Should Congress have done more ahead of Bidenโs migration order to cap asylum requests?
Hours before President Joe Biden was set to roll out an executive order aiming to cap asylum requests, KPRC 2 spoke with immigration attorneys to get a legal understanding of what this could mean for an overwhelmed border during an already tense election year.
Ken Paxton sues to revoke an El Paso nonprofitโs state registration after it didnโt immediately hand over client records
Annunciation House, a network of shelters that serves migrants, sought relief from the attorney generalโs demand to immediately release information about its clients. Paxton accused the religious group of smuggling humans across the southern border.
U.S. Department of Justice says itโll sue if Texas enforces new law punishing illegal border crossing
The state has until Jan. 3 to say it wonโt arrest people accused of unauthorized entry from Mexico. If not, the Biden administration will sue, saying immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
Fighting between legislative leaders imperils Texas border security bills
The governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker generally agree on building more border barriers and making illegal border crossings a state crime. But disagreements over strategy and personal animosity mean those measures face long odds this special legislative session.
How Texas lawmakers are trying to deter illegal immigration and secure the border
Two Texas House members and an immigration lawyer sat down with Matthew Watkins, the Tribuneโs managing editor of news and politics, to discuss the current state of Texasโ border and immigration bills that lawmakers are weighing during the special session.
Texas Immigration court backlog now over 2.5 million cases
Recently released data from Customs and Border protection shows a jump a 36-percent jump in the number of apprehensions along the southern border from July to August. The increase comes after President Joe Biden administration put policies in place to try to stem the flow of illegal border crossings following the end of Title 42.
Texas can keep buoys in the Rio Grande while legal challenge continues, federal appeals court rules
Nearly three months after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the deployment of the 1,000-foot line of buoys and mesh in the Rio Grande, an Austin federal judge ordered the state to remove the barrier and stop building further obstructions in the river. One day later a higher court sided with Texas.
Lawmakers call for federal investigation into Texas Guard intel ring
The lawmakersโ remarks came after an investigation published Tuesday by Military Times and The Texas Tribune revealed how Texas Guardsmen at the stateโs border with Mexico spied on migrants via WhatsApp and allegedly mishandled secret documents.
Texas National Guard disbanded intelligence wing after members used WhatsApp to spy on migrants
Four members of the unit working on Gov. Greg Abbottโs border mission have been punished after whistleblowers reported the surveillance operation violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations.
Rights group says Saudi Arabian border guards fired on and killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants
A rights group alleges that border guards in Saudi Arabia fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants.
Number of migrant families with kids crossing U.S. border nearly triples in 2 months, report says
The number of migrant families with children crossing the southern border has nearly tripled in the past two months, according to Customs and Border Protection data obtained by NBC News, feeding concern among some senior administration officials about a potential uptick in overall migrant crossings.
Call for federal probe issued following โinhumaneโ Texas-Mexico border allegations
The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released a letter Wednesday that shares a request for the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a formal investigation into the allegations made against the Texas Department of Public Safety.
An 8-year-old child died while in federal custody on the border on Wednesday
The child and her family were in custody at a border station in Harlingen before she was transported to a local hospital. The death comes less than a week after the expiration of Title 42, which had allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants from the U.S. during the pandemic.
Mayor Turner, US city leaders ask President Biden for resources amid โunprecedented crisisโ at Southwest border
Mayors in major cities across the United States, including Houstonโs Sylvester Turner, called on President Joe Biden in an effort to get more resources to help manage the southwest border crisis that is impacting the country.
After Title 42โs end, Texas DPS pauses Austin patrols so officers can head to the border
Despite no major influx in border crossings, state troopers will be relocated to border cities. Austin and the Texas Department of Public Safety faced criticism for the racial disparities in state trooper arrests in the capital.
Border didnโt see a โmajor influxโ of migrants when Title 42 ended, federal official says
Although migrants lined up by the hundreds in El Paso and other border crossings as the public health order was winding down, a Biden administration official said there wasnโt a rush to the border when Title 42 was lifted.
Gov. Abbott deploys choppers, National Guard Texas unit to โhotspotsโ in effort to combat illegal immigration
Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas deployed a new National Guard unit of 450 soldiers called the Texas Tactical Border Force in an effort to combat illegal immigration after President Joe Biden declared the ending of Title 42 this Thursday.
Family of dead National Guardsman urges Legislature to make death benefits bill named for him retroactive
While the state guarantees law enforcement officers, like Department of Public Safety troopers, a $500,000 death benefit for their families if they die on duty, National Guard troops who stand shoulder to shoulder with those DPS officers on Operation Lone Star donโt have the same benefit.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn eyes the seemingly impossible: a bipartisan deal on immigration
Riding the success of his historic congressional session last year where he helped pass the first gun safety bill signed into law in a generation, Cornyn is hopeful that his ability to strike deals across the aisle will help Congress achieve another elusive legislative goal: an immigration deal.
Buses from Texas drop off more than 100 migrants in a bitterly cold Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve
Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly sent the migrants, who arrived at Vice President Kamala Harrisโ residence Saturday night. The governor has been busing migrants to Democratic-let cities since April and first sent buses to Harrisโ home in September.
After a Texas National Guard member died, his family got no financial payment. Lawmakers want to change that.
In April, Bishop Evans drowned after jumping into the Rio Grande to save two migrants being swept away by the current. His family members will receive no financial payment, but they would if he worked for DPS or was under federal deployment.
๐PHOTOS: Dead birds encased in cement, diapers filled with sausage and pumpkins stuffed with meth; Go through the wild files of Customs & Border Protection in 2022
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also known simply as CBP, is charged with securing our nationโs borders and facilitating lawful international travel and trade.
Feds often hand migrants over to state police rather than process immigration claims, complaint says
State police often rely on federal immigration officials to lock up migrants on state trespassing charges, according to a new complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The collaboration contradicts federal and Texas officialsโ attacks on each otherโs immigration policies.
Operation Lone Star: Border-related arrests creating large caseloads in rural county courts
Rural county courts are facing a huge increase in criminal cases due to the number of arrests being made under the auspices of Operation Lone Star. Gov. Greg Abbott has spent $4 billion on this effort, which he has repeatedly said is needed in response to the record number of apprehensions reported by Customs and Border Protection along the southern border.
Border Patrol reports 2.4 million migrant arrests at southwest border this year, the most ever
The historic pace of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fueled Republicansโ focus on the crisis, but despite the efforts of Gov. Greg Abbottโs Operation Lone Star, encounters in Texas have increased.
Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledges New York City mayorโs office reached out about migrant busing efforts
Abbott previously said Eric Adamsโ office had not reached out to him about coordinating migrant arrivals in New York City and faced criticism that he was rebuffing efforts from the mayor to communicate.
Migrant encounters at the border are higher today than they were before Gov. Greg Abbottโs Operation Lone Star began
The number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border has climbed from 109,456 in March 2021, the month the mission began, to 116,976 in August โ a failure of Abbottโs officeโs stated desire to โstop this revolving door and deter others considering entering illegally.โ
Fight over border security escalates after governors send migrants to Kamala Harrisโ home and Marthaโs Vineyard
The latest moves by Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week have triggered outrage among immigration rightsโ groups and Democrats who have accused the Republicans of engaging in human trafficking and treating migrants like โhuman cargoโ to score political points.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfootโs office calls Gov. Greg Abbottโs migrant busing strategy โracistโ
Abbott late Wednesday announced Chicago would be a new destination for migrants bused from Texas in his strategy to draw attention to the influx of people at the southern border. Chicago leadership welcomed the migrants โwith dignity and respect.โ
Corpus Christi attorney arrested, accused of smuggling
A Corpus Christi attorney was arrested over the weekend and accused of smuggling four men from Mexico. According to an offense report obtained by KPRC 2 Investigates, Timothy Daniel Japhet was arrested near the town of Brackettville on Aug. 13 and spent a week in jail.
ACLU calls on feds to investigate Abbottโs policy transporting migrants back to border
In July, Abbott authorized state law enforcement to transport migrants to ports of entry. Itโs unclear how and why migrants are being detained, raising civil rights concerns and questions about whether the state is overstepping federal authority.
Texas troopers are causing car chase fatalities and racially profiling drivers under Abbottโs border crackdown, complaint claims
Two civil rights groups have expanded their request for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Operation Lone Star, citing evidence of risky pursuits and more frequent traffic stops of Hispanic drivers.
Gov. Greg Abbott spends an additional $30 million on Operation Lone Star to aid local governments
Abbott announced that his already $4 billion border mission would provide grant funding for cities and counties, following a press conference by some local officials calling on the governor to take more drastic action to secure the border.