When high-ranking officials in the Obama administration travel to Mexico today to discuss that country’s role in combating border violence, one key member of the team will be missing: the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, whose nomination has languished in the U.S. Senate since September.
Immigration
In-depth reporting on border issues, policies, communities, and the impact of immigration across the state, from The Texas Tribune.
Spillover Politics
Leaders from one end of the Texas-Mexico border to the other want Gov. Rick Perry to tone down the scary rhetoric and get real about solving problems in their hometowns. And, by the way, they would like to be consulted about security plans that affect their communities. “We know what’s going on on the border,” says Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. “Our needs were not taken into consideration.”
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the 1.2 million Texans who’ve lost their licenses under the Driver Responsibility Act and the impenetrable black box that is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ramshaw and Kraft on nurses with substance abuse problems and rehabilitation that can get them back to work, M. Smith finds it’s not easy being Rick Green, Stiles on counting Texans (and everybody else), Rapoport on the State Board of Education’s war with itself and the runoff in SBOE District 10, Thevenot’s revealing interview with a big-city superintendent on closing bad schools, Aguilar on the tensions over water on the Texas-Mexico border, Hamilton on the new Coffee Party, Hu on Kesha Rogers and why her party doesn’t want her, Philpott on the runoff in HD-47, Ramsey on Bill White and the politics of taxes, and E. Smith’s conversation with Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heleimann: The best of our best from March 15 to 19.
TribBlog: The Drone! The Drone! (Maybe)
The federal government seems to be warming to Gov. Rick Perry’s demands for an unmanned drone on the Texas-Mexico border.
A Border Runs Through It
At the heart of America’s symbiotic relationship with Mexico is a long-standing and sometimes tense agreement over an issue more far-reaching than homeland security and immigration: water.
TribBlog: Border Politics, Now from White
I suppose if you’re a Texas politician this week you just have to make hay out of the situation on the border. Today, it was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White’s turn.
TribBlog: Perry Sends Choppers to the Border
Revealing more details about the first phase of the border spillover prevention plan that he activated Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry today announced he is sending two helicopters to the Texas-Mexico border, an OH-58 Kiowa and a UH-72 Lakota. The exact locations of the choppers, however, will not be released for security purposes.
The Brief: March 18, 2010
It’s not just Gov. Rick Perry who wants the President to make a trip south.
TribBlog: Cornyn, Hutchison Want Obama to Visit Violent Border
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both Republicans, sent President Obama a letter today, calling for him to get busy trying to quell the violence on the U.S.-Mexico border and stop it from spilling into Texas.
The Polling Center: Droning to the Choir
The governor’s political radar is characteristically fine-tuned here, at least for the short term.

