CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Heavy smoke was visible in west El Paso Monday evening from a blaze burning across the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez. The Mexican news outlet El Diario described the blaze as a “voracious house fire” at Ramón Corona and Inocencio Ochoa streets, which was cordoned off as firefighters worked to contain it.
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LORDSBURG, New Mexico — Nearly five-dozen migrants were found crammed into three vehicles by human smugglers attempting to bring them across a remote portion of southern New Mexico desert, a U.S. Border Patrol official said Monday evening. Gloria Chavez, the Border Patrol chief for the El Paso sector, said agents apprehended the 70 migrants near
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EL PASO, Texas — Mexican consulate officials, Ciudad Juarez maquiladoras representatives and El Paso County leaders were participating in an international meeting in downtown El Paso on Monday evening to talk about the logistics involved in getting more than 30,000 maquiladoras employees vaccinated against Covid-19 before the U.S. ports of entry reopen. The discussions emerged
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EL PASO, Texas — The United States has extended Covid-19 restrictions on non-essential border crossings with Mexico until July 21, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “To reduce the spread of #COVID19, the United States is extending restrictions on non-essential travel at our land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through
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LINCOLN, Nebraska — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts plans to send about two dozen state troopers to Texas later this month to help patrol the nation’s border with Mexico. Ricketts said the troopers will spend up to 16 days providing law enforcement assistance to the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Ricketts said he was responding
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REYNOSA, Mexico — Fear has invaded the Mexican border city of Reynosa after gunmen in vehicles killed 14 people, including taxis drivers, workers and a nursing student, and security forces responded with operations that left four suspects dead. While this city across the border from McAllen, Texas is used to cartel violence as a key
Continue Reading REYNOSA, Mexico — Gunmen in vehicles opened fire in the Mexican city of Reynosa on the U.S. border this weekend, killing at least 14 people and causing widespread panic, authorities said. Security forces then killed four suspects, including one who died near a border bridge. The attacks began Saturday afternoon in several neighborhoods in eastern
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SANTA TERESA, New Mexico — A small private plane apparently controlled by two El Pasoans was seized at the Santa Teresa airport as part of a U.S. Homeland Security investigation, ABC-7 has learned. The 1981 Cessna 425 Conquest twin-turboprop, which can carry up to a dozen people, had been confiscated and searched earlier this month
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso political leaders and immigration rights advocates are condemning Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for describing immigrants crossing the border as an “invasion” this week, calling the rhetoric “dangerous” to Latino communities while pointing out that it mirrors language used by the accused Walmart shooter two years ago. “We are
Continue Reading KISSIMMEE, Florida — Former Vice President Mike Pence took aim at his successor on Friday at a conference for religious conservatives in Florida, criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for declining to visit the U.S.-Mexico border during a recent immigration-focused trip to Central America. Echoing a complaint lodged by other Republicans in recent weeks, Pence said
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WASHINGTON, DC — Canada and the U.S. have extended their Covid-19 restrictions on non-essential border travel until July 21, according to the Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. Bill Blair tweeted, “In coordination with the U.S., we are extending restrictions on non-essential international travel and with the United States until July 21st, 2021.”
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UPDATE: Sunland Park Police Chief Javier Guerra now says the bodies of two migrants have been found in the past 24 hours following the rescue of a stranded migrant atop Mount Cristo Rey. Guerra identified the deceased victim found at the base of the mountain overnight as a 35-year-old Mexican woman. The chief also said
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AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday began announcing details of his plan for Texas to build its own border wall, starting the hiring process for a program manager and providing $250 million in state funds as a “down payment.” “Texas will build a border wall in our state to help secure our
Continue Reading SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico — Firefighters found and rescued a migrant who was stuck on Mount Cristo Rey Wednesday morning. Sunland Park firefighters said they brought the stranded man off the mountain after a search operation that also involved Sunland Park Police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The rescued migrant was taken by ambulance
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EL PASO, Texas — A man’s body was found Wednesday morning in a Lower Valley canal near a wastewater treatment facility and close to the U.S.-Mexico border. El Paso firefighters were initially dispatched about 6:40 a.m. on a water rescue, but a fire department spokesman later said the operation turned into a recovery. The body
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FORT HOOD, Texas — Two Fort Hood active-duty soldiers have been charged with attempting to smuggle two undocumented Mexican citizens into Texas and could face up to 10 years in federal prison, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. Emmanuel Oppongagyare and Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie were both wearing their full
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VAN HORN, Texas – U.S. Border Patrol agents detailed late Tuesday how they uncovered a human smuggling operation in Van Horn and rescued over 30 migrants “who were close to perishing due to excessive heat.” Agents, acting on a tip last Thursday night, found a locked U-Haul truck near the McDonald’s restaurant in Van Horn
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TORNILLO, Texas — El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego outlined a plan to ABC-7 on Tuesday to vaccinate workers from maquiladoras across the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez in an effort to reach heard immunity from Covid-19 in the Borderland region. Under the judge’s plan, Mexican nationals would be transported by buses from Juarez plants to
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AUSTIN, Texas — Former president Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he “accepted the invitation” to tour Texas’ southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott on June 30. “The Biden Administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in U.S history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in U.S
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican authorities on Tuesday confirmed a half-dozen deaths stemming from shootouts involving police and drug cartel hit men in Juárez, according to ABC-7’s news-gathering partners at Canal 44. There were several separate, and believed to be coordinated attacks, made on police Monday night that ignited the shootouts. Authorities indicated they had
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SOCORRO, Texas — A body was discovered and pulled out of a canal in Socorro on Tuesday. The body was found by Socorro police and firefighters after receiving a 911 call about 11:45 a.m. from a passerby who spotted it in the water in the 10800 block of Socorro Road. That area is near Rio
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CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico — A bus carrying patients for treatment of chronic illnesses flipped in northern Mexico near the U.S. border Tuesday, killing 12 people and leaving 10 others injured. The bus had been rented by the Mexican Social Security Institute in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. The patients and
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — When Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that Texas would build its own border wall, one of the immediate questions was who would pay for it. Abbott has not fully detailed the plan yet, but he said in a podcast interview released Tuesday that the state will be soliciting donations from across the country to help fund
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — A group of Democratic senators, led by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, sent a letter to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services demanding an explanation on processing delays for applications related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on the day of the program’s ninth anniversary, CNN has learned.
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FORT BLISS, Texas — Paramedics were called regularly to treat children suffering from panic attacks so severe their hands would constrict into balls and their bodies would shake. The outbursts often occurred after other children were taken away to be reunited with families, dashing the hopes of those left behind at the largest emergency shelter
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WASHINGTON, DC — Immigration and Customs Enforcement has terminated the Trump-era office that focused on victims of crimes linked to undocumented immigrants, another move the Biden administration has taken to distance itself from President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. ICE announced on Friday that it was shuttering the Victim of Immigration Crime Engagement office and replacing
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A factory that makes wooden pallets in Juarez caught fire late Friday night. It lit up the night sky and sent plumes of smoke that were visible from El Paso. (You can see video at the top of this article.) The massive fire broke out around 9 p.m. near the intersection
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Former President Donald Trump’s signature border wall project would lose much of its funding as well as the fast-track status that enabled it to bypass environmental regulations under a Biden administration plan announced Friday. President Joe Biden suspended construction of the wall upon taking office while his administration reviewed the project. That
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SANTA TERESA, New Mexico — Triple-digit temperatures have seen U.S. Border Patrol and Sunland Park firefighters perform multiple rescues this week involving migrants suffering from heat exhaustion in the desert. ABC-7 learned Friday that Border Patrol agents found eight migrants at the Afton Railroad Crossing near the Santa Teresa Border Station on Thursday, two of
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The El Paso Police Department identified a body found by the U.S.-Mexico border wall near Ascarate Park in the Lower Valley on Friday morning as that of a 24-year-old Mexican national. Investigators said the man was trying to scale the 35-foot border fence near the Border Highway and Fonseca Drive
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