Border-crossing immigrants are being arrested by Texas troopers on state charges like trespassing, and they’re starting to trickle into a prison emptied to house them.
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.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
How inconsistent policies and enforcement have created false hope for migrants at the border
The Biden administration and the Mexican government have made the situation at the border so confusing that even seasoned experts can’t always determine who is allowed in and who isn’t. That may be contributing to the high number of border crossings.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
The people we left behind: How closing a dangerous border camp adds to inequities
The Biden administration shuttered a migrant tent camp in Mexico that was created under a Trump policy. Immigration advocates praised the move, but the closure adds to growing confusion over which migrants are let in or left out.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
ICE guards “systematically” sexually assault detainees in an El Paso detention center, lawyers say
Allegations include guards attacking victims in camera “blind spots” and telling them that “no one would believe” them in ICE detention centers, which imprison about 50,000 immigrants each year at a taxpayer expense of $2.7 billion.
Posted in
Texas 2020 Elections
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo loses reelection bid to Oscar Leeser
Margo told reporters he doubted any other mayor has had to endure the crises he has battled throughout his last term, and was hopeful the community would realize he did “the best I could to lead.”
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
ICE deported a key witness in investigation of sexual assault and harassment at El Paso detention center
Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department inspectors general are investigating allegations that ICE guards assaulted detainees in camera blind spots.
Posted in
Texas Hurricane Season 2020
Hurricane after hurricane wreaked havoc in Orange, Texas. Finally, residents say they got a break.
State and local leaders and thousands of residents surveyed the comparatively little damage with gratitude — and surprise.
Posted in
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.
Posted in
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.
Posted in
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.”
