Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin say a high-ranking U.S. border official refused them entry into the U.S. and sent them back to Piedras Negras, Mexico — straight into the arms of Mexican authorities who threatened to arrest them on smuggling charges.
Jay Root
Jay Root is an award-winning journalist who reported for the Tribune from 2011 to 2020. He covered the dramatic collapse of Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign and went on to write an ebook about it called “Oops! A Diary from the 2012 Campaign Trail.” Root also broke the story that put the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, on the path toward criminal indictment, co-wrote an exposé that brought an end to privately funded prosecutions in Travis County, and authored a series of watchdog articles that prompted a wave of firings and resignations at two major state agencies.
In 2017, Root co-directed “Beyond The Wall,” a film exploring border politics in the age of Trump, which won a national Edward R. Murrow award for best news documentary. Root’s latest film, “Border Hustle,” was released in early 2019 and reveals how desperate migrants have become cash cows on both sides of the border.
Previously, for a dozen years, Root was Austin bureau chief of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he chronicled the rise of then-Gov. George W. Bush, wrote about cartel violence in Mexico and covered Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. During a three-year stint at the Associated Press, Root was twice named AP Staff Reporter of the Year for his watchdog reporting, including a story that sparked felony charges against a sitting state representative.
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Broken Border
In a Mexican border city, Trump’s plan to discourage migrants appears to be working as some give up on asylum
The controversial “remain in Mexico” plan is becoming one of the Trump administration’s most successful strategies for keeping migrants from gaining entry into the U.S. Just ask the migrants released into cartel-weary Nuevo Laredo this week. Many are headed home.
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Broken Border
Watch: In a Mexican border city, some migrants give up on asylum
In Nuevo Laredo, dozens of migrants decided that waiting in Mexico for an asylum hearing that could be months away was too much.
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Broken Border
Trump administration will soon expand “remain in Mexico” policy for migrants to busiest part of the border
It started in California, on the western edge of the southern border. Now officials say the controversial “remain in Mexico” program, which sends asylum-seeking migrants back across the border to await their fate, could soon hit the other end: Brownsville.
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Broken Border
“All we want is for them to listen to us”: In Mexico, Trump’s latest asylum policy stirs anger, fear and confusion
The Trump administration’s new policy aimed at disqualifying most asylum seekers is stirring anger and resentment among migrants who have waited months to present themselves at a port of entry.
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Broken Border
Dehydration and illnesses: Why more migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border are getting sick
The Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector has seen a large spike in cases of rhabdomyolysis — severe dehydration and overexertion — among migrants this year. Border agents say smugglers are to blame for treating migrants like “cargo” and pushing them too hard.
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Broken Border
San Antonio and other Texas cities confront the spillover from the border migration crisis
With Border Patrol facilities overwhelmed, San Antonio’s hastily opened migrant center, housed in an old Quiznos, is seeing hundreds of migrants arriving daily, many without money or a place to go.
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Broken Border
Watch: Inside a Mexican shelter where migrants wait months for a chance to enter America
The Texas Tribune visited a migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, to investigate another aspect of the ongoing border crisis: migrants from around the world crowding into Mexican border towns as they wait for a chance to claim asylum in the U.S.
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Broken Border
At a crowded Mexican shelter, migrants wait months to claim asylum. Some opt to cross the river instead.
The Senda de Vida shelter in Reynosa is over capacity, filled with migrants and refugees from around the world. U.S. officials will only let a handful at a time cross the border.
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Broken Border
No toothbrushes or showers, kids coughing all night: Migrants describe conditions inside border facilities
The Tribune interviewed more than a dozen migrants after their release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. The conditions they described ranged from livable to horrible.