Immigration

A Texas congressman is seeking to designate seven of the top Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations." Critics of the proposal fear such a designation could harm Mexico’s ability to wage its own fight against the cartels.

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An unexpected casualty of the drug-cartel-fueled lawlessness in Mexico: the cattle industry.

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Last year, after the Republicans won large majorities in the Texas House, state Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg left the Democrats to join the GOP. Is he now being rewarded with a district that a Republican can maintain? Check out these maps.

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The latest player in Texas' immigration debate? God. Citing passages from the Bible they say teach that immigrants should be shown compassion, a group of religious leaders congregated Wednesday to denounce a House sanctuary cities bill.

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The Ciudad Juárez mayor on why his city isn’t the most violent in Mexico, why negotiating with cartels would be giving in to the criminals’ demands and why, despite a cartel presence, there aren’t shootouts in the streets of El Paso.

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The Ciudad Juárez mayor on why his city isn’t the most violent in Mexico, why negotiating with cartels would be giving in to the criminals’ demands and why, despite a cartel presence, there aren’t shootouts in the streets of El Paso.

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Tan on the budget standoff between the House and Senate, Ramsey on budget cuts that cost us money, Philpott on Hispanics and redistricting, Stiles visualizes speed limits by state, Grissom on a liberal social justice organizer who became a conservative hero, M. Smith on even more student social security numbers at risk, Ramshaw on whether family planning equals abortion, Aguilar on what circumcision has to do with citizenship, Murphy on how much Texas university adminstrators are paid, Hamilton on the latest in the higher ed reform saga and Galbraith on Texas energy lessons from the 1970s: The best of our best content from April 4 to 8, 2011.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation released preliminary details today on a program that would again open up U.S. roadways to Mexican truckers.

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The public version of drawing new congressional maps for Texas started this morning with committee hearings and the unveiling of a proposal from a coalition that insists at least two of the four new districts should have Latino majorities.

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Were you circumcised at birth and was it a part of a religious ceremony? If so, who was there and why? It may sound far-fetched, but some applicants for U.S. passports may soon have to answer such questions.

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There aren't any maps yet, but now there are two Texas redistricting lawsuits. The Mexican American Legislative Caucus has filed suit to block the use of what it calls flawed census data in drawing new political maps for legislative, congressional and State Board of Education districts.

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The Texas Department of Public Safety says it has seized as much as $140 million of the $28 billion that moves annually from the U.S. into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Mario Carrillo of KUT News and ReportingTexas.com reports on what happens to that seized money and how some would like to see it used.

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Tan's wall-to-wall coverage of the budget (with more from the rest of the Trib crew, interviews with some of the freshmen seeing this up close for the first time and a map of how it works), Philpott on the similarities between budget worries in Texas and those elsewhere, M. Smith explains school finance, Ramshaw on the dwindling insurance options for orphans, Grissom on legal fights over the drugs used for state executions, Aguilar on the run-up to the debate over sanctuary cities, Stiles maps the diversity of Texas counties, Galbraith on efforts to recycle plastic bags and Hamilton on calls for "entrepreneurship" at the University of Texas: The best of our best content from March 28 to April 1, 2011.

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Proposed legislation that would establish a state-run guest worker program would legally satisfy the state’s appetite for cheap labor but not grant amnesty to people already in Texas illegally, according to the bill’s author.

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House lawmakers are gearing up for a battle as emotional and time-consuming as Voter ID when they take up legislation addressing another one of Gov. Perry’s emergency items — abolishing sanctuary cities, which could hit the House floor as soon as next week.

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The U.S. government announced today it is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest and possible conviction of the assailants who murdered a U.S. federal agent in Mexico last month.

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The Mexican government's chief spokesman on security issues spoke at the University of Texas on Monday about drug violence south of the border. But as Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, not everyone there was comforted by his presentation.

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Fort Bend County, home of Sugar Land, is almost as diverse as the Bronx in New York. Several other Texas counties rank high on the list.

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Organizations from across the country have come together at the annual National Latino Congreso in Austin to strategize on legislation affecting the Latino community. And as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, all eyes are on redistricting this year.

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