Problems remain for We Build the Wall group after founder’s guilty plea
Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage faces more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding donors to the private wall effort. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Biden administration over asylum plan
The plan would overhaul the process for migrants seeking asylum, aiming to reduce the average wait time for a decision from five years to six months. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, center, gestures as he speaks at a press conference with Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone II, center right, and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, center left, at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on April 26, 2022. Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Texas v. Texas, the enforcement of the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they waited for hearings in U.S. immigration court.]()
Credit: Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune -
How Sandy Hook lies and the Jan. 6 inquiry threaten to undo Alex Jones
The Texas-based conspiracy theorist recently sought immunity from federal prosecutors investigating the U.S. Capitol riot. Three of his companies have filed for bankruptcy in an apparent effort to delay his Sandy Hook defamation trial. Full Story
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![Alex Jones records a video for InfoWars on a street corner in downtown Austin outside of the Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 29, 2018.]()
Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune -
Judge orders Biden administration to send Central American migrants to Mexico rather than their home countries
The federal judge in Louisiana said he’ll hold a hearing in May to decide whether to block the administration from halting Title 42, the Trump-era health order that quickly sends all migrants back to Mexico. Full Story
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![Enrique Valenzuela, director of the Chihuahua State Population Council, guides a group of Central American families that were deported to the Ju·rez Migrant Assistance Center, in Ciudad Ju·rez, Chihuahua, Mexico on March 16, 2021. Migrants that have crossed in the Rio Grande Valley are being flown to El Paso to be deported to Ciudad Ju·rez, where shelters are already saturated.]()
Credit: Paul Ratje for The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on whether Biden can toss Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy
The Biden administration had ended the policy that forced 70,000 migrants to wait in Mexico. But a federal judge in Texas forced the administration to restart the program in December. Full Story
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![A person holds a sign during the Safe Not Stranded rally at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments for Biden vs Texas, the enforcement of the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they waited for hearings in U.S. immigration court.]()
Credit: Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune -
Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick urge Texas Supreme Court to take up Ken Paxton’s appeal to whistleblower lawsuit
The two Republican state officials filed friend of the court briefs asking that the high court take up the case because it is relevant to statewide governance and to the powers of an executive office under the Texas Constitution. Full Story
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
Federal judge plans to temporarily force Biden administration to keep rule that turns migrants away at the U.S.-Mexico border
A Louisiana judge will grant a restraining order that will keep in place Title 42, a pandemic-era health rule that the federal government had planned to drop next month. Full Story
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![Academia de Belleza Jefferson, a local beauty academy, gives free haircuts to migrants in the tent city set up in Plaza de la República in Reynosa, Tamaulipas on May 29, 2021.]()
Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune -
Texas sues to block Biden administration from lifting Title 42, a pandemic-era health rule used to expel migrants
Texas has led the legal fight against the Biden administration’s immigration policies, filing numerous lawsuits that have led to judges overturning or altering those policies. Full Story
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![A child runs through the tent city set up in Plaza de la República. Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. May, 29 2021.]()
Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune -
Austin’s ban on some digital billboards can stand, U.S. Supreme Court says
The high court upheld Austin’s ordinance that prohibits companies from digitizing some billboards, saying it does not violate free speech. Full Story
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![Interstate 35 in downtown Austin on March 19, 2020.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas executes Carl Buntion, the state’s oldest death row prisoner, for Houston police officer’s murder
Buntion, 78, was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of a Houston police officer. His Thursday execution was the first Texas has carried out this year. Full Story
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![Huntsville, Texas: Exteriors of the Texas State Penitentiary “Walls Unit” August 20, 2020 in Huntsville, Texas.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Prosecutor moves to stop execution of inmate whose religious freedom case reached U.S. Supreme Court
The Nueces County district attorney, Mark A. Gonzalez, has moved to withdraw the death warrant for John Henry Ramirez, convicted of a 2004 robbery and murder. Full Story
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![Nueces County District Attorney Mark A. Gonzalez speaks at a panel during the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 28, 2019.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Texas candidates’ silence allows persistent foster care problems to fester
Candidates hardly ever talk about improving the safety net for kids — unless the holes in the safety net have become big enough to get the attention of voters. Full Story
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![Heart Galleries, portraits of adoptable children, on display at the Child Protective Services office at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Distraught over orders to investigate trans kids’ families, Texas child welfare workers are resigning
Other investigators don’t want to follow an order they believe harms families but worry about the impact of a mass employee exodus on the state’s most vulnerable children. Full Story
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![Randa Mulanax and Morgan Davis both decided to leave the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. "Things are just not getting better," Mulanax said.
"I morally realized that I couldn't do it - that my being present was more of a hindrance than it was a help. And so it was almost validating that this was okay," Davis said.
"Now we're basically saying any parents that were supportive of these children is abusive, when a lot of those kids that are in care, that's all they wanted. That's all they needed," Mulanax said.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
After pursuing an indictment, Starr County district attorney drops murder charge over self-induced abortion
Texas law exempts a pregnant person from being charged with murder or any lesser homicide charge for an abortion. Full Story
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![The Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City on Saturday. The District Attorney is dropping the charges against Lizelle Herrera, a woman who was indicted with murder for a "self-induced abortion."]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
Ted Cruz and John Cornyn vote no as Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court
Texas’ U.S. senators have acknowledged the historical nature of Jackson’s nomination but said ahead of their votes that they believe her ideology could be harmful for the court and the country. Full Story
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![Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in to testify at her U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 21, 2022.]()
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“Unwinnable race”: State Sen. Beverly Powell of Burleson ends reelection bid, citing redrawn political map
Powell, a Democrat, had won Senate District 10 by winning over a coalition of diverse voters in Tarrant County. The GOP redrew the district to branch out to counties to the south and west that made it more rural and more white. Full Story
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![State Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, waits for the Senate to gavel in on Aug. 10, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
Over 100 children have died in Texas’ child welfare system since 2020, report says
Most of the deaths were attributed to “preexisting medical conditions” or abuse suffered before the children entered the system, according to the DFPS report. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years. Full Story
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![Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters listens to invited testimony during a House Human Services Committee hearing at the Capitol on March 21, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas is quietly using redistricting lawsuits to launch a broader war against federal voting rights law
As Texas defends against accusations that its new political maps are discriminatory, it’s laying the groundwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out longstanding Voting Rights Act protections. Full Story
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![The newest drafts of the statewide congressional districts in Texas outside the Senate Chamber in the Texas Capitol in Austin on Sept. 30 2021.]()
Credit: Dimitri Staszewski for The Texas Tribune -
Judge loses trust in Texas’ child abuse investigation of foster care facility and calls for federal inquiry
U.S. District Judge Janis Jack said she is seeking a federal criminal investigation into allegations that children were sexually abused and trafficked at The Refuge, a state-licensed foster care shelter for victims of sex trafficking. Full Story
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![Colonel Steven C. McGraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, testifies during a House Human Services Committee hearing at the Capitol on March 21, 2022. The committee is investigating reported allegations of sexual exploitation at a facility in Bastrop.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Child welfare monitors say there’s “ample evidence” kids were abused at Bastrop foster care facility, disputing Texas Rangers
Watchdogs appointed by a federal court found there is evidence of abuse and exploitation after reviewing thousands of documents and recordings. Full Story
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![Buildings located at The Refuge Ranch in Bastrop. The Texas-contracted facility is meant to provide residential treatment for child sex trafficking survivors but was discovered to be trafficking the same children, according to a federal judge.]()
Credit: Via The Refuge website
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