(Editor’s note: This story was produced as part of the Puente News Collaborative, a bi-national partnership of news organizations in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.) By Lauren Villagran/El Paso Times and Veronica Martinez/La Verdad CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Army Maj. Carlos Gutierrez popped into an El Paso airport gift shop on his way to catch a flight for
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A blackout in Ciudad Juárez on Thursday left thousands of people without electricity and water services for nearly four hours. According to ABC-7’s news partners at Canal 44, the power outage began at 4 p.m. in the old Paso del Norte and persisted into the evening. The Federal Electricity Commission said 100%
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WASHINGTON, DC — The Biden administration plans to coordinate with nongovernmental organizations to identify vulnerable migrant families in Mexico and allow them to enter the United States, instead of turning them away under a Trump-era border policy, according to a source familiar with discussions. The administration has been facing fierce criticism for relying on a
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DALLAS, Texas — Two large sites in Texas used to shelter unaccompanied migrant children amid the influx in arrivals earlier this year will close by early June, the Department of Health and Human Services Department confirmed, marking among the first closures as the number of kids in border facilities drops. In March, the Biden administration
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(Editor’s note: This story was produced as part of the Puente News Collaborative, a bi-national partnership of news organizations in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.) By René Kladzyk and Maria Ramos Pacheco/El Paso Matters and Veronica Martinez/La Verdad Second of a three-part series CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — When Melinda and her family reached the border between Ciudad
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EL PASO, Texas — Firefighters from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border suited up and trained with a new tool from the toolbox, given to them as part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2020 grant worth about $45,000. The tool, a magna seal, is used to seal up chemical leaks on railroad cars. According to the
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EL PASO, Texas — The U.S. Border Patrol station on Hondo Pass in El Paso is mourning the loss of one of its own. Agent and canine handler Freddie Vasquez died this past week from complications related to Covid-19, according to his family. The San Diego Union Tribune and the Los Angeles Times reported that
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — More than 178,000 migrants were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border in April, a slight increase over March, for the highest one-month total in two decades, Customs and Border Protection officials announced Tuesday, though fewer unaccompanied children arrived. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 17,171 unaccompanied migrant children were encountered in April,
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QUEMADO, Texas — A Texas farmer found five young migrant children who had been abandoned, resting on the ground in the hot sun on his ranch land along the border near Quemado in Maverick County, officials said Monday. Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-District 23) shared what he and U.S. Border Patrol agents called a “heartbreaking”
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(Editor’s note: This story was produced as part of the Puente News Collaborative, a bi-national partnership of news organizations in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.) By René Kladzyk and Maria Ramos Pacheco/El Paso Matters and Veronica Martinez/La Verdad First of a three-part series Running children and crying babies create a cacophony at El Buen Samaritano
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ORLANDO, Florida — A man was fatally shot outside a U.S. Customs and Immigration Services building in central Florida, and a suspect has been taken into custody. It happened Monday morning in an office park in south Orlando. Police Lt. Diego Toruno says a man and a woman were entering the building when another man
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — As the immigration surge continues at the U.S. Southwest border, local organizations are finding unique ways to help the migrant population in the El Paso community. The El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank is working with half a dozen immigration organizations to provide meals, water and other items. The food
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EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Customs and Border protection is seeing a dangerous trend with migrants jumping on trains coming in from Mexico to enter the U.S. ABC-7 Xtra Sunday edition went to the Union Pacific rail yards to see just how dangerous jumping onto trains can be, and to find out how much migrant
Continue Reading DONNA, Texas — New immigration data shows trends at the border may be changing as the Biden administration attempts to control migration. Amid the encouraging trend, the secretary of Homeland Security visited a U.S. Border Patrol facility in south Texas on Friday. While the number of Border Patrol enforcement encounters remained elevated last month — but leveled
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LUNA COUNTY, New Mexico — Farmers in Luna County are expressing concern that the halt to the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall by the Biden administration is causing them a number of problems. The 30-foot wall runs the length of James Johnson’s 103-year old family farm, and he told ABC-7 that the wall has
Continue Reading Passengers aboard a vessel that sank near San Diego on Sunday told investigators they each paid thousands of dollars to be smuggled into the US, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday against the suspected captain of the boat. The boat hit a reef and broke apart near the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — UTEP has announced that it reached an agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection that would allow upcoming graduates and their parents to cross into the U.S. for the school’s commencement ceremonies. The school said in a statement that it is still ironing out the exact details with CBP, and
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A body found north of Las Cruces could be that of a migrant from Ecuador, according to the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office. The body was found Wednesday in a desert area near New Mexico Highway 185 between Las Cruces and Hatch. The Sheriff’s Office said it believes the man
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Travel and tourism is picking up as more people are getting vaccinated. Despite border restrictions still in place, Destination El Paso is hopeful that the next couple of months will help restart tourism in the Borderland as it celebrates National Travel and Tourism week. Bryan Crowe, general manager of Destination
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EL PASO, Texas — Mabel, a mother from Honduras surprised her sons, Mino and Erick, at a family gathering and locked them in a tearful group hug for the first time in over three years since they were separated at an immigration facility in El Paso. Elsewhere, Sandra Ortiz hugged her son Bryan for the
Continue Reading SAN DIEGO, California — Bryan Chávez carried a bundle of Mother’s Day balloons as he headed toward the border. It had been more than three years since the last time he saw his mom in person — the day when authorities separated them in 2017. Chávez was 15 at the time, and he feared this
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ATLANTA, Georgia (WGCL) — A sophisticated system pumping deadly, liquid meth from Mexico to metro Atlanta, run by a dangerous crime ring in Georgia, has been taken down, for now at least. A 166-page indictment details the disturbing bust; a task force took down an operation that sounded like something straight out of a movie.
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EL PASO, Texas — Nestled inside a quiet westside El Paso neighborhood, you’ll find an Alzheimer’s facility transformed into a facility for migrant girls. The facility, called Casa Mariposa, is empty now, but is expected to begin receiving girls sometime this month, according to Krista Piferrer of the non-profit operator BCFS Health and Human Services.
Continue Reading CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The blue sedan looked like any other driving along a Mexican highway until the mid-morning sun glinted off long, thin pieces of metal lashed to the car’s left side: A column of rebar about 20 feet long was tied precariously to the side mirror. In most other places in Mexico, this
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Officials say an elevated section of Mexico City’s metro collapsed and at least 24 people have been killed, including some children, with 79 others hospitalized. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said four bodies were still inside the train, which plunged toward a busy boulevard late Monday night. It was one of the deadliest
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WASHINGTON, DC — The Biden administration will raise the refugee ceiling to 62,500 people this fiscal year, the White House confirmed, after receiving swift criticism last month when President Joe Biden kept the lower Trump-era cap in place. “I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year,” Biden said
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — After a spike in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in March raised alarms and prompted a torrent of Republican criticism of the Biden administration, preliminary U.S. government data reviewed by CNN shows the number of encounters at the border in April remains elevated but appears to have plateaued. The
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Four migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration will be reunited this week in Texas and California, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday, marking the first reunifications under President Joe Biden. The effort stems from the family reunification task force set up by one of Biden’s executive
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — Houston police officers following up on a kidnapping report found more than 90 people jammed in a two-story home in what authorities said turned out to be a possible human smuggling operation. Officers were granted a search warrant to enter a home after following up on a kidnapping tip from Thursday night,
Continue Reading PATAGONIA MOUNTAINS, Arizona — Once there was a bustling construction zone here. Now it’s like a ghost town, frozen in time. Heavy machinery is parked and motionless. Stacks of steel bollards stretch as far as the eye can see. The Trump administration built more than 450 miles of fencing along the US-Mexico border — including
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