Border
Federal Judges Temporarily Block Public Charge Rule, but Public Health Worries Persist
In Texas, where 5.6 million people live in mixed-status families with at least one non-U.S. citizen, the chilling effect from the proposed rule is likely to exacerbate alarming trends.
Last month, Elizabeth Hasse, an immigration attorney with the Tahirih Justice Center in Houston, spoke to a client about renewing her work permit. Hasse had hel...Read More
Up From the Desert
As a child, I hunted for fossils in the Chihuahuan Desert beyond my backyard. Those afternoons shaped the way I think about my fronteriza identity today.
I spent many childhood afternoons searching for sea fossils in the Chihuahuan Desert, finding geologic history strewn throughout the brown and dusty land. My ne...Read More
Attacked in Mexico, Returned to Mexico: Trump Policy Ignores Danger to Asylum-Seekers
The Migrant Protection Protocols are failing to protect migrants from imminent kidnapping and violence.
Under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the Trump administration has returned more than 48,000 asylum-seekers since January to await their court dates in ...Read More
Immigration Judge Slams ‘Remain in Mexico’ Tent Courts
“It's more like what you might see, perhaps, in China or Russia,” says Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.
As of mid-September, more than 45,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico to await their court proceedings under the sweeping Trump policy known as the Migran...Read More
A Joyful El Paso Art Exhibit Imagines a World Ruled by Latinx People
From a cosmic piñata to “Aztechnonauts,” sculptor Angel Cabrales envisions an alternate history defined by Latinx creativity.
Recently, visual art from the Texas-Mexico border has evoked the region’s troubling history. El Paso artist Angel Cabrales has made important contributions to...Read More
Migrants at Laredo Tent Court Tell Stories of Kidnappings and Violence While Pleading Not to Be Returned to Mexico
Under Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols, asylum-seekers have been waiting for their hearings in Mexico. Many aren’t making it back to court.
On Monday morning, 52 asylum-seekers were scheduled to appear in court at a complex of tent structures hastily constructed next to one of Laredo’s internation...Read More
The Trump Administration Blows Its Border Wall Budget in South Texas
A Texas Observer review of federal documents found that Congress gave CBP $445 million to build 25 miles of border wall in Hidalgo County. The money only paid for 13 miles.
The border wall contains multitudes. It’s a monument to racism, a minor inconvenience for would-be border crossers, and a hydrological threat to floodplain co...Read More
Journalists Blocked from Attending Secretive Immigration Tent Courts
Normally, the press can observe immigration court proceedings. But journalists are being turned away from the first asylum hearings in Laredo under the Migrant Protection Protocols.
The Trump administration is conducting asylum hearings in makeshift tent facilities by the ports of entry in Laredo and Brownsville for migrants who have been f...Read More
‘El Paso Firme’ Music Festival Calls on Texans to Peacefully Resist White Supremacy
A month after the largest massacre of Latinx people in U.S. history, 1,200 El Pasoans and numerous world-class musicians gathered for a hopeful, healing night.
About 1,200 people attended the El Paso Firme Music Fest on Saturday, a call to action against white supremacy through “the healing power of music.” The all...Read More