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THIS WEEK: The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that asylum-seekers should follow the rules by turning themselves in at ports of entry. But since June, attorneys allege, Mexican and U.S. customs agents have been doing something virtually unprecedented: stopping asylum-seekers from entering the bridge to seek protection in the U.S. That leaves migrant families languishing in narco-ravaged Mexican border towns or crossing into the U.S. illegally.
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The Lede
Checkpoint Nation
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- In 2012, Laura Sandoval made a routine trip to Juárez to console a friend whose wife had just died. On her way back, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent told her she’d been randomly selected for additional screening. When a drug-sniffing dog grew agitated and circled her legs, she was told she’d have to undergo another inspection.
- What ensued was a six-hour nightmare of strip and cavity searches, including a forced hospitalization that left Sandoval — whose name has been changed — feeling she was a victim of sexual assault.
- It turns out that the legal definition of “the border” is troublingly broad. Some 200 million people — nearly two-thirds of all Americans — live within the “border zone.” Nine of the country’s 10 largest cities lie within the zone. It touches 38 states and encompasses all of Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
- “There’s just no telling how many other illegal searches of American citizens go unreported,” said Edgar Saldivar, a staff attorney with the ACLU. “We have no way of holding CBP accountable.”
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From the archives
Hip-Hop in H-Town
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- In Houston Rap, Peter Beste and Lance Scott Walker document Houston’s rap scene and the neighborhoods that cultivate it. This month, the University of Texas Press reissued an updated edition of Walker’s book, Houston Rap Tapes: An Oral History of Bayou City Hip-Hop. Walker also put together a special Observer playlist just for us.
- From the 2014 story: “People don’t realize how far South Park actually goes back. And what I mean is, Martin Luther King Boulevard was actually called South Park Boulevard, and it started where Calhoun is, so that went all the way there where [the University of Houston] starts. So all of that on the side of MacGregor, all of that was called South Park. I always considered like where I grew up was like the gates to South Park, because that was your introduction. This is where it starts.”
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What’s Happening at the Observer
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- We’re happy to extend an invitation to hear reporter Melissa del Bosque discuss “Checkpoint Nation” with Harper’s associate editor Rachel Poser in Austin at the North Door on Tuesday, October 30. The event is free and open to the public. Space is limited, so please RSVP.
- Like books? How about feature stories, essays and poems from around the state? We're launching a new monthly newsletter with all the Observer's cultural coverage, including newsletter-exclusive content. Sign up here.
- The Texas Observer has a revamped merch store! Here you can find all kinds of new ways to show your support for the work we do. Show the world your love for independent investigative journalism, and help pay for it all at the same time!
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