News & Commentary

The Trump and Abbott administrations continue to target Texas’s immigrant communities for profiling and discrimination. But if the population of undocumented immigrants declines, so will Texas’ economy.

Civilian review panels need power, independence, transparency and funding to hold police accountable for misconduct.

In South Texas, Rosa Maria and Jane Doe face the cruel realities of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

At this very moment, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is detaining Rosa Maria Hernandez, a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who recently underwent gallbladder surgery, and is refusing to release her into the care of her family, despite her doctor’s advice. How exactly did this child with developmental delays become the Trump administration’s target for deportation? It’s an egregious case of government overreach, and now the subject of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.

After Jane Doe, a 17-year-old immigrant from Central America, found out she was pregnant last month, she decided to have an abortion. But the Office of Refugee Resettlement — the federal government agency charged with caring for unaccompanied immigrant minors once they enter the country — is prohibiting her from getting one.

The fight to kill SB4, Texas’ unconstitutional anti-immigrant law, is not over yet.

With SB4 blocked and DACA rescinded, Texas’s immigrant communities face a future of fear and uncertainty.

President Trump’s border wall proposal is on the ropes, but that has not discouraged border sheriffs from pitching their own misguided scheme. According to a media report, sheriffs along the U.S.-Mexico border are quietly planning to acquire iris-recognition technology with help from a private surveillance company. Pitched in part as a tool to “secure our border,” the use of iris-recognition technology could disproportionately affect those already targeted by the Trump Administration’s policies. This is not only a “biometric wall” – the deployment of iris-scanning equipment would also feed a nationwide database that raises privacy and security concerns.

The days and weeks after Hurricane Harvey are going to be hard for many families in Texas. We put together a list of resources to help assist community members in need.