migrants

Immigration authorities encountered migrants more than 212,000 times at the border in July, the highest in 20 years — including nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children, the most ever in a single month.

"Operation Lone Star," as it's called, relies on a force of state troopers, National Guard and reinforcements from other red states. The mission is to curtail the migrants surging into the Rio Grande.

Texas state troopers investigated a crash involving an overcrowded van carrying 29 people believed to be migrants. Ten people — including the driver — were declared dead on site, and 20 survivors were seriously injured.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday issued an executive order that restricts the transportation of detained migrants under the pretext of stopping the spread of COVID-19, something immigrant rights activists describe as unconstitutional and fascist.

Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a call for qualified current and former county jailers to assist border sheriffs with operating detention facilities and providing jail beds.

Advocates hoped for more, but the administration says this is the pace it wants as it scales up the effort. "We chose intentionally to start slow so that we can go fast later," an official says.

Counties far from the Texas-Mexico border are declaring disasters over border crossings, sometimes without evidence.

Here’s a rundown of immigration and other news from the Texas border and beyond.

The new children's book Hear My Voice/Escucha Mi Voz pulls from the author's interviews with migrant children detained in U.S. facilities in 2019.