EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Monday marks the deadline to register to vote in Texas during the Nov. 3 election. Oct. 5 is also the last day to change your name or address for the midterm election. As of Monday, the El Paso County Elections Department said 537,655 people registered to vote. Checking your voter
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The Texas Commissioner of Education was in the Borderland this week, and ABC-7 got the chance to speak with him about the priorities and challenges facing public education in the state. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath gave the keynote address at the CREEED Education summit on Thursday, and ABC-7
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Editor’s note: For transparency, ABC-7 added full interviews with El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego and Precinct 2 Commissioner David Stout. You can watch them by scrolling through the videos above. You can also watch Samaniego’s full interview here, and the full interview with Stout here. To clarify, the public records reviewed cover travel planned
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — County leaders are looking at increasing accountability and transparency on where elected officials travel and how much they spend. This follows an ABC-7 Xtra investigation into the nearly quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer funds spent on travel expenses by members of commissioners court over the last several years.
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A federal judge has struck down new FEMA funding rules that tied public safety grants to election policy requirements for local governments. As ABC-7 previously reported, El Paso County joined the lawsuit against the requirement change last month, challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to withhold 20% of funding
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — U.S. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and more than 100 members of Congress are demanding medical care and not deportation for a man allegedly shot by ICE in Austin. On Sept. 20, an ICE agent allegedly shot 28-year-old Garces Perez in the back. They sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security
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The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is scheduled to present its 2026 budget update on Monday, which includes a projected deficit of more than $5.9 million by the end of the fiscal year.
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By Michelle Stoddart President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. has struck an agreement with Denmark that gives the U.S. “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.” “At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The air was very different a quarter of a century ago when it came to the issue of smoking in the Borderland. In 2001, the City of El Paso passed the first public no smoking ordinance in the state of Texas. As a result, gone were the questions of “smoking
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Lawmakers demanded answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs about its support for women veterans. Thursday, U.S. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and 11 other Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins. The letter noted the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans (ACWV) hasn’t met since 2024, and
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — How much have El Paso County commissioners traveled — and spent– on the taxpayers’ tab? An ABC-7 investigation found that the four commissioners and the county judge spent nearly $234,000 on flights and trips over the last several years. One commissioner spent more than all others combined. ABC-7 obtained about
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By Max Zahn The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday in an effort to battle back a months-long surge of inflation set off by the Iran war. The move marks the central bank’s first rate increase since July 2023. The central bank hiked its benchmark rate a quarter of a percentage point, putting interest
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UPDATE: Congresswoman Veronica Escobar toured Camp East Montana Thursday morning to find out about the reported confrontations between detainees and facility staff. Escobar said ICE blamed a group of Venezuelans for starting those exchanges that led to the assault of staff and what ICE is describing as a riot. Escobar said several people were taken
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By Devin Dwyer The Trump administration on Thursday filed an urgent appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking permission to immediately implement new U.S. Postal Service rules for mail ballots that critics say impede on states’ authority to run elections. A temporary restraining order against the USPS rules, which were prompted by President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed
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ABC-7’s Marcel Clarke sat down one on one with State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor. Hinojosa is challenging Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in the November election. During the interview, Hinojosa was asked about some of the biggest issues facing Texas and the Borderland, including data centers, property taxes and border security.
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The U.S. Department of State established a specialized task force to target birth tourism schemes. It revoked more than 900 visas within its first few weeks of operation. Federal authorities are reviewing issued visas and travel records to identify noncitizens who lie to consular officials about their travel plans to
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A petition effort is underway to remove a member of El Paso’s city council. It follows in the aftermath of recent votes on city policy on data centers. Back in June, a marathon twelve-plus hour city council meeting resulted in a 5-3 vote in opposition to an item to renegotiate
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – Monday, recall petition organizers have filed suit against the City of El Paso after being told they don’t have enough signatures against District 4 City Rep. Cynthia Boyar Trejo, said petition organizer Joshua Dagda. Last week, the city clerk determined the organizers had submitted 897 valid signatures out of the
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UPDATE (4:30 p.m.) — City council voted to reduce the proposed budget by $6,495,971 to adopt it. City Council said it approved the fiscal year 2027 budget and adopted a property tax rate of $0.798000 per $100 of taxable value, which is 1.1 cents below the introduced rate. By adopting the lower rate, the city
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The El Paso County Commissioners Court voted on Monday to close bids for the management and operation of the county-owned coliseum. The court voted to close bids so the county can issue a revised solicitation with clearer information, according to a news release. It also includes sports tourism promotion program
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By Devin Dwyer The Supreme Court on Monday declined a request from President Donald Trump to reconsider its rejection of his appeal in the 2023 E. Jean Carroll case. The decision means it’s the end of the line for Trump’s bid to overturn a $5 million jury award to Carroll, which the writer’s representatives said was paid in July. The Court did not explain its decision
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Joel Vargas is from Venezuela. He left his country back in 2022 and arrived in Ciudad Juárez in spring 2023. He’s currently navigating the federal asylum process while working in construction in Colorado Springs. After securing an entry appointment through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app in
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UPDATE: The City of El Paso provided a statement regarding the Governor’s announcement, it says: “The Governor’s announcement and Meta’s public commitment reinforce many of the protections the City has advocated for through its recent data center policy work and participation in state utility proceedings, including protecting ratepayers, conserving water, increasing transparency, minimizing impacts on
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by Taylor Goldenstein, The Texas TribuneAugust 7, 2026 President Donald Trump this week criticized Texas for being anti-data centers, just days after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott paused industry-wide approvals until the companies provide the state with more information on things like power and water use. “I saw Texas the other day sort of is against
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UPDATE (Aug. 7, 2026): A California judge ordered the Trump Administration to release $65 million in funds it withheld in payments to organizations that help unaccompanied migrant children. Estrella del Paso will receive some of that money. Estrella del Paso will get about $765,000 from the administration for legal services that ran out last Friday.
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SANTA FE, N.M. (KVIA) — Thursday, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to fund a $567 million abatement program dedicated to addressing the youth mental health crisis, according to the state’s Justice Department. The order addresses the state’s public nuisance claim against Meta Platforms. Additionally, a judge ruled Meta must “Delete the accounts and all personal
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By Nicholas Kerr, Emily Chang, and Michelle Stoddart President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a pair of executive orders targeting birthright citizenship — one that would outlaw what the administration has described as “birth tourism” and another that would narrow the criteria who is eligible for birthright citizenship. The orders come after the Supreme Court struck down an attempt by Trump
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — During a campaign visit to the El Paso area Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced two new policy proposals about housing affordability for Texas residents. Republican Gov. Abbott met with builders, community representatives and families in Socorro. He spoke about increasing the housing supply across the state. He mentioned delays
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By Mary Kekatos The Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Schwartz was confirmed in a 51-44 vote that generally fell along party lines. She will replace Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who took
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by Elida S. Perez The El Paso County Commissioners Court is considering a preliminary $542 million general fund budget for the next fiscal year that could require a tax increase of about $164 a year on the average value home. The county introduced its preliminary budget and proposed its voter-approval tax rate Monday, though the court
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