Bordering on Insecurity

Under federal law, checkpoints are legal. But officers do have limits in what they can ask you. What questions do you have about the U.S.-Mexico border? Share it with our reporters. Full Story 

In its efforts to weed out corruption among the agents and officials charged with securing the nation's borders, federal officials sometimes set off on enigmatic quests. Full Story 

Other parts of Texas will continue to feel a public-safety void while the Texas Department of Public Safety diverts resources to the border, the agency's director said on Tuesday. Full Story 

A Webb County jury on Thursday sentenced a four-time deported Mexican man to life in prison for the July 2015 murder of his U.S. citizen wife, Angelica Martinez a mother of three. Full Story 

Is the Texas-Mexico border your home? Help us tell the real story about life on this unique stretch of the Lone Star State. Full Story 

In the last week, we've published several investigations into what happens when border watchdogs turn criminal — from smuggling drugs and immigrants to getting mixed up with Mexican cartels. Revisit our Bordering on Insecurity project. Full Story 

The selection of Mark Morgan, a career FBI official, to run the 20,000-strong force sends a clear message: The Border Patrol has a culture problem that needs to be fixed. Full Story 

Whether most — or even a significant fraction of — corrupt federal border agents are caught and punished is an open question. Customs and Border Protection boasts of more stringent screening and monitoring of its agents but releases little data to back up its claims. Full Story 

This hour of Revealfeatures a joint investigation with The Texas Tribune on federal border watchdogs who turned criminal. Full Story 

David Cruz joined the U.S. Border Patrol because he wanted to be "part of the best." But family pressures, disillusionment, love and greed drove him to begin taking bribes to help immigrants enter the country illegally. Full Story 

Rudy Soliz did it for sex. Sergio Lopez Hernandez blamed depression and financial trouble. The crimes differ, but prosecutors say the actions they’re accused of weakened the U.S. borders and ports of entry they were tasked with protecting. Full Story 

Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Raquel Esquivel still wears a government-issue green uniform, but now it's a federal prison jumpsuit. She was convicted in 2009 of helping smugglers sneak loads of marijuana across the border. Full Story 

When Franky Palacios Paz was found naked and decapitated floating off South Padre Island, the local sheriff thought the murder would lead investigators back to Mexican drug cartel violence. He didn't expect a U.S. Border Patrol agent to be among those arrested. Full Story 

For more than two centuries, the Escobar family has ranched along the Rio Grande. For almost as long, smugglers have moved people and product across their property. Full Story 

Boats are one of the most effective ways to patrol the 300 miles of river and lakes under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Station. But the boats aren't in the water around the clock. Full Story 

In this mini-doc shot in a high-traffic smuggling corridor, watch a "coyote" moving undocumented workers through the woods, listen to a Guatemalan teenager recount her journey to South Texas and ride along with a busy team of U.S. Border Patrol agents. Full Story 

Wiping out the tall stands of Carrizo cane that give drug and human smugglers easy cover along the Rio Grande was deemed a border-security priority by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015, but the program wasn't funded. Full Story 

We're streaming "Life on the Line" — our mini-doc on a day in the life of a high-traffic Texas smuggling corridor — live on Facebook on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. CT. Tune in here, and stick around for a live Q&A with reporters Jay Root and Julián Aguilar. Full Story 

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been indicted in a sweeping corruption probe into a drug ring that allegedly recruited law enforcement officials to steal dope from traffickers. Full Story 

Multiple inflatable rafts on the water. Emotionally shaken kids in the back of Border Patrol vans. Dope dumped on the river’s edge. The Texas Tribune witnessed all that and more during an afternoon with the U.S. Border Patrol. Full Story