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.
Crystal Mason’s contentious illegal voting conviction must be reconsidered, criminal appeals court says
Mason said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016, but she was sentenced to five years in prison. Now, the Court of Criminal Appeals says an appellate court that affirmed her conviction must look again at the evidence of Mason’s intent.
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.
Lack of communication between child welfare and juvenile justice systems hurts foster kids, court monitors say
The court-appointed watchdogs expressed concern after learning that a caretaker accused of exploiting children at a state-licensed facility in Bastrop had been previously fired from a state juvenile justice facility for misconduct.
How Sandy Hook lies and the Jan. 6 inquiry threaten to undo Alex Jones
The Texas-based conspiracy theorist recently sought immunity from federal prosecutors investigating the U.S. Capitol riot. Three of his companies have filed for bankruptcy in an apparent effort to delay his Sandy Hook defamation trial.
Thanks to local politics and a railroad, rural Kinney County accounts for most of Texas’ migrant arrests
Under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push, Texas state police have arrested hundreds of migrants in the conservative county, usually after spotting them on cargo trains or walking remote ranch lands. Sent to a state prison retooled as an immigration jail, many men were left without lawyers for weeks.
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.
Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick urge Texas Supreme Court to take up Ken Paxton’s appeal to whistleblower lawsuit
The two Republican state officials filed friend of the court briefs asking that the high court take up the case because it is relevant to statewide governance and to the powers of an executive office under the Texas Constitution.
“Unwinnable race”: State Sen. Beverly Powell of Burleson ends reelection bid, citing redrawn political map
Powell, a Democrat, had won Senate District 10 by winning over a coalition of diverse voters in Tarrant County. The GOP redrew the district to branch out to counties to the south and west that made it more rural and more white.
‘It’s been a lot work’: More than half of backlogged domestic violence cases resolved in less than 2 months
Earlier this year, Bexar County courts were approved to have two additional judges help with the backlog in domestic violence cases. That backlog has been cut by about 60% in less than two months.
Over 100 children have died in Texas’ child welfare system since 2020, report says
Most of the deaths were attributed to “preexisting medical conditions” or abuse suffered before the children entered the system, according to the DFPS report. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years.
Texas is quietly using redistricting lawsuits to launch a broader war against federal voting rights law
As Texas defends against accusations that its new political maps are discriminatory, it’s laying the groundwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out longstanding Voting Rights Act protections.