Hurricane after hurricane wreaked havoc in Orange, Texas. Finally, residents say they got a break.
State and local leaders and thousands of residents surveyed the comparatively little damage with gratitude — and surprise. Full Story
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Lomi Kriel
Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit
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Lomi Kriel is a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously she was a reporter at the Houston Chronicle covering immigration, often focused on the Texas border. Six months before the Trump administration announced its family separation policy, Kriel uncovered how the government was secretly using the prosecution of illegal entry to detain parents until deportation and send children to federal shelters. Her stories resulted in the release of one mother and helped spur a pivotal American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit largely ending the practice. She received the 2019 George Polk Award for national reporting, in part for her continued work on family separations. Kriel, who was born and raised in South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1998. She has also worked as a Central American correspondent for Thomson Reuters and a criminal justice reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University and speaks Afrikaans and Spanish.
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![Drainage foreman Robert Walker scans the side of his house for storm damage after Hurricane Laura blew through Orange.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
ICE guards “systematically” sexually assault detainees in an El Paso detention center, lawyers say
Allegations include guards attacking victims in camera “blind spots” and telling them that “no one would believe” them in ICE detention centers, which imprison about 50,000 immigrants each year at a taxpayer expense of $2.7 billion. Full Story
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![A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge.]()
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ICE is making sure migrant kids don't have COVID-19, then expelling them to "prevent the spread" of COVID-19
The administration has used infection risk to justify expelling thousands of children without legal protections. But it’s only expelling kids who’ve tested negative. Full Story
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![A law enforcement official walks past a transport bus used to carry migrants in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody before the departure of a chartered plane from Brownsville South Padre International Airport in Brownsville on May 18, 2019.]()
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Federal agents are expelling asylum seekers as young as 8 months from the border, citing COVID-19 risks
Thousands of migrant children have been expelled by the Trump administration since March. Some have been held in hotels without access to lawyers or family. Advocates say many are now “virtually impossible” to find. Full Story
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![A son, left, and his father, who was detained in an American hotel and faced expulsion to Honduras.]()
Credit: Carolina Guerrero for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
House Democrats demand Trump administration stop rushing through deportations of migrant children
Democratic congressional leaders expressed alarm at the sudden acceleration and requested the government “cease this practice immediately.” Full Story
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![Asylum-seeking children swing in a hammock along the banks of the Rio Grande at a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico on May 15, 2020.]()
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
The Trump administration is rushing deportations of migrant children during coronavirus
Their father was missing. Their mother was miles away in Houston. Two sisters, ages 8 and 11, were survivors of sexual assault and at risk of deportation. With the nation focused on COVID-19, the U.S. government is rushing the deportations of migrant children. Full Story
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![After seven months apart, a Salvadoran mother and her two young daughters were reunited in Houston in May, although the federal government is trying to deport the girls, both victims of sexual assault.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
Texas still won't say which nursing homes have COVID-19 cases. Families are demanding answers.
Citing a state medical privacy law, Texas is refusing to release the names of long-term care facilities where residents have died from COVID-19, even as those case numbers soar and families plead for information. Full Story
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![David Aguirre’s mother, Estela, died March 28 at The Waterford at College Station, an assisted living facility in Texas. His brother, Art Aguirre, has been fighting for Texas leaders to disclose the locations of long-term care centers where COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred.]()
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Along the border, the population is high risk for coronavirus, but testing is in short supply
Gov. Greg Abbott promised that all those who need a coronavirus test “will get one,” but near the border tests are scarce, and the death toll is beginning to rise. Full Story
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![Kristen Howell, a licensed vocational nurse, relays patient information to the testing team at the Austin Regional Clinic COVID-19 drive-up testing site in Kyle on March 31, 2020.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune