Skip to main content
Topics

Immigration

The latest immigration news from The Texas Tribune.

  • TribBlog: Proposed Immigration Laws Create Unlikely Alliances

    By JuliƔn 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,ā€ 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 Arizonaā€™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 JuliƔn 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 

    Article thumbnail
    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 itā€™s got a rhythm: Choose them, watch them govern, choose, watch. The elections behind us, itā€™s time to see what this particular bunch will do. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • The Best Political Video Moments of 2010

    By Elise Hu

    Politics, like football, is a full-contact sport ā€” 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 

    Article thumbnail

  • Bound for Home

    By JuliƔn 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

  • Triggering a Debate

    By JuliƔn Aguilar

    Should Texas gun sellers be required to notify the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when they sell two or more semi-automatic rifles to one person within a five-day period? The feds, desperate to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico, say yes. Gun rights advocates like Gov. Rick Perry say such a policy would be misguided. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Now the Fun Begins

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Texas won big Tuesday with the release of 2010 census data. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune takes a look at the numbers, which will have legislators redrawing state maps to add four new congressional seats. Full Story 

    Texas gained four seats in the 2010 congressional apportionment process, more than any other state.
    Credit: Graphic by Matt Stiles

  • TribBlog: Jailbreak on the Border

    By JuliƔn Aguilar

    At least 140 prisoners escaped from a Nuevo Laredo prison today, though that number is believed to be a conservative estimate. Mexican media outlet El Universal reported this morning that the number of escapees could exceed 190. Full Story 

    Soldiers ride on a street in Miguel Aleman, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, in 2010.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Safe at Home?

    By JuliƔn Aguilar

    A month after cartel warfare forced residents of the Mexican city of Ciudad Mier to abandon their homes and seek refuge on the Texas side of the border, they have tentatively started to make their way back, buoyed by the presence of three military battalions. What happens when the soldiers leave is anyone's guess. Full Story 

    A solider guarding a checkpoint in Ciudad Mier stands in front of a sign riddled with bullet holes.
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • Open for Business

    By JuliƔn Aguilar

    So much for the economic impact of headline-making violence. Despite being on track to exceed 3,000 homicides this year, JuĆ”rez has seen its manufacturing sector flourish, regaining since July 2009 a quarter of the jobs lost during the height of the recession. More than $42 billion in trade value moved through the ports that the city shares with El Paso last year, and that number should be higher in 2010. And the amount of of tractor-trailer traffic hauling goods through the region was 22 percent greater in the first six months of this year than it was in the same period last year. Full Story 

    Factory workers in Ciudad JuĆ”rez assemble components for hair dryers on a manufacturing line managed by El Paso-based TECMA, an outsourcing company that had one of the best years on record in 2009. Last yearā€™s success came despite Ciudad JuĆ”rez logging more than 2,600 murders.
    Credit: JuliƔn Aguilar

  • Back on the Bus

    By Brandi Grissom

    The U.S. Border Patrol is restarting its controversial Alien Transfer and Exit Program, in which illegal border-crossers caught in Arizona are transported to Texas and deported to Mexico. Texas officials say the plan makes as little sense to them now as it did last year. Full Story 

    Border Patrol officers outside a bus in Presidio.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich