State and local leaders and thousands of residents surveyed the comparatively little damage with gratitude — and surprise.
Lomi Kriel
Lomi Kriel is a statewide investigative reporter for The Texas Tribune. Previously, she was a founding member of the Tribune’s investigative unit with ProPublica, joining the initiative in 2020 before leaving for the Tribune in November 2025. Before joining ProPublica, Kriel reported on immigration for the Houston Chronicle, often focused on the Texas border. Months before Trump’s first administration announced its family separation policy, Kriel uncovered it in 2017. Kriel is a two-time Pulitzer finalist, in 2018 as part of the Houston Chronicle’s Hurricane Harvey coverage, and in 2024 for the Tribune’s reporting with ProPublica and FRONTLINE PBS on the Uvalde school shooting. She is a George Polk Award winner, National Magazine Award winner, Edward R. Murrow winner, and Emmy nominee, among other accolades. Kriel, who was born and raised in South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1998. She has worked as a Central American correspondent for Thomson Reuters and a criminal justice reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, among other publications. Kriel is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University and speaks Afrikaans and Spanish.
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Coronavirus in Texas
ICE is making sure migrant kids don’t have COVID-19, then expelling them to “prevent the spread” of COVID-19
The administration has used infection risk to justify expelling thousands of children without legal protections. But it’s only expelling kids who’ve tested negative.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Federal agents are expelling asylum seekers as young as 8 months from the border, citing COVID-19 risks
Thousands of migrant children have been expelled by the Trump administration since March. Some have been held in hotels without access to lawyers or family. Advocates say many are now “virtually impossible” to find.
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Coronavirus in Texas
House Democrats demand Trump administration stop rushing through deportations of migrant children
Democratic congressional leaders expressed alarm at the sudden acceleration and requested the government “cease this practice immediately.”
Posted in
Coronavirus in Texas
The Trump administration is rushing deportations of migrant children during coronavirus
Their father was missing. Their mother was miles away in Houston. Two sisters, ages 8 and 11, were survivors of sexual assault and at risk of deportation. With the nation focused on COVID-19, the U.S. government is rushing the deportations of migrant children.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Texas still won’t say which nursing homes have COVID-19 cases. Families are demanding answers.
Citing a state medical privacy law, Texas is refusing to release the names of long-term care facilities where residents have died from COVID-19, even as those case numbers soar and families plead for information.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Along the border, the population is high risk for coronavirus, but testing is in short supply
Gov. Greg Abbott promised that all those who need a coronavirus test “will get one,” but near the border tests are scarce, and the death toll is beginning to rise.