Economy

Although the president delayed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation targeting families with deportation orders, anxiety remains among the undocumented community of Houston.

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The state's unemployment rate for May dropped to 3.5%, an all-time low. That breaks the record low of 3.7% reached in April.

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Immigration and border security are at or near the top of voters' concerns about the U.S. and Texas, and political corruption is also near the top of their U.S. list, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

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The Houston Democrat's bill calls for a commission to “study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans,” and consider a national apology by the government.

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The governor cited Texas' continued recovery from Hurricane Harvey as a reason why he was issuing an executive order to continue the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, which was on track to shut down.

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The deal expands a controversial program requiring some migrants seeking asylum in the United States to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings. Texas officials worried about the economic impact of tariffs cheered the agreement Friday.

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The president's threat to impose tariffs unless Mexico stops the flow of migrants into the U.S. has put Texas Republicans in a tough spot — choosing between their loyalty to Donald Trump and their worries about tariff's effects on the Texas economy.

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Mexico is the biggest trade partner for Texas and the U.S., and tariffs on Mexican imports would quickly be felt on the border before impacting the rest of the U.S. economy, trade experts say.

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The Trump administration wants Mexico to combat the surge of Central American migrants traveling through the country on their way to seek asylum in the United States. More than 1,000 Central Americans crossed into the El Paso area Wednesday to surrender to authorities.

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Completing negotiations that have taken place over the last few months, Texas House and Senate lawmakers accepted a compromise on a state spending plan for 2020-21.

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The upper chamber added those changes to a broader bill that must pass for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to continue functioning. The House has already signaled it would let breweries sell beer to go.

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In their effort to make a future state income tax all but impossible, Texas lawmakers used terminology that experts believe could inadvertently gut the state’s franchise tax.

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In the latest episode of our podcast about the 86th Legislature, Evan Smith talks to state demographer Lloyd Potter about coming changes to our population that will have profound public policy implications: explosive growth, rapid urbanization and demographic inevitability.

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Legal battles over whether the developer can use eminent domain still loom over the project.

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We're livestreaming our conversation in Austin on demography, inclusion, innovation and social entrepreneurship, moderated by the Tribune's Evan Smith.

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The measure aims to prohibit caller ID spoofing — when callers tamper with information transmitted to people’s phones to disguise their identities.

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Lawmakers moved to apply the state's sales tax to goods sold by remote vendors who don't have physical operations in Texas.

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The state stands to lose more than $32 billion in gross domestic product in just over three months as the federal government shifts personnel away from international bridges to deal with a surge of migrants, according to a newly-released study.

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Is paid sick leave on life support? Did "constitutional carry" advocates shoot themselves in the foot? With just weeks to go in the session, lawmakers are handling the pressure to get their bills across the finish line in different ways.

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President Donald Trump backed down from his threat on Thursday to close the southern border immediately, telling reporters at the White House that he is giving Mexico a one-year warning before taking action.

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