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The city of El Cenizo has received over half a million dollars in grant money for use of community development. The grant is from the Texas Community Development Block program and is usually awarded to rural cities with a population of less than 50,000. The Texas Department of Rural Affairs will present the check to El Cenizo next week.

EL CENIZO — Fearing something was wrong as he arrived Wednesday after a long day's work, gardener Salvador García shouted to the police officers by his driveway that he was the homeowner. He later wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut. The officers, who swarmed García before he could get out of his beat-up white pickup, actually were federal immigration agents. They were looking for him. A dozen years ago, García had admitted in immigration court that he was in the country illegally and agreed to go back to Mexico. He never did. Unable to catch the day's...

An El Cenizo man kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday evening is safe.Authorities have two of the men they believe were responsible for the crime in custody, said Tessie Medina, a spokeswoman for the Webb County Sheriff's Department. A family member of the victim called 9-1-1 at about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday to report the kidnapping, just after it happened. The caller told authorities that the kidnappers had threatened violence if the family contacted police, Medina said. "They feared for the victim's life," Medina said. Sheriff's deputies, along with Border Patrol agents and Texas Rangers, discreetly set up surveillance around the neighborhood....

Residents of Rio Bravo and El Cenizo are concerned about the escalating grass fires in Nuevo Laredo, which fire officials there say have been intentionally set.Warnings have been issued to residents with respiratory problems, urging them to stay indoors because of the heavy smoke drifting across the Rio Grande. Fears that flying sparks might start fires in the two Webb County cities, which have many structures made of wood, may have been realized late Thursday when a small home went up in flames. No major injuries were reported. "We have alerted the people about this emergency to help avoid health...

"CNN's Ed Lavandera reports on a Texas border town where Spanish is the official language and nobody bothers illegal immigrants." I couldn't figure out how to link to the video. Look to the bottom right corner.

RIO BRAVO — Empty cocaine packages littered the tall grass like candy wrappers along the bank of the Rio Grande in El Cenizo, a small but growing city 15 miles southeast of Laredo. On closer inspection, each of the 30 or so packages revealed layers — foil, plastic kitchen wrap and brown packing tape. Two large flour sacks were discarded nearby, each with a car seatbelt ingeniously tied diagonally across it for no-hassle transporting. The drugs were long gone, their wrappings not just evidence of a successful crime but another artifact in an outdoor museum of discarded clothes, inner tubes...

LAREDO — A proposal to end the automatic U.S. citizenship for any baby born in the United States has caught the attention of concerned border residents who question whether the proposal could even be enforced. The U.S. House of Representatives could take up the contentious measure on birthright citizenship as early as today, ending nearly 140 years of legal interpretation and tradition. The bill, authored by Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., would end the interpretation of the 14th Amendment that a child born on U.S. soil automatically becomes an American citizen. The proposal has found considerable support from fellow Republicans who...

El Cenizo City Council members anxiously await a grant that, if approved, could mean the construction of a 10-acre park with amenities ranging from baseball fields to a bird-watching area. Mayor Raul Reyes said last week that the Texas Community Development Program will announce in January the five cities that will receive a park grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In total, 25 cities have applied for the $500,000 grant, Reyes said, and only five will receive the funds. "Our disadvantage is the other cities' experience," he said, adding that other cities competing for the grant include the...

EL CENIZO — On the north side of the Rio Grande and about 15 miles southeast of Laredo, what started in the early 1980s as a colonia, an unincorporated development with few municipal services, celebrated its 16th birthday as the city of El Cenizo last week. El Cenizo grew without much notice until 1999, when its leaders declared that all City Commission meetings would officially be conducted in Spanish. At the same time, a "safe haven" ordinance was passed, stating that any city employee who turned in undocumented immigrants to authorities would be fired. Some city leaders simply didn't know...

The Laredo-area League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are urging City Council to create a city ordinance to deter the Minutemen Project as nearby El Cenizo did so last week. "Texas LULAC does not wish to belittle the Minutemen Project," said Estela Quintanilla, director for LULAC District XIV. "But we oppose the project because it employs tactics against immigrants … and tends to breed racism." The Minutemen Project, a nationally organized group of citizens aiming to stop illegal immigration on the U.S. borders, already has two active groups in Texas with one mission in October in the El Paso...

Juan Alejandro spend his first full day as El Cenizo's police chief Friday reviewing the department's stores and developing a request for necessary equipment, which he submitted to the mayor. Things are a bit tougher now because it's just him and Officer Richard Sparks on the streets. Alejandro took over the job amid controversy Thursday night, when the three-member City Council accepted the resignation of the previous police chief, Rito Javier de Anda. The council voted unanimously to name Alejandro as de Anda's replacement. De Anda's departure prompted the resignations of the city's only other peace officer as well as...

The City of El Cenizo approved an ordinance Thursday night that its mayor hopes will deter the Minutemen Project and drug activity from the city's riverfront park. "We want to avert a potential showdown," said El Cenizo Mayor Raul Reyes. "We don't want people to come in here and harass our residents." The Minutemen are a group of civilians who seek to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigration; they plan to be in Laredo in April. Officials with the private group said they would protest any violation of their right to be on public land. "We'll fight any...

An El Cenizo man, one of two charged in connection to the alleged kidnapping, beating, and sexual assault of an unidentified Honduran woman, was arrested this week by Webb County Sheriff's investigators. Authorities have now initiated a manhunt for a second suspect, who is also from El Cenizo. Luis Eduardo Mendoza, 39, who resides at the 500 block of Rodriguez Street, was arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated kidnapping, a felony one. He was remanded to Webb County jail under a total $100,000 bond set by Justice of the Peace Ricardo Rangel. Authorities say Mendoza, along with one other El...