Mayor John Cook Audio Part 5
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
The latest border news from The Texas Tribune.
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
The mayor of El Paso on how the drug war raging in Juárez is affecting his city (and the national media's perception of it), whether violence is really spilling over and how state and federal leaders are doing at addressing the problem of border security. Full Story
U.S. officials claim that most firearms used in crimes in Mexico are flowing south from Texas — with Houston, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley as the top sources. Full Story
What I saw was not entirely what I expected. I expected charred buildings. I expected soldiers with automatic weapons everywhere. I expected empty streets and residents skulking around in fear. To be sure, there were signs of danger — but in many parts of Juárez, there were also people determined to remain, to do their best to live as normally as possible. Full Story
That's how Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw described the violence raging in Mexico’s drug war at a House hearing on Tuesday. Full Story
The unsolved murder of a border journalist gunned down in front of his daughter has prompted the Inter American Press Association to call on Mexican President Felipe Calderon to address the country’s “negligence, apathy and irregularities” when investigating the deaths of members of the media. Full Story
The situation in Mexico is worse now than the Colombian drug war of the 1980s and 1990s ever was, Texas Department of Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw told state lawmakers today. Full Story
Lawmakers are reeling from the bruising political battle over health care reform and are loath to take on another divisive issue and additional risky votes. So the prospects remain dim for legislation that would improve border security, provide a pathway to citizenship for millions and crack down on unscrupulous employers — but that doesn't mean everyone's forgotten about it, as the hundreds of thousands of advocates who marched on Washington, D.C., last weekend can attest. Full Story
Detainees with mental impairments lack proper medical evaluation when they enter the federal immigration detention system and don't get adequate medication and access to social services, according to a new study. Full Story
The former secretary of state talked foreign policy, partisan politics and the national debt at an event co-presented by the Tribune, the Center for Politics and Governance at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs, and the LBJ Library. Full Story
The president's nominee for commissioner of Customs and Border Protection gets the job without Senate confirmation. Full Story
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White today called on GOP Gov. Rick Perry to remove claims on his public and campaign Web sites that crime on the Texas border has dropped 65 percent. Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner defended the claims. He said Perry's claim refers to temporary crime drops in discreet areas during so-called "border surge" operations. Full Story
Senior leaders from the United States and Mexico agreed the two countries will begin swapping intelligence on suspected terrorists and Mexican felons following discussions in Mexico City on Tuesday. Full Story
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wants to join the Mexico discussion and is urging fellow U.S. senators to lend him an ear. Full Story
When high-ranking officials in the Obama administration travel to Mexico today to discuss that country's role in combating border violence, one key member of the team will be missing: the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, whose nomination has languished in the U.S. Senate since September. Full Story
Leaders from one end of the Texas-Mexico border to the other want Gov. Rick Perry to tone down the scary rhetoric and get real about solving problems in their hometowns. And, by the way, they would like to be consulted about security plans that affect their communities. "We know what's going on on the border," says Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. "Our needs were not taken into consideration." Full Story
Lawmakers from both sides of the US/Mexico border were in Mexico City this week working on plans to combat growing border drug violence. Violence that has grabbed headlines in Texas in recent days. KUT’s Ben Philpott reports on the plans to curb border violence. Full Story