Amerika Garcia-Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation, said their Living River Convening event will give the public a chance to visit the South Texas border and view the river, as well as the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras.

According to the event’s signup registration website says, the event “will address the intersection of border militarization, migrant rights, and the severe ecological degradation caused by climate change in the Rio Grande basin.”

The report, titled “As Border Enforcement Expands, ‘Colonia’ Communities Are Left Without Basic Infrastructure,” was published on April 30 and focuses on border communities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

One of the authors of the report, Adrik Gonzalez, appeared on Border Report Live on Tuesday. He outlined how outdated data, gaps in state and federal oversight, and limited county authority have left thousands of families vulnerable to flooding, public health risks, and long-term economic neglect — and why he says updating federal definitions and empowering local governments is critical to fixing the problem.

José Contreras Diaz, 30, of Edinburg, Texas, as released Wednesday from the Port Isabel Detention Center in the South Texas border town of Los Fresnos, where he had been held since April 29, the national immigration group FWD.us says.

“I would not wish what I’ve been through on anyone. They detained me, sent me to a country I barely remember, and then gave me hope — the hope that I could come home, see my family, and hold my son again. Then that hope was taken away,” Diaz said in a statement issued by FWD.us.

The arrest, detention and re-arrest of Diaz by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement adds to the growing number of arrests of DACA recipients, which is raising concern among the immigrant community.

Construction began Wednesday, Cigarroa said on Thursday’s episode Border Report Live.

She said the council has been told they cannot stop the installation of the giant orange buoys, which are meant to stop immigration from Mexico.

But she says they are working hard to slow it down and study the process of border wall barrier being put on the banks of the Rio Grande through downtown Laredo.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Theo Rigby, director and producer of “If I Could Stay/Si Pudiera Quedarme” tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles about how he chronicled the two women over eight years starting 2017 through 2025.

They spent thousands of days living in the two different churches, which caused some strife for the congregations. Rigby says the film shows humanity through the lense of religion and highlights how these predominantly Anglo congregations helped these two women of color.

Ingrid, from Peru, struggled to keep a sense of normalcy for her young and growing family as they lived in the basement of a church.

On the latest episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles speaks with Ev Meade, director of Proceso Pacífico, about the unprecedented case involving a sitting governor, a senator, a city mayor and multiple high-ranking security officials accused of working with the Sinaloa cartel.

Meade breaks down how extradition requests between the United States and Mexico work, why Mexican authorities are reviewing evidence before acting, and what past cases show can happen when powerful figures are not extradited. He also explains why this indictment stands out for detailing specific acts of violence, including the killing of a confidential informant.

The discussion also explores political fallout for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, arguments over sovereignty, and growing public frustration in Sinaloa, where residents have endured months of sustained violence and instability.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on why the Trump administration wants to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of people from other countries who are allowed to legally live and work in the United States under the program.

If TPS is lifted it would affect an estimated 1.3 million people, including 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. They would not be allowed to work and no longer protected from deportation.

They’d be “yanking complying people out of the things they’ve been legally doing,” University of Texas at El Paso anthropology professor Josiah Heyman told Border Report Live host Rudy Mireles and South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez.

The capture of Alexander Benavides Flores, known as “El Metro 9,” a leader within the Gulf Cartel, has triggered armed confrontations and blockades in Reynosa and the surrounding area across the border from McAllen, Texas.

The violence prompted the State Department to issue travel warnings.

KVEO/CBS4 reporter Jorge Vela has been monitoring the violence south of the border and has been speaking with residents of Reynosa.

Dexter says she was told that there were seven youth at the facility, which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. That includes two who are pregnant, two who have just given birth and three non-pregnant girls, she said.

But she says during her visit to the facility on Friday she didn’t actually see anyone, except for ORR management.

“Well, we didn’t see any girls, and we had given notice that we not just wanted to tour the facility, but we wanted to be able to speak with some of these young women who are being detained there,” Dexter told Border Report after her tour. “The question in my mind is, what are they hiding?”

Residents unhappy border wall popped up so close to their new homes In this episode of Border Report Live, chapter leader Elizabeth Rodriguez and member Denisse Carrion discuss how the Brown Berets are active in today’s political environment.

They spoke with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles about providing protection form community members at protests, as well as providing education and information to those who might be affected by immigration policies during this Trump administration.

Modeled after the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their appearance as a paramilitary organization, and being considered by many to be and extremist organization, Rodriguez says this group is more community-based. Their mission statement is: “We stand for education, community outreach and promoting unity for all those involved in a grassroots struggle.”

Kocher joined South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles on the latest episode of Border Report Live to break down ICE detentions and deaths during this second Trump administration

Cuban-born Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, died April 12 in a facility in Miami. He was found in his cell “in what appeared to be a suicide attempt,” ICE says.

The death came just one day after Mexican national Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, died in a Louisiana ICE facility after being “found unresponsive,” ICE reports.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Strassburger joined South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles live in the studio to talk about the people he serves in the Mexican border towns of Reynosa and Matamoros, and why he does it.

He says Mexican border towns are particularly dangerous for vulnerable populations, like families with small children, who he says are preyed upon by Mexican cartels and targets for kidnapping.

Since 2021, Strassburger has served the Rio Grande Valley region as part of the Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries.

Milenko Faria was interviewed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices near Los Angeles, while his wife, Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, entered her sixth day in immigration custody in Texas and was unable to attend the appointment they had been waiting for for more than 10 years.

Bolivar, who worked as a doctor in an area federally designated as medically underserved, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at McAllen International Airport on Saturday. She was with their American-born daughter, preparing to board a flight to join her husband and attend their asylum interview together.

The “ICE Out Everywhere” free webinar was hosted by the nonprofit group States at the Core (STAC) and drew 600 people from 35 states, STAC co-director Jill Garvey told Border Report.

The “training is really a step beyond just documenting and responding to ICE in your neighborhood. It is thinking about all the other parts of the deportation machine,” Garvey said. “A big piece of this is the detention expansion — getting people oriented to this incredible push to expand incarceration of immigrants.”

The 90-minute free webinar also focused on derailing 287(g) immigration program agreements with local law enforcement agencies.

The report “A New Era of ICE Family Prisons” by Human Rights First, and Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, Inc. (RAICES) says the thousands of migrant families held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center outside San Antonio endure “inhumane conditions, routine mistreatment, and due process violations.”

Over 5,600 people were detained at the Dilley facility from April 2025 through February. The report is based on interviews with 35 families held in the facility during that time, as well as legal services providers.

The report also is based on more than 300 legal cases in which RAICES has represented asylum-seekers.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Texas A&M University School of Law Civil Rights Clinic on Friday filed the lawsuit on behalf of Mabel Estanislada Alvarez Benedicks and Rossel Doney Reyes, parents of Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez.

Anadith died on May 17, 2023 in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Harlingen, eight days after the family crossed the Rio Grande into Brownsville, Texas from Mexico.

“Without access to adequate emergency medical care in CBP custody, Anadith’s health continued to decline until she could no longer breathe.

On May 17, 2023, Anadith died in her mother’s arms. Anadith’s death while in CBP custody was entirely preventable. CBP’s gross negligence directly caused her death,” the lawsuit contends.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Gabrielle Oliveira, author of “Now We Are Here — Family Migration, Children’s Education, and Dreams for a Better Life” spoke with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez about how she located the 16 families and 30 children that she followed and documented from 2018 through 2021 after they crossed the U.S. border.

The families came from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and the children ranged in ages from four months to 18.

Oliveira says their parents often expressed guilt over putting their children through arduous journeys north to cross the border into the United States. Some waited for months south of the border under the Migrant Protection Protocols policy, also known as remain in Mexico, which President Donald Trump implemented during his first term.

Both joined host Rudy Mireles throughout the week to look back on the past six or seven years and some of the work that put them on the frontlines of the immigration debate.

Border Report launched in the summer of 2019. Salvador joined the team to help cover the vast San Diego-Tijuana region in 2020, not long after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic and how it affected various aspects the border dominated the news cycle at the turn of the decade. On Friday, Salvador recalled the collaboration between Mexican and U.S. officials to help vaccinate workers by busing them from Tijuana into San Diego and back.

According to CalMatters, multiple lawsuits have been filed to restore those trucking licenses, but none have been successful.

Adam Echelman, of CalMatters, reported that as many as 61,000 California truck drivers could loose lose their licenses in the coming years as a result of the federal actions.

Echelman appeared on Border Report Live on Thursday. He outlined some of the policies that are aimed at getting  many immigrant workers off U.S. roads and some that ban what he described as an entire class of immigrants from getting commercial driver’s licenses.

Border Report launched in the summer of 2019. San Diego correspondent Salvador Rivera, joined the team in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold on the nation.

Along with El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz and South Texas Sandra Sanchez, the three correspondents highlight some of the stories that stood out to them.

U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Joaquin Castro, both Democrats, spent about an hour inside the facility, which is located downtown and across from San Benito’s museum.

After the tour, Gonzalez said they wanted to make sure the pregnant teens are getting the medical care they need and that there are facilities on site to help them.

“That they have the minimum medical standards of an American facility to care for pregnant women and we want to look after American citizens that are here now, and people with legal status that are here or in other facilities being detained,” said Gonzalez, who represents this congressional district. “We’re especially concerned with American citizens and assuring that they have the care that they deserve under the Constitution.”

El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz looks back at the city he has covered for Border Report for nearly a decade.

As he moves on in his journey, he examines the biggest stories that have impacted El Paso, Juarez and the surrounding communities that straddle two nations separated by a river.

In this episode of Border Report Live, host Sandra Sanchez discusses her reporting on a detention facility located in San Benito, Texas, where pregnant immigrant youth are being sent and where adequate care is reportedly not available.

Along during this Holy Week, we show video from Mount Cristo Rey, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, where pilgrims are streaming up and down the mountain, making a 2.3-mile climb to the 29-foot-tall limestone statue during this holiest of Christian holidays.

The statue overlooks Mexico, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.

In many parts of the border, many Americans travel south to Mexico during Holy Week.

In this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz and host Rudy Mireles discuss how as many a 1 million folks are expected to head south of the border, as well as the safety precautions they need to take, especially as the State Department has put several Mexican states on its Do Not Travel list because it says it’s too dangerous.

The state of Chihuahua, south of West Texas and New Mexico, is a Level 3 destination and the State Department urges Americans to “reconsider” travel there.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday over the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, which he signed on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term.

The justices will hear Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that struck down the citizenship restrictions, none of which have not taken effect anywhere in the country.

Caitlin Patler, associate professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, is the lead author of an amicus brief co-signed by 140 scholars and submitted to the Supreme Court.

She presented estimates of the impacted population of children, projected financial contributions through 2074 under the status quo birthright citizenship, and a summary of research on the benefits of citizenship and the harms of revoking birthright citizenship.

In this episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles discusses how Republicans are ramping up talks to overturn the Supreme Court decision that gave children of people living in the country illegally rights to a free public education.

Also this week, Supreme Court will hear arguments over President Donald Trump’s executive order that would deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the United States to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

Plus, a grandmother from South Texas found herself in an immigration detention facility after forgetting her visa during a trip south of the Border.

El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz and host Rudy Mireles discuss the anger Mexican officials are expressing over the deaths of 13 of its citizens while in U.S. immigration custody.

Plus, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, officials found a trailer with 239 Central and South American migrants, including 17 unaccompanied children, locked inside. Mexican authorities have taken the first steps to repatriate the adults, while the children have been taken into protective custody.

The trailer was found in Xalapa, Mexico, which is about 565 miles south of McAllen in South Texas, where more unaccompanied migrant children are crossing the border illegally.

An analysis by South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez of U.S. Customs and Border Protection data finds that one-third of all unaccompanied migrant children encountered on the Southwest border crossed into the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector.

The city council members sent Austin City Manager TC Broadnax a memorandum titled, “Protecting the People of Austin from Unconstitutional and Violent Federal Operations.”

The memo has five directives, which include exploring ways to prohibit law enforcement from wearing face coverings in the city, expanding education programs to help people understand their rights, ensuring the city is reporting “violence, property damage, and allegations of criminal conduct” by federal officers, and finding ways to report instances where agents may have entered a property without a warrant.

KXAN reporter Grace Reader spoke with one of the council members and got a comment from the city manager’s office.

Maps on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s website on Monday show orange lines, which indicate “smart wall” technology through much of the region, but some border wall is still expected to go through Big Bend Ranch State Park, says Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Jordahl tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles that border wall will devastate Big Bend National Park’s 1,500-foot-tall cliffs overlooking the Rio Grande, prevent wildlife from getting to the river to drink, and detour tourists and hikers and white-water rafters who frequent the region.

In 2024, Big Bend National Park had over 561,000 visitors and generated $57 million to the local economy, and $63 million in economic output to the region, according to a March 12 letter by the Center for Biological Diversity and 131 other organizations and nonprofits sent to several lawmakers to garner their support for putting a stop to the wall, including U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.

Dr. Michele Heisler, medical director for the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights, details the report she co-authored on this episode of Border Report Live to South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles.

She explains how she and other physicians spent several days in Honduras in November interviewing women and men who had just arrived after being deported, and also interviewed with physicians, counselors and government officials.

The report, “What About My Children: Family Separation Among Parents Deported to Honduras,” says 92% of those deported had no criminal background. Most had been long-time residents living in the United States and were arrested at work, at courthouses during mandatory immigration hearings, while running errands, picking up children at school and at traffic stops.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican from Kentucky, has made clear he has little regard for President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, fellow Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin. He says he’ll vote against him.

Their differences go way back.

In today's episode of Border Report Live, Migrant Insider's Pablo Manriquez shares the tale of how both men dislike each other.

Manriquez was in the Senate committee hearing when the men squared off.

Also on this episode, shocking allegations against the late Cesar Chavez that he abused young girls and women has left many in the country stunned.

In this episode of Border Report Live, Jim Chapman of the nonprofit Save RGV tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles of the “hazards” that all of these projects pose to the Rio Grande Valley border environment.

Chapman worries that a launch-related explosion at SpaceX – which is located just four miles from the Port of Brownsville – could cause significant damage if it was to cause fire at the port with all of its new construction and chemicals.

A $15 billion LNG facility is being built at the port, the same port where President Donald Trump last week announced a new oil refinery also will be built on the border with Mexico in Brownsville, Texas.

So far, several Democratic lawmakers have filed two bills in Congress that would give tariff rebates to reimburse consumers for price increases due to tariffs imposed in 2025 by President Donald Trump on other countries.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that Trump exceeded his executive powers in issuing the tariffs by executive order.

South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar has filed the American Consumer Tariff Rebate Act of 2026, which, if passed by Congress, would give “direct refunds to taxpayers for increased consumer costs attributable to tariffs imposed without congressional authorization,” according to the bill filed March 9.

According to CalMatters, the license plate readers are being operated by the Border Patrol and other federal agencies that were granted permits by the state of California. The news agency also learned that as many as 40 are feeding information into Trump administration databases.

CalMatters spoke with one of those aid workers, who first spotted the cameras, thinking it was an abandoned trailer possibly related to some of the humanitarian work he does to help migrants in distress.

CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry, who, along with Khari Johnson, reported on the license plate readers, appeared on Border Report Live on Friday.

Reichlin-Melnick appeared on Border Report Live on Wednesday. He tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles that it is effectively impossible to seek asylum at the southern border.

“Migrants cannot go to ports of entry to seek asylum. And even the limited ways in which they were processing people in ports of entry in Trump’s first term have been cut off,” he said.

His comments come after the release of a McAllen family that had been recently detained by ICE. An ICE official earlier this week said the family had “illegally” entered the United States in May 2023. They were detained and arrested when they went for a mandatory routine meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Feb. 25.

Efrén Olivares, of the National Immigration Law Center, tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles how Antonio Gamez-Cuellar, 18, was arrested with his two younger brothers, Caleb, 14, and Joshua, 12. Their parents, Emma Guadalupe Cuellar Lopez, and Luis Antonio Gamez Martinez, also were detained when the family went to a mandatory meeting with U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement officials on Feb. 25, he said.

Olivares says normally the children did not attend these ICE check-ins. But on this day, ICE officials required the entire family to be present. “And when they showed up, they arrested all five of them without any justification, without giving them a reason and no change in circumstances whatsoever,” Olivares said.

Because Antonio is an adult, he was separated from his family and held at the El Valle Detention Family in Raymondville, Texas. The others were held about 215 miles away at the ICE facility in Dilley, Texas

Word of Antonio Gamez-Cuellar’s release from the El Valle Detention Facility on Monday in Raymondville, Texas, broke as Border Report Live started.

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, was seen walking out of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility with Gamez-Cuellar. De La Cruz spoke briefly before the two got into a vehicle and rode away.

Protesters had gathered outside of the facility during the weekend.

Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta, 69, was reportedly arrested moments before boarding a flight out of the country.

According to FOX5/KUSI in San Diego, Shaleta, 69, of the diocese of St. Peter the Apostle, was arrested on suspicion of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his own church.

The former leader of the Chaldean El Cajon Church had been under investigation from the Vatican and the sheriff’s department after members of the church lodged complaints.

In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Salvador Rivera and host Rudy Mireles discuss the case, including reports from a Catholic-centric publication that Shaleta was seen going into the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club, a renowned strip club and brothel in Tijuana.

Trump on Thursday posted on social media that he’d let Noem go and had replaced her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma.

“Current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere … I thank Kristi for her service at “Homeland,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

This announcement came moments before Thursday’s Border Report Live show with host Rudy Mireles and correspondents Salvador Rivera, Julian Resendiz and Sandra Sanchez, who discussed recent visits by Noem to the various border communities they cover and her rocky tenure leading the agency and over 260,000 employees.

Noem’s last day at DHS is March 31. According to The Hill, Noem has been reassigned as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a regional coalition of countries in Latin America that Trump says will work together on ideology and policy initiatives to help secure the Western Hemisphere and pursue U.S. interests

In Texas’ 23rd Congressional District 23, incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales faces a surprising May 26 runoff for the Republican nomination against YouTuber and firearms manufacturer Brandon Herrera after neither received over 50% of the vote, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Gonzales decries ‘filthy campaign tactics’ from opponent as he heads to runoff In the latest episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz also talks about a formal investigation announced Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee against Gonzales, who has been accused of having had an affair with a former staffer who committed suicide.

South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez breaks down several border races, including that of two-time Latin Grammy winning singer Bobby Pulido, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night to go against Republican incumbent Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District. De La Cruz was unopposed on Tuesday.

Ev Meade, historian and the director of Proceso Pacífico, which runs peacebuilding programs in Mexican and Colombian communities impacted by cartel violence, tells Border Report Live simply killing “capos” like Oseguera is not enough to end cartel dominance over Mexico.

Meade also discussed President Trump’s influence over his counterpart in Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the likelihood of U.S. military intervention south of the border.

Another topic broached by Meade on Border Report Live is the need for more severe punishment for murder in Mexico on par with prison sentences given for drug trafficking.

Battalion Search and Rescue leaders say they have located 100 sets of skeletal remains there in the past two years. Most of the remains appear to be women, group founder James Holeman said.

“It’s a shocking number, it’s a shocking statistic,” Holeman said Monday on Border Report Live. “Women and young girls have been found in a very small area just west of El Paso. Their average age is 29, the youngest are a pair of 16-year-old girls.”

Battalion Search and Rescue has been looking for imperiled migrants since 2020 in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The group focused on New Mexico after nonprofits and federal authorities began reporting a record number of migrant deaths in the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol in 2023 and 2024.

They played a life-sized game of lotería, passed out aguas fresca in the 90-degree heat, and hit a piñata in the shape of a red border buoys full of candy.

“The Department of Homeland Security is actively installing dangerous border buoys in our river,” Bekah Hinojosa of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network told Border Report as she arrived Thursday afternoon to set up for the protest. “The river is supposed to be a pristine habitat, it nourishes our community and we demand equal protections for our river.”

Hinojosa says she watched buoys being installed on Thursday “causing an ecological disaster.”

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles and South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez break down how Trump pushed for an end to sanctuary cities, sought voter ID reforms and touted what he calls the “strongest and most secure border in American history.”

Trump also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for what he called “unrestricted immigration and open borders,” which he says brought unwanted criminals into the United States.

Trump also called for the full and immediate restoration of all funding for border security and the Department of Homeland Security.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, David Hernandez, associate professor and co-chair of the Critical Race and Political Economy Department at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts talks with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez about ICE’s plan to move thousands of migrants into these facilities in unsuspecting communities.

Hernandez conducts research on U.S. immigration enforcement policy and how past administrations have used detentions as an immigration deterrent.

ICE wants to spend $38.3 billion to increase detention beds to 92,600 nationwide. At least 20 communities have been slated to have large warehouses converted into detention facilities that hold upwards of 10,000 people each.

But it wasn’t until Sunday that Mexican troops found the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and ended his life in a hail of bullets. The obvious question is why now?

Mexican army kills leader of powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel during operation to capture him.

International security experts say U.S. pressure has been mounting on Mexico since President Trump took office last year and designated the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Mexico, too, had cause to eliminate a public safety threat – CJNG five years ago allegedly tried to kill Omar Garcia Harfuch, the -then Mexico City police chief and Mexico’s current public safety secretary.

Joining us on Border Report Live is Dale Buckner, CEO of Global Guardian, a Virginia-based international security firm.

“I think the United States has an unbelievable capability with a combination of signal intelligence, satellite intelligence and human intelligence,” Buckner told us.

Trump will address Congress on Feb. 24. The Democrats’ event, which will features speeches from lawmakers, will take place at 8:30 p.m. on the National Mall, according to several reports.

During this latest episode of Border Report Live, Pablo Manriquez, of the Washington, D.C.-based Migrant Insider, tells southern California correspondent Salvador Rivera what to watch for during Tuesday’s big speech.

Manriquez also gives an update on 2-month-old Juan Nicolás, who was deported to Mexico after being held at an ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

Roseann Bacha-Garza, manager of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Community Historical Archaeology project with Schools (CHAPS) joined Border Report Live to discuss the upcoming three-day event being held Feb. 27-March 1 that starts in Alamo, Texas.

Bacha-Garza says this year they’re walking 24 miles.

In March 2025, the group walked 65 miles over seven days, retracing several sites where “freedom seekers” went through South Texas.

After days of heavy rain in Southern California, the smell in the border area is overwhelming and a gubernatorial hopeful who visited this week wants to declare it a state of emergency.

California correspondent Salvador Rivera brings exclusive reporting from the region on the latest episode of Border Report Live.

Rivera toured the flooding on Wednesday. He describes the boom structure that Mexico is talking about putting up to help stop contaminates from coming across from Mexico.

The National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed the emergency motion in federal court in Oregon to stop ICE from conducting enforcement operations near schools, colleges, churches, hospitals, and other community-serving “sensitive locations.”

“The mere presence of ICE near school grounds terrorizes students and educators and disrupts teaching and learning. Fear and cruelty have no place in public education or our democracy,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in a statement. “We are taking this legal action to demand that long-standing protections for sensitive locations be restored. The places we go for care, education, and worship must never become places of intimidation and cruelty at the hands of federal agents.”

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, California correspondent Salvador Rivera talks about the lawsuit filed in Oregon. Several California teachers are part of the lawsuit and have given testimony about how ICE raids are harming children’s ability to learn.

In the latest episode of Border Report Live, South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez talks about how members of the No Border Wall Coalition of Laredo are warning borderland residents not to sign right-of-entry forms, which now include a provision that will allow for construction, as well.

California correspondent Salvador Rivera discusses how wildlife could be affected by border wall construction out west.

And El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz discusses a stunning ruling by a Mexican judge who ordered free the owner of a crematorium where hundreds of embalmed bodies remained piled in offices and a warehouse for years.

The judge on Friday ordered the release of Jose Luis Arellano Cuaron, proprietor of Plenitud crematorium, saying whatever transgressions he committed are an administrative matter, not criminal offenses. The judge ruled Arellano did not hide or improperly dispose of 386 bodies found by police inside a building in the Polo Gamboa neighborhood of south Juarez in June 2025.

“This resolution ignores everything we found in that building. It’s impossible this judge can say there was no hiding, no withholding of bodies when ashes were delivered to people,” Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said.

Some of those “ashes” were crushed rock and animal bone fragments, state and federal officials have said.

According to CalMatters, a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization, the university police helps monitor the coastline for smuggling activity.

Phoebe Huss, a student reporter who works for CalMatters, uncovered how many police agencies throughout California are part of Operation Stonegarden, which provides agencies with funding to help fight illegal immigration.

Border Report Live spoke with Huss about her investigation and about how these agencies may be violating California’s 2017 Sanctuary Laws by working with the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

That was in 2008. Transnational criminal organizations now use drones to drop fentanyl, meth and cocaine in border communities like El Paso and to guide migrants jumping over the border wall. They’re also attaching grenades and homemade bombs to them to harry rivals in southern Mexico and attack soldiers in Chihuahua.

“The use of drones on the border is not new,” said Victor Manjarrez, Jr., a former U.S. Border Patrol chief in West Texas and Arizona. “The cartels are very measured of what they do in the U.S. for fear of our response. […] But there always could be a nutcase there, a lone wolf who says, ‘I want to make my mark in life.’ That is what I fear.”

That means the cartel threat to the U.S. is real.

Mexican Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said four suspects detained by the army in connection with the disappearance of 10 individuals from La Concordia mine project have started talking. They are giving authorities clues as to why a cell of the Sinaloa cartel targeted miners, engineers and environmental specialists.

“What they are saying is they confused them with members of a rival group. Those were their initial statements and, of course, we will have more information and more detainees,” Garcia Harfuch said Tuesday at a news conference in Mexico City.

At least one of the bodies found appear to be that of one of the missing employees. Authorities also said four people have been arrested in connection with the missing workers, most of whom are Mexican nationals.

In today’s episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Julian Resendiz discusses where the search currently stands, plus how it can affect companies and other firms that do business in Mexico.

Plus, during his Halftime performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl, singer Bad Bunny handed a young boy his Grammy Award trophy.

That created speculation on social media that it was Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who, along with his father, was detained by immigration officials in Minneapolis.

Border Report discovered most of these establishments are very private about their business operations and their products.

All five refused to speak about Mexico’s new ban on vaping and how it will potentially impact vape shops on the U.S. side of the border.

As of Jan. 17, the importation, sale, marketing, and distribution of vaping devices and e-cigarettes were ruled illegal in Mexico and can result in heavy penalties including up to eight years in prison.

The Immigrant Safety Act (House Bill 9) calls for the termination or non-renewal of interagency contracts that facilitate the operation of detention centers such at the ones in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties.

It also bans the use of state land for immigration detention and prohibits local police from entering into 287(g) federal agreements allowing them to perform immigration duties.

Congressional Democrats are seeking new rules for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis and are threatening to block funding for the Homeland Security Department.

Republican are pushing back on many of their demands.

At the same time, Republican have their own demands, including requiring proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday on social media that her agency will require officers on the ground in Minneapolis to wear body cameras following intense scrutiny of their conduct and the deaths of two people.

According to the Associated Press, President Donald Trump said the decision was up to Noem but added that he thought it was generally good for law enforcement to wear cameras.

In this episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles breaks down the new rules for officers and what is planned for immigration officers around the nation.

Lab tests taken of the horse and sent to Iowa confirmed the results, the USDA said Friday.

Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared the New World screwworm a state disaster as a preemptive measure to bring attention to the dangers this insect could bring.

South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez talks about Abbott’s announced on the latest episode of Border Report Live.

The North American trade agreement was signed in 2020 during Trump’s first term. It allows commerce to flow between the countries freely and protects the countries from the effects of tariffs.

In today’s episode of Border Report Live, correspondents Julian Resendiz and Salvador Rivera take a deep dive into the USMCA and what’s at stake for each country. Also, despite recent layoffs at U.S.-run factories in Mexico, tariffs are actually helping to keep jobs in place along the border.

Rahmani is one of the prosecutors responsible for taking down the once powerful Arellano-Felix Organization that terrorized the Tijuana-San Diego region for decades.

He appeared on Border Report Live and offered a rare cross-border legal perspective in regard to cartel operations, drug manufacturing and human trafficking still happening along the U.S.–Mexico border.

Rahmani discussed what it’s like to prosecute complex transnational crimes and how rhetoric and policy toward Mexico can intersect with enforcement, sovereignty, and legal accountability.

Mario Guerrero, the executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, says the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have conducted numerous raids at construction sites in the region, and it’s creating fear among families.

Guerrero appeared on Border Report Live and shared video of ICE patrols captured on surveillance cameras. One video shows an unmarked vehicle speeding through a subdivision and barreling through a construction site before workers are seen running away.

Guerrero said he worries that ICE agents are being reckless when they arrive at work sites without prior notice. He said children could be playing outside and get hurt or worse.

The new border wall is being put in near Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain topped with 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Christ located at the intersection of Sunland Park, New Mexico, El Paso and Mexico.

Border Report’s El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz describes the blasting and controversies surrounding it in the latest episode of Border Report Live, with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez.

WATCH: Blasting for border wall construction begins at Mount Cristo Rey Also, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, visited El Paso this week and talks to business leaders about ICE enforcement operations and recent deaths at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility commonly called “Camp East Montana.”

The governor recently told reporters that she fears what has transpired in other U.S. cities, including this month’s deadly shooting in Minneapolis, could happen in her state.

Some Arizona lawmakers welcome the arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are trying to pass legislation that would severely punish those who interfere with immigration officers.

But Arizona has been dealing with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown for months.

The two senators, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, came under immediate fire from the Trump administration.

Pablo Manriquez, editor of Migrant Insider, says Hawley’s decision to reverse his vote likely had more to do with helping his state in the long run than looking out for the people of Venezuela.

Manríquez is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who reports from the halls of Congress. He appeared on Border Report Live to discuss the ever-evolving situation in Venezuela on Capitol Hill.

The area known as the Bootheel of New Mexico is sparsely populated, mountainous and is seeing little migrant or drug smuggling activity, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico, said Wednesday on Border Report Live.

“This Bootheel border wall project is the absolute definition of waste and will do nothing to make our country safer,” Vasquez said. “American taxpayers will get zero return on their investment if the Department of Homeland Security pursues this plan to build a $1.6 billion dollar border wall in one of the most rugged, remote stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border.”

The contract awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. consists of a 49-mile barrier in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. It includes a primary border wall system, a secondary barrier and extensive motion detection technology. A dirt road to facilitate vehicle traffic by construction crews and Border Patrol vehicles also reportedly is under construction.

U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Del Rio sector encountered the Mexican man sitting on a chair near the Rio Grande west of Del Rio, Texas, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In this episode of Border Report Live, we discuss the lawsuits have been filed against the government over the care of the migrants in their custody.

According to the Associated Press, local news outlets identified the reporter as Carlos Castro, the director of Código Norte Veracruz. He was shot and killed at a restaurant in Poza Rica, in the Gulf state of Veracruz.

Like Castro, Mexicans journalist risks their lives when they go to work. Castro had reportedly left Veracruz for months to escape threats.

In this Episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles and El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz discuss some of the dangers reporters face in places like Mexico and along the border, especially those who cover crime.

Amy Peikoff, a lawyer with the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, co-authored a policy brief that says more Americans are facing violations to the 4th Amendment search and seizure laws at the border.

Peikoff appears on the latest episode of Border Report Live.

She tells by South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez that from 2015 to 2024, warrantless searches quadrupled to over 46,000. Most troubling, she says, is the seizure of electronic devices, like phones and computers, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

What happened to Nicolas Maduro has sent chills to enemies and reluctant U.S. partners throughout the world, analysts say. But how likely is Trump to keep going after more high-profile alleged criminals on foreign soil?

One informed observer says leaders in Colombia, Cuba and Mexico might have reason to worry.

“There’s potential for something like this to happen again,” said Michael Ballard, director of intelligence for Virginia-based Global Guardian in this episode of Border Report Live.

She also doubts American boots on the ground in her country would solve the root causes of drug trafficking, such as lack of economic opportunities for young people in Mexico and drug demand in the United States.

“Few Mexicans agree with an intervention. Not only does it not help – who are they going to bomb? – but also our sovereignty will be defended,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday. “Last time there was an intervention, they took half of our territory. Intervention is not an option.”

She was referring to the Mexican-American War of 1846, although the U.S. again intervened in Mexico in 1916 when Gen. John “Blackjack” Pershing led 6,000 troops into Mexico to chase Pancho Villa after he raided Columbus, New Mexico.

In 2025, some of the most viewed stories involved either a high-profile arrest or the terror inflicted by cartels, especially in Mexico.

However, stories about the environment were also among the most-viewed, including the decades-long issue of sewage, trash, and other debris flowing into the U.S. from Mexico and the ongoing challenge to address it.  

In this episode of Border Report Live, all three correspondents — Julian Resendiz, Salvador Rivera and Sandra Sanchez — joined host Rudy Mireles to talk about stories that had the most impact in their respective regions.

Ben Johnson, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the new polices will add to the backlog of immigration cases and will cause migrants who already have undergone years of vetting, to undergo additional evaluations.

Johnson questions how much this will cost the Department of Homeland Security and says it is unfair to ban migrants from applying for asylum simply because of their country of origin. And he says because the government is taking discretionary action, it is not subject to court approval.

In the latest edition of Border Report Live, South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez talks about AILA's reaction to these policies, which were announced after the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard soldiers over the Thanksgiving holiday.

In the latest edition of Border Report Live, Nicholas Gildersleeve, base director in Tapachula for the nonprofit organization Doctor's Without Borders, tells South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez about the harrowing conditions migrants stuck there face, and how his organization tries to help them.

Hanne Daguman, who is from Norway, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as she left an immigration hearing on Monday morning.

Joshua says his wife is diabetic and hasn’t been able to eat the food they’re serving because it mostly consists of pasta, bread, rice and potatoes, and other high-carb foods that are essentially poisonous to her.

Despite being married for a little over a year, Joshua says Hanne was considered to be “out of status” after her work visa expired.

On this episode of Border Report Live, he talked about how he believed he and his wife were in the right by attending immigration hearings and trying to fix her visa status.

The plan, a response to the recent assassination of a popular mayor, involves sending money and more troops to the state.

Mexican officials said nearly 1,000 additional troops were scheduled to arrive in Michoacan on Monday, bringing the total of federal forces in the state to more than 10,000.

But a major part of the plan — the “Michoacan Plan for Peace and Justice” — calls for investing billions of dollars in social programs.

In this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz examines what is in the plan, where all that money will go, and why the plan is being heavily criticized.

The report, in great detail, examines Mexico’s relationship with the U.S. across economics, politics, and social issues. It found that Mexico’s economy is not growing, yet the country has continued a series of welfare programs that are proving difficult to maintain and are draining the budget.

During a panel discussion on Thursday, Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at the Baker Institute, said he sees red flags in Mexico’s democracy, finances, and approach to organized criminal activity.

In this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz delves into the report released this week.

The “Michoacan Plan for Peace and Justice” comes on the heels of the assassination of Carlos Alberto Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, which is the second biggest city in the state of Michoacan.

He was gunned down Saturday night at a Day of the Dead festival. Manzo’s death marks the seventh mayoral assassination in three years in that state alone, and it underscores some of Mexico’s most pressing issues: cartel violence and drug trafficking.

In this episode of Border Report Live, California correspondent Salvador Rivera and guest Everard Meade discuss some of the challenges Mexico is facing under the Sheinbaum administration.

Meade is the director of Proceso Pacifico, an organization that works in communities impacted by cartel violence, including the city of Culiacán, home to the Sinaloa cartel, which is considered to be the largest manufacturer and distributor of fentanyl in the world.