Groups sue over new Texas law that lets police arrest migrants who enter the US illegally
The White House and Mexicoโs president are sharply criticizing a new Texas law that would allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross into the U.S. and empower local judges to order them to leave the country.
Biden's movable wall is criticized by environmentalists and those who want more border security
The Biden administrationโs plan to build new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas calls for a โmovableโ design that frustrates both environmentalists and advocates of stronger border enforcement.
Illegal crossings on the US-Mexico border rose in July but were still down from last year
U.S. border authorities stopped migrants entering the country illegally more than 33% more often in July than in June, suggesting lower numbers that followed the end of pandemic-related asylum restrictions may have bottomed out.
Mexico files border boundaries complaint over Texas' floating barrier plan on Rio Grande
Mexico's top diplomat says her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas' plan to deploy floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.
New Mexico lawmakers question fallowing as way to reduce water use along the Rio Grande
Some New Mexico lawmakers are warning that the stateโs fight with neighboring Texas over management of one of North Americaโs longest rivers is still brewing despite a proposed settlement and that leaving farmland unplanted wonโt be a long-term answer to ensuring Texas gets its share.
Trust Index: Border Patrol agents on horseback did not use whips when confronting migrants
News4Jax is running a viral social media claim through the Trust Index about U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents allegedly whipping Haitian migrants along the Rio Grande as they tried to get into the United States. The dramatic scene has drawn widespread condemnation from the White House, politicians and the public.
White House says it's working on access to migrant centers
Republican officials are also blaming the Biden administration for actions they say are leading more people from Central America to seek entry into the United States. โItโs not a crisis, itโs a complete loss of sovereignty down there,โ Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said. AdGraham recently visited the border and said he saw a facility designed to hold 80 children with about 1,000 in it. โIt does not mean that they get to stay in the United States. AdPsaki said the administration is committed to transparency and providing access to those temporary Border Patrol facilities as soon as it can.
EXPLAINER: Why is media access at the border an issue?
WHY HAS MEDIA ACCESS BEEN BLOCKED? The Associated Press, for example, has asked Homeland Security officials for access to Border Patrol facilities at least seven times, without a response. Some of them aren't coming from the professional media but from people with special access. The customs locations are considered much more crowded, and journalists have still not been allowed access to them. He says: โIt is more important than ever that journalists be allowed the necessary access to report accurately and independently on the border patrol's response.โ___David Bauder is the media writer for The Associated Press, based in New York.
Democrats consider piecemeal approach to immigration reform
(AP Photo/Christian Chavez)WASHINGTON โ After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach. They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status. โEven though I support full, comprehensive immigration reform, Iโm ready to move on piecemeal, because I donโt want to end up with good intentions on my hands and not have anything,โ said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said that any final Senate bill likely โwill not reach the same levelsโ as Bidenโs proposal. AdIndeed, comprehensive bills negotiated by bipartisan teams of lawmakers failed multiple times during Republican George W. Bushโs administration and again in 2013 during Democrat Barack Obama's.
Birth on a riverbank: Woman's ordeal shows risks at border
Merรญn gave birth to her daughter next to the Rio Grande, attended to by two Border Patrol agents, showing how lives routinely end up at risk at the U.S.-Mexico border. Mother and child were hospitalized for three days, then processed at a Border Patrol station before being released to Catholic Charities. โThereโs so many women in great danger,โ said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. The Border Patrol blames smugglers for using people in medical distress as decoys, drawing attention from others trying to sneak into the country. The Border Patrol defends how it treats immigrants and the medical care they receive.
Much of U.S. Southwest left parched after monsoon season
Cactus flanks the banks of the Rio Grande as boaters in the distance navigate the shallow river as it flows through Rio Rancho, New Mexico, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2020. New Mexico and other southwestern states have been dealing with dry conditions and warmer temperatures this summer. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
Much of U.S. Southwest left parched after monsoon season
(AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. โ Cities across the U.S. Southwest recorded their driest monsoon season on record this year, some with only a trace or no rain. Flagstaff notched its driest season ever, down more than 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) of rain from its normal of 8.31 inches (21.1 cm ). Danielle Kosten looks forward to the monsoon season when she can open up the doors at her house northwest of Phoenix, let any breeze flow through and cool down. The scarcity of rain during the monsoon season was disappointing, she said, but not unexpected. The monsoon season doesn't guarantee widespread rain.
Tropical Storm Beta spurs hurricane worries for Texas
MIAMI โ An exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season was churning along Saturday as the Texas coast prepared for a tropical storm that could strengthen into a hurricane before breaching its shores in the week ahead. Both the city of Galveston and Galveston County on Saturday issued voluntary evacuation orders ahead of Tropical Storm Beta, as did the city of Seabrook to the north of Galveston. Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning from Port Aransas, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. Beta had maximum sustained winds at 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 2 mph (4 kph) Saturday night. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda.
Story of the Underground Railroad to Mexico gains attention
It is located on a ranch once operated by Nathaniel and Matilda Jackson, a biracial couple believed to have been "conductors" of the Underground Railroad to Mexico. The two families' ranches served as a stop on the Underground Railroad to Mexico, descendants said. But just how organized the Underground Railroad to Mexico was and what happened to former slaves and those who helped them remains a mystery. The examination of the Underground Railroad to Mexico comes as the U.S. is undergoing a racial reckoning around policing and systemic racism. Some Mexican American families are finding themselves having uncomfortable conversations about race in the wake of their newfound awareness of the Underground Railroad to Mexico.
Part of the US-Mexico border saw more drownings
Water-related deaths tripled in the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2019, according to data CNN obtained from US Customs and Border Protection. But water-related rescues shot up more than 650%, increasing from 65 in fiscal year 2018 to 490 in fiscal year 2019. The increase was especially dramatic in the Del Rio sector, where water-related deaths tripled. In fiscal year 2018, the Del Rio sector reported six water-related deaths; the following year, there were 18. But she isn't surprised to hear about water-related deaths on the rise in one sector of the border.
Honduran mother, toddler drown in Rio Grande
A mother and her toddler from Honduras drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas, authorities said. The Honduran mother died with her son, 21-month-old son, Iker Gael Cordova Herrera, while trying to cross the Rio Grande river into Texas, Nelly Jerez, the Honduran vice foreign minister of consular and migration affairs, said in a statement obtained by CNN. Jerez said the pair had recently entered the US and made a request for asylum but they were sent to Matamoros, Mexico, to wait for an immigration court hearing. Last week, Herrera Hernandez told her husband that she felt scared and nervous about crossing the Rio Grande. Earlier this year, a 23-month-old girl from El Salvador and her father drowned crossing the Rio Grande near Matamoros.
Border Patrol finds bodies of 3 people who died trying to cross border
A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. MCALLEN, Texas - Since Thursday, US Border Patrol agents have found three bodies of people who attempted to cross the southern border into the US, a Customs and Border Protection news release says. Two days later, a Coast Guard unit patrolling the river near Mission, Texas, contacted McAllen Border Patrol station about another dead person in the Rio Grande, Border Patrol said. On Sunday, agents patrolling the ranchland in Kenedy County found another person dead in the brush, CBP said. The pair from El Salvador drowned as they were crossing from Mexico into Texas near Brownsville.
6-month-old girl in critical condition after Texas border crossing
A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNN) - A 6-month-old girl was in critical condition after crossing the US-Mexico border with her father in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, US Customs and Border Protection said Saturday. The girl was among a group of 21 people apprehended about 1:30 a.m. Thursday near the Roma Port of Entry Thursday after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, according to a CBP statement. The baby and her father were transported to the Rio Grande Valley Sector's Central Processing Center, where medical staff at 9:20 a.m. determined that she needed hospital treatment, the statement said. She was taken with her father at 9:40 a.m. to Edinburg Regional Children's Hospital in Edinburg, Texas, and later transferred by helicopter to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Border officials rescue 14 from Rio Grande
Border Patrol vehicles are seen as they line the banks of the Rio Grande on the U.S./Mexico border. (CNN) - At least 14 people were rescued while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, on Monday, an El Paso Fire Department spokesman told CNNOfficials are still looking for a man who they say was helping a mom and child cross the river. He was not part of the original group of 14, the spokesman said. Fire and US Customs and Border Protection officials transported three people to local hospitals. The Rio Grande forms the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
US Border Patrol boat shot at on Rio Grande
A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNN) - A US Border Patrol boat patrolling the Rio Grande was shot at early Friday morning from the riverbank on the Mexican side, US Customs and Border Protection reported. Shots rang out while the agents were patrolling near Fronton, Texas, the Rio Grande City Station Marine Unit reported. The Rio Grande City station's area of responsibility encompasses about 1,220 square miles of Starr County, Texas, including 68 miles of international border, the agency's website explains. Three ports of entry -- Rio Grande City, Roma and Falcon Dam -- are located in the territory.
Bodies of father, daughter who drowned in Rio Grande head home
The bodies of a Salvadoran father and his young daughter who drowned crossing the Rio Grande began their journey home on Thursday. The bodies were handed over on Wednesday to Tania Avalos, who is Martinez's wife and the child's mother, in Mexico. They left Matamoros, Mexico, on Thursday. From Monterrey, the bodies will be flown San Salvador, El Salvador, on a commercial flight, according to the Salvadoran foreign ministry. Natalie Galln reported from Matamoros, Mexico.