Texas to build 80-acre base in Eagle Pass for National Guard troops
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the base will hold up to 2,300 soldiers who have been deployed to the border. Full Story
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Uriel J. García is an immigration reporter based in El Paso. Before joining the Tribune in 2021, he worked at the Arizona Republic where he covered police violence and immigration enforcement. He started his journalism career at the Santa Fe New Mexican where he covered the city's immigrant community and criminal justice issues. Originally from Mexico and a native Spanish speaker, Uriel grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State University.
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![Gov. Greg Abbott arrives at a press conference with several other states leadership at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Feb. 04, 2024.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune -
Texas and Biden administration lawyers face off in court over new law making illegal border crossing a state crime
An Austin judge will decide whether Senate Bill 4 will go into effect on March 5. The new law allows police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border. Full Story
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![Migrants speak with a State Trooper at the bank of the Rio Grande at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, on Jan. 19, 2024.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
FBI foils 2022 plot by militiamen to “start a war” at the Texas-Mexico border
A Tennessee man arrested Monday hoped to travel to the southern border with a militia group that allegedly plotted to go “to war with the border patrol,” believing that the country was being invaded by migrants. Full Story
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![Shipping containers line the bank of the Rio Grande at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, on Jan. 19, 2024.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
New state law increasing sentences for human smuggling takes effect
Senate Bill 4 bumps the minimum sentence from two years to 10 years for human smuggling or operating a stash house. Full Story
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![Jesus Vasquez, originally from Honduras, lights candles at a makeshift memorial to the 53 people who died after being left in a truck trailer in a human smuggling operation, on June 30, 2022 outside San Antonio.]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Texas' standoff with the feds in Eagle Pass is igniting calls for secession and fears of violence
The calls for Texas to defend itself and defy the federal government have set fire to a long-simmering fight over states’ rights, emboldening right-wing figures. Full Story
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![A Texas National Guard humvee parked at the gates of Shelby Park, in Eagle Pass, on Jan. 16, 2024. Texas has closed off Shelby Park, cutting access to federal agents to part of the Texas-Mexico border and escalating tensions between the Biden administration and Gov. Greg Abbott.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ border standoff with feds continues, despite U.S. Supreme Court order
Texas officers are still erecting border wire and some Republicans are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to defy the high court. Full Story
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![A Texas National Guard member walks past a line of buoys in Eagle Pass on Jan. 17, 2024. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, stated that U.S. Border Patrol agents have been blocked off of a section of the border, accessible through Shelby Park.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
In Eagle Pass, a tense border standoff between Texas and the federal government is reaching a crescendo
A park on the Rio Grande is the new focus of a long battle over border enforcement that’s reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Full Story
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![A group of migrants wades through the Rio Grande under the watch of Texas National Guard members near the riverbank at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Jan. 19, 2024. Texas has closed off Shelby Park, cutting access to federal agents to part of the Texas-Mexico border, according to a federal legal filing. The situation is escalating tensions between the Biden administration and Gov. Greg Abbott.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Feds say Texas is blocking Border Patrol from a section of the border, ask U.S. Supreme Court to intervene
The Justice Department says agents can’t access 2.5 miles of the border and a boat ramp in Eagle Pass. Full Story
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![National Guard members tell migrants that they cannot cross through that area and that they need to walk until the end of the property to turn themselves in Eagle Pass, Texas on July 29, 2023. They also tell them that they only have two bottles of water that they can give them for their children only, not for the adults. Minutes later other national guard members arrived with more water.
Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune -
Abbott’s immigration rhetoric criticized again after interview response about shooting migrants
Asked how far Texas could legally go to secure the border, Gov. Greg Abbott said the state isn’t shooting people who illegally cross the border because the Biden administration would charge officials with murder. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott signs six bills relating to border security at the state Capitol in Austin on June 8, 2023. “Washington D.C. has failed to do its job to secure the border,” Abbott said “As a result, Texas has had to take unprecedented steps in responding to the crisis caused by the Biden administration on the border, and in response the Texas legislature has stepped up to make sure that we will be able to more robustly respond.”]()
Credit: Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas officers take “full control” of Eagle Pass park against city’s wishes
The city’s mayor was told the state operation to halt illegal border crossings would last indefinitely. Full Story
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![The Texas Department of Public Safety closes Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. 2024-01-11 07:29:40.727 -06:00 (1:29 PM CST)]()
Credit: Courtesy of Amerika Garcia Grewal/Border Vigil