News & Commentary

They used the bathroom at a ball game and got arrested. The community asked why. Turns out they’d been spied on by a government camera. But the Border Patrol told a different story.

In Texas, adulthood usually means 18. Seventeen year olds cannot vote, serve in the military, or buy lottery tickets. There is an exception, though: kids are automatically charged, jailed, and imprisoned as adults the day they turn 17, even for the most minor, nonviolent offenses.

A beginner drag queen discovers that in South Texas, queer history and family history can be one and the same

Step 1: Find out who represents you

Ten years ago, Willacy County officials made a catastrophic mistake. And they’re about to make it again.

Facebook is who I am. Really. Why do I have all the selfies? Well, I don’t have a partner, someone to always tell me, “You’re beautiful.” Selfies build up my self-esteem. I have yet to figure out my interaction with men. When they first meet me they love that I’m independent and can hold it down. They work really hard to get me. But once they have me they feel … what’s the word?...emasculated.

Fred Korematsu would have turned 98 today. The victim of another wrongheaded and un-American executive order that betrayed our nation’s ideals, Korematsu was locked up in an internment camp in Topaz, Utah simply for being of Japanese descent.

Dear Representative Biedermann,

Everywhere you look—straight ahead, to the side and even skyward—uniformed officials in grim vehicles, and big objects fat with helium, are watching you. Watching you. Watching. You can always grab your cellphone, tap the camera app, and watch back. That’s what I’ve done since arriving in the Rio Grande Valley just before the Presidential election, to work as ACLU Texas’ reporter for immigration issues. My photos are piling up, especially since the election. Here are a few. If you don’t live here, in our country’s ultimate surveillance zone, give a look. Watch what it’s like to be watched.