The latest border news from The Texas Tribune.
The day after DPS warns parents that Mexican cartels are trying to recruit their kids to sell drugs, the agency issues a press release that says DPS efforts are pushing back drugs and preventing them from getting here. Full Story
That warning comes as law enforcement officials report an increase in the number of youth from Mexico and the United States becoming involved in human and drug trafficking. Full Story
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"Barely adequate." "Haphazard at best." That's how investigators describe the quality of care at immigrant detention centers all over Texas. Full Story
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The physically disabled and suicidal detainee was put in an isolated cell without her crutches. She was strip-searched and denied feminine products. For days, she slid around on the floor, covering herself and the cell in menstrual blood. When inspectors came out to investigate, they found a facility poorly equipped to provide mental health treatment to its 1,500 detainees. Full Story
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KBH resigns herself to staying in the Senate, Grissom investigates the broken border, Ramshaw outs IT contractors who make gigabucks from state agencies, Hu gives Hutchison and Perry the Stump Interrupted treatment, the new head of the Foresenic Science Commission faces his critics, Stiles posts a searchable database of fines levied by the state ethics commission, and Hamilton discovers the consequences of party switching (none): The best of the best from November 9 to 13, 2009. Full Story
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For many who call the border home, all the guns, all the money, all the technology, and all the police badges have done little to address the problems that make their lives insecure. Full Story
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In some places, the governor's border security efforts have led to a reduction in crime — in rural counties, for instance, where there aren't many people and there wasn't much crime to begin with. But in large urban counties like El Paso and Webb, it's a different story. Full Story
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The Texas Public Information Act allows agencies to redact information for security and privacy reasons. The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition decided redact just about everything they possibly could on the invoices they sent me. Full Story
The Web site where you can view border cameras isn't getting the predicted traffic, calling into question the program's law enforcement impact. Full Story
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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Sharp and state Reps. Ryan Guillen and Veronica Gonzales fired off a letter today to the two Republican Texas senators asking them to find money to boost health care funding for Rio Grande Valley veterans. Full Story
The mildly pleasant woman who answered the phone explained to me that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Freedom of Information Act office does not accept requests electronically. Full Story
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Experts from around the U.S. and Mexico are debating the War on Drugs and its affect on violence south of the border. Some of them wonder whether decriminalization is the answer. Full Story
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Texas’ chain of inland checkpoints has created a border within a border, separating abused and sometimes undocumented children in counties adjacent to Mexico from services north of the invisible line. Full Story
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Drugs are abundant in border communities. Poverty is rampant. Substance abuse treatment is scarce. What's a 16 year old to do? Full Story
His name is Justin. He’s a heroin addict. He’s been sober for 42 days. And he's 16. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
Texans say immigration tops their list of state concerns. Nearly half of them say illegal immigrants should be deported, as against 41 percent who think the immigrants should be allowed to keep their jobs, assimilate, and eventually be allowed to apply for legal status. Full Story
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina launched the first in what she says will be a series of Spanish-language commercials that will air on South Texas cable — on CNN, Fox News, and Univision. Full Story
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh's decision not to run for reelection creates many opportunities for El Paso politicians, but in this Democrat-dominated city, the cards are stacked against Republicans. Full Story
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Starting Monday, U.S. Border Patrol plans to ship about 100 undocumented immigrants a day from Arizona back to Mexico through a remote border entry point in Presidio, and Gov. Rick Perry is displeased. Full Story