TribBlog: Perry Questions Arizona Law
Gov. Rick Perry does not think Texas should adopt a law like the one recently passed in Arizona. Full Story
The latest immigration news from The Texas Tribune.
Gov. Rick Perry does not think Texas should adopt a law like the one recently passed in Arizona. Full Story
Just as in 2006, some Democrats are clamoring for immigration reforms, including easing pathways to citizenship, while Republicans are insisting more border security must come first. Policy experts, meanwhile, say the outcome this year will likely be the same as back then: nothing. Full Story
In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Reeve consider the impact of Arizona's tough immigration law on Texas, the upcoming special election in Central Texas, the debate over debates and Rick Perry's run-in with a coyote. Full Story
A multi-million-dollar plan gone bust? That's how our television partner in Houston, KHOU-TV, describes the governor's virtual border watch program, which has cost $4 million but has netted only a handful of arrests. Full Story
ABC News reports that state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Houston, will introduce a bill in the Texas Legislature similar to the controversial immigration measure passed into law in Arizona. Full Story
Texas’ congested air space is preventing the deployment of unmanned aerial drones to the southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Full Story
There's been plenty of intense reaction across the country to new immigration laws passed in The Grand Canyon State. Ben Philpott, who covers public policy for KUT News and the Tribune, reports on how both sides are already looking ahead to future battlegrounds. Full Story
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst went to El Paso today, talked with state, local and federal police, took an aerial tour over the dangerous borderlands and pronounced that Mexico's drug war is a "very serious threat" to all Texans — a threat the feds aren't protecting you from. Full Story
Even as violence near the border rages and security becomes a more pressing issue, discussions about unifying Big Bend National Park with Mexico may be gaining momentum. Full Story
E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state's budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who's reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state's border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. — and whether there's such a thing as "Obama Derangement Syndrome." The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010. Full Story
Border lawmakers are asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars for border security before "the violence unfolds across the Rio Grande." Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry has invested $4 million in the Texas Border Watch Program over two years. Twenty-nine cameras have been installed on the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border, or one camera for every 41 miles of border. Internet viewers have helped police make a total of 26 arrests — that’s about $153,800 per arrest. Full Story
"The fact is, we shouldn't have to be doing anything. The federal government's responsibility has always been to operate the security mechanism along the border." Full Story
The Census deadline, a Texas-style Tea Party and NASA's moon program. Full Story
Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz sits down with Tribune reporters Brandi Grissom and Julian Aguilar to discuss the economy and security situation in his border city. Full Story
The mayor of Ciudad Juárez was in Austin on Monday to discuss his city's plight at a University of Texas forum. He took a few moments to talk with the Tribune. Full Story
Just days after the withdrawal of the majority of military troops deployed to patrol the streets of the most violent city in the Americas, the city’s mayor concedes his local police force is still infiltrated with elements of organized crime. Full Story
Grissom on her two hours in Juárez, Grissom, Ramshaw and Ramsey on four of the runoffs on Tuesday's ballot, Ramshaw on the religious experience that is voting for Dallas County's DA and an energy regulator's play for a job at the entity he regulates, Mulvaney on the Texas Senate's biggest spenders, Aguilar on whether — as U.S. officials claim — 90 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes really flow south from Texas, M. Smith on the continuing Texas Forensic Science Commission follies, Stiles on how inmates spend their money behind bars and how counties are responding at Census time, Hamilton on the creative accounting and semantic trickery that allows lawmakers to raise revenue without hiking taxes when there's a budget shortfall, and Hu on Austin's first-in-the-nation car-sharing program. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010. Full Story
The mayor of El Paso on how the drug war raging in Juárez is affecting his city (and the national media's perception of it), whether violence is really spilling over and how state and federal leaders are doing at addressing the problem of border security. Full Story
U.S. officials claim that most firearms used in crimes in Mexico are flowing south from Texas — with Houston, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley as the top sources. Full Story