From the Borderlands

Big Thanks to Yael Schacher for these very full and fruitful 30 minutes! We covered a lot in very little time, including: * The real reasons why Trump & Co are targeting refugees for third-country expulsions. * How third-country expulsions undermine the modern Refugee Resettlement Program, while contributing to ethnic-cleansing in the so-called Land of Immigrants. * Why we need to rebuild from scr...

About 20 minutes as the crow flies from the Statue of Liberty and her promise of welcome sits Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed prison for people who’ve committed no crime. A prison for those whom the Trump regime wishes to exclude and expel. You’ve likely seen the recent news about Delaney Hall. But the horrors being exposed (and downplayed by mainstream media) are not new. Last November, I joined nonvio...

Join Kate Scott & Tony Heath and many, many other borderlands conservationists, allies, artists, and activists this weekend to wrap the natural world in love and kindness, with prayer, drumming, poetry, music, and dance, to co-create communities of compassion and care and energetically BRING DOWN THE BORDER WALL. It’s about registering our outrage. It’s about looking the workers in the eye. It’s a...

Thank you, Judith McQuistion , Lisa Seifert , and many others, for tuning into my live conversation with Dan Kowalski ! We discussed, among other things, that: * Immigration is always a net positive for the host nation. * The current statute is something we built, so we can unbuild it in keeping with popular values and current historical context. We are not stuck with it, nor should we be, since i...

Today, April 16, 2026, I join Moms4Good , MomsforTexas , Mother Forward , and the Blue Bunny Brigade , who have organized to get 10,000 of us moms across the country — and world, if you count me over in London — to make our national and state lawmakers face the brutal inhumanity of locking up children, and to turn up the heat until they #ShutDownDilley, #CloseTheCamps, and #ReuniteFamilies. To do...

Apropos of the final days of Holy Week 2026, the darkest moments in the Christian calendar — that still and scary time just before dawn — I wanted to share this piece from the archives: Alvaro Enciso’s Desert Monument to the Dead . I was back in Arizona on my latest speaking tour. I went for the Tucson Festival of Books — a guest of Rita Cantu and the Border Community Alliance . While there, I rod...

On March 22, 2026, the fifth Sunday of the Lenten season, aka Passion Sunday, I had the great honor of addressing the incomparable St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a parish renowned for its progressive stance and its focus on social justice. These folks rose ready, together, in the face of Trump & Co’s domestic terror campaign, “Operation Metro Surge,” to defend and sa...

Where were you on No Kings Day 3, dear subscribers? Let me know in the comments below. I was in the Twin Cities, hosted by the amazing St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community , and its Welcome the Stranger ministry, which put together a busy week of service, public speaking, networking, and story capturing for me. It was the perfect conclusion of another exhausting — but extremely fulfilling — leg on m...

“ Bella Ciao “ is best remembered as an anti-Nazi and anti-fascist Italian folk song dedicated to the partisans of the Italian resistance, who fought against the occupying troops of Nazi Germany and the collaborationist fascist forces during the liberation of Italy during WWII. The exact origins of the song are not known, but female workers of the Northern Italy paddy fields set lyrics to the tune...

Resistance Strategy #1: Remain Focused. There’s nothing like a “war” abroad to divert public attention from the atrocities taking place right now in our own backyards. The Trump kakistocracy* is now waging a bombing campaign against Iran on behalf of International Criminal Court defendant, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, whose arrest warrant was issued on 21 November 2024 for starving...

Finally, everyone sees it, and everyone is talking about it, whether to decry it or to justify it. But it is not hiding in plain sight any longer… I speak of the lawless impunity of the entire, rotten Department of Homeland so-called “Security” apparatus and its paramilitary Gestapo forces posing as law-enforcement agencies: ICE and CBP, Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Pat...

EMERGENCY FACT SHEET * PASTOR STEVEN TENDO, Applicant for Political Asylum * Originally from Uganda * Date of birth: November 24, 1984 * A-number: 201-520-012 * Kidnapped by ICE, Wednesday, February 4, 2026, Burlington, VT * Imprisoned at Stafford County Detention Center, Dover, NH SUMMARY: Steven Tendo is a respected Pastor from Uganda who suffered grave political persecution and repeated torture...

Dear Subscribers, I’m writing this to you as I watch Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. “We are all America,” reads the football he carries throughout a performance that pulses with the best of the country and culture I grew up in, the place my heart will always call home. His final statement — naming all the countries that comprise America, from Argentina to Canada, as he dances back and forth...

Hello subscribers, I’m writing to you from my first vacation in six years, since I started writing Crossing the Line in January 2020. As much as I’d like to remain unplugged, the news continues to move too fast. And in times like these, it’s impossible not speak out. I hope you learn something from this latest episode of From the Borderlands to fuel your efforts in support of the resistance. I’m w...

Hey, everyone. Sarah here. Thanks for joining me for another episode of From the Borderlands ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼. Podcast Transcript: Six years ago this week, I landed in Brownsville, Texas, to see for myself the inhumanity I then believed had been wrought by Trump, his acolytes, and puppeteers, folks like Stephen Miller, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, and acting director of ICE, Thomas Homan (to name j...

Seventy-seven years ago, on December 10, 1948, the newly established United Nations General Assembly unveiled the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). A response to the human carnage wrought by two world wars in 22 years and the genocide of 11 million people, including six million Jews, by Hitler’s fascist regime, the UDHR ushered in a paradigmatic global shift: Henceforth, the dignity an...

Hello Subscribers! I’m writing from New Hampshire today. I’m now 12 days and four events into the speaking tour, marking the second edition release of Crossing the Line . And my schedule is about to amp up, with events nearly every day from now until Halloween. I aim to keep posting as much as I can, because I’m learning so much and meeting so many people and have so much to share! But bear with m...

Hello Subscribers! The revised edition of Crossing the Line launches tomorrow, October 7! And I’m back on the road talking about how immigration has been weaponized to drive democracy into crisis. My goal is to aid in the building of the Resistance Choir, singing in glorious harmony, This is not the people we wish to be , one book talk, keynote address, and immigration study circle at a time. I sp...

Welcome new subscribers! And thank you to all who’ve selected to become paid supporters of my newsletter, Tales of Humanity, and podcast, From the Borderlands. I haven’t had a chance to thank you all personally yet. But know that my gratitude to you knows no bounds! You’ll hear from me soon. I’m just super slammed right now, preparing for the launch of Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Bor...

Welcome back, everyone. I hope you have had a restful summer and that you’re returning to reality recharged and ready to resist! To help get you motivated… Dora Rodriguez and I are thrilled to share with you our August 3, 2025, conversation for the HOPE KNOWS NO BORDERS BOOK CLUB & WEBINAR SERIES : It’s our 30,000-foot deep dive into the global leviathan that is the Border Industrial Complex with...

Welcome new subscribers! I’m thrilled to share that our community is growing. Slowly, but surely, we are turning into a mighty chorus, singing ever louder in glorious harmony: this is not the people we wish to be! I am deeply grateful to all of you who have pledged to support this work, and while I intend to keep this newsletter and podcast free, I may soon need to turn to donations to cover my mo...

In this episode of From the Borderlands … Author-activist and sister humanitarian, Abbey Carpenter, engages mi hermana de alma, Dora Rodriguez, and me on the topic of “Writing to Change the World” for the June meet-up of the Hope Knows No Borders Book Club & Webinar Series . It was a special occasion for two reasons: * We celebrated the coming launch of Dora’s new memoir, Dora: A Daughter of Unfor...

Welcome new subscribers! I hope you’ll listen and share today’s video of the May meet up of the Hope Knows No Borders Book Club & Webinar Series . Talk about timely! Even my co-facilitator Dora Rodriguez and I could not have anticipated that our discussion topic would become a reality in Los Angeles just two weeks later. Click the button below if you’d like to learn more about our monthly series....

Welcome new subscribers! Thank you for joining the movement for JUST migration. I aim to post podcast episodes, webinar recordings, stories, news, event announcements, and calls to action weekly, though sometimes life and other writing deadlines get in the way. Like last week. Following an exciting update regarding Crossing the Line, my to-do list was unexpectedly hacked. But for a good reason! St...

Welcome new subscribers! I hope you find the latest podcast episode beneficial. It was recorded as part of my monthly community discussions and workshops with fellow author-educator-activist Dora Rodriguez. The next meet-up of our Hope Knows No Borders Book Club & Webinar Series is Sunday, May 25, and we hope you’ll register to attend. You’ll find more information following the post below. In the...