CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The city of Juarez experienced only five days without any homicides occurring during all of 2020, making it the fourth deadliest year of all time. Officials indicated a total of 1,644 people were killed throughout the year that just ended, which was an increase of 145 murders from 2019. Prosecutors told
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The Mexican army said that fentanyl seizures increased by at least 486% in 2020. Military and police forces said at year’s end that they had seized an estimated 1.3 tons of the synthetic opioid, compared to 222 kilograms in 2019. Luis Cresencio Sandoval, the country’s defense secretary, said the increase was
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers closed down the Paso Del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso for roughly eight hours overnight after a large group of migrants attempted to cross over late Tuesday night. The bridge reopened to pedestrians crossing at 4 a.m. and to vehicle traffic shortly after 6
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Mexican composer and singer Armando Manzanero died Monday morning after battling Covid-19 for weeks. Manzanero, who was 85, died at a hospital in Mexico City, Mexico’s Society for Authors and Composers confirmed to CNN. He was hospitalized in mid-December after testing positive for Covid-19, CNN reported at the time. Manzanero was
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EL PASO, Texas — Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso were among dozens of people pardoned by President Trump in recent days. The two Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, received 11- and 12-year prison sentences for their role in the
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At a secluded spot in southeast Arizona, the San Pedro River flows north from Mexico and crosses the United States border, running under a majestic canopy of tall cottonwood trees. The river’s winding path is a migration gateway and critical habitation for hundreds of animal species. The National Audubon Society for Arizona says 40% of
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WILMINGTON, Delaware — President-elect Joe Biden says he won’t immediately roll back President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration despite some advocates pushing for action as soon as he takes the oath of office in January. Biden said Tuesday that it may take months to lift Trump’s immigration restrictions, tempering expectations he generated during his campaign
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — Just weeks after a federal court ordered that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals be restored, a judge in Texas heard arguments in a case challenging the legality of the program, which shields hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation. The case before Judge Andrew
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EL PASO, Texas — With congressional leaders reaching an agreement and approving a $900 billion stimulus relief bill, help could soon be on the way for millions of Americans. While many El Pasoans feel the bill falls short, it will provide relief for a new group: mixed status families. Mixed status families are those who
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican authorities have seized a 5-month-old Tiger named ‘Thor” that was seen wandering the streets of a Juárez neighborhood, according to ABC-7’s media partners at Canal 44. The big cat was captured by police after it was found sitting in the passenger seat of car parked near an intersection in Parajes
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SALTILLO, Mexico — Migrant advocates and Roman Catholics mourned the death of Rev. Pedro Pantoja, a priest who helped found a migrant shelter in the northern Mexico city of Saltillo. Pantoja died of Covid-19. The shelter where he long worked, the Casa del Migrante, confirmed that he was hospitalized on Dec. 12 because of a
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — Who can forget images in 2019 of hundreds of immigrants converging on the El Paso/Juarez Border, the vast majority seeking asylum. Immigration attorneys and migrant advocates believe Trump administration policies aimed at responding to the unprecedented immigration surge last year could come to an end once President-elect Joe Biden takes office.Those
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed as premature a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to exclude people living in the country illegally from the population count used to allot states seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But the court’s decision Friday is not a final ruling on the matter and
Continue Reading MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The lower house of Mexico’s congress overwhelmingly approved a law this week limiting foreign agents operating in the country and lifting their immunity in a decision that could impact its relationship with the U.S. government, a key partner in its fight against drug cartels. The 329-98 vote, with 40 abstentions, sends
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HATCH, New Mexico — A murder fugitive was shot and killed following an exchange of gunfire with U.S. Border Patrol agents during a chase of a car that ran an immigration checkpoint along Highway 185 near Hatch on Wednesday, authorities said. New Mexico Highway 26 was closed for hours at milepost 23, near where that
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ALBANY, Texas — Authorities have charged a Mexican national with trying to smuggle a group of 19 migrants from El Paso to Dallas in a pickup truck. The Shackelford County Sheriff’s Office said Albany police pulled over 34-year-old Francisco Alfredo Lopez-Cubillas in his truck on suspicion of drunk driving. During the traffic stop on Monday,
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EL PASO, Texas – More than 2,500 pounds of methamphetamine were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working the Ysleta Port of Entry, officials said Tuesday. The officers seized the drugs last week when a 56-year-old Mexican man arrived in the Ysleta Port of Entry’s Cargo Facility from Mexico. He was driving a
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EL PASO, Texas – Homeland Security investigators and customs officials continue to warn the public to be vigilant about potential scams involving the Covid-19 pandemic. Fraudulent schemes may include the sale of counterfeit vaccines, personal protective equipment and so-called preventative medical treatments. El Paso officials with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement seek to
Continue Reading EL Paso, Texas — Two whistle-blowers accuse an El Paso company of malfeasance with the construction of the border wall under the federal false claims act. The New York Times reports that two employees contracted to provide security at construction sites accused Ultimate Concrete of El Paso and another contractor of hiring workers not vetted
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexico on Friday evening approved emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTec coronavirus vaccine, becoming the fourth country to do so. Mexico’s medical safety commission approved its’ use, which had already been cleared in Britain, Canada and Bahrain. Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said Mexico is set to receive 250,000 doses of the
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EL PASO, Texas – More than 100,000 counterfeit surgical masks that were slated to be used by hospital workers were seized by Customs and Border Protection officers and investigators with Homeland Security this week. A shipment of 100,080 surgical masks were initially intercepted at the Ysleta Cargo Facility. The masks had a manufacturer’s suggested retail
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The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is stepping down at the end of the month after a brief tenure as the head of the agency. Tony Pham, who assumed the post in August, called his time at ICE “the single highest honor of my career” in a statement on Thursday. “I am grateful
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Scientists working off the western coast of Mexico say they have found a previously unknown species of whale. Three beaked whales were spotted last month by a team of scientists working with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society near the San Benito Islands, some 300 miles from the US border, according to a press release published
Continue Reading CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexico plans to being vaccinating its people against Covid-19 at the end of the third week of December, starting with health workers, the government announced Tuesday. The word came as Mexico has reported 1.18 million confirmed infections and at least 110,074 virus deaths, though both are acknowledged to be under-counts. The total number
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — An historic drug seizure was made by municipal police in Juarez on Saturday night, according to ABC-7’s newsgathering partners at Canal 44. Officials said the drugs, worth the apparent equivalent of over $60 million in the U.S., were seized from a semi-trailer that was being used to “secretly transport” the illicit
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WASHINGTON, DC — More than 1,000 migrant children in US government custody have tested positive for coronavirus since March, according to the federal agency charged with their care. In total, there have been 1,061 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases among unaccompanied migrant children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency run by
Continue Reading CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexico’s president says he plans to give the military a role in distributing coronavirus vaccines, which he says U.S. President Donald Trump helped him get after a meeting in Washington in July. Mexico has registered 1.1 million confirmed cases and 107,500 confirmed deaths, the fourth-highest death toll in the world. However,
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EL PASO, Texas — After a UTEP study was published showing that international bridge wait times in September averaged around 75 minutes then decreased to 35 minutes by late October, ABC-7 asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection why the significant drop in time within only a month. “The operation began as an effort to discourage
Continue Reading SAN DIEGO, California –The parents of 628 migrant children separated from their families due to Trump administration policies at the US-Mexico border between 2017 and 2018 have still not been located, according to a Wednesday court filing. The filing from the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union is part of an ongoing effort
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The head of the World Health Organization said that “Mexico is in bad shape” with the pandemic and urged its leaders to be serious about the coronavirus and set examples for its citizens. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s comments came as Mexico’s death toll rose to 105,940 — the fourth highest in the world — with
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