Cash is piling up in Kinney County from bonds posted to free migrants arrested under Texas border crackdown
Friends, families and attorneys have posted more than $2 million to get migrants out of prison. Defense attorneys say the rural county is erecting barriers that will keep many from recovering the money when they’re entitled to it.
A minor trespassing case gives Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative its first courtroom win
The trial included four prosecutors, and so many potential jurors were summoned the town sandwich shop was shorthanded for lunch. But a Kinney County jury Monday convicted a Honduran national in the first jury trial for trespassing under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.
Gov. Greg Abbott redirects $500 million from other agencies to fund border security mission through end of fiscal year
Abbott said the money would be taken from the budgets of other Texas agencies, including nearly $210 million from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission over two years and about $160 million from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
New federal lawsuit seeks to halt Texas’ border trespassing arrests, give more than $5 million to illegally detained migrants
Thousands of men have been arrested on trespassing charges under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown. A new lawsuit claims the attempt to skirt federal immigration authority is unconstitutional.
Judge orders Biden administration to send Central American migrants to Mexico rather than their home countries
The federal judge in Louisiana said he’ll hold a hearing in May to decide whether to block the administration from halting Title 42, the Trump-era health order that quickly sends all migrants back to Mexico.
Texas soldier who drowned trying to help migrants wasn’t equipped with flotation device
Spc. Bishop Evans died after jumping into the Rio Grande to save migrants. He and other members of Operation Lone Star were not provided safety equipment. Texas Military Department said an order for buoys and ropes was made but has not been fulfilled.
What did Greg Abbott’s border inspections turn up? Oil leaks, flat tires and zero drugs
The governor ordered troopers to thoroughly inspect every commercial truck coming from Mexico in what he described as an effort to stop illegal drugs and migrants from being smuggled into Texas. His order for increased state inspections led to snarling delays in trade between the two countries.
Under Texas’ strict abortion law, McAllen clinic sees patients seeking medication across the border
The law went into effect in September, a week before Mexico’s Supreme Court dissolved a Coahuila state law that made abortion a crime. Now some Texans further along in their pregnancies are going there for abortion-inducing drugs.
Beto O’Rourke carefully threads needle on border policy as Democrats grapple with the issue
For Democrats, especially in Texas, tackling border issues is difficult on the campaign trail as the party is not in agreement about various policies. O’Rourke has had to distance himself from President Joe Biden’s border policies, while going after Gov. Greg Abbott’s.
Abbott ends inspections that clogged commercial traffic at U.S.-Mexico border for more than a week
The deals Abbott made with three of the four Mexican border governors don’t include any new security measures south of the border. Abbott threatened to restart the inspections if Mexican states don’t slow migration to Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott announces deals with two more Mexican governors to halt Texas’ vehicle inspections at the border
The announcements come a day after Abbott reached a similar deal with Nuevo León’s governor, who agreed to add security at a major border bridge in exchange for an end to increased vehicle inspections by Texas troopers.
After backlash, Abbott ends secondary truck inspections for vehicles coming from Nuevo León, Mexico
After heavy bipartisan backlash, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday ended a Texas DPS checkpoint for commercial trucks coming in from Nuveo León after striking a deal with Gov. Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda.
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.
Biden administration, Mexican governors urge Abbott to end inspections that have bogged down border trade
Gov. Greg Abbott is slated to have a meeting and press event with Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda — the Mexican governor of Nuevo León, the state that includes a section of the border near Laredo — later Wednesday afternoon.
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.
Analysis: Abbott’s border initiative is expensive, ineffective and not as tough as it sounds
The results of the state’s $3 billion border security effort don’t match the up-front promises, and Gov. Greg Abbott is flipping the political script with loud opposition to a change in federal border policy.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to bus migrants to Washington, D.C., will be voluntary
Abbott said he’s responding to the Biden administration announcement that it will lift a pandemic-era emergency health order that allowed immigration authorities to turn away migrants at the border, even those seeking asylum.