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The latest immigration news from The Texas Tribune.

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 62

    By Elise Hu

    In our session kickoff edition of the TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Reeve discuss the state's budget morass, so-called "sanctuary city" legislation and their impressions of the newly sworn-in Texas Legislature. Full Story 

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  • Texplainer: What's an Emergency Item?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ever hear something about Texas politics or policy and wonder what it is? Or read something that made you think, "I have no idea what that means"? We're here to help. From questions about why Rick Perry is within his legal right to shoot a coyote while jogging to what the heck "chubbing" is, Texplainer will answer your burning questions. Today: "What's a Legislative emergency item?" Full Story 

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  • Perry Pressed on "Sanctuary Cities"

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry wants an end to "sanctuary cities," but in a press conference Wednesday morning, he didn't name specific cities he wants Texas lawmakers to target. Nor did he address whether the Department of Public Safety's policy of state troopers not inquiring about the immigration status of people they pull over should be changed. Full Story 

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  • Dream Deferred?

    By Erika Aguilar, KUT News

    College students who would have benefited from federal passage of the DREAM Act, which would have provided a pathway to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants, are turning their attention to the Texas Legislature. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, protesters rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday against a number of immigration bills lawmakers will consider. Full Story 

    Demonstrators march through the streets of downtown Dallas in 2010 to protest the passage of Arizona's controversial new immigration law.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • He Sells Sanctuary

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry has designated the elimination of "sanctuary city" policies as one of the 82nd legislative session's emergency items — but as the Tribune has noted repeatedly in the last year, the state's in no position to throw stones. Full Story 

    Perry Speaks on the First Day of Session 2011
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • TribBlog: Hispanic Democrats: Lege "Chasing Ghosts"

    By Julián Aguilar

    Hispanic members of the Texas House responded swiftly to Gov. Rick Perry designating abolishing "sanctuary" cities a legislative emergency. “Instead of leading us through a $27 billion dollar budget shortfall that is poised to cripple our schools, our communities and the public health system, we are chasing ghosts,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. Full Story 

    Perry Speaks on the First Day of Session 2011
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • Molly Molloy: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    As 2010 drew to a close, the death toll in Juárez surpassed an astonishing 3,100 for the year. Since 2008, New Mexico State University librarian and professor Molly Molloy has been painstakingly keeping a daily tally of each one of the drug war killings that has made the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso one of the most dangerous in the world. Full Story 

    Molly Molloy, New Mexico State University librarian and professor
    Credit: New Mexico State University Library

  • The General at War

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Rick Perry might be the state official most publicly doing battle with the the federal government, but Greg Abbott is quietly leading the charge on behalf of Texas. The Attorney General, who was just sworn into his third term in office, talked recently with Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune. Full Story 

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • A Conversation With Three Incoming House Members

    By Evan Smith

    For our first TribLive conversation of 2011, I interviewed Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock; Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs; and Paul Workman, R-Austin, about the Speaker's race, the budget shortfall, immigration, the Tea Party and how they and other newbies will navigate the 82nd legislative session. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • TribBlog: Proposed Immigration Laws Create Unlikely Alliances

    By Julián Aguilar

    Proposing state enforcement of immigration laws can produce strange bedfellows. "Who would imagine that after 28 years of law enforcement the ACLU would be talking so nicely about me,” Sheriff Richard Wiles joked after being introduced as a common-sense sheriff by ACLU of Texas Executive Director Terri Burke for his opposition to proposed legislation patterned on Arizona’s. Full Story 

    An estimated 25,000 demonstrators attended a rally in Dallas to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform on May 1, 2010.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Silvestre Reyes: The TT Interview

    By Julián Aguilar

    The Democratic congressman from El Paso on what life will be like with the Republicans in control of the U.S. House, why the information released by WikiLeaks shouldn't be public, whether we should be sending troops to Mexico and why Gov. Rick Perry talks so much about spillover violence. Full Story 

    U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • TribBlog: Big Bend Border Crossing

    By Brandi Grissom

    Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner, will be headed to Big Bend National Park on Thursday for an announcement that might please residents of that remote area of the border. Bersin is set to meet with National Park Services staff to discuss the opening of a border crossing in Boquillas Canyon. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Now What?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas alternates election years with governing years, with legislative sessions set in the odd-numbered years after voters choose their leaders. There are variations, but it’s got a rhythm: Choose them, watch them govern, choose, watch. The elections behind us, it’s time to see what this particular bunch will do. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • The Best Political Video Moments of 2010

    By Elise Hu

    Politics, like football, is a full-contact sport — and the 2010 election was filled with the kind of brawling you would expect. It also had plenty of bizarre moments of the sort that make the rest of the nation believe Texas really is a different country. Full Story 

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  • Bound for Home

    By Julián Aguilar

    As he sat in traffic last Saturday on the final stretch of I-35 in Laredo in a truck loaded with U.S. goods, Higinio Navarrette was a microcosm of the holiday season on the border: an area where the local economy is as affected by security and cartel-related violence as it is by the nationwide economic slowdown. Full Story 

    Thousands of motorists wait in line on the southernmost stretch of IH-35 in Laredo, Texas. Despite a global recession and escalating violence in Mexico thousands of "paisanos" still made the trek south for Christmas. As the hours passed, however, their concerns about traveling Mexico's highways at night grew. A recent prison break in Nuevo Laredo didn't help soothe their fears about bandits lurking on the roadways. "We might have to get a hotel here," said one traveler.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar