No issue stirred more passion in the 2016 elections than border security and immigration. In Beyond The Wall, a Texas Tribune documentary, we look past the heated rhetoric to explore why people and dope keep pouring across the border.
Bordering on Insecurity
Throughout 2016, The Texas Tribune took a deep look at the issues of border security and immigration, topics never far from the headlines — or the presidential trail. The Tribune reported on the reality and rhetoric around issues like the removal of undocumented criminal offenders, the stemming of government corruption and the conditions many immigrants are fleeing to seek sanctuary in the U.S.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Border Patrol agent convicted of corruption but not murder
Border Patrol Agent Joel Luna was found guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity, but a Cameron County jury acquitted him of murder.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Two sharply different portrayals of Border Patrol agent at murder trial
Devoted public servant who protected the nation’s borders and erred only by helping out his family? Or leader of a drug- and gun-trafficking enterprise? Those were the two portraits that emerged of Border Patrol Agent Joel Luna at his two-week murder trial. Now, a jury will decide his fate as early as Monday.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Jury to decide Border Patrol agent’s fate
The fate of Border Patrol Agent Joel Luna and his Mexican-born brother Eduardo, both charged with drug trafficking and the murder of a would-be snitch, is set to fall to a Cameron County jury Friday after almost two weeks of testimony and sparring over evidence.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Brownsville jurors shown cash and safe as Border Patrol agent’s murder trial continues
Hoping to bolster their murder case against Border Patrol Agent Joel Luna, prosecutors showed jurors a safe they say he used to store $90,000 in smuggled money.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Border Patrol agent tied to smuggled money but not to slaying in day 3 of trial
Joel Luna, the Border Patrol agent on trial for capital murder in Brownsville, was linked to hundreds of thousands of dollars in smuggled money by the prosecution’s star witness — Luna’s older brother Eduardo.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Sobbing brother testifies in Border Patrol agent’s murder trial
The star witness against a Border Patrol agent accused of murder — his own brother — gave tearful testimony in a Brownsville courtroom Wednesday.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Sparring over evidence marks first day of Border Patrol agent’s trial
A state judge ruled that a statement Border Patrol Agent Joel Luna voluntarily gave authorities can be used in his murder trial. Sparring over evidence marked the first day of his trial in South Texas, in a case that has stoked concern about alleged law enforcement corruption on the U.S. side of the border.
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Bordering on Insecurity
Border Patrol agent’s murder trial begins this week
The capital murder case began in 2015 with the discovery of a headless body floating off South Padre Island. The trial of two men charged in the case — a U.S. Border Patrol agent and his Mexican-born brother — begins today in South Texas.
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Bordering on Insecurity
8 border security secrets state and federal officials don’t want to reveal
Trying to get beyond the rhetoric on border security or immigration at the state or federal level is often a fool’s errand. Here are eight secrets in those often shadowy arenas.