Multi-part stories from Ramshaw and Grissom and Stiles on mental health services for detained immigrants and on payday lenders who provide exorbitantly priced credit to people with nowhere else to turn… Twitter, word clouds and the race for governor — a Stiles joint… Farouk Shami is in and Hu was there to watch… Philpott went to Bastrop for a gather of Republican governors… Rapoport finds a State Board of Education that’s trying to control itself… and we have the skinny on legislative races that are likely to be competitive (only about 5 percent of the races on the ballot). It’s the best of The Texas Tribune from November 14 to 20, 2009.
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
Detaining Care, Part Three: Andre’s Story
Andre Osborne was so over-medicated in the Willacy Immigration Detention Center that he fell off of the top bunk of his bed, badly injuring his face and eyes.
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Demographics
TribBlog: DPS: We’re Stopping the Bad Guys
The day after DPS warns parents that Mexican cartels are trying to recruit their kids to sell drugs, the agency issues a press release that says DPS efforts are pushing back drugs and preventing them from getting here.
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Demographics
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Smugglers
That warning comes as law enforcement officials report an increase in the number of youth from Mexico and the United States becoming involved in human and drug trafficking.
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Demographics
Detaining Care, Part Two: Health Scare
“Barely adequate.” “Haphazard at best.” That’s how investigators describe the quality of care at immigrant detention centers all over Texas.
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Demographics
Detaining Care, Part One: Mental Hell
The physically disabled and suicidal detainee was put in an isolated cell without her crutches. She was strip-searched and denied feminine products. For days, she slid around on the floor, covering herself and the cell in menstrual blood. When inspectors came out to investigate, they found a facility poorly equipped to provide mental health treatment to its 1,500 detainees.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
KBH resigns herself to staying in the Senate, Grissom investigates the broken border, Ramshaw outs IT contractors who make gigabucks from state agencies, Hu gives Hutchison and Perry the Stump Interrupted treatment, the new head of the Foresenic Science Commission faces his critics, Stiles posts a searchable database of fines levied by the state ethics commission, and Hamilton discovers the consequences of party switching (none): The best of the best from November 9 to 13, 2009.
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Demographics
Broken Border, Part Six: The Gaps
For many who call the border home, all the guns, all the money, all the technology, and all the police badges have done little to address the problems that make their lives insecure.
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Criminal Justice
Broken Border, Part Five: Safer?
In some places, the governor’s border security efforts have led to a reduction in crime — in rural counties, for instance, where there aren’t many people and there wasn’t much crime to begin with. But in large urban counties like El Paso and Webb, it’s a different story.