Dear Border Chronicle subscribers,
We need your help now more than ever.
Vast swathes of public land turned into militarized zones, 30-foot walls rammed through fragile ecological wildlife corridors, and people disappeared by masked federal agents. There’s so much happening right now that needs our attention and scrutiny as the Trump administration dismantles our democracy.
We’re a small independent news organization that punches above its weight, but we need your help to continue our on-the-ground reporting.
We need at least 700 more paid subscribers for our organization to become close to sustainable, which would mean a living wage for The Border Chronicle’s two founders, Todd Miller and Melissa del Bosque. Since we launched in 2021, it’s been our goal to reach 2,000 paid subscribers so that Melissa and Todd can run The Border Chronicle full-time and not have to work second jobs.
If you believe that local independent journalism is important for a functioning democracy, and you believe in The Border Chronicle’s journalism, please support our work today for just $6 a month or $60 a year. Or even better, become a founding member for $150 a year and receive two additional paid subscriptions for friends and family.
You can also donate to The Border Chronicle through PayPal or make a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor Homelands Productions.
Our goal is for The Border Chronicle to be accessible to everyone, which is why our podcast and articles are free before going behind a paywall after a month. Our paid subscribers make this possible.
In addition to asking for your support, we are also exploring other fundraising avenues and paths to sustainability. But as Trump picks up speed with his unconstitutional maneuvers, many U.S. funders and foundations are turning away from border organizations and independent media. It’s a double whammy for us, and it couldn’t come at a worse time. Recently, we hired our first reporter in South Texas, Pablo de la Rosa, a talented multimedia reporter who has done amazing work covering Elon Musk’s new Texas town, Starbase; the impacts of drought on the Rio Grande; and the deployment of soldiers on both sides of the border.
Two months into Pablo’s one-year grant, we were informed that the foundation supporting his work is cutting its funding by one-third. We’re not the only ones affected by this; the cut applies to all the foundation’s migration and border-related projects. So now we are scrambling to fundraise and make up the difference.
Despite this setback, we are not giving up.
We’ve also been incredibly lucky to have Caroline Tracey work for us this year, covering arts and culture, and the environment. Recently, Caroline wrote a wonderful story about a binational conservation project in Sonora, Mexico, to save North American birds, which we copublished with High Country News. Her recent article about artists from the borderlands challenging the narrative of the Rio Grande as a militarized border checkpoint, rather than a vital river serving two nations, is another excellent piece from a border-centered perspective.
Caroline has done this amazing binational work by raising her own funds through a patchwork of grants. We are exploring every avenue, from grants and sponsorships to subscriber support, to keep Caroline working for The Border Chronicle because she is a gifted, bilingual reporter with a talent for finding underreported stories.
We are a unique news outlet because we cover the entire U.S.-Mexico border region and not just one state or one border city. Todd Miller and Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle’s founders, have reported on the southern border since the late 1990s. We created The Border Chronicle because we believe wholeheartedly that a border-wide news publication with context and analysis was desperately needed to serve and connect the communities of the U.S.-Mexico border.
We believe the people who live and work along the border know their stories best. That’s why we center local voices, uplift grassroots perspectives, and strive to create reporting that reflects the richness, resilience, and complexity of border life. Our work informs not just border residents but anyone who cares about reality-based reporting with nuance in an age of rampant disinformation.
Just in the last month, we’ve traveled to the newly militarized national defense area in New Mexico and examined how the recently created Texas national defense area in El Paso jeopardizes U.S. relations with Mexico. We’ve also chronicled the growing crisis of megadrought and water scarcity impacting the Rio Grande and the millions of residents who depend on the river as their sole source of water.
At the same time, we’ve uplifted artists, activists, and other border residents challenging the toxic border crisis and invasion narrative, and we’ve focused on grassroots solutions to some of the region’s toughest problems, including climate change and migration.
You may have also noticed that we are venturing into live video via Substack and including more conversations with experts and reporting dispatches from the field to engage more readers in our work.
We’ve been able to do all of this thanks to our subscribers. If you believe in our work, become a paid subscriber today and support our growing editorial team, which also includes podcast editor Steev Hise and text editor Pablo Morales. We can’t do this without you!
Thank you so much for your support!
Melissa and Todd
Founders, The Border Chronicle
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