Human Rights
Asylum-Seeker’s Release Shows Activists Can Win Under Trump’s ICE
ICE Arrestó Casi Tres Veces Más Inmigrantes De Lo Reportado Durante las Redadas del Año Pasado en Austin
La agencia declaró en febrero pasado que la operación realizó 51 arrestos, pero información obtenida por el Observer reveló que el número fue de 132.
Read in English. En febrero pasado, una redada de Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sacudió el área de Austin, llevando consigo a un amplio número de...Read More
ICE Arrested Nearly Three Times as Many Immigrants During Last Year’s Austin Raid Than Previously Reported
The agency said last February's operation netted 51 arrests, but an Observer information request revealed the number is 132.
Leer en español. Last February, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid rocked the Austin area, sweeping up a broad swath of immigrants, including sc...Read More
Guatemalan Family Takes ‘Sanctuary’ in Austin Church — Again
A mother and her 11-year-old son won relief from deportation under Obama. But Trump’s ICE took it away.
Two weeks before Donald Trump won the presidency, Hilda Ramirez and her son, Ivan, were all smiles as they announced they’d won a yearlong reprieve from being...Read More
‘Pressure, Dissuasion, Coercion’: Trump Officials Repeatedly Intervened to Stop Teen Refugees’ Abortions
Government emails show that federal officials intervened to prevent abortions, forced teenage girls to call their parents and sent them to religiously affiliated “crisis pregnancy centers.”
In early March, a minor girl staying in a shelter for undocumented immigrants in Texas run by BCFS, a religiously affiliated nonprofit, convinced a judge to let...Read More
Bound to Pay
Does a company that puts ankle monitors on undocumented immigrants provide a helpful service, or a debt trap for desperate people?
The first person Rosy Valdez met when she left the immigrant detention center in Houston was a middle-aged man, who waited for her in the parking lot holding a ...Read More
Wall Flowers
Border art projects bloom in the shadow of Trump's wall.
"When I’m building spaces, they’re really to invite people in, oftentimes people who are excluded or don’t have access to more traditional art spaces.”...Read More
Salvadoran Man Seeks ‘Sanctuary’ from Deportation in Austin Church
At least 800 churches across the U.S. have joined a movement to shield immigrants from removal.
Courtesy of Grassroots Leadership Rather than submit to Trump’s deportation machine, Alirio Gámez went to church. On Tuesday, the 40-year-old Salvadoran anno...Read More
Deputies Go Unpunished for Invasive Cavity Search on Houston Roadside
This month prosecutors unexpectedly dropped charges against Harris County deputies accused of violating a woman during a 2015 traffic stop.
The courts have long ruled that warrantless body cavity searches are, in most circumstances, unconstitutional. Impromptu roadside anal and vaginal probes are pr...Read More
The Rising Storm
A new book on climate and migration predicts a future of "guards, guns and gates" unless we act soon.
In Todd Miller’s prescient new book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security, the Tucson journalist and author travels the glo...Read More