A bipartisan border security deal was approved Thursday evening by the U.S. House and Senate, but since funding for a border wall fell short of President Trump’s expectations, he declared a national emergency Friday to seek funds elsewhere. But the ongoing controversy over a physical barrier persists.
Reporter Melissa del Bosque exposed an environmental threat in her Type Investigations article.
President Trump has stuck by his argument that walls make border communities safer, despite crime statistics discrediting that claim. Del Bosque, a Pro Publica reporter and Lannan Fellow with Type Investigations, published her investigative report, “The Border Wall Could Cause Deadly Flooding. Officials Plan to Build It Anyway,” in November 2018.
She traveled to Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley to investigate the links between border wall construction and devastating flooding events on both sides of the border.
In her January 2019 article, “Trump’s Border Wall Would Destroy Historic Gravesites in Texas,” she also explored how border wall construction has destroyed historic cemeteries that are crucial to African American and southern border history.
Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter @NormDog1 and Lauren Terrazas can be reached at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter @terrazas_lauren.
