Demographics

Immigration advocates say the feds are deporting thousands of illegal aliens who are minor offenders and some who've committed no crimes at all. But federal officials and local law enforcement argue that they're simply making Texas streets safer.

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For the last year and a half, Tom Barry visited immigrant detention centers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Here's what he found.

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The U.S. government is imposing greater restrictions than necessary on most aliens held in custody for immigration violations, according to a charge made by ... the U.S. government.

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The State Preservation Board today approved installation of a Texas Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Capitol. The project has already taken nearly a decade.

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She was born into a family of eight children near Lubbock, worked on cotton fields in her teens and later became a Hispanic labor leader. Now she's running for lieutenant governor. We've packaged resources (in various media platforms) on the latest entrant to the race.

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The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the Texas Department of Public Safety does not have to halt its policy that prevents some legal U.S. residents from getting driver's licenses.

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Roll your own political videos ... interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators ... scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border's scary drug wars ... puttting dropouts back in class ... rates squeezing families out of home health care ... how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? ... enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising ... the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates ... and we have an interactive database of the state's best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009.

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Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster might have to change his tune about his idyllic border home after this week. Foster was having lunch Tuesday with Mexican officials across the border in Piedras Negras when a gunmen started spraying the place with bullets.

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We added more people this year than any other state — more than Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado combined.

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The El Paso Brut Sun Bowl has sold out more quickly than ever in its 76-year history, officials said today. The sellout comes less than a week after the Oklahoma City daily The Oklahoman, ran a story about how the raging violence in Juarez was keeping many Sooner fans from buying tickets

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U.S. Border Patrol agents launched Operation Detour to shock kids away from Mexican drug cartel recruiters. Now they're expanding the program across the entire southwest border.

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Latinos are expected to become the majority demographic group in Texas by 2015, according to some estimates. But they're still not voting in big numbers at the ballot box.

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Border Patrol agents are combatting cartel recruitment with a graphic film designed to scare high school students straight. But some experts say the program misses the mark.

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Stiles and Thevenot collaborate on the salaries paid to superintendents, and even compare them on price per student… Ramsey’s look at redistricting and next year’s elections… Aguilar’s report on jails, brought to you by the federal agency that’s in the ag business… Rapoport’s peek at the power behind Texas pre-kindergarten programs… Smith’s conversation with Dan Patrick, in three parts… Grissom’s narrative on a circular immigration and deportation route financed by two governments… Ramshaw finds doctors agreeing on public policy and split on strategy and tactics… Hu’s latest Stump Interrupted puts the camera on Farouk Shami… Hamilton’s story on two retired cops who are taking on cargo theft in Texas… And Kreighbaum and Stiles pop open the itineraries of your folks in Congress. The best of our best from December 12 to 18, 2009.

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El Paso is in the national news today, and — for the first time in recent memory — it has nothing to do with its proximity to drug war-torn Juarez. Forbes actually has some good news about the border city: Incomes for college graduates in El Paso are rising faster than any other major metropolitan area of the nation.

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Border communities struggle to keep younger, educated residents when larger cities dangle economic and quality-of-life opportunities. They're afflicted with the reputation of being black holes of talent — where escape is necessary in order to prosper.

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On the eve of a noisy election year, the former lieutenant governor of Texas takes us on a tour through voting and demographic statistics.

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On both sides of the border, there are calls to end the U.S. Border Patrol's Alien Transfer and Exit Program. But Border Patrol officials say their plan to break the connection between smugglers and immigrants is working.

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The inflamed immigration rhetoric of the past couple of years has waned, but a report the National Conference of State Legislatures released today shows that state lawmakers still have passion for the issue.

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The U.S. Border Patrol says its illegal immigration repatriation program is working to break the crossing cycle in Arizona, but officials in Texas and Mexico worry the program creates more problems than it solves.

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