New directive takes aim at immigrants fleeing gang violence

The MS-13 gang made Jose Osmin Aparicio's life so miserable in his native El Salvador that he had no choice but to flee in the dead of night with his wife and four children, leaving behind all their belongings and paying a smuggler $8,000. Aparicio is undeterred by a new directive from Attorney General Jeff Sessions declaring that gang and domestic violence will generally cease to be grounds for asylum.

Critics blast Trump, Sessions for sending border detainees to prison

In this May 7, 2018, file photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions listens during a news conference in San Diego near the border with Tijuana, Mexico. A judge allowed a lawsuit challenging U.S. immigration authorities for separating parents from their children to go forward on Wednesday, June 6, but said he would decide later whether or not to order a nationwide halt.

Valley Interfaith pushes lawmakers to support DACA

Bishop Daniel Flores of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville was one of several speakers who spoke at a press conference hosted by Valley Interfaith in which they discussed local congressman's stance on the DACA discharge petition in Congress and other changes regarding Homeland Security Bishop Daniel Flores of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville was one of several speakers who spoke at a press conference hosted by Valley Interfaith in which they discussed local congressman's stance on the DACA discharge petition in Congress and other changes regarding Homeland Security HARLINGEN - Valley church leaders yesterday called on U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar to join the push for a Congressional showdown to decide the fate of the so-called Dreamers.

Missing Children’s Day renews attention on 1,475 migrant children unaccounted for

A migrant child from Honduras looks across the US-Mexico Border from Tijuana, Mexico. Friday was National Missing Children's Day, which put renewed attention on revelations from last month that the government had lost track of almost 1,500 migrant children placed with sponsor caretakers.

Deportation protection restored in high-profile Georgia case Source: AP

Federal immigration authorities have agreed to renew the temporary protection from deportation for a Mexican woman whose case made national headlines eight years ago when she was a Georgia college student, according to a court filing. The settlement agreement signed Monday and filed Friday in federal court in Atlanta is the latest twist in 30-year-old Jessica Colotl's quest to stay in the country she has called home for nearly two decades.

Mexican Presidential Hopefuls Debate Relations With Trump And U.S.

In this photo released by the National Electoral Institute , presidential candidates, from left, independent Jaime Rodriguez, known as "El Bronco," Ricardo Anaya of the Forward for Mexico Coalition, Jose Antonio Meade, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with the MORENA party, attend the second of three debates in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday.

Inside Mexico’s violent drug cartel operations fueling heroin addiction in the US

Up a dusty road, in a sun-dappled field in northwest Mexico, a small team of workers bent over, quietly tending to the crops on a farm. But hidden in between the legal crops of corn and garbanzo beans are fields of pretty purple flowers that have become the root of an American catastrophe.

Sessions: Zero-tolerance policy may split families at border

A "zero-tolerance" policy toward people who enter the United States illegally may cause families to be separated while parents are prosecuted, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would refer all arrests for illegal entry to federal prosecutors, throwing its weight behind Sessions' policy announced last month to vastly expand criminal prosecutions of people with few or no previous offenses.

NAFTA approval on ‘thin ice’ without deal soon, says US trade chief

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he was aiming to get an agreement that is acceptable to US President Donald Trump, Canada, Mexico and a strong bipartisan majority in Congress. - Reuters File US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he was aiming to get an agreement that is acceptable to US President Donald Trump, Canada, Mexico and a strong bipartisan majority in Congress.

First wave of migrant caravan reaches U.S. border, demands asylum

The illegal immigrant caravan swamped border officials in San Diego Sunday as hundreds of people showed up at the San Ysidro port of entry and demanded admittance and asylum as reporters, immigrant rights activists and Mexican watched. After a month of traveling across Mexico, hundreds of people, most of them from Honduras, massed in Tijuana and began to present themselves to U.S. border officials, reciting the script they've been coached to deliver to clear the first hurdles toward asylum.

Migrant caravan arrives at California’s doorstep, amid protests, cheers and questions

A group of immigrants from Central America, whose caravan north earned the ire of President Donald Trump and became a flash point in the roiling debate over illegal immigration, requested asylum at the California border Sunday in a scene marked by emotion and theater. As the boisterous gathering at the border fence in Playas de Tijuana grew to hundreds, some waved Honduran flags, called out chants and waved bouquets of yellow flowers.

Migrants From Central American Caravan Caught Scaling The Border Fences

The caravan of migrants from Central America seeking asylum in the U.S. has arrived at the border, and some people associated with the group have already been caught scaling the border fences. "Several groups of people associated with the Central American caravan" illegally entered the U.S. "by climbing over the dilapidated scrap metal border fence on either side of the San Ysidro Port of Entry," Rodney S. Scott, chief of the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector, which sits just north of Tijuana, told reporters Saturday.

Weslaco man, two others face charges related to fatal crash

A Weslaco man said a phone call from a scout alerting him to law enforcement led to a crash that left one person dead. Damian De Los Angeles Garcia, 34, faces federal harboring charges in connection with a crash Monday in Mercedes when he lost control of the SUV he was driving and crashed, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Tuesday.

Almost 1,500 Migrant Children Placed in Homes by the U.S. Government Went Missing Last Year

Children wait in line to receive gifts during a children's show that was put on to entertain them at the sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual Stations of the Cross caravan have been camped out in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, .

World trade body warns US-China tensions could dent business

FILE - In this June 22, 2016 file photo, Border Patrol agent Eduardo Olmos walks near the secondary fence separating Tijuana, Mexico, background, and San Diego in San Diego. California Gov. Jerry Brown agreed Wednesday, A... California Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request but says they'll focus on combating drug crime not immigration.

Global executions down; sub-Saharan Africa ‘beacon of hope’

California Gov. Jerry Brown agreed Wednesday, A... California Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request but says they'll focus on combating drug crime not immigration. California Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request but says they'll focus on combating drug crime not immigration.

California OKs limited troop deployment for Trump’s request

The International border cuts through Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, right, and Nogales, Ariz., as seen Tuesday, April 10, 2018 from Nogales, Ariz. The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico on Monday committed 1,600 Guard members to the border, giving President Donald Trump many of the troops he requested to fight what he's called a crisis of migrant crossings and crime.

EDITORIAL: Militarization of RGV border will hurt, not help, our region

Hundreds of National Guard troops on Friday began deploying to the Rio Grande Valley to guard the Southwest border, after President Donald Trump last week urged their activation, saying our border is lawless and allows anyone to come through. We've played this song before, in 2014 when then Gov. Rick Perry activated 1,000 National Guard troops to our region as an uptick in illegal immigrants swelled through South Texas.