Lawmakers said they had more questions than answers after touring Border Patrol facilities in New Mexico where a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl was held before her death.
Families Divided
President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy drew sharp rebukes after it was announced in April 2018 — especially after children who had been separated from their parents started being placed in a tent city in Tornillo. Trump signed an executive order June 20 that would keep immigrant families together, but it’s unclear how — or if — families that have already been separated will be reunited. With support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Texas Tribune has been reporting on the issue from the Texas-Mexico border, Washington, D.C., and Austin. You can help by sending story tips to tips@texastribune.org.
A court ruling may allow migrant families to be held indefinitely. These families know what that could be like.
Migrant children are not supposed to be detained for more than 20 days in unlicensed facilities. Texas may be able to license two family detention centers, in Dilley and Karnes County, after an appeals court ruling last week.
With contract set to expire, still no word on what’s next for immigration center at Tornillo
After receiving several contract extensions, the tent city’s operators say they want the government to find a long-term solution. But they also don’t want to abandon the children held there.
The number of migrant children in Texas shelters rose again in November, reaching a new high under Trump
The number of unaccompanied minor children held in Texas shelters reached a new high in November, months after the administration of President Donald Trump ended its policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border.
Offering few details, Trump asserts end to “catch and release” and promises tent cities to hold migrants
Meanwhile, the arrival of active duty military forces is making some residents nervous along the border.
Undocumented immigrants say a better life – not children’s citizenship – the main reason they come to Texas
While President Trump vows to end citizenship rights for children born to non-U.S. citizens through an executive order, political analysts and immigrants themselves say that wouldn’t deter illegal immigration.
After ICE detained this migrant in Texas, her C-section scar ripped open and she was denied surgery for 4 months
A woman from Honduras crossed the Rio Grande and asked for asylum. For months, she said doctors in a detention center gave her only ibuprofen and antibiotics for a persistent open wound.
Federal agencies were unprepared to deal with family separations, government report says
The report, released Tuesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, says that federal agencies did not find out about “zero tolerance” at the border until it was publicly announced.
As border crossings surge, some migrants say they came now because family separation is over
President Trump has said that family separation deterred Central American migrant families from crossing the border illegally. Now that separations are over, more families are coming.
Study says family separations are causing a mental health crisis in the Rio Grande Valley
Around 1,800 children in the Valley had a parent deported by immigration authorities in 2017, which causes what mental health experts say is long-lasting trauma and “toxic stress.”

