EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The United States Department of Homeland Security has once again decided to extend border crossing restrictions between the U.S. and Mexico. The restrictions were first implemented in March 2020, in an effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19. They’ve been renewed on a monthly basis since then. The restrictions will
Continue Reading
DEL RIO, Texas — Fox News is giving an inside look at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, which is actually a chain-link fence. In a tweet on Tuesday, a Fox News correspondent shared photos of it and wrote: “We were given access to the beginning construction of Gov. Abbott’s promised Texas border
Continue Reading
TORONTO, Canada — Canada will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into Canada on Aug. 9, and those from the rest of the world on Sept. 7. Canadian officials say the 14-day quarantine requirement will be waived as of Aug. 9 for eligible travelers who are currently residing in the United States and have received
Continue Reading
EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers from the El Paso sector just experienced what seemed like one of their busier and more noteworthy weeks in recent times. Over the past week, one border agent gained notoriety as he carried a dehydrated migrant – found in the southern
Continue Reading
EL PASO, Texas — Authorities were working Sunday to recover a body spotted floating in west El Paso canal near the U.S.-Mexico border. The discovery was made just after 11 a.m. in the area of W Paisano Drive and Ruhlen Court. El Paso firefighters, police and U.S. Border Patrol agents were all on scene. The
Continue Reading
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A maquiladora caught fire in southern Juarez Saturday afternoon, sending a plume of thick smoke into the sky that could be seen for miles and leading to the evacuation of hundreds of factory workers and nearby residents amid an hours-long firefight by crews to get the blaze knocked down. The Mexican
Continue Reading
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A sign found hanging this week from a pedestrian bridge near the Rio Grande in Juarez carried a “warning” directed at El Paso-based U.S. Border Patrol agents, according to a report from Newsweek. “Bullets can also cross the river and the (border) wall,” read the sign’s message in Spanish. It has since been
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez and Tierney Sneed, CNN A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful. The decision, by US District Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas, injected uncertainty into the lives of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, as well as their
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The Biden administration faces the possibility of another immigration headache, as it weighs whether to more widely reopen U.S. borders in the near future, just days from the current travel restrictions expiring. Nonetheless, El Paso County Judge Ricard Samaniego told ABC-7 that he is hopeful the border will fully re-open soon. An
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program shielding certain undocumented immigrants from deportation, is illegal and blocked new applicants. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled in favor of Texas and eight other conservative states that had sued to halt DACA, which provides
Continue Reading SIERRA BLANCA, Texas — A recent x-ray taken of a large travel trailer has once again exposed the reality of human smuggling at the Texas-Mexico border. U.S. Border Patrol agents and Texas Department of Public Safety pulled over the two trucks pulling travel trailers with undocumented non-citizens inside on July 12. Agents conducting traffic check
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Federal officials have logged more than 1.1 million apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year, after another busy month in June, Customs and Border Protection said in a news release Friday. Many who were taken into custody have attempted to cross the border more than once, officials said. Apprehensions last reached
Continue Reading TORONTO, Canada — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that Canada could start allowing fully vaccinated Americans into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel and should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September. Trudeau spoke with leaders of Canada’s provinces and his office released a
Continue Reading By Lauren Fox, Daniella Diaz and Ali Zaslav, CNN After months of fruitless bipartisan talks, Democrats are turning their last hopes for immigration reform to an infrastructure bill and a complicated budget plan that has never before been tested. It’s a massive gamble for a party that has been promising to deliver on immigration reform
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN After four years and a rotating cast of temporary leaders, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is inching toward a confirmed head to helm the agency, which came under mounting scrutiny during the Trump administration and continues to face criticism from immigrant advocates. On Thursday, President Joe Biden’s pick for ICE director, Ed
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The United States is running more than 30,000 radio ads a month in Central America to deter migration amid a renewed focus on the region and the root causes pushing people to journey north, a State Department spokesperson told CNN. The ad campaign is designed to combat a range of factors
Continue Reading By Geneva Sands, CNN US border authorities in June arrested or turned away the highest monthly number of migrants at the US-Mexico border in at least a decade, according to a Department of Homeland Security official familiar with the figures and to previously published data. They encountered around 188,800 migrants in June, up from 180,034
Continue Reading
WASHINGTON, DC — Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas joined a group of several of other GOP senators on Wednesday in blasting the Biden Administration’s handling of public health at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their news conference came amid word that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will issue an
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The Department of Homeland Security is administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to immigrant detainees as part of an effort to scale up vaccinations for Covid-19 at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, ICE told CNN in a statement. DHS received an initial allocation of 10,000 vaccine doses and nationwide distribution is
Continue Reading
HUDSPETH COUNTY, Texas — A body believed to be that of a migrant has been discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border in Hudspeth County desert area, according to the Texas Rescue Patrol. The TRP said it joined Hudspeth County Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Border Patrol agents in using ATVs in the rough desert area “to successfully
Continue Reading
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Agreements released Monday show Iowa is donating the use of state troopers and their equipment at “no cost to Texas” to fight crime along the U.S. border with Mexico, but a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said there still is a chance Texas could later reimburse some costs. The agreements
Continue Reading
El Paso, Texas– Dogs. We don’t deserve them sometimes, but we need them, especially during the tough times in life. Today’s moment is a story of how a stray dog became a blessing in disguise for one El Paso Times reporter. “I get so emotional thinking about it because the day that I got him
Continue Reading
SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico — The co-founder of the “We Build The Wall” project aimed at raising money for a private border wall in Sunland Park has been indicted on a second tax charge in Florida, adding to an earlier tax charge and fraud charge. A federal grand jury indicted Brian Kolfage this week on a
Continue Reading
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — More than a month after México announced its border vaccination efforts, people aged 18 to 39 in Ciudad Juárez now know they’re set to get their first Covid-19 shot next week. During a news conference Thursday morning, Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said Juárez will vaccinate that age group from July
Continue Reading By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN A group of mayors recently pressed US immigration officials on Covid-19-related travel restrictions that remain in effect and threaten to further hurt their local economies. The question on their minds: Why has cross-border travel, which has been suspended for more than a year, not been allowed to resume? Officials didn’t have
Continue Reading
UPDATE, July 6: On Tuesday, the maquiladora vaccination effort was underway at the Tornillo port of entry. El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told ABC-7 that almost 1,500 shots had been administered to Juarez factory workers on the first day of the bi-national program. As many as 200 maquiladoras are participating in the cross-border vaccination
Continue Reading
CHIHUAHUA, Mexico — Almost half of the contestants in the recent Miss Mexico pageant held in Chihuahua have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in what government leaders signaled was a super-spreader event. According to Mexican health officials, of the pageant’s 32 participants, 15 have tested positive. Two others associated with the pageant also tested positive, for
Continue Reading
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO — México announced Tuesday morning that it will begin administering the Covid-19 vaccine to people aged 18 to 39 in Chihuahua border cities starting on Thursday, but Ciudad Juárez is not among the first ones. Mexican border cities have been vaccinating people from that age group in hopes that the U.S. will
Continue Reading
EL PASO, Texas — Four migrants stuck in the Rio Grande were rescued by U.S. Border Patrol agents who spotted them a short time after a super storm moved through west El Paso. Monday night’s river rescue by border agents took place near Paisano and Executive; none of the migrants were seriously hurt – but
Continue Reading
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Juarez authorities arrested a driver who they said was drunk and speeding when he crashed his van into a daycare in the Gómez Morín neighborhood on Friday. ABC-7’s newsgathering partners at Canal 44 obtained video showing the moment the van crashed through the wall of the daycare after it reportedly knocked
Continue Reading