Best Of The Border (7/29 - 8/2)

By Alisa Barba
August 01, 2013

Border Security Fence Trumps Conservation

Congress is considering building hundreds of miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of immigration reform. From our Fronteras Desk, Jill Replogle reminds us of the last big fence-building push, and the fight that centered on the fence’s potential effects on San Diego’s fragile border ecosystems.


Tent City Jail Anniversary

Tent
Jude Joffe-Block
Tent City has become a symbol of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s law enforcement regime.

This Saturday marks the twentieth anniversary of an unorthodox, outdoor jail in Phoenix known as Tent City.  The facility was originally set up as a solution to jail overcrowding, but has since become a symbol of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s law enforcement regime. And the publicity the jail generates may be one of Arpaio’s biggest legacies. From the Fronteras Desk in Phoenix, Jude Joffe-Block reports.


Texas
David Martin Davies
Texas border residents protest the border surge

Texas Border Residents React To Border Surge Proposal

The so-called "border surge" proposal in the Senate immigration reform bill is not widely popular in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  From the Fronteras Desk in San Antonio, David Martin Davies reports. 


Navajo Slow To Rebuild After Development Freeze

You haven’t seen poverty in America until you’ve visited the Navajo Nation -- a reservation overwhelmed by desperate housing needs, high unemployment, and contaminated drinking water. But one corner of the reservation -- about 1.5 million acres -- is even worse off because of a program known as the “Bennett Freeze” which banned development on the land for four decades.  From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports.


Art Dealer Returns Hopi Sacred Items After Change Of Heart

An art dealer who bought two Hopi sacred items at a Paris auction last spring has decided to return them to the Northern Arizona tribe. The Hopi Tribe tried to stop the auction, arguing these items shouldn’t be seen much less sold.  From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports.