In 2025, the binational conversation around migration has been told almost exclusively through numbers—“encounters,” detentions, deportations, and crossings. Yet the real pressure gauge in border cities is not found in a monthly report, but in faucets, sewer systems, and wastewater treatment plants. The border is living a paradox: even as migration dynamics shift in volume or routes, demand for water and sanitation becomes more expensive, more political, and more technologica

In the agricultural regions of California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida—where over 60% of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the United...