RIO GRANDE VALLEY

A couple in the Rio Grande Valley was arrested this week after attempting to sell a jaguar cub, federal officials said.

Federal agents in Laredo stopped two human smuggling attempts this week when they found more than 30 migrants and a bag of fentanyl pills in two tractor-trailers.

Areas of the Texas Gulf Coast are seeing blooms of the algae, which can make people sick and kill fish.

A former Rio Grande Valley attorney recently pleaded guilty to extorting $1,500 from a defendant’s mother after she sought him out for help, federal authorities say.

Seven people were shot on Sunday morning at a nightclub in the Rio Grande Valley, according to the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office.

More deaths have been linked to a fungal meningitis outbreak at two clinics on the Texas-Mexico border, including a Rio Grande Valley mother who died this week after being hospitalized for months.

Searchers have found 27 corpses in clandestine graves in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, and many of them were hacked to pieces, volunteer searchers said Wednesday.

Republicans recently announced Mayra Flores’ comeback effort with great fanfare, but Democrats argue that a redrawn district — and Flores’ voting record — are hurdles the GOP can’t clear.

All four of the deceased were found within 48 hours in the Rio Grande, a common but dangerous crossing point into the United States from Mexico.

Five of these meteorites are now on display at the “Welcome to Earth” exhibit at the Witte Museum. You can check them out through the summer months and even touch a 4.56 billion-year-old meteorite that was discovered in Morocco back in 2000!

Police reportedly said, “it is looking more and more like an intentional act.”

Police in Brownsville, Texas, say seven people are dead and at least 10 are injured after they were struck by a vehicle while waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter.

An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come.

The Texas Department of Public Safety seized over 3.1 million lethal doses of fentanyl in a South Texas city Monday, according to officials.

Texas state park officials may have figured out what kind of “mystery creature” was spotted lurking around at night in the Rio Grande Valley area.

Texas state park officials are scratching their heads, trying to identify a “mystery animal” recently spotted lurking around the Rio Grande Valley area at night.

Assault happened Christmas Day in Cameron County

Low turnout, Democrats protect South Texas congressional seats but get overwhelmed across rest of state

Henry Cuellar vs. Cassy Garcia; results below beginning at 7 p.m.

Whole Woman’s Health, which owned the building for nearly two decades, said they were “duped” after the doctors who bought the building sold it to the McAllen Pregnancy Center.

The two-time Democratic presidential candidate visited Central Texas and South Texas amid concerns that young and working-class voters are not mobilized enough for the midterm election.

Six men have pleaded guilty after a search in Rio Grande Valley yielded 15 kilograms of cocaine and more than $325,000 in cash.

Before the gubernatorial debate between Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke in the Rio Grande Valley, the parents of Robb Elementary students stepped up to the microphone to voice their opinions on one of the state’s most divisive topics: gun control.

Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, San Antonio seek advice from director of Catholic Charities RGV for migrant response.

The two companies awarded contracts on Thursday will erect border barriers in Del Rio and the Rio Grande Valley.

It has been nearly six months since the trucker-blockade at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in response to Governor Greg Abbott’s additional inspections. Alicia Barrera is back in the Rio Grande Valley to see what's changed since the order was lifted.

In these historically Democratic border areas, some voters are turning to the Republican party, while others remain unmoved.

A teacher in the Rio Grande Valley has been arrested a month after a 5-year-old boy died because he was left inside a vehicle on campus, according to media reports.

The Texas Education Agency has dismissed the notion that the accountability ratings are a poverty rating. As evidence, they point to districts like those in the Rio Grande Valley, which have achieved high marks while serving a high number of economically disadvantaged students.

O’Rourke wants more debates, but Abbott has indicated this is the only one he is willing to do before the November election.

“If it’s gonna rise by that much, I don’t think we’re prepared,” one South Texas mayor said of temperature increases.

Allysa Cole will join the KSAT 12 team in September. She comes from a local TV station serving the Rio Grande Valley, KRGV.

Authorities say migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, a second straight monthly decline.

The governor said Tuesday he has agreed to debate O’Rourke, his Democratic opponent, on Sept. 30 in the Rio Grande Valley.

If both candidates agree, Abbott and O’Rourke will square off in Edinburg on Sept. 30

The national Democratic Party needs to stop taking voters in the Valley for granted and better understand their values, Texas lawmakers said during a Texas Tribune event Wednesday.

In a Texas Tribune event Tuesday, university leaders discussed why Hispanic students finish higher education programs at a lower rate than the state average but have better performance in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso.

A Mexican immigrant who worked in cotton fields to pay for school supplies, Flores is a source of hope for Republicans looking to gain ground in the Rio Grande Valley. But her staying power will be put to the test this November.

A delegation of Republican senators led by Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas will pay a visit to the Rio Grande Valley on Thursday and Friday to survey the current state of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Less than 24 hours after opening new processing facility in Eagle Pass, Border Patrol agents say its almost at capacity.

García served as the president of the University of Texas at Brownsville until it merged with the University of Texas-Pan American to become the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is the first Mexican American woman to lead a college or university in the United States.

Border Patrol hosts security event Tuesday morning in the Rio Grande Valley. The event is aimed to cast a light on dangers undocumented immigrants face when entering the US.

Starr County, one of the four counties that make up the Rio Grande Valley, has not been able to produce campaign finance reports that it is required to maintain, according to a GOP group targeting the area.

A day after an 18-year-old man opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, killing 19 students and two teachers, law enforcement in North Texas and the Rio Grande Valley said they intercepted guns and credible threats against schools.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s too-close-to-call runoff got most of the attention, but three other primary runoffs Tuesday carried big stakes for Democrats as they try to defend South Texas from a new GOP offensive.

United States Secretary of Homeland Alejandro Mayorkas is in the Rio Grande Valley as he gets an update on border security efforts.

Cheap regulated and unregulated medication is available over the counter at Mexican pharmacies, including abortion-inducing drugs that are strictly regulated in the U.S.

A Rio Grande Valley mother claims her infant son died from a bacterial infection after consuming powdered infant formula that was later recalled.

The full and often unchecked power of the prosecutor was on display when a South Texas woman was charged with murder for a self-induced abortion.

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.

The winner of the special election will replace former U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, who resigned last month to work for Akin Gump.

The Rio Grande Valley, often seen as a reliable vote against abortion, has a long history of advocacy to increase access to the procedure.

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.

A special election will determine who finishes Vela’s term, and while the winner will only serve for a short period, Republicans are already eyeing the contest to show momentum in South Texas.

Democrats in the region still had higher turnout, but Republicans celebrated the narrowing of the gap. Despite the improvement, nearly 87% of registered voters in the Rio Grande Valley did not vote in the primary, similar to the rate in 2018.

The administration says it’s filling in wall gaps for agent safety and flood control, and documents suggest an environmental assessment for 86 miles of wall in South Texas is a stalling tactic.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a rule earlier this week to list the prostrate milkweed, which lives along the Texas-Mexico border, as an endangered species. The rare plant is threatened in part by border security activities, scientists say.

Police officers in the Rio Grande Valley discovered more than 700 gallons of liquid meth worth at least $10 million inside a tanker trailer.

The National Butterfly Center, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, has been the target of conspiracy theorists since 2019.

Gov. Greg Abbott delivered remarks Thursday at a border security briefing in the Rio Grande Valley with attorneys general from across the country.

The Brownsville Democrat said his resignation will be effective Jan. 31. That sets up a potential special election to finish his term, though whoever wins would only serve for a short time.

The Republican governor officially announced his reelection campaign Saturday in McAllen, while likely Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke campaigned in El Paso.

Republicans including former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas and former Texas GOP chair Allen West are challenging Abbott for the Republican nomination.

The U.S. government has withdrawn from settlement negotiations to end lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who were forcibly separated under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy.

Lucio announced Thursday that he is not seeking reelection after three decades in the Senate.

The Brownsville Democrat, who made the announcement Thursday, has served in the upper chamber since 1991.

Garza, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, had been running to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville. U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is now running for Vela's seat after redistricting made Gonzalez's seat more competitive for Republicans.

Texas lawmakers made Gonzalez’s current 15th Congressional District more competitive for Republicans. The representative now plans to run in the 34th District, which is safer for Democrats.

Designed more than a century ago, the Rio Grande Valley’s canal system in South Texas was built to irrigate the booming agricultural industry that once dominated the local economy.

The likely new district comes as Texas Republicans continue to try to make new inroads in South Texas after the 2020 election.

With proposed maps out, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, says he might switch to a neighboring district where U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, is retiring. The initial maps are also sure to impact decisions in regional legislative races.

Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the tragic collapse of the Queen Isabella Causeway, which took the lives of eight people.

Border wall opponents say President Joe Biden broke his promise to halt border wall construction when Homeland Security started building a wall and calling it a levee.

Migrant crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border reached a 21-year high in July. This video takes you to the epicenter: Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where more crossings are happening than in any other region in the country.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott and Texas after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order “dangerous and unlawful.”

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, will hold a news conference with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, on Friday morning to discuss COVID-19 and immigration.

One day after Abbott told state troopers to pull over vehicles with migrants suspected of having COVID-19, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the governor's order violated federal law.

A Laredo man who attempted to cross the Mexico-Texas border with drugs inside his “lunch” last year was recently sentenced to prison after pleading guilty, according to the Department of Justice.

Wyoming's governor says he's looking at how the state might send National Guard troops or other help to bolster security at the border with Mexico.

Many local officials and business leaders along the border say that the rhetoric is misplaced and that the broader needs of their communities can often get lost.

With Texans finally stepping out in public again, we asked photographers across the state to give us a look at people enjoying themselves after the long shutdown.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales will tour the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday to get an update on the migrant surge in the region. The congressional delegation from Texas will be joined by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Gustavo de la Fuente comes from a small town in the Rio Grande Valley. He was raised by a single mother who immigrated from Mexico when she was a little girl. “It was really difficult for her, quite honestly, for her raising us. But she really persevered and she gave us all the options she could that she didn’t have.” Gustavo said.

A compound of tents to detain migrant children and families was evacuated for hours when struck by fierce winds in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults are coming without families.

The Biden administration has struck an agreement with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to temporarily surge troops to their borders in an effort to reduce the tide of migration to the U.S. border.

Migrant families will be held at hotels in the Phoenix area in response to a growing number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, another step in the Biden’s administration rush to set up temporary space.

U.S. authorities say they picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday held a press conference in the Rio Grande Valley where he provided an update on Texas’ response to the surge of migrants at the southern border through Operation Lone Star.

HARLINGEN, Texas – Firefighters and ambulance crews in a South Texas city that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic are bringing vaccines directly to the homes of its most vulnerable people. As part of Harlingen’s new Homebound Vaccination Program, a team of 15 firefighters is working with the South Texas Emergency Care Foundation to find homebound residents and offer them the vaccine, the Valley Morning Star reported. Harlingen officials have been calling homebound residents whose names are on a list created by the emergency care foundation and offering them a chance to get vaccinated. AdSince the city launched the program Monday, the team has vaccinated about 20 homebound residents, Ramirez said. “They’re very eager, very thankful, very excited to be vaccinated,” Ramirez said.

U.S. authorities are releasing migrant families at the border without notices to appear in immigration court, and sometimes without any paperwork at all. The agency didn't answer questions about how many migrants have been released without court notices or without documents at all. Immigration attorneys had mixed reactions to people being released without court notices or paperwork, particularly the requirement to check in with ICE. Initially, U.S. authorities didn't even require the ICE check-in when it began releasing families without court notices over the past two weeks. D'Cruz said ICE could potentially issue a notice to appear in court, expel people from the country or do nothing.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk said on Twitter that he would donate $20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for “downtown revitalization.” The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said he would release more details next week.

Oscar Escamilla, acting executive officer of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, said 250 to 300 kids enter daily and far fewer leave. Border Patrol agents asked them if they had a contact in the U.S. and allowed the child to call that person. The Border Patrol is apprehending far more children daily than Health and Human Services is placing with U.S. sponsors, leading to a severe backlog in the system. The Border Patrol generally is not supposed to detain children for more than three days, but Health and Human Services lacks space. More than 2,000 kids have been at the Donna facility for more than 72 hours, including 39 for more than 15 days.

John Cornyn and Ted Cruz visited the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley on Friday afternoon to lead a Senate delegation in a tour of the area in response to the increase in migrant crossings. Cruz and Cornyn brought along other Republican senators from non-border states to assess and address the situation on the border. “We saw cages after cages after cages of little girls and little boys lying side by side, touching each other, covered with reflective emergency blankets. The delegation stated the importance of sending the right message and encourages President Biden to visit the border and witness the situation for himself. Also on Friday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio led a Democratic congressional delegation tour of the Carrizo Springs Office of Refugee Resettlement facility, which is holding unaccompanied children.

As soon as the sun sets, at least 100 migrants crossed through the Rio Grande river by smugglers into the United States. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)ROMA, Texas – As darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. Roma, a town of 10,000 people with historic buildings and boarded-up storefronts in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, is the latest epicenter of illegal crossings, where growing numbers of families and children are entering the United States to seek asylum. More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including about 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities. A group of Republican senators on Friday visited the Rio Grande Valley, which is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, and toured a holding facility.

PENITAS, Texas – The increase in migrant crossings has kept U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector busy and in need of additional help from local law enforcement agencies. “In one morning, a total of 75 people had crossed just this path alone,” Barron told KSAT. “Recently, within the past month and a few weeks, there’s been an increase in family units compared to what we regularly see,” Barron told KSAT. “When it comes to family units, you don’t see any resistance. Also on KSAT:House passes immigration bills for farm workers, ‘Dreamers’AdRepublicans seize on immigration as border crossings surgeDel Rio leaders, activists say current immigration situation is ‘unsustainable’

The representatives introduced the African-American Burial Grounds Network Act, which would create a national database of African American cemeteries. Fly, a landscape architect, was asked to serve as an adviser on the legislation, which is pending in Congress. “If we allow them to be erased or desecrated, we lose that part of our history,” Fly said. Roseann Bacha Garza, an anthropologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said finding out about one’s family history is more popular than ever. AdSome who already know their roots also would welcome being included in a national database of African American cemeteries.

Migrants apprehended crossing the Rio Grande in Brownsville were flown to El Paso for processing and then deported to Ciudad Juárez. CIUDAD JUÁREZ — As he stood on the international bridge that connects this border city with El Paso Tuesday afternoon, Javier Leyva had to be told where he was. Ad“Families from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries are expelled to Mexico unless Mexico does not have the capacity to receive the families,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday. The former president’s policies forced tens of thousands of migrants back into Mexico, which filled shelters in border cities like Ciudad Juárez and stressed social service agencies who help migrants. She had tried to cross into the U.S. through Ciudad Juárez before, but was sent back.