Eighteen Democrats in the Texas House have asked President Obama to send U.S. surveillance aircraft from Iraq to Texas to help guard the state’s border with Mexico.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
2010: Bill White’s Border Security Plan [Updated]
Gubernatorial candidate Bill White unveiled a border security plan today and chided Gov. Rick Perry over border cameras and his “unauthorized” spending of security money.
Emilio’s Exile
Journalist Emilio Gutiérrez says that after he reported on allegations that Mexican soldiers robbed citizens, the military threatened his life. That led him to seek asylum in the U.S. — but instead, he landed in an immigration detention center for seven months. He’s still waiting to find out his ultimate fate.
TribBlog: Illegal Immigration Down in U.S.
The number of undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. has declined considerably in the past few years when compared to the first half of the previous decade, according to a new study by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The Brief: Aug. 31, 2010
The president’s in Texas again today, but this time he’s all business — or, rather, no business.
TribBlog: “La Barbie” Captured
Authorities in Mexico have detained the alleged Texas-born cartel leader Edgar Valdez Villarreal, also known as “La Barbie.”
TribBlog: Send in the Drone
State lawmakers have long been clamoring for an unmanned drone to boost security on the border. On Wednesday they’ll get their wish, as an unmanned drone begins patrolling the Texas skies.
The Huddled Masses
Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana exiles have fundamentally changed Houston, and vice-versa. The uneasy arrangement was a shotgun marriage: Many evacuees had no choice in whether or where they went, and Houstonians had no choice, for humanity’s sake, but to take them in.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hu compares and contrasts the official schedules of four big-state governors (including Rick Perry) and picks the 21 Texas House races to watch, Ramshaw on a 19-year-old with an IQ of 47 sentenced to 100 years in prison, Stiles on Perry’s regent-donors, Galbraith on a plan to curb the independence of the state’s electricity grid, Thevenot on the turf war over mental health, Grissom on whether the Texas Youth Commission should be abolished, Aguilar on a crucial immigration-related case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ramsey’s interview with GOP provocateur Debra Medina and M. Smith on how changes to campaign finance law will affect judicial elections in Texas: The best of our best from August 23 to 27, 2010.
The Road to Candelaria
State lawmakers looking for guidance on how to draft immigration legislation that can withstand legal challenges may not have to wait for resolution of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Arizona. A case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could light the path.


