Border Report Live

Immigration, border crime and the fight against cartels remain the most popular topics for Border Report readers. 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 i...

A South Texas environmentalist who studies water quality in the Rio Grande says waterborne barriers and new border wall will hurt wildlife and the river’s flow. Elsa Hull, a member of the No Border Wall Coalition, owns borderlands on the Rio Grande in San Ygnacio, in Zapata County. In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Hull discusses a recent study she participated in to inspect border buoy...

Nabeel Younis recently reached two major milestones: He finished his course work at a California university and obtained a green card. Just about four years ago, Younis crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in search of asylum. Younis fled his home country of Pakistan, where he faced persecution for practicing Christianity in a Muslim country. Border Report has been following Younis’ story since before h...

Iglesia Cristiana Roca de Refugio has a simple stated mission: “We are a community of immigrants committed to loving and serving God.” But the south San Antonio-based Mennonite church has been reeling in recent weeks as members are being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Pastor Dianne Garcia was a guest on Border Report Live on Thursday. She said at least a dozen members of her chur...

Immigration lawyer William Menard is seeing an increase in cases as the U.S. government ramps up arrests and detentions. Menard was a guest on Border Report Live. He confirmed that more and more people are being arrested during routine check-ins, as well as in public. He said he’s even heard of people being arrested by immigration agents during biometrics appointments, where they submit fingerprin...

Mexico has dodged, at least for now, a new tariff for failing to pay a massive water debt to the United States in October. South Texas farmers suffered from the stunted deliveries of water to the Rio Grande over the past five years, so President Trump threatened to impose a 5 percent tariff on Mexico by year’s end if it didn’t catch up. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum maintains her country wen...

New data shows mixed-status families are fearful of being deported and they’re discussing self-deporting to other countries as families to avoid separation. On the latest episode of Border Report Live, professor Austin Kocher of Syracuse University talks about results of a survey he took part in with American Families to expose what mixed-status families currently are contemplating as U.S. Immigra...

A group that represents immigration lawyers on Monday criticized the Trump administration's travel ban and new asylum ban on migrants from 19 countries and accused the policies of being outside the realm of judicial review. 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 hav...

Migrants crossing the border from Guatemala into Mexico's southern city of Tapachula, en route to the United States, are facing a "dead end" city with no where to go, and they're often hurt and suffering, the director of Doctor's Without Borders says. In the latest edition of Border Report Live, Nicholas Gildersleeve, base director in Tapachula for the nonprofit organization Doctor's Without Borde...

American Families Against Cartel Terrorism thinks it’s time that the La Línea gang be added to the list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. La Línea , often described as the enforcement unit of the old Juarez cartel, is accused of shooting and killing nine Americans and torching the vehicles they were riding in on Nov. 4, 2019. The shooting happened on a dirt road near the Chihuahua-Son...

The idea of working 40 hours a week is foreign to folks in Mexico, but that could soon change. Lawmakers south of the border are considering lowering the standard workweek from 48 hours to 40, which is common in places like the U.S., England, Canada and Japan. Mexican workers who spoke with Border Report said they welcome a shorter workweek, adding that they’ve spent so much time away from their f...

New travel restrictions placed on 19 countries are scarce on details and it’s uncertain how it will affect asylum-seekers wanting to come to the United States. In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, spoke with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez on whether he believes the Trump administration is justified in is...

Military forces in Latin America are responding to a surge in drone attacks with drones of their own. In October, the Colombian army activated its first unmanned aircraft battalion at the military base in Tolemaida. The so-called drone battalion is designed to attack and defend against illegal armed groups such as guerrillas, who have also adopted the use of drones to target not only military pers...

William Menard says the scale and types of arrests currently taking place under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown are unprecedented. An immigration lawyer of 12 years, Menard said he was surprised to see Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting people who are attending immigration hearings and “just trying to do things the right way.” In San Diego this past week, a Norwe...

Joshua Daguman is growing increasingly concerned about the health of his wife, Hanne, who finds herself in immigration detention in San Diego. 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 consi...

About 80 people spent their Thursday morning protesting the immigration arrests and apprehensions that are taking place inside San Diego’s Federal Courthouse and other U.S. government facilities in the area. Our California correspondent Salvador Rivera joins us live to show us how residents are concerned with people being “blindsided” as they show up for appointments to renew visas, secure residen...

The North American Development Bank is accepting applications for millions of dollars in grants and low-interest loans for water resiliency projects on the southern border. The Water Resiliency Fund was approved earlier this year, but in a summit held this month in McAllen, bank leaders announced a call for proposed projects. In the latest episode of Border Report Live, NADBank Managing Director J...

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a policy used under past administrations to deny migrants a chance to apply for asylum on the Mexican border until space opened up to process claims. The justices will hear the Trump administration’s appeal of lower court rulings that struck down the practice known as metering, in which U.S. border agents capped the number of people seeking asylum at borde...

The planned closure of an El Paso commercial port of entry is giving a New Mexico community new arguments in favor of having its own border crossing. The federal government is finalizing plans for multimillion-dollar renovations at the Bridge of the Americas cargo lanes. The work is expected to take at least three years and likely lead to a permanent ban on trucks there. In this episode of Border...

U.S. immigration courts are “dysfunctional” and need more money, judges and new technology, according to a new report. The nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute published “Breaking the Cycle of Dysfunction at the U.S. Immigration Courts” on Thursday. It found that U.S. immigration courts have been in a crisis for decades now. “They have been struggling to keep up with the number of cas...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a Texas county for giving money to nonprofit organizations that provide legal services for migrants facing deportation from the United States. Paxton on Monday filed a lawsuit against Harris County Commissioners Court for approving $1.3 million last month for its Immigrant Legal Services Fund Program, which provides money to nonprofits that represent migr...

On this episode of Border Report Live, Migrant Insider's Pablo Manríquez explains why the government shutdown is nearing its end. He also discusses the Supreme Court's surprising decision not to pursue an end to same-sex marriage. And Manríquez details his long-time relationship with Raul Grijalva, a Congressman from Arizona considered a Washington power broker who died earlier this year. He talks...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday outlined the public safety plan that she and her Cabinet crafted to restore control and peace in the crime-ridden state of Michoacan. 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 Mon...

Rice University’s Baker Institute for Foreign Policy has released its Mexico Country Outlook 2026 report, and researchers found that things are starting to appear grim for the country. 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 welfa...

The president of Mexico this week responded to the assassination of a mayor by announcing a plan aimed at addressing the root causes of violence. 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....