The Navajo Department of Health is implementing four partial 32-hour weekend curfews for the rest of August. The new partial lockdown will go into effect this weekend. Essential workers and essential businesses are exempt from the curfew and farm work can also continue. But any vendors that farmers may buy supplies from are not exempt so officials say plan ahead.

In Mexico, like in the United States, some governors are disagreeing with the federal government’s fiscal and health policies during the pandemic. And they are forming a coalition to fight back.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services relies on fees to fund its operations. But migrant advocates say new fees for asylum applications and work permits are really an outsize burden on people fleeing persecution.

Six years after Mexico’s largest mining company spilled toxic waste into the Sonoran waterways, impacting thousands of people downstream, authorities say the area is still contaminated. And residents say neither the government nor the mining company have followed through with their promises.

Despite its location at an important crossroads along the U.S.-Mexico border, residents in the Sonoran town of Sonoyta say they’re often overlooked. Now, facing the increasingly deadly consequences of a faltering health system during the coronavirus pandemic, some residents have started a movement for social justice.

A year ago, a gunman killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart. Eight Mexican citizens were among the dead, and 8 others were wounded, targeted by ethnicity. The Mexican government plans to create an institute to pay tribute to the victims.

Officials in neighboring Sonora, Mexico are launching a new stimulus program to promote arts and culture during the pandemic. The funds will be distributed through a series of arts contests.

The coronavirus pandemic poses a devastating threat to smaller tribes. That very real possibility is on minds of tribal and state leadership across the country. The small tribes in Yuma County say with consistent messaging and a prepared health facility they have so far avoided the worst of it.

Four casinos operated by the Navajo Nation will remain closed through at least Aug. 16. Even though they’ve been closed since March, the casinos had been using cash reserves to pay employees. Now more than 1,000 are facing layoffs and furloughs.