Texas-Mexican border Archives

Group asks Biden administration to step up reunification of border families

Apr 9, 2021

An interfaith collection of religious activists is asking the Biden administration to step up the pace of family reunification to remedy the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated an estimated 5,500 immigrant children from their families by invoking criminal proceedings against their parents.

By Mark Pattison

No evidence migrants at border significantly spreading virus

Mar 11, 2021

As he ended Texas’s coronavirus restrictions Wednesday over the objections of public health officials, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has tried shifting concern about the virus’ spread to migrants with COVID-19 crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, though without evidence they are a significant factor.

By Paul J. Weber and Nomaan Merchant

Birth on a riverbank: Woman’s ordeal shows risks at border
- Dec 16, 2020
Merín, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. gave birth to her daughter next to the Rio Grande, attended to by two Border Patrol agents, showing how lives routinely end up at risk at the U.S.-Mexico border.

By Nomaan Merchant
Carmelite priest, Mercy sister to be honored for social justice work
- Nov 12, 2020
Carmelite Father Peter Hinde and Mercy Sister Betty Campbell often share an anecdote when receiving foreign visitors at Casa Tabor, the home in a modest Ciudad Juarez neighborhood near the U.S. border where they’ve lived, worked and welcomed visitors for 25 years.

By David Agren
Asylum at the border is ‘effectively over,’ El Paso bishop says
- Jun 27, 2020
After visiting a group of pregnant migrant women on the Mexico side of the border, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, issued strong words June 25 about the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program and other restrictive immigration measures, saying that turning away those seeking asylum in the U.S. amounts to sending them to their death.

By Rhina Guidos
Pandemic, border crackdown hamper Catholics’ aid to migrants
- Apr 6, 2020
For years, Catholic-led, U.S.-based nonprofits have been at the forefront of efforts to support migrants and asylum seekers along the Mexican border. Tough new border policies, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically changed their work, much of which now takes place in Mexico.

By David Crary