The Wall
This land is our land: Many property owners won’t sell for Trump’s wall
The question of who owns the border and how they will be compensated looms large.
Staff
Biography
Andrew Becker is a reporter for Reveal, covering border, national and homeland security issues, as well as weapons and gun trafficking. He has focused on waste, fraud and abuse – with stories ranging from border corruption to the expanding use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, from the militarization of police to the intersection of politics and policy related to immigration, from terrorism to drug trafficking. Becker's reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek/The Daily Beast and on National Public Radio and PBS/FRONTLINE, among others. He received a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. Becker is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Articles
Immigration
How Trump is expanding the government’s secret deportation weapon
The move has gotten less attention than raids and the border fence, but it has the potential to radically change immigration enforcement nationwide.
Border Patrol
DOJ sets deadline for jurisdictions to prove they’re not sanctuaries
The latest deadline sets up yet another showdown between the Trump administration and local authorities over immigration enforcement.
Border Patrol
Contractors named to build border wall prototypes
President Donald Trump’s border wall is coming a little bit closer to reality, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection announces its chosen contractors.
Immigration
No sanctuary, fewer farmhands: How Dairyland suffers under Trump agenda
Wisconsin farmers say the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is making it harder to find workers for one of the state’s largest industries and the core of its Cheesehead identity, dairy production.
Immigration
No country for sanctuary seekers
This week, we look into places that offer sanctuary to those immigrants – and what the conflict between federal and local policies means for them.
Criminal Justice
Milwaukee to feds: We follow immigration law
With a looming deadline to prove cooperation with U.S. immigration agents, at least one county has told the Trump administration that it follows the law – despite little guidance on how officials are supposed to show that.
Border Patrol
Feds hunt down mystery landowners in bid to build border wall
The federal government has spent a decade chasing a meandering paper trail, with researchers combing through yellowed government files, testing the faded memories of neighbors and perusing the local library as they try to sort out who owns the land.
Border Patrol
Border Patrol’s watchdog returns, but does he have new tricks?
Matthew Klein will be in charge of watchdogging the agency as the Trump administration pushes for another massive expansion of the U.S. Border Patrol. Since its last expansion, the agency has been plagued by corruption.
National Security
TSA whistleblower alleges racial profiling against Somali-Americans
The agency has faced steady criticism and scrutiny for its screening practices, including the use of behavior detection techniques to try to identify suspicious passengers, as well as its own internal troubles stemming from allegations of misconduct, retaliation and dysfunction.