A 10-year-old girl bolted down the escalator of a Texas airport and into the arms of a mother who hadn’t held her for six years. Both of them sobbed. “I just told her that she was OK, and that she was with me now. I didn’t have any more words,” says Sonia Almendarez, who feared
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Mexican border crossings into the U.S. last month reached the highest level in 15 years, the Washington Post reported Friday. The newspaper said U.S. Customs and Border Protection data it reviewed showed more than 171,000 migrants were taken into custody in March along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Post reported the March figure
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The disturbing video of two young children being dumped over the border wall in the southern New Mexico desert near Santa Teresa is officially making its way around the White House. “I’ve seen the video, and I think any of us who saw the video were incredibly alarmed by the steps of
Continue Reading WESLACO, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking in Weslaco on Thursday, said, “The Biden Administration’s open border policies have created an open season for human traffickers, for drug smugglers, for cartels and gangs.” Abbott held a news conference after visiting the south Texas border to discuss Operation Lone Star, the state’s effort to ramp
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SANTA TERESA, New Mexico – A U.S. Border Patrol surveillance camera captured what officials described as “disturbing” video of human smugglers dropping two young children over a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border just west of Mt. Cristo Rey in Santa Teresa. The video of the Tuesday night incident was released by authorities on Wednesday, with
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EL PASO, Texas — With the recent increase of migrants and unaccompanied children crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S., new migrant facilities are opening up in El Paso. The site on Fort Bliss is the most recent migrant facility to open up, receiving 500 teen boys between ages 13 to 17 on Tuesday,
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — The increasing number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border can be explained by poverty, violence and climate change, according to U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. “Until we address this strategically with humanity and with compassion, and with thought about our entire hemisphere, we will be having the same
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Shelters equipped to house migrants in Ciudad Juarez are hitting their limit on space as families continue to be expelled into Mexico. “There’s growing instability in Juarez on account of a growing migrant population,” Dylan Corbett, founder of the Hope Border Institute, explained. Corbett and his team assist migrants and shelters
Continue Reading DONNA, Texas — Children lying side by side in plastic-lined pods. Shelves stocked with supplies, including baby bottles and diapers. Girls huddled together in a playpen – where they’ll also sleep at night – singing and coloring with crayons. The challenge facing the Biden administration at the U.S.-Mexico border can be boiled down to a
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — On Tuesday, 500 unaccompanied boys arrived at the migrant facility on Fort Bliss, according to officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The facility has the potential capacity of 5,000 beds and will hold boys ages 13 to 17. The facility is located inside the Fort Bliss grounds
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DONNA, Texas — The Biden administration for the first time Tuesday allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 migrants, including children and families, were crammed into pods and the youngest kept in a large play pen with mats on the floor
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Border officials reported a 168% increase in encounters with migrant families and a 63% increase in encounters with unaccompanied children in February, according to Pew Research Center. Many of those arriving at the border are coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. A local border policy expert said many migrants
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EL PASO, Texas — It appears a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children at Fort Bliss could see its first arrivals on Tuesday. That’s according to Congressman Tony Gonzalez, whose Texas District 23 covers part of far east El Paso. He was briefed by Fort Bliss officials on Monday. I visited Fort Bliss to see the
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The White House will host a bipartisan briefing for members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to update them on the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to an invitation obtained by CNN and two sources familiar with the meeting. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — Congressional leaders toured the El Paso sector of the U.S.-Mexico border in light of reports of overcrowding as processing centers and facilities for unaccompanied migrant children. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar hosted the delegation of eight other members. The delegation visited the El Paso Border Patrol processing center, as well as the HHS/ORR
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EL PASO, Texas — A beloved border-television clown, Niko Liko has died. Antonio Gaytán Muruato, who hosted the long-running Niko Liko Show in Juarez, died on Friday according to posts on social media, and our sister station Channel 44. He was 81-years-old. Early this week, Jesús El Salvador Catholic parish in Juárez posted on Facebook
Continue Reading Two separate groups of lawmakers traveled to Texas on Friday to spotlight the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the US-Mexico border in recent weeks — with the lawmakers blaming different administrations for why the crisis is happening in the first place. Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, who led a group of House Democratic lawmakers to
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This story by Rocío Gallegos, Verónica Martínez, Gabriela Minjares was first published by La Verdad. Land crossing restrictions imposed by the United States on its border with Mexico by COVID-19 disrupted the dynamics of students, tourists, buyers, formal and informal workers, and thousands of businesses. But it did not stop drug trafficking between Ciudad Juárez and
Continue Reading WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden in his first press conference Thursday said Fort Bliss has been approved to hold 5,000 beds for unaccompanied migrant children. Wednesday, the Pentagon approved the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s request to use an area of land on Fort Bliss in El Paso to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant
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This story by Angela Kocherga was first published by KTEP Public Radio. A year after the U.S. border was closed to all non-essential travel, the pandemic has underscored an informal economy that many fronterizos prefer not to talk about even as they struggle to adapt to a new reality. “We were quickly trying to scramble and figure out
Continue Reading The Biden administration is setting up two more emergency intake sites that combined will provide more than 5,000 beds to accommodate migrant children crossing the US-Mexico border alone. It’s the latest move by the administration to try to alleviate overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities and transfer unaccompanied minors who have been held in those facilities,
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CARRIZO SPRINGS, Texas — New images were made public of an unaccompanied migrant shelter run by the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday. The video comes after criticism toward the Biden administration for not allowing the media inside to see firsthand the conditions of these migrant facilities. “I would say, we have nothing to
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked the Pentagon to help house unaccompanied minors at two military locations in Texas, ABC News reports. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the request had come in Tuesday afternoon and that DOD would have to evaluate the request. Kirby told ABC News
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection released new video showing the conditions inside El Paso’s Central Processing Center which is where many unaccompanied minors are being held. The agency’s release of the video comes a day after photos of the processing center in Donna, Texas emerged. In the agency’s newest video,
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EL PASO, Texas — Migrant families, traveling with nothing but the clothes on their back, were expelled into Juarez Monday over the Paso del Norte Bridge. ABC-7 was on the bridge at 1:30 p.m. Monday when a little more than 60 individuals walked south of the border from El Paso. All the families had small
Continue Reading The US Border Patrol has detained more than 11,000 unaccompanied migrant children between February 28 to March 20, according to preliminary government data reviewed by CNN, already eclipsing the number of minors apprehended in the full month of February. In recent weeks, the number of encounters of children crossing the US-Mexico border alone has continued
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As the number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the US-Mexico border continues to rise, hundreds have been kept in US Border Patrol facilities not meant for minors. The Biden administration has not allowed journalists to independently visit the facilities, but several lawmakers have visited sites. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar provided these photos revealing the conditions
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This story by reporter Molly Smith was first published by El Paso Matters. EL PASO, Texas — When Mexico’s president traveled to the White House last summer, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar urged President Donald Trump to put discussion of a binational coronavirus response plan at the top of the agenda. But that topic didn’t come
Continue Reading Senior Biden administration officials are traveling to Mexico on Monday to discuss managing migration with government officials amid a surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the US-Mexico border. Roberta Jacobson, the Biden administration’s coordinator for the southern border, and Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, will be making the trip,
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas – El Paso is again in the national spotlight because of the surge in unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States. The surge comes after President Joe Biden’s administration ended former President Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. According to the Pew Research Center, there were 18,945 family members and 9,297
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