New Mexico Mercury

Outrage follows migrant deaths in Arizona

The deaths of three young men in the Arizona desert last month have prompted Mexican non-governmental organizations to renew demands for actions and changes from the Mexican and U.S. governments. In a statement signed by scores of human rights, migrant, labor, civic, and faith-based organizations, the groups demanded meaningful policy shifts at a time when current U.S. legislative proposals for tighter security amount to a “virtual state of war on the border"...

A Memorial for a Failed Border Policy

Tom Barry, author of "Border Wars", explores border policy on the ground and illustrates how the new legislation making its way through Congress mirrors the dysfunction of current U.S. immigration policy.

The Coconut Massacre

Mexico’s long bout of violence has introduced many new words into the popular vernacular. Among the linguistic additions is the word “youthcide,’ meaning the systematic, mass killing of young people. A recent slaughter in the southern state of Guerrero could be a textbook example of the ongoing loss of young lives from violence.

On Friday, July 5, an estimated 200-250 people buried seven young boys and men in Coyuca de Benitez, a rural municipality located about a half hour’s drive from Acapulco in the Costa Grande region. The victims were all found shot to death in a local coconut orchard the previous day...

Border surge misses real security threat in Transborder West

New U.S. initiatives associated with immigration reform proposals aim to seal the U.S.-Mexico border with more hulking fences, high-tech surveillance, sensors, and drones -- all to “secure the border” against a dramatically diminishing flow (lowest in four decades) of south-north immigrants, and costing at least $30 billion in additional border security funding.

Generally unnoticed in this border security buildup is the rapid onset of a new transborder security threat. Not immigrants, not terrorists, not drugs, not spillover violence. Rather frightening changes in the deserts, in the mountain flora, in the surface water flows, in the falling levels of reservoirs, and in the disappearing aquifers and underground water basins...

Mexico’s rich flourish

A Great Recession? Not for Mexico’s rich. In fact, the number of people in the Mexican Republic defined as wealthy by the corporate research outfit WealthInsight grew by almost a third between  late 2007 and late 2012, a time when high unemployment and hard times had most people scrambling to make ends meet.

According to WealthInsight, the total number of Mexican residents who held wealth valued at than one million dollars (minus their principal home) reached 145,000 at the end of last year. Of this group, 2,450 people were classified as multi-millionaires...

Border Leaders Slam Militarization

Immigration reform amendment will increase border fencing, drones and border patrol while opening the door for defense contractors.

Politics of Climate Change in Chihuahua

In Mexico climate change is a given, it's the rule of law that's murky. Borderland journalist Tom Barry explores the increasing tensions amidst dwindling water supplies just south of the border.

A Gang of 12 and Alleged Femicide in Ciudad Juarez

Frontera Norte Sur recaps the first round of court appearances in a case against 12 Ciudad Juarez residents accused in the mass disappearance and murder of girls and young women.

The Coming Water Wars in Mexico – Part 2

Mexican farmers and indigenous group join forces to protest illegal wells and tourism encroachment in northern Mexico.

Immigration Update: Arizona border deaths detailed

As the hottest time of year descends on the borderland, a new report sheds fresh light on the mass deaths of migrants crossing the deadly Sonora-Arizona desert. Co-authored by the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute and the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME), the study examines the deaths of 2,238 migrants in the Tucson area between 1990 and 2012.

The researchers document the dramatic rise in border crossing deaths beginning in 1990, when the bodies of 8 undocumented migrants were recovered, and culminating in 2012, when 171 migrant deaths were recorded...