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.
Immigration
In-depth reporting on border issues, policies, communities, and the impact of immigration across the state, from The Texas Tribune.
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Demographics
Rick Perry on Mexico
“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.”
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Demographics
The Brief: April 16, 2010
The Census deadline, a Texas-style Tea Party and NASA’s moon program.
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Criminal Justice
José Reyes Ferriz: The TT Interview
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.
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Demographics
Juarez Mayor Extended Interview
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.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Juarez Mayor Says Local Police Still Corrupted
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.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
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.
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Demographics
John Cook: The TT Interview
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.
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Criminal Justice
Whose Guns are They?
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.
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Demographics
Counting the Counties
Only three states — Louisiana, New Mexico and Alaska — are returning the census form at lower rates than Texas. But two dozen Texas counties are outperforming the national average, according to our interactive map.