Human Rights
From Crystal City to Carrizo Springs, When Will We Stop Locking Up Kids?
Where the Bodies are Buried
In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations to unearth that violent past.
In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations...Read More
Death of Dog Trainer Highlights Strenuous Heat and Working Conditions at Texas Prisons
Seth Donnelly was one of the many inmates Texas prison officials use as prey for dog hunts. He died from heatstroke after collapsing on the job in Abilene.
Seth Donnelly desperately wanted to get out of the kitchen. Ever since the 29-year-old got his HVAC certification in prison, he applied for maintenance jobs —...Read More
In Matamoros, Asylum-Seekers Wait, and Wait and Wait
Refugees stranded across the border from Brownsville endure interminable delays, leading some — like the father and daughter who drowned last Sunday — to brave the Rio Grande.
In the Mexican border city of Matamoros, just feet from the Gateway International Bridge to Brownsville, a few dozen asylum-seekers cluster beneath the shade of...Read More
Migrant Children are Our Children
Amid a spike in asylum-seekers from India, a 6-year-old girl named Gurupreet Kaur died in the desert. We must do better on behalf of every migrant child.
On June 12, the body of a little girl from India was found in the Arizona desert. Her name was Gurupreet Kaur, and she was one month away from turning 7 years o...Read More
Forgotten in the Fields
Labor trafficking hides in plain sight across Texas, disproportionately affecting the thousands of farmworkers who visit the state on H-2A guest worker visas.
Labor trafficking hides in plain sight across Texas, disproportionately affecting the thousands of farmworkers who visit the state on H-2A guest worker visas. &...Read More
Doctor Details ‘Insane,’ ‘Demoralizing’ Conditions for Kids at Texas Migrant Detention Center
A pediatrician talks to the Observer about her recent visit to a South Texas detention facility.
Kids sleeping on the ground with lights on at all hours, day and night. Teen moms lacking sufficient drinking water and struggling to breastfeed their babies. I...Read More
Shelter Director Ruben Garcia on How Struggling Nonprofits Carry the Load of the Migrant ‘Crisis’
The director of El Paso's Annunciation House has brought compassion to the front lines of migration for four decades.
Ruben Garcia, 70, is a man with the weight of the world — or at least the hemisphere — on his shoulders. The longtime director of Annunciation House, a migr...Read More
Texans ‘Will Die’: House Republicans Pass Anti-Planned Parenthood Bill After Emotional Debate
Senate Bill 22 is the latest in the Legislature’s years-long vendetta against Planned Parenthood. Despite the GOP sponsor refusing to debate the bill, it could soon land on the governor’s desk.
With her voice cracking, state Representative Ana-Maria Ramos described her experience of being a struggling teen mom on the Texas House floor on Friday. A moth...Read More
Four Years Later, Sandra Bland’s Arrest Continues to Sow Distrust in Law Enforcement
New reporting shows that Sandra Bland recorded her infamous 2015 arrest. Authorities never told her grieving family.
After Sandra Bland’s death in the Waller County jail became a national scandal, former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia struggled to ju...Read More