Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White today called on GOP Gov. Rick Perry to remove claims on his public and campaign Web sites that crime on the Texas border has dropped 65 percent. Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner defended the claims. He said Perry’s claim refers to temporary crime drops in discreet areas during so-called “border surge” operations.
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
TribBlog: Farmers Branch Loses, Again
A federal judge declared on Wednesday that a Farmers Branch ordinance that banned apartment rentals to undocumented immigrants was unconstitutional.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Mexico-U.S. Launch New Programs
Senior leaders from the United States and Mexico agreed the two countries will begin swapping intelligence on suspected terrorists and Mexican felons following discussions in Mexico City on Tuesday.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Cornyn Urges Border Talk
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wants to join the Mexico discussion and is urging fellow U.S. senators to lend him an ear.
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Demographics
Who’s in Charge?
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.
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Demographics
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.”
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Criminal Justice
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.
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Demographics
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.
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Demographics
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.
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Demographics
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.