U.S./MEXICO BORDER

Uvalde officials said U.S. Border Patrol responded to a 911 call alerting them about a group of people who were trapped for hours inside of a shipping container.

Anti-border wall activists are racing to find landowners along the Rio Grande before they sign contracts with the state.

House Bill 20 by state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, would test the boundaries of the state’s ability to enforce immigration law, which courts have historically ruled falls under federal purview

The case is expected to become moot in May when the Biden administration lifts the nation’s COVID-19 emergency order. Once that order lifts, Title 42 is expected to automatically end.

State officials have repeatedly had to move money from other departments to keep Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border mission running this year.

The governor said Mike Banks, a recently retired Border Patrol agent, will work with the Texas National Guard and state troopers to find ways to deter people from crossing the border illegally.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s office mounted pressure on several federal agencies earlier this month leading up to Abdul Wasi Safi’s release on Tuesday.

A Texas Tribune analysis of state data found that at least 279 people in Texas were killed by heat last year, and a large portion of those deaths were likely migrants who died after crossing the border.

In Maverick County, 26 bodies pulled from the Rio Grande were buried, some without attempts to identify them. Teams of Texas State students are trying to learn their names so their families can be notified.

It’s the first-known incident where a soldier has shot a migrant since the mission began. The injury is non-life threatening.

Riding the success of his historic congressional session last year where he helped pass the first gun safety bill signed into law in a generation, Cornyn is hopeful that his ability to strike deals across the aisle will help Congress achieve another elusive legislative goal: an immigration deal.

Abdul Wasi Safi’s physical and mental health are deteriorating as he waits at a detention center near the border.

He was greeted by Gov. Greg Abbott upon arrival at the El Paso airport. Abbott has been a chief critic of Biden’s immigration policies and has frequently called on him to visit the border over the past year.

Migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela will be allowed entry and given work permits. The administration will also expand the use of Title 42 to expel more migrants to Mexico.

The president, who has been criticized by some Republicans for not visiting the border since he took office, hasn’t announced where his visit would take place.

The court ordered the Biden administration to continue enforcing the policy while Texas and other states that want to keep the Trump-era rule in place prepare their legal arguments.

Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly sent the migrants, who arrived at Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence Saturday night. The governor has been busing migrants to Democratic-let cities since April and first sent buses to Harris’ home in September.

Cities and nonprofits are using a variety of strategies to keep unhoused people warm. But some organizations warn they’re already at capacity as El Paso sends migrants across the state.

After surviving the fallout from a war in his home country and a global trek, Abdul Wasi Safi was arrested at the Texas-Mexico border on a misdemeanor charge, delaying his chance for asylum.

As cities on the Texas-Mexico border continue preparing for a possible influx of migrants and Title 42 remains in limbo, a shallow spot in the Rio Grande where thousands have recently crossed became the scene of a standoff Monday.

Title 42, an emergency health order invoked at the start of the pandemic, allows immigration agents to quickly remove migrants from the country. It was scheduled to be lifted on Wednesday.

With Title 42 ending Wednesday, El Paso officials expect the number of migrants crossing the border could double. Declaring a state of emergency should open more options to provide migrants shelter from below-freezing temperatures.

The Biden administration attempted to end Title 42 earlier this year before a federal judge blocked the move. A different federal court has now ordered that the federal health order be lifted.

The Biden administration stopped enrolling new asylum seekers into the Trump-era program in August.

In April, Bishop Evans drowned after jumping into the Rio Grande to save two migrants being swept away by the current. His family members will receive no financial payment, but they would if he worked for DPS or was under federal deployment.

A Fox News story described Mexican nonprofits aiding migrants, but did not allege any improper action by U.S.-based nonprofits.

The service member is expected to recover.

A Nicaraguan fisherman planned to spend the night in a parking garage with other migrants, then a good Samaritan offered him a place to sleep. The city is struggling to handle a sudden influx of migrants that has overwhelmed local resources.

State police often rely on federal immigration officials to lock up migrants on state trespassing charges, according to a new complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The collaboration contradicts federal and Texas officials’ attacks on each other’s immigration policies.

Abdul Wasi Safi was trying to reach his brother, who immigrated legally to Houston after helping the U.S. military. Legal experts say Wasi may have to serve a criminal sentence before he can pursue asylum.

In the days since Abbott was reelected for a third term, he has embraced the word like never before, using it in a letter to President Joe Biden, echoing the intensifying language many Republicans have adopted in recent years.

Title 42 was invoked early in the pandemic by the Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden. Since then, immigration officials have used it more than 2 million times to turn away asylum-seekers at the border.

Texas voters cast their ballots Tuesday with a wide variety of issues on their minds, including the state’s grid and the Uvalde shooting.

The historic pace of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fueled Republicans’ focus on the crisis, but despite the efforts of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, encounters in Texas have increased.

While not detailing how the distribution might be funded, Abbott said the medication, Narcan, should be distributed to law enforcement agencies as well as some hospitals and schools.

The move clears a pathway for those people to get a special visa to stay in the country that they otherwise would not have received.

On Thursday, officials with the Texas Military Department acknowledged that the payroll system they used for the mission has withheld too little in federal taxes from service members’ paychecks.

Cruz and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas accusing him of “gross dereliction of duty.” Mayorkas has been a consistent target of conservative ire over immigration.

Jesús Iván Sepúlveda Martínez was living in his parents’ home with his wife and 6-month-old baby. His family says he left Mexico for Austin to seek work painting houses when he was shot to death.

The soldier is the 10th known Texas Guard member linked to the mission to die since its rapid expansion began in September 2021.

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

The number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border has climbed from 109,456 in March 2021, the month the mission began, to 116,976 in August — a failure of Abbott’s office’s stated desire to “stop this revolving door and deter others considering entering illegally.”

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

One Venezuelan couple slept on a sidewalk after a perilous trip through seven countries with their baby. After two days in El Paso, they boarded a city-funded charter bus to New York City.

The latest moves by Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week have triggered outrage among immigration rights’ groups and Democrats who have accused the Republicans of engaging in human trafficking and treating migrants like “human cargo” to score political points.

Among voters near the Texas-Mexico border, immigration and border security are a leading cause for flipping from Democrat to Republican.

Muriel Bowser will open a $10 million office to provide services to the migrants arriving as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing program.

On Saturday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that nine migrants had died while trying to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.

Abbott late Wednesday announced Chicago would be a new destination for migrants bused from Texas in his strategy to draw attention to the influx of people at the southern border. Chicago leadership welcomed the migrants “with dignity and respect.”

Two weeks after a federal judge allowed the Biden administration to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, U.S. judges are beginning to allow migrants to stay in the country as their asylum claims are pending.