BORDER SECURITY

Abdul Wasi Safi was trying to reach his brother, who immigrated legally to Houston after helping the U.S. military. Legal experts say Wasi may have to serve a criminal sentence before he can pursue asylum.

In the days since Abbott was reelected for a third term, he has embraced the word like never before, using it in a letter to President Joe Biden, echoing the intensifying language many Republicans have adopted in recent years.

Title 42 was invoked early in the pandemic by the Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden. Since then, immigration officials have used it more than 2 million times to turn away asylum-seekers at the border.

The historic pace of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fueled Republicans’ focus on the crisis, but despite the efforts of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, encounters in Texas have increased.

The move clears a pathway for those people to get a special visa to stay in the country that they otherwise would not have received.

On Thursday, officials with the Texas Military Department acknowledged that the payroll system they used for the mission has withheld too little in federal taxes from service members’ paychecks.

Abbott previously said Eric Adams’ office had not reached out to him about coordinating migrant arrivals in New York City and faced criticism that he was rebuffing efforts from the mayor to communicate.

The soldier is the 10th known Texas Guard member linked to the mission to die since its rapid expansion began in September 2021.

The number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border has climbed from 109,456 in March 2021, the month the mission began, to 116,976 in August — a failure of Abbott’s office’s stated desire to “stop this revolving door and deter others considering entering illegally.”

The latest moves by Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week have triggered outrage among immigration rights’ groups and Democrats who have accused the Republicans of engaging in human trafficking and treating migrants like “human cargo” to score political points.

Among voters near the Texas-Mexico border, immigration and border security are a leading cause for flipping from Democrat to Republican.

Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke hope to define the election on issues viewed as favorable to their own parties.

Allen Amos, a visiting judge handling trespassing cases under Gov. Greg Abbott’s “catch-and-jail” border operation, allegedly used the derogatory term in a recent conversation with a defense attorney.

New York City was not initially a destination when the Texas governor began busing asylum-seekers east. That changed after NYC Mayor Eric Adams launched his war of words against Abbott, who’s now sending hundreds to the Big Apple.

In July, Abbott authorized state law enforcement to transport migrants to ports of entry. It’s unclear how and why migrants are being detained, raising civil rights concerns and questions about whether the state is overstepping federal authority.

Two civil rights groups have expanded their request for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Operation Lone Star, citing evidence of risky pursuits and more frequent traffic stops of Hispanic drivers.

Abbott announced that his already $4 billion border mission would provide grant funding for cities and counties, following a press conference by some local officials calling on the governor to take more drastic action to secure the border.

Gov. Greg Abbott held a news conference in Eagle Pass, near the Texas-Mexico border, to discuss border security efforts on Monday.

Friends, families and attorneys have posted more than $2 million to get migrants out of prison. Defense attorneys say the rural county is erecting barriers that will keep many from recovering the money when they’re entitled to it.

Texas has been using coronavirus relief money to help pay for the multibillion-dollar deployment.

The trial included four prosecutors, and so many potential jurors were summoned the town sandwich shop was shorthanded for lunch. But a Kinney County jury Monday convicted a Honduran national in the first jury trial for trespassing under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

Abbott said the money would be taken from the budgets of other Texas agencies, including nearly $210 million from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission over two years and about $160 million from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Thousands of men have been arrested on trespassing charges under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown. A new lawsuit claims the attempt to skirt federal immigration authority is unconstitutional.

The decision to crowdfund the free bus trips for migrants is a new development since his initial announcement on April 6 that the rides would be paid for by Texas taxpayers.

Spc. Bishop Evans died after jumping into the Rio Grande to save migrants. He and other members of Operation Lone Star were not provided safety equipment. Texas Military Department said an order for buoys and ropes was made but has not been fulfilled.

A Louisiana judge will grant a restraining order that will keep in place Title 42, a pandemic-era health rule that the federal government had planned to drop next month.

Declaring an “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution is an incendiary idea that would spark immediate court challenges given that immigration law enforcement is a federal responsibility.

The soldier, Bishop E. Evans, went missing Friday morning after he jumped into the river near Eagle Pass. On Sunday, the Texas Military Department reported the search was still ongoing.

For Democrats, especially in Texas, tackling border issues is difficult on the campaign trail as the party is not in agreement about various policies. O’Rourke has had to distance himself from President Joe Biden’s border policies, while going after Gov. Greg Abbott’s.

The delays caused by the state’s inspections are the latest blow to farmers and produce businesses in the Rio Grande Valley recovering from the pandemic and losses from last year’s winter storm.

The deals Abbott made with three of the four Mexican border governors don’t include any new security measures south of the border. Abbott threatened to restart the inspections if Mexican states don’t slow migration to Texas.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner said Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t coordinating with the agency as Texas sends migrants far from their immigration proceedings.

The announcements come a day after Abbott reached a similar deal with Nuevo León’s governor, who agreed to add security at a major border bridge in exchange for an end to increased vehicle inspections by Texas troopers.

The move provides little relief as trade between Texas and Mexico is hampered along the border because of Abbott’s order. The Colombia bridge is just one of 13 commercial crossings between the two countries and the only one connected to Nuevo León.

About 30 people from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua traveled to the U.S. capital as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan in response to the end of Title 42.

Gov. Greg Abbott is slated to have a meeting and press event with Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda — the Mexican governor of Nuevo León, the state that includes a section of the border near Laredo — later Wednesday afternoon.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection called the state inspections ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott “unnecessary” and said commercial traffic at the Texas-Mexico border has dropped 60% since they began.

Abbott’s new policy has resulted in hourslong delays and protester blockades at border crossings. The state’s agriculture commissioner criticized the measure as an “economy killing action.”

In a news conference Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott said counties need to prepare for an influx of migrants coming to Texas.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Brian and James about Dan Patrick’s push for a Texas version of the Florida law governing the discussion of sexuality in schools and Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest action on the border.

Trucks delivering products from Mexico are facing hourslong waits at ports of entry.

The results of the state’s $3 billion border security effort don’t match the up-front promises, and Gov. Greg Abbott is flipping the political script with loud opposition to a change in federal border policy.

Abbott said he’s responding to the Biden administration announcement that it will lift a pandemic-era emergency health order that allowed immigration authorities to turn away migrants at the border, even those seeking asylum.

Texas Military Department leaders say they’ve addressed many of the issues that arose late last year when the mission ramped up to 10,000 service members — but more money is needed to run the mission at its current pace.

The Biden administration will drop the policy that critics have called an inhumane rule.

The governor has ordered thousands of state troopers and National Guard members to the border since last year. Here’s what you need to know about the initiative.

Nobody wants storms or fires. But for Texas politicians, responding to disasters can be a welcome change of subject from political fights in an election year.

Months after the problems became apparent, migrants are still being kept in prison in violation of state laws under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security crackdown.

The departure of three top officials in a week signals that officials may be looking to make changes to the heavily criticized mission. A soldier leading a unionization effort welcomed the moves.

The dispatching of troops to the sprawling private ranches, far from the border, raises questions about the use of National Guard troops, who have widely decried the mission as aimless, political and oversized, as the cost of the effort has already ballooned to $2 billion a year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Laredo Field Office announces today that Alberto...

A Bangladeshi national formally residing in Tapachula, Mexico, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to smuggle aliens from Mexico into the United States. Mohamad Milon Hossain, 39, admitted that from March 2017 to June 2019, he conspired to bring, and brought, Bangladeshi nationals to the United States at the Texas border in exchange for payment. Hossain operated out of Tapachula, Mexico, where he maintained a hotel that housed aliens on their way to the United States. Hossain provided plane tickets and other assistance for the aliens to travel from Tapachula to Monterrey, Mexico where co-conspirator Moktar Hossain assisted their illegal crossing into the United States. Hossains brazen scheme to smuggle Bangladeshi aliens into the United States put our national security at risk, said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division.

ALL of @POTUSs priorities have made it into the final Natl Defense Authorization Act:Pay Raise for our TroopsRebuilding our MilitaryPaid Parental LeaveBorder SecuritySpace Force @realDonaldTrump will proudly sign this historic defense legislation this week! Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 17, 2019WASHINGTON -- The federal government's 2.1 million employees are expected to get paid parental leave for the first time as part of a defense bill the Senate voted to send to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and Trump indicated he will sign it into law.The Senate greenlit the National Defense Authorization Act, which combines a $738 billion Pentagon budget blueprint with legislation that gives 12 weeks of paid parental leave for employees who give birth, adopt or foster a child.The bill already passed through the House earlier this week with a sweeping 86-8 vote and now heads to the president's desk. Trump indicated at a White House summit Thursday that he would sign the bill, calling it a "historic deal. "The agreement follows a compromise between the Democrat-controlled House and the GOP-led Senate. In order to fudge parental leave into the bill, Democrats agreed to drop a provision to block Trump from transferring money from Pentagon accounts to construct a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

ALL of @POTUSs priorities have made it into the final Natl Defense Authorization Act:Pay Raise for our TroopsRebuilding our MilitaryPaid Parental LeaveBorder SecuritySpace Force @realDonaldTrump will proudly sign this historic defense legislation this week! Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 17, 2019WASHINGTON -- The federal government's 2.1 million employees are expected to get paid parental leave for the first time as part of a defense bill the Senate voted to send to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and Trump indicated he will sign it into law.The Senate greenlit the National Defense Authorization Act, which combines a $738 billion Pentagon budget blueprint with legislation that gives 12 weeks of paid paternal leave for employees who give birth, adopt or foster a child.The bill already passed through the House earlier this week with a sweeping 86-8 vote and now heads to the president's desk. Trump indicated at a White House summit Thursday that he would sign the bill, calling it a "historic deal. "The agreement follows a compromise between the Democrat-controlled House and the GOP-led Senate. In order to fudge paternal leave into the bill, Democrats agreed to drop a provision to block Trump from transferring money from Pentagon accounts to construct a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas ramps up border security to stem influx of illegal immigrants Texas Gov. Rick Perry authorized spending an extra $1.3 million on border security. Local law enforcement officials along the border say they are overwhelmed. Anna Werner reports.