Free Republic

TThe Biden administration plans on “massive movements” of Haitian migrants in a small Texas border city on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, an official said Friday, representing a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly assembled under and around a bridge. Details are yet to be finalized but will likely involve five to eight flights a day, according to the official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Antonio, the nearest major city, may be among the departure cities. U.S....

Hundreds of farmers who rely on the water from the irrigation district that channels water along the Rio Grande in central New Mexico face a second straight year of early cutoffs. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board voted Friday to end deliveries for irrigation a month early because of low water availability. The Oct. 1 shutoff means winter crops like those grown by Travis Harris just north of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge about 90 miles (144 kilometers) south of Albuquerque are at risk. “This is my livelihood,” Harris told the Albuquerque Journal. “This is how I live...

90 Days since she was tapped as the point person on the Border by the Biden Administration, Kamala Harris finally visits the border. Her performance in this arena has been so bad, even far-left publications are critical of her actions: The liberal Los Angeles Times said Vice President Kamala Harris has been ineffective in her role only five months after fawning over her so hard that the paper’s coverage was labeled “inappropriate and disappointing.” The L.A. paper was ridiculed on social media in January when it announced “Covering Kamala Harris,” a project described as “a beat dedicated to her historic...

As hurricane season approaches, officials in deep South Texas are increasingly worried about breaches in the levee system that were created to facilitate border-wall construction, which the Biden administration has since halted. There are at least four breaches in the levee system that protects this low-lying area in Hidalgo County from flooding, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said on Wednesday morning, standing at the base of a mammoth break in the 25-foot-tall dirt levee. The levee was built under the 2006 Safe Fence Act to protect this delta region from Rio Grande flooding. However, the dirt levee also had been...

The border crisis is turning deadly. On March 20, a nine-year-old girl drowned in the Rio Grande. Why aren’t major media outlets more interested? On the evening of March 20 in Eagle Pass, Texas, a small town on the U.S.-Mexico border about 150 miles west of San Antonio, U.S. Border Patrol agents on riverine patrol were flagged down by people on the Mexican side of the river. They alerted the agents to a woman and her two small children, a boy and a girl, lying unconscious on a sandbar near the south side of the riverbank.The agents, with the help...

It began with the flicker of a flashlight, muffled voices and the gentle splash of paddles carrying softly across the stillness of the Rio Grande Valley. As the silhouette drew closer to the shore we could suddenly see the bow of a small boat and the faces of women and children peering back at us though the gloom. Moments later the raft reached the riverbank and the dozen or so occupants began clambering on to U.S. soil with dreams of starting a new life in Joe Biden's America. As they stumbled around in the darkness a young woman tripped and...

The brunt of Hanna is taking aim on south Texas. Hurricane Hanna has strengthened and is sustaining winds of 80 mph. The Category 1 hurricane is moving to the west at 8 mph and the center is currently about 50 miles ENE of Port Mansfield, Texas. Very heavy rain, strong winds and storm surge are currently impacting the south Texas coast, the worst of it south of Corpus Christi, down along the coast to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. The western eye wall is now along the coast there. While wind/storm surge are notable impacts along the coast...

ROMA, February 6, 2005 — Stone offerings in cemeteries and candles on Friday nights have been a tradition for some local families for generations. Some of those traditions bear a lingering memory of the Sefardim — Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many settled in northern Mexico, practicing their religion in secret and changing their names to hide their heritage. Some even converted to Catholicism. “Eventually, the Inquisition got all the way up here,” said Noel Benavides, a local historian. “Some of them didn’t relinquish their religion; some were executed if they didn’t accept...

There's heavy construction south of Donna. It’s the second project of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley. This is the ground preparation for the construction of a new border wall. CHANNEL 5 NEWS asked Border Patrol about the contractors, agents and equipment we're seeing at this location. They referred us to an April memo announcing $145 million and a contract with SLSCO to build 13 miles of border wall in the Valley.

The Trump administration has awarded three new contracts to build about 65 miles of new (NEW) border wall across the Rio Grande Valley—the busiest sector for Border Patrol agents. According to a press release from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP), the new border wall sections will be built across Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron Counties in Texas. "The border wall system will include an 18-30 foot tall steel bollard wall, all-weather roads, lighting, enforcement cameras, and other related technology to create a complete enforcement zone," the press release states. Construction of the new border wall sections is expected...

CBP... has awarded three contracts to construct up to approximately 65 miles of new (ALL NEW) border wall system within U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector located in Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron Counties in Texas... (It) will include an 18-30 foot tall steel bollard wall, all-weather roads, lighting, enforcement cameras, and other related technology to create a complete enforcement zone. Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2020, pending availability of real estate, and will take place in locations where no barriers currently exist. (September 29) a contract to construct up to approximately 21 miles of new...

STARR COUNTY, Texas – (Yesterday, Mon, August 26, was) the last chance for public comments regarding the proposed border wall construction in Starr County (actually, almost the whole Rio Grande Valley)... The proposed action is to construct a border wall system... (which) would consist of 30-foot tall steel posts and enforcement zones with gates and surveillance technology.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection... has awarded a contract to construct approximately 11 miles of new levee wall system in three non-contiguous segments located within U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector in Hidalgo County, Texas (South of McAllen). The project area begins at the intersection of Conway Road and the... levee in Mission, Texas and extends eastward to approximately one quarter mile west of Stewart Road and the IBWC levee south of San Juan, Texas. The contract for this project was awarded on August 7, 2019 to Southwest Valley Constructors Co. for the base contract amount of...

Starr County provides a glimpse of what a new era of wall-building will mean... The barrier planned for Starr County is part of the longest stretch of new border wall so far constructed under Trump — a total of 95 miles in the Rio Grande Valley... Under current plans, Starr County will be completely walled off from Mexico. Federal maps show the county's meandering river border will be entirely blocked off by 52 miles of steel bollard wall — 18 to 30 feet tall. Every mile will include tall floodlights, hi-tech cameras and a 150-foot-wide patrol road.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has awarded a contract to construct approximately four miles of new border wall system, consisting of four segments, located just south of Rio Grande City and La Grulla within U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector in Starr County, Texas. The contract for this project was awarded on June 26, 2019 to Southwest Valley Constructors for the amount of $33,048,700 and construction is anticipated to begin as early as November 2019. This project includes the construction of 18-30 foot tall steel bollards, in...

Texas Border Patrol agents fear that a six-foot alligator who lives in the Rio Grande, which migrants swim across daily to get into the United States from Mexico, may carry out a deadly attack.

You’ve probably seen the photo by now. A father and daughter from El Salvador washed up on the Mexican shore of the Rio Grande Monday after trying to cross the river. The little girl was not quite two years old. The image is tragic and hard to look at. Today the Associated Press offered some additional background on the story behind the image. The family left their country for economic reasons but planned to file an asylum claim anyway: The young family from El Salvador appeared in this border city over the weekend with panic on their faces.They went...

Our open door along the southern border for people claiming to seek asylum is such a magnet for the world’s poor that a group of 116 people traveled all the way from Africa to Mexico to enter the United States. In video tweeted out by Customs and Border Patrol, the large group, identified as coming from Angola, Cameroun, and Congo (all desperately poor) can be seen wading across the water in the Rio Grande, some carrying children in their arms – an automatic entry into the United States under law that the House of Representatives refuses to change. There are...

A group of illegals from Angola, Cameroon and Congo waded across the Rio Grande River and into the United States, video from Customs and Border Protection shows. The video shows male and female adults walking through the water and into Texas, several with children on their shoulders.

The United States Border Patrol says it has rescued dozens of migrants who've tried to cross a swift-moving Rio Grande. Agents in the Del Rio area say they have rescued more than 60 people from the river. The Rio Grande is expected to approach and remain at flood stage for the next several weeks due to an increase in water release from Amistad Dam, according to a statement. Most of the rescues happened when immigrants became stuck on an island in the middle of the Rio Grande. Most of the migrants appear to be from Central America, including some unaccompanied...