U.S. BORDER POLICY

After a 3-year-old began showing signs of distress, the bus of asylum-seekers traveling from Brownsville to Chicago pulled over and an ambulance was called. The child later died at a hospital in Illinois.

The Florida governor calls for deputizing local law enforcement to police the border and deport migrants, saying his plan is “more aggressive” than the former president’s proposals.

The Republican from Texas introduced the legislation after meeting with Mexico’s president and calling for more cooperation between the two countries.

After discovering that contracted medical staff ignored the mother’s pleas to take the girl to the hospital as her condition declined, the federal agency said it is taking action to ensure an in-custody death “never happens again.”

The child and her family were in custody at a border station in Harlingen before she was transported to a local hospital. The death comes less than a week after the expiration of Title 42, which had allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants from the U.S. during the pandemic.

Federal officials had about 10,000 encounters with migrants per day at the U.S.-Mexico border before the emergency health order ended late Thursday. Since Friday they have had about 5,000 encounters per day.

Despite no major influx in border crossings, state troopers will be relocated to border cities. Austin and the Texas Department of Public Safety faced criticism for the racial disparities in state trooper arrests in the capital.

The Houston Republican has alarmed Mexico and Democrats with previous calls for a military response to the criminal organizations.

Although migrants lined up by the hundreds in El Paso and other border crossings as the public health order was winding down, a Biden administration official said there wasn’t a rush to the border when Title 42 was lifted.

Long lines formed again next to the border wall in El Paso — a scene repeated in other parts of the southern border — as migrants anticipated the end of a policy that has allowed immigration agents to quickly expel them.

Hundreds of migrants have waited on the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande for days to be apprehended. Others say they want to follow the rules to enter legally — if they could just get the government phone app to work.

A Venezuelan couple with two children waited in Mexico for weeks for a chance to claim asylum. They decided to cross the border after a relative died in a detention center fire and other family members successfully made it across.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said asylum-seekers are camping out on the sidewalks and staying at shelters in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, under the false notion that they will be allowed to enter the U.S. once Title 42 expires.

As it prepares for the end of Title 42, which lets U.S. officials rapidly expel migrants, the Biden administration said it will open centers in Guatemala and Colombia where people can apply to legally enter the three participating nations.

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.

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.

The debt ceiling has long been a political tool to force partisan agenda items across. But Roy is facing some resistance within his own party on his border plan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Trump administration created the Migrant Protection Protocols, also called “remain in Mexico,” in 2019 before the Biden administration canceled it in 2021. The ruling sends the case back to a Texas federal court.

The administration was set to end Title 42, a pandemic-era rule aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, on Monday. A lengthy legal battle is likely.

After drug cartel members began demanding monthly payments, she took her daughters to the border to seek asylum. They’ve been waiting in a Juárez shelter for more than a year.

The public health order that expels migrants to Mexico was launched early in the pandemic, and the Biden administration’s intention to end it has sparked a legal battle.

The Louisiana judge 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.

The Biden administration had ended the policy that forced 70,000 migrants to wait in Mexico. But a federal judge in Texas forced the administration to restart the program in December.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner said Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t coordinating with the agency as Texas sends migrants far from their immigration proceedings.

About 30 people from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua traveled to the U.S. capital as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan in response to the end of Title 42.

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.

The Biden administration will drop the policy that critics have called an inhumane rule.

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.

A Cuban woman sent to Ciudad Juárez after seeking asylum in El Paso was raped as she waited for her U.S. court date. She worries more migrants could be victims of violence as the Biden administration revives the "remain in Mexico" program.

A Texas construction worker who’s been locked up for 11 months is one of an increasing number of undocumented immigrants detained since Biden took office — despite the president’s instructions to prioritize more dangerous immigrants.

The borders were closed to nonessential travel in March 2020, which hurt businesses in Texas border cities that rely on Mexican shoppers.

Federal officials have halted traffic so they can process thousands of Haitian migrants seeking asylum. The closure has made it difficult for the Texas city’s binational employees and business owners to keep normal operations going.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned would-be migrants that “your journey will not succeed” and promised to investigate the actions of mounted agents at the Rio Grande.

The situation in Del Rio spiraled this week as more than 15,000 migrants, many of them from Haiti, arrived at the border in recent days, settling in a makeshift camp as they waited for CBP agents to process their petitions to stay in the U.S.

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.

Advocates say the policy that forced 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending will create dire conditions for migrants if it’s revived.

On Wednesday, Abbott issued the order, allowing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to reroute civilian vehicles back to their origin point or a port of entry, or seize the vehicles, if police suspect the driver is transporting migrants who have COVID-19.

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.

Immigration and border security continue to top Texas voters' list of most important problems facing the state. It is a particular concern of Republican voters.

Harris toured Border Patrol facilities in El Paso and met with local groups that aid migrants, but Republicans continued to attack her for not visiting the Rio Grande Valley, where a large number of border apprehensions are happening.

Gov. Greg Abbott pledged $250 million in state funds for a Texas-Mexico border wall and is soliciting donations to fund the rest.

Former President Donald Trump plans on touring Texas’ southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott later this month.

The prison — Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley — will have capacity for about 1,000 people.

The governor did not specify how long the wall would be or where it would be built. He directed the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager to begin that research.

Critics have denounced Abbott's proposal as "political theater" that won't pass legal muster. But the two-term Republican governor says it's time to secure the border.

In this week's TribCast, Matthew speaks with Ross, Patrick and James about Gov. Greg Abbott's border wall idea, the politics of South Texas and the GOP statewide ticket in 2022.

A panel of experts will discuss the policy decisions that have created confusion at the border, what to expect in the coming months and possible paths to reform.