The latest border news from The Texas Tribune.
The state’s environmental regulatory agency on Wednesday rebuffed a coalition of border residents and environmental activists who hoped to halt a coal mine from expanding its operations near the Rio Grande. Full Story
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Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Raquel Esquivel still wears a government-issue green uniform, but now it's a federal prison jumpsuit. She was convicted in 2009 of helping smugglers sneak loads of marijuana across the border. Full Story
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When Franky Palacios Paz was found naked and decapitated floating off South Padre Island, the local sheriff thought the murder would lead investigators back to Mexican drug cartel violence. He didn't expect a U.S. Border Patrol agent to be among those arrested. Full Story
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By the end of August, the Texas Department of Public Safety will be close to its goal of permanently placing 250 additional state troopers on the southern border. Full Story
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This week on The Ticket: Ben Philpott and Jay Root try to figure out whether or not the national GOP hand-wringing over Donald Trump has made its way to Texas Republicans. Full Story
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A majority of Texas’ registered voters believe Muslims who are not U.S. citizens should be banned from entering the country, according to results of a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll released Tuesday. Full Story
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For more than two centuries, the Escobar family has ranched along the Rio Grande. For almost as long, smugglers have moved people and product across their property. Full Story
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Dealing a blow to President Obama’s executive immigration order, the U.S. Supreme Court has deadlocked on a lower court's decision to block the plan, which would've provided relief from deportation and work permits to millions of people. Full Story
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Boats are one of the most effective ways to patrol the 300 miles of river and lakes under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Station. But the boats aren't in the water around the clock. Full Story
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A Laredo-based bank is pushing back against criticism of its CEO's involvement in a fundraiser for Donald Trump, arguing that the CEO will stand up to Trump like he has to fellow Texas Republicans over the years. Full Story
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A Washington-based interest group has recruited a coalition of Texas educators and business and civic leaders to help convince members of Congress to eliminate this country’s embargo against communist Cuba. Full Story
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In this mini-doc shot in a high-traffic smuggling corridor, watch a "coyote" moving undocumented workers through the woods, listen to a Guatemalan teenager recount her journey to South Texas and ride along with a busy team of U.S. Border Patrol agents. Full Story
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In the Roundup: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick learns the dangers of pre-scheduling social media posts, a 2015 border security priority for the governor still awaits funding and the Texas Democratic Party prepares to gather for its convention. Full Story
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Wiping out the tall stands of Carrizo cane that give drug and human smugglers easy cover along the Rio Grande was deemed a border-security priority by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015, but the program wasn't funded. Full Story
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The Texas-based judge that earlier this year put a hold on President Obama’s executive order on immigration decided on Tuesday to also suspend a controversial punishment he had recently issued to the administration’s attorneys. Full Story
A coalition of civil and immigrant rights groups on Friday asked an appeals court to stop a federal judge’s order that requires the Obama administration to turn over the confidential information of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Full Story
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Immigrant rights groups were handed a significant victory on Wednesday when a Travis County judge ruled that the state temporarily cannot license an immigration detention center as a childcare facility. Full Story
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In El Paso, local leaders hope to create a municipal ID card for the region's homeless, indigent and undocumented. But Gov. Greg Abbott has hinted that could make El Paso a so-called "sanctuary city." Full Story
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The Obama administration has asked a Brownsville-based judge to rethink an order that requires the federal government to turn over the private information of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Full Story
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As El Paso draws record numbers of Cubans seeking refuge, the city's Democratic congressman said he favors repealing a decades-old provision that gives those migrants a special status here. Full Story
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