Immigrant children at Texas detention facility face unsafe conditions, attorneys say
Lawyers say detainees complain about cloudy water, delayed medical attention and some kids being held for weeks or months without justification. Full Story
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![South Texas Family Residential Center, an ICE detention center in Dilley, on Sept. 30, 2020.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
ICE seeks to deport DACA recipient after arrest at El Paso airport
An immigration judge ruled ICE can’t deport Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago, who has permission to be in the country, unless the agency can provide evidence that her legal status was revoked. Full Story
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![Desiree Miller, 25, the partner of Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago, a DACA recipient who was detained by immigration agents at El Paso International Airport in August, speaks to press during a rally for Xochitl’s release outside of the El Paso Service Processing Center, an immigration detention center in El Paso on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.]()
Credit: Paul Ratje for The Texas Tribune -
“Operation Lone Star 2.0”: DPS arresting thousands of undocumented immigrants across Texas to aid Trump’s mass deportation
The Department of Public Safety has shifted from Biden-era border enforcement to helping expel people from the country, a job once exclusively done by federal authorities. Full Story
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![DPS troopers return to their patrol route after making a traffic stop in southeast Austin on Aug. 7, 2023.]()
Credit: Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune -
A Houston mother held by ICE must choose: indefinite detention or be deported without her family
Margarita Avila, a Houston mother of nine, was detained by ICE after an altercation that led to no charges. Her close-knit family weigh their futures if she is deported. Full Story
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![José Avila and his two sons, Jeremiah (left) and Isaac, attend church service at the Iglesia Pentecostal Del Nombre de Jesus on Sunday, June 1, 2025, in Houston.]()
Credit: Lexi Parra for The Texas Tribune -
As Guatemalan kids sit in planes in Texas, judge orders they stay in the U.S., for now
Hours before the hastily scheduled court hearing, about 50 children were escorted to planes at Harlingen’s Valley International Airport, a hub for deportation flights. Full Story
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![People wait for loved ones from Guatemala deported from the United States outside La Aurora International Airport, in Guatemala City on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025.]()
Credit: AP Photo/Moises Castillo -
Mystery surrounds $1.2 billion Army contract to build huge detention tent camp in Texas desert
The Pentagon has refused to release the contract or explain why it selected Acquisition Logistics over a dozen other bidders to build the massive tent camp at Fort Bliss in west Texas. Full Story
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![Camp East Montana, site of a migrant detention center on Fort Bliss in East El Paso, under construction in East El Paso on August 11, 2025.]()
Credit: Paul Ratje for The Texas Tribune -
Environmental laws waived to build border wall in Texas wildlife refuge
Advocates say there’s no national security justification for building a wall through a Rio Grande Valley wildlife refuge that provides habitat to ocelots and other endangered species. Full Story
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![Federal border wall is seen at Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.]()
Credit: Steve Hillebrand/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -
Texas universities could see fewer international students amid immigration crackdown, reports say
An enrollment drop could cost the Texas economy hundreds of millions of dollars, the reports say. Full Story
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![Students walk the University of North Texas campus in Denton, TX on February 24, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
Lawsuit settled in 2022 shooting death of a migrant in West Texas, but no criminal charges filed yet
The victims sued the employer of the alleged shooter, the former warden of a migrant detention center. Three different prosecutors have so far opted not to file criminal charges. Full Story
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![Luz Maria Martinez and Napoleon Sepulveda cry over their son, Jesus Ivan Sepulveda, who was shot and killed by a prison warden (at the time) last week near Sierra Blanca, Texas, Wednesday, October 5, 2022, in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Sepulveda was shot while the group of migrants he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with stopped for water near Sierra Blanca, Texas. Photo by Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for the Texas Tribune -
Confusion reigns as Texas colleges scramble to comply with ban on in-state tuition for undocumented students
The state isn’t providing schools with guidance and advocates say students who still qualify for lower rates are being asked to pay thousands more. Full Story
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![Katerin M.S., 24, a graduate student in social work at the University of Houston, works full time as a case worker while managing her schoolwork. Covered by DACA, she is among those advocates and attorneys say have lawful presence and should remain eligible for in-state tuition. Despite this, the university initially raised her tuition. Katerin stands outside her work office on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, in Houston. “I saw the email when I got to work. Even just thinking about it makes me emotional. I couldn’t escape from it. I literally cried. I felt like I was in a cage — like if you don’t pay it or you don’t do what they tell you by Aug. 8, that is what’s due, and that is what you’re going to have to pay,” she said.]()
Credit: Hope Mora for The Texas Tribune -
After being wrongfully deported, a South Texas man and his family navigate realities of shifting immigration policies
Jaime Galvan Sanchez has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years. He was deported in less than 24 hours without due process and allowed to return. But his family is still suffering from the aftermath. Full Story
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![Jaime Galván, 48, lights a candle that would be followed with his prayer at the Saint Jude Grotto in Pharr, Texas on April 23, 2025. The Galván family is very devoted to Saint Jude and now they pray for a miracle to happen so that Mr. Galván can get legal status so that he is not deported.
Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Gabriel V. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune -
Venezuelan men and their families share experiences after CECOT release
For months, the families of Venezuelan men sent to CECOT by the Trump administration awaited news about their loved ones. Now that the families have been reunited, they open up about the harm they experienced. Full Story
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Texas AG can't depose Catholic Charities leader in migrant aid case, appeals court rules
The three-judge panel agreed with a lower court that Ken Paxton’s office can’t question officials from Catholic Charities under oath without first filing a lawsuit. Full Story
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![A migrant child waits with his family in front of the Catholic Charities RGV Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen on July 27, 2021.]()
Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune -
How a rural Texas sheriff became a poster child for serving Trump’s immigration goals
Roy Boyd has also become one of the loudest cheerleaders for partnerships between sheriffs and ICE to offer the federal agency unprecedented access to jails and deputies. Full Story
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![From left: Tom Homan, President Donald Trump's "border czar," Goliad Co. Sheriff Roy Boyd and Gov. Greg Abbott in a panel discussion during the Sheriff's Association of Texas 147th Annual Training on July 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.]()
Credit: Camilo Diaz Jr. for The Texas Tribune -
Venezuelan deportees say they endured months of abuse inside a Salvadoran prison
Trump framed the deportation of more than 230 Venezuelan men as a long-overdue campaign to rid the country of immigrants who have committed violent crimes. The facts tell a different story. Full Story
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![Juan José Ramos Ramos, who was held in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador known as CECOT, is back home in Guatire, Venezuela.]()
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Trump’s “one-two punch” targeting immigration courts will test Texas detention centers, experts warn
Moves to end bond for migrants and fire dozens of immigration judges deprive undocumented detainees of due process and may keep them in overcrowded centers longer, experts say. Full Story
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![Two men from Venezuela and Mexico are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after their court hearings on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Houston.]()
Credit: Antranik Tavitian for The Texas Tribune -
Feds plan to build nation’s biggest migrant detention center at Fort Bliss
The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a contract to build and run a 5,000-bed tent camp at the Army base in El Paso. Full Story
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![A C-17 military airplane is used to deport 80 Guatemalan men, women and children who were illegally in the United States from Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 30, 2025.]()
Credit: Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS -
Who are the Venezuelan immigrants Trump sent to a Salvadoran prison?
On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been taken away. These are their stories. Full Story
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As Trump's raids ramp up, Valley residents stay inside — even when they need medical care
In the Rio Grande Valley, fears of deportation cause some undocumented residents to neglect their health in a region rife with obesity, diabetes and other chronic health problems. Full Story
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![Juanita is hugged by her children, Jose, 15, and daughter Marely, 17, who has Down syndrome, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, during a portrait in Hidalgo County, Texas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)]()
Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin -
He came to the U.S. to support his sick child. Then he disappeared from a Texas detention facility.
Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to a Salvadoran prison, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas had followed U.S. immigration rules when he arrived at the Texas border with Mexico. Then Trump rewrote them. Full Story
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Credit: Adriana Loureiro Fernández for The Texas Tribune and ProPublica