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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sure has a knack for hyperbole.

A Sampling of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's Most Outlandish Statements In Recent Memory

By Schaefer Edwards

Jun 29, 2021

Former Baltimoreon and current Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has spent most of the past two decades clawing his way up the Lone Star State’s political power structure. Patrick parlayed his Houston conservative talk radio career into a 12-year stint as a state senator before he stole former Lt...

Gov. Greg Abbott, flanked by Republican allies, announced Wednesday how the Texas border wall effort will begin.

Abbott Unveils First Steps Toward Texas Border Wall and Asks Supporters to Pony Up Some Cash

By Schaefer Edwards

Jun 16, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott shared new details Wednesday about his plan to take over former President Donald Trump’s border wall project given an increase in border crossings from Mexico that Republicans blame on President Joe Biden’s less stringent immigration policies, including a formal request that concerned supporters help pay for it...

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez will have his work cut out for him if confirmed to lead ICE.

Former HPD Chief Acevedo Says Sheriff Gonzalez Would Be A Great For "Thankless Job" Of ICE Director

By Schaefer Edwards

Apr 30, 2021

Former Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo admitted he was surprised when he heard the news that his old colleague Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez had been nominated by President Joe Biden to lead U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Not that Gonzalez was chosen for the role, but that he accepted...

Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that President Biden immediately shut down a San Antonio site for kids who crossed the border.

Abbott Blasts Biden For Alleged Abuse At Migrant Youth Shelter Before Investigation Begins

By Schaefer Edwards

Apr 7, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that the state had received two anonymous tips earlier that day about alleged “abuse and neglect” at a San Antonio facility housing unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S. border seeking asylum. Even though Abbott admitted the Texas Rangers and the Texas Department of Public Safety...

Houston university representatives and students express concern with the Trump administration's proposed changes to international student visas.

"This is Bad Policy": Trump Administration Proposes Restrictions for International Students – Again

By Anna Ta

Oct 2, 2020

The University of Houston and Rice University, which both enroll thousands of international students each year, are assessing the potential impacts of the Trump administration proposal to impose narrow time limits on international student visas. Dr. Adria Baker, Rice University’s Associate Vice Provost for International Education, said that requiring international...

Houston's Rice University is trying to figure out how their student body will be affected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 's Monday announcement that international students attending universities that have shifted to all-online classes for the fall risk deportation if they don't leave the country.

ICE Says International Students Must Leave U.S. If Their Schools Go Online Only

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 7, 2020

In the newest effort by Donald Trump’s federal government to reduce the international presence on American soil, international college students now face deportation if their schools move to digital classes only for the fall. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday that international students won’t be allowed to...

A protester stood in support of DACA recipients during a 2017 protest after President Trump attempted to end the Obama-era program.

Supreme Court Rules Trump Can’t End DACA For Now

By Schaefer Edwards

Jun 18, 2020

In a 5-4 decision Thursday morning, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberal justices to reject President Trump’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA. Thursday’s ruling is the second bombshell this week to come from the nation’s highest court,...

"The best way for me to continue existing was to make others forget that I was there."

Why Some Brown Girls Don’t Fight Back

By Ana Del Carmen

Feb 19, 2020

What we teach our kids is based on our values, our history, our experiences, and the world we live in. Teaching little girls to fight, as our own Jef Rouner recently suggested, is a response to the active threats that they will get all their life and makes sense in...

Christian Teens in Houston Protest Immigrant Family Separation

By Mohammad Mia

Jun 29, 2018

More than 30,000 teenagers and youth leaders from across the country have arrived in Houston for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Youth Gathering. The meeting, which takes place every three years, brings high school students together for a week of faith building, learning, Bible study, as well as service...

What was anybody thinking, not just Melania Trump.

The U.S. Has a Long History of Ripping Minority Children From Their Mothers

By G. Paris Johnson

Jun 29, 2018

I am sure by now that the world is divided over the upheaval the president has caused with his snatching children from their mothers. However, I tend to take the side of some of the social media posts I’ve seen that remind the United States that this is not new...

Mayor Sylvester Turner and other Houston officials in a defining moment.

Mayor Turner Wants No Part of Baby Jails in Houston

By Mohammad Mia

Jun 20, 2018

Mayor Sylvester Turner did not mince words Tuesday afternoon at City Hall, where he held a press conference to inform Houstonians about the proposed East downtown Houston detention center intended to house immigrant children separated from their families at the Texas border. In recent days, reports surfaced that officials intend...

The 10 Most Read News Stories in the Houston Press in 2017

By Margaret Downing

Dec 11, 2017

It should come as no surprise to anyone in Houston that a list of most read stories in the year 2017 in Houston would have to include Hurricane Harvey, climate change and whether our dams are going to hold. But Houston Press readers have eclectic tastes so there were also...

DACA supporters drew more than a few honks from cars driving past on Memorial Drive.

After DACA Deadline Passes, Dreamers Storm Houston Congressman's Office

By Meagan Flynn

Oct 6, 2017

Wearing their caps and gowns, DACA recipients stormed the front lawn of U.S. Congressman John Culberson's office on the last day that they could renew their applications for the Obama-era program that protects them from deportation and grants them work permits and driver's licenses. Chanting "undocumented and unafraid!" the several dozen...

People protest in Houston against SB 4 in August.

Fifth Circuit Rules Texas Police Must Start Honoring Immigrant Detainer Requests

By Zach Despart

Sep 26, 2017

A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that Texas can require local police to honor requests from federal immigration officers to hold suspects in jail for possible deportation, a key provision of the controversial SB 4 law legislators passed earlier this year. The ruling, by a three-judge panel...

The Texas Organizing Project is among the many plaintiffs suing the state over SB4.

Governor Abbott's Charged Language After Federal Judge Blocks SB4

By Meagan Flynn

Aug 31, 2017

Just before the state's controversial "anti-sancutary city" law Senate Bill 4 was set to go into effect, a federal judge has blocked the state from enforcing almost all provisions of the law. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia has found SB4—which would prohibit local law enforcement from adopting policies limiting immigration...

A rally outside the Harris County Sheriff's Office in 2015 to end programs that facilitated deportation.

Senators' Bill to Help Young Undocumented Immigrants May Thwart Paxton's Plans

By Meagan Flynn

Jul 21, 2017

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may want to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program protecting undocumented immigrants who came here as children from deportation. But that may soon become a pointless endeavor, as Congress on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan bill that would create a permanent program for those...

The "summer of resistance" in action at the Capitol.

Democrat Files Bill to Repeal SB 4 During the Special Session

By Meagan Flynn

Jul 11, 2017

After Senate Bill 4, the "anti-sanctuary cities" bill passed, Democrats and immigrant-rights activists pledged a "summer of resistance" to fight it—and so far that resistance has been relentless. The latest move: Representative Ramon Romero (D-Fort Worth) filed a bill yesterday to repeal SB 4 during the special session. “My hope...

Ruben Perez, chief of the special crimes bureau in the Harris County District Attorney's office, addresses the media Monday. JoAnne Musick, division chief for sex crimes and human trafficking, stands in the back with Houston Police Officer Chris Meade, who discovered the truck.

Houston Police Find 12 Undocumented People Trapped and Sweltering Inside Truck

By Joseph Fanelli

Jul 11, 2017

After spotting an oddly placed truck parked in a strip mall in the Woodlake-Briar Meadow neighborhood of Houston on Sunday afternoon, Houston police officers discovered 12 undocumented people, including one 16-year-old girl, trapped in the sweltering cargo bay of a box truck. Three individuals have since been tagged with felony...

Local Venezuelans protest outside Citgo's Houston headquarters in April.

Amid Venezuelan Violence, State-Owned Citgo Sponsors Houston's 4th of July Show

By Zach Despart

Jul 3, 2017

As the city of Houston prepares for its annual Freedom Over Texas Fourth of July celebration, many in the area’s Venezuelan community are incensed the city has refused ties to cut ties with the event’s title sponsor, Citgo. They charge that Citgo is an inappropriate choice to sponsor the event...

Texas AG Paxton Now Wants to End DACA, Threatens Legal Action Against U.S.

By Meagan Flynn

Jun 30, 2017

To Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, it doesn't matter that the young adults now benefiting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program were brought to the United States as small children. Or that, thanks to DACA, they can now work legally in this country and go to college without...

Immigration

TX Legislature Ends Second Special Session As A Third Still Looms

Trump Strays From the Border Theme in Weslaco

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