These Panhandle towns should be shrinking. But thanks to immigrants, they’re booming.
THIS WEEK: In a belt of communities in the Panhandle, where voters resoundingly put Trump in office, immigrants have staved off population loss and boosted the local economy. In the farming town of Dalhart, where some business somewhere is accepting applications, the tacos are top-shelf and you can get your quinceañera or prom dress right on Main Street, maybe it’s just easier for everyone to get along.
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From the archives
Field Notes from Santa Ana
A visit to the crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system, now under threat from Trump’s wall, reveals a harsh landscape teeming with life.
From Asher Elbein's 2017 story: “There is an ominous quality to that forest, a gnawing loneliness that settles in slowly among the whispering grass. The border wall summons the feeling of transgressing against a natural divide. Which, of course, is the point. The wall is as much a state of mind as it is a physical construction, built less as a show of strength than a show of fear: fear of the inconstant borderland, the blended space where things move according to their own rhythms. The patchwork woodlands and wandering waters, the creatures at the edge of their range and those expanding beyond it: The wall has no place for them.”
What’s Happening at the Observer
We’re still busy crunching the numbers, but early indications show that we have eclipsed all of our fundraising goals for our year end campaigns! Thanks so very much to all of you for making that possible. As you know, the Observer can’t do its work without your support.
Save the Date! Our 2019 Rabble Rouser is set for February 26. Shinyribs will be back, as will our annual silent auction. Tickets will be $30 in advance, $35 at the door. Watch this space for an RSVP page next week.
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