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The latest border news from The Texas Tribune.

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    by Evan Smith

    The Trib staff on the sweeping cuts in the proposed House budget, Grissom on what's lost and not found at the Department of Public Safety, Galbraith on the wind power conundrum, Hamilton on higher ed's pessimistic budget outlook, Stiles and Swicegood debut an incredibly useful bill tracker app, Ramsey interviews Rick Perry on the cusp of his second decade as governor, Aguilar on a Mexican journalist's quest for asylum in the U.S., Ramshaw on life expectancy along the border, M. Smith on the obstacles school districts face in laying off teachers and yours truly talks gambling and the Rainy Day Fund with state Rep. Jim Pitts: The best of our best from January 17 to 21, 2011. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Ruling on Asylum Case Delayed

    by Julián Aguilar

    The asylum hearing for Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez ended Friday afternoon in El Paso without a ruling from a U.S. immigration judge. Gutiérrez has been seeking asylum since June 2008, when he fled the small Chihuahua town of Ascensión after receiving death threats for his reporting on alleged corruption in the Mexican military. The hearing is scheduled to resume Feb. 4. Full Story 

    Mexican reporter Emilio Gutiérrez has sought asylum in the United States since 2008.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Exile on Main Street

    by Julián Aguilar

    There are two paths to asylum in the United States. Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez, whose life was threatened by the Mexican military, may have taken the wrong one. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Abbott Blasts Feds After West Texas Shooting

    by Julián Aguilar

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott accused the federal government of putting U.S. citizens' lives at risk following a reported cross-border shooting Thursday in Hudspeth County. During the incident, first reported by the El Paso Times, at least one Mexican gunman allegedly shot toward Hudspeth County workers in rural West Texas who were doing maintenance on a desolate road. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Molly Molloy: The TT Interview

    by Brandi Grissom

    As 2010 drew to a close, the death toll in Juárez surpassed an astonishing 3,100 for the year. Since 2008, New Mexico State University librarian and professor Molly Molloy has been painstakingly keeping a daily tally of each one of the drug war killings that has made the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso one of the most dangerous in the world. Full Story 

    Molly Molloy, New Mexico State University librarian and professor
    Credit: New Mexico State University Library

  • Silvestre Reyes: The TT Interview

    by Julián Aguilar

    The Democratic congressman from El Paso on what life will be like with the Republicans in control of the U.S. House, why the information released by WikiLeaks shouldn't be public, whether we should be sending troops to Mexico and why Gov. Rick Perry talks so much about spillover violence. Full Story 

    U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • TribBlog: Big Bend Border Crossing

    by Brandi Grissom

    Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner, will be headed to Big Bend National Park on Thursday for an announcement that might please residents of that remote area of the border. Bersin is set to meet with National Park Services staff to discuss the opening of a border crossing in Boquillas Canyon. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Bound for Home

    by Julián Aguilar

    As he sat in traffic last Saturday on the final stretch of I-35 in Laredo in a truck loaded with U.S. goods, Higinio Navarrette was a microcosm of the holiday season on the border: an area where the local economy is as affected by security and cartel-related violence as it is by the nationwide economic slowdown. Full Story 

    Thousands of motorists wait in line on the southernmost stretch of IH-35 in Laredo, Texas. Despite a global recession and escalating violence in Mexico thousands of "paisanos" still made the trek south for Christmas. As the hours passed, however, their concerns about traveling Mexico's highways at night grew. A recent prison break in Nuevo Laredo didn't help soothe their fears about bandits lurking on the roadways. "We might have to get a hotel here," said one traveler.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Triggering a Debate

    by Julián Aguilar

    Should Texas gun sellers be required to notify the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when they sell two or more semi-automatic rifles to one person within a five-day period? The feds, desperate to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico, say yes. Gun rights advocates like Gov. Rick Perry say such a policy would be misguided. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Jailbreak on the Border

    by Julián Aguilar

    At least 140 prisoners escaped from a Nuevo Laredo prison today, though that number is believed to be a conservative estimate. Mexican media outlet El Universal reported this morning that the number of escapees could exceed 190. Full Story 

    Soldiers ride on a street in Miguel Aleman, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, in 2010.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Safe at Home?

    by Julián Aguilar

    A month after cartel warfare forced residents of the Mexican city of Ciudad Mier to abandon their homes and seek refuge on the Texas side of the border, they have tentatively started to make their way back, buoyed by the presence of three military battalions. What happens when the soldiers leave is anyone's guess. Full Story 

    A solider guarding a checkpoint in Ciudad Mier stands in front of a sign riddled with bullet holes.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Open for Business

    by Julián Aguilar

    So much for the economic impact of headline-making violence. Despite being on track to exceed 3,000 homicides this year, Juárez has seen its manufacturing sector flourish, regaining since July 2009 a quarter of the jobs lost during the height of the recession. More than $42 billion in trade value moved through the ports that the city shares with El Paso last year, and that number should be higher in 2010. And the amount of of tractor-trailer traffic hauling goods through the region was 22 percent greater in the first six months of this year than it was in the same period last year. Full Story 

    Factory workers in Ciudad Juárez assemble components for hair dryers on a manufacturing line managed by El Paso-based TECMA, an outsourcing company that had one of the best years on record in 2009. Last year’s success came despite Ciudad Juárez logging more than 2,600 murders.
    Credit: Julián Aguilar

  • Back on the Bus

    by Brandi Grissom

    The U.S. Border Patrol is restarting its controversial Alien Transfer and Exit Program, in which illegal border-crossers caught in Arizona are transported to Texas and deported to Mexico. Texas officials say the plan makes as little sense to them now as it did last year. Full Story 

    Border Patrol officers outside a bus in Presidio.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich