The Biden administration guaranteed attorney access for all migrant screenings. Most don’t have it
As the Biden administration prepared to launch speedy asylum screenings at the border this spring, authorities pledged a key difference from a Trump-era version of the policy: Migrants would be guaranteed access to legal representation.
Nearly a dozen Texas deaths blamed on heat, which is expected to ease by the weekend
A National Weather Service meteorologist says parts of Texas could see scorching temperatures that are blamed for nearly a dozen deaths return to a more typical level by the weekend as a heat dome is expected to move eastward.
US arrests 4 Mexican nationals in 2022 deaths of 53 migrants trapped in hot tractor trailer
U.S. authorities have announced the arrests of four men they say were part of a human smuggling effort last year that ended in the deaths of 53 migrants, including eight children, who were left in a tractor trailer in the scorching Texas summer.
Mexico charges 4 soldiers with killings in Nuevo Laredo
Mexican prosecutors formally presented homicide charges against four soldiers implicated in the Feb. 26 shooting deaths of five men in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. The killings in the cartel-dominated city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, caused outrage.
Appeals court to decide if First Amendment should have protected Laredo’s “big crazy lady” from arrest
Priscilla Villarreal was arrested over her Facebook postings. In a rare proceeding, the entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will weigh whether she can sue, a case that could have major ramifications for citizen journalists like her -- and professional ones.
Why some Texas cities and counties had to return millions of dollars meant to help renters during the pandemic
For some local relief programs, a lack of staffing, political support and effective community outreach got in the way of spending federal funds to prevent evictions, a new report found. More than $30 million went unspent and had to be returned.
Gov. Greg Abbott eases state inspections at one commercial bridge, as trade remains snarled across the border
The move provides little relief as trade between Texas and Mexico is hampered along the border because of Abbott’s order. The Colombia bridge is just one of 13 commercial crossings between the two countries and the only one connected to Nuevo León.
International trade halted at Texas border crossings as truckers protest Greg Abbott’s new inspections
Commercial traffic at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge stopped Monday and a similar protest affected traffic into and out of El Paso. The blockades could impact the flow of produce to restaurants and grocery stores.
Webb County, a Democratic stronghold, is set to welcome Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial migrant arrests
The county is the most populous to embrace the Republican governor’s “catch-and-jail” policy to arrest people accused of crossing the border illegally for state crimes, including trespassing.
A Laredo plant that sterilizes medical equipment spews cancer-causing pollution on schoolchildren
Communities such as Laredo, where the vast majority of the residents are Latino and more than a quarter live in poverty, have been left in the dark for years by regulators who had evidence of the dangers posed by ethylene oxide but never told the public about them.Out of all the pollutants that the EPA regulates, ethylene oxide is the most toxic, contributing to the majority of the excess cancer risk created by industrial air pollutants in the United States, according to an unprecedented analysis of the agency’s most recent modeling data by ProPublica, in collaboration with The Texas Tribune. That risk is in addition to those Americans already face from other factors like genetics or lifestyle.