The latest border news from The Texas Tribune.
More than 30 religious, immigration and environmental advocacy groups sent a letter to Democratic U.S. Senate leaders Thursday calling on them to oppose a Republican measure to build more fencing on the southern border. Full Story
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To the sound of drums and the sight of American flags, more than 25,000 people marched on Dallas City Hall in the latest episode in Texas' endless immigration saga. Full Story
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A joint effort among the U.S. Census Bureau, Valley lawmakers and community groups is smoothing over the tensions of the past couple of weeks, when the bureau announced that 95 percent of residents of South Texas colonias were not getting their Census forms in the mail. Full Story
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Just as in 2006, some Democrats are clamoring for immigration reforms, including easing pathways to citizenship, while Republicans are insisting more border security must come first. Policy experts, meanwhile, say the outcome this year will likely be the same as back then: nothing. Full Story
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A multi-million-dollar plan gone bust? That's how our television partner in Houston, KHOU-TV, describes the governor's virtual border watch program, which has cost $4 million but has netted only a handful of arrests. Full Story
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Texas’ congested air space is preventing the deployment of unmanned aerial drones to the southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst went to El Paso today, talked with state, local and federal police, took an aerial tour over the dangerous borderlands and pronounced that Mexico's drug war is a "very serious threat" to all Texans — a threat the feds aren't protecting you from. Full Story
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Even as violence near the border rages and security becomes a more pressing issue, discussions about unifying Big Bend National Park with Mexico may be gaining momentum. Full Story
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E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state's budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who's reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state's border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. — and whether there's such a thing as "Obama Derangement Syndrome." The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010. Full Story
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Border lawmakers are asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars for border security before "the violence unfolds across the Rio Grande." Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry has invested $4 million in the Texas Border Watch Program over two years. Twenty-nine cameras have been installed on the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border, or one camera for every 41 miles of border. Internet viewers have helped police make a total of 26 arrests — that’s about $153,800 per arrest. Full Story
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"The fact is, we shouldn't have to be doing anything. The federal government's responsibility has always been to operate the security mechanism along the border." Full Story
The mayor of Ciudad Juárez was in Austin on Monday to discuss his city's plight at a University of Texas forum. He took a few moments to talk with the Tribune. Full Story
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Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz sits down with Tribune reporters Brandi Grissom and Julian Aguilar to discuss the economy and security situation in his border city. Full Story
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Just days after the withdrawal of the majority of military troops deployed to patrol the streets of the most violent city in the Americas, the city’s mayor concedes his local police force is still infiltrated with elements of organized crime. Full Story
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Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz addresses rampant rumors that he's found a home in El Paso instead of living in his violence-ridden city. In an excerpt of an interview with Tribune reporters Brandi Grissom and Julian Aguilar, Reyes Ferriz blames the media for the residency questions. Reyes Ferriz visited Austin Monday as part of a forum at the University of Texas-Austin. His extended interview will be posted on Wednesday. Full Story
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Grissom on her two hours in Juárez, Grissom, Ramshaw and Ramsey on four of the runoffs on Tuesday's ballot, Ramshaw on the religious experience that is voting for Dallas County's DA and an energy regulator's play for a job at the entity he regulates, Mulvaney on the Texas Senate's biggest spenders, Aguilar on whether — as U.S. officials claim — 90 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes really flow south from Texas, M. Smith on the continuing Texas Forensic Science Commission follies, Stiles on how inmates spend their money behind bars and how counties are responding at Census time, Hamilton on the creative accounting and semantic trickery that allows lawmakers to raise revenue without hiking taxes when there's a budget shortfall, and Hu on Austin's first-in-the-nation car-sharing program. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010. Full Story
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Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story
Interview with El Paso Mayor John Cook Full Story