Immigration

Watch highlights from Gov. Rick Perry's interview with Evan Smith on Friday. In the clips, Perry discusses whether Texas is a sanctuary state, and the effectiveness of abstinence education.

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The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, played a little soccer this week in Ciudad Juárez, but his real game was creating hope in a place where none exists.

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“The scourge of drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, robbery and violence has dismantled our economy, has eroded our tranquility and has stained our social structures with blood,” said Ciudad Juárez's new mayor, Héctor “Teto” Murguía, at his inauguration Sunday. “This economic and social disaster deserves a desperate cry for help and solidarity.”

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A year after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it would reform immigration detention, advocacy groups say the agency has fallen short on a few key counts: addressing alleged human rights violations and expanding alternatives to incarceration.

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The office of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has offered to help Mexican authorities in the search for a U.S. man officials say was shot and killed on Falcon Lake in South Texas.

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If the state needs money to balance its budget, it should look first to sin taxes on gambling, alcohol and marijuana.

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Rick Perry's campaign has released a new ad on the topic of border security that pivots off of the letter the governor hand-delivered to Barack Obama during their brief tarmac meeting in Austin.

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Law enforcement agencies are again warning patrons of Falcon Lake in South Texas to stay on the U.S. side of the popular fishing spot. The warning follows the fatal shooting of a U.S. man by Mexican pirates who allegedly attacked him after he traveled into Guerrero Viejo, Tamaulipas, on his Jet Ski.

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Secure Communities, a controversial government program that identifies immigrants in custody in local jails, is now active in every county in Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today.

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"It is impossible to carry out our role in these conditions," read the editorial this week in El Diario de Juárez. "Tell us, therefore, what is expected of us as a medium." The paper was directly addressing Mexican drug traffickers who assassinated its young photographer Luis Carlos Santiago in broad daylight, but the whole world took notice — and asked if the Mexican media was finally waving the white flag before the cartels and gangs now warring for control of the bloodied country. Diario editor Pedro Torres explains that the intent was simply "to call attention to what is going on."

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The author of Drug Lord on rumors of Mexican political corruption, how the drug war is like Prohibition, why drug traffickers aren't like Muslim extremists, whether the U.S. media really understands Mexico and why Hezbollah has set up shop across the border.

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The defense bill blocked by Republicans in the U.S. Senate could impact Texas. One of the measures that failed to move forward was an amendment that would have given some undocumented immigrants a path to legal status through education. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports.

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Senate Republicans voted unanimously against opening debate for the defense authorization bill this afternoon, a move that blocked the so-called DREAM Act, a controversial immigration measure.

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A group of people who typically prefer to stay out of the limelight gathered this morning to urge lawmakers to support the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

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Terrence Poppa discusses the third edition of his book, Drug Lord, which includes a new epilogue that analyzes how U.S. drug policy has hindered Mexico's efforts to curtail drug violence and corruption.

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Libertarians launch a new political action committee, Texas Libertarios, to show Latinos they have more choices than just Republicans and Democrats.

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Last night, Anderson Cooper used our TribLive footage to go all oh-no-you-didn't on state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball.

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Ramsey on the fourth University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (with insights into the statewide races, issues, the budget, and Texans' view of the national scene), Hamilton and Thevenot in Galveston on the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Ramshaw on secret hearings that separate children from their guardians, Hu on what former state Rep. Bill Zedler did for doctor-donors who were under investigation, Aguilar on the troubles around Mexico's bicentennial, Galbraith talks coal and wind with the head of the Sierra Club, E. Smith interviews state Rep. Debbie Riddle about tourism babies and godless liberals, Grissom on why complaints about city jails go unaddressed, Philpott on the debate that will apparently never happen and Stiles continues to put the major-party gubernatorial candidates on the map: The best of our best from September 13 to 17, 2010.

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For the 12th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the GOP state representative from Tomball about what she really said on CNN, whether "tourism" babies are a threat to national security, why an Arizona-style immigration law would be right for Texas and whether she'll back Joe Straus for speaker.

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Despite the violence-fueled cancellation of bicentennial festivities in other major border towns, Nuevo Laredo plans to forge ahead with its celebration of Mexican Independence Day.

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