.S.? The Ontario government joins the cluetrain and updates border delays online four times daily. No sign of similar services at, say, Quebec or New Brunswick sites.
posted by joeclark on Sep 16, 2001 - 2 comments