Alisa Barba
Senior EditorAlisa Joyce Barba is an award-winning journalist, producer, writer and editor with 25 years experience in both network and public broadcasting. For 12 years, she served as the Western Bureau Chief for National Public Radio. She was responsible for the editorial content and production of member station reporter and staff pieces for air on NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. While monitoring news in the western US, she specialized in covering border and immigration issues and won numerous awards for editing series and stories on a issues ranging from the failed "war on drugs," western water policies, and border corruption. Independent of NPR, she won the coveted Dupont Award for her work as Executive Producer of the 2001-2002 Documentary "Culture of Hate: Who Are We?". In 1997 she won the Jerry Schumacher Award for Best Program about Health Care Issues: Under the Knife: San Diego Medicine Confronts the Bottom Line. Prior to her work with NPR, Alisa was a Producer for ABC News in Beijing, covering, among other stories, the Tiananmen Square uprising. From 1989-1995 Alisa was a Producer/Reporter for MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour in New York and Washington DC. Based in San Diego, her journalism work has focused heavily on immigration, military and health care concerns. She holds a Masters Degree in Chinese History from UCSD and a BA from Middlebury College.
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Cannabis advocates in Tijuana work with the legalized scene in California and get themselves ready for a future where adult-use cannabis is finally legal in Mexico. Not only are they working to get the laws changed in Mexico, they also have to find ways to change the perception of cannabis at the border, which has long been associated with Mexican drug cartels.Port of Entry is back, this time with a series of stories on how the border can change minds. -
Cannabis on the border is nothing new – for decades, weed moved north from Mexico into the U.S., an illegal trade that fueled drug cartels and drug violence. But with the legalization of recreational and medicinal cannabis in California and other U.S. states, all of that has changed. In Episode 1 of a new series from Port of Entry, we profile a Tijuana politician and activist who is pushing for the legalization of cannabis in Baja California.Port of Entry is back, this time with a series of stories on how the border can change minds. -
Increasing numbers of asylum seekers are being allowed to enter the United States. But with the asylum system still severely curtailed, thousands remain stuck in dangerous conditions in Tijuana. KPBS reporter Max Rivlin-Nadler has been following the story for months. His reporting is featured in a new special report for the “KPBS Investigates” and “Port of Entry” podcasts. In the episode, Rivlin-Nadler follows the painfully long wait many asylum seekers have had to endure, simply for a chance at finding refuge in the U.S. It outlines America's critically damaged asylum system at the U.S. Mexico border by introducing you to the people on the ground, both the migrants living in the dangerous refugee camps in Tijuana and the activists and lawyers trying to help them. -
Ongoing drought in this region means increasing conflicts over a scarce resource.
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News to note on the comprehensive immigration reform front.
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The week's top stories from Fronteras: The Changing America Desk.
- Two San Diego nonprofits are poised to lose promised environmental justice grants — but the EPA has yet to tell them
- Bob Filner, disgraced ex-mayor of San Diego, dies at 82
- Trump administration considers immigration detention on Bay Area military base, records show
- San Diego County releases dashboard compiling on South County sewage
- California sent investigators to ICE facilities. They found more detainees, and health care gaps