The Rio Grande Was Once an Inviting River. It’s Now a Militarized Border.

This article was produced by Capital & Main, an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues. It is co-published here with permission.

As a child, Michelle Serrano would take trips to Boca Chica with her grandmother. From her home in Brownsville, the drive ran east through Texas wetlands and countryside before landing on miles of beach, stretching far down the Gulf Coast just above the U.S.-Mexico border. They’d spend the day there...