The Texas Tribune and The Associated Press visited five locations along the 1,254-mile span to separate the facts from the political narrative during a heated election year.

Preliminary federal government figures show the number of people arrested by Border Patrol agents fell by 25% since President Joe Biden announced new rules restricting asylum access two weeks ago.

December 2023 had the most migrant encounters ever recorded and Sept. 2023 is second-most

U.S. authorities say they are closing a Texas border crossing to vehicles and limiting traffic at an Arizona crossing to shift more resources to illegal entries.

Operation Lone Star originally targeted single men suspected of crossing the border illegally in mass trespassing arrests, but some claimed that not arresting women violated equal protection laws.

The death in Border Patrol custody of an 8-year-old Panamanian girl is the second child migrant fatality in two weeks under government supervision, raising questions about how prepared authorities are to address medical emergencies of people arriving after an often-exhausting journey.

The mother of an 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody says agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk.

U.S. border authorities have updated their policy for pursuing smugglers and those suspected of other crimes following an extensive review.

U.S. authorities say iIlegal border crossings by Cubans and Nicaraguans rose sharply in November while overall migration flows were little changed from October.

The Department of Homeland Security says more migrants may be released into the United States to pursue immigration cases when Trump-era asylum restrictions end next week.

Border Patrol agents on horseback engaged in “unnecessary use of force” against non-threatening Haitian immigrants but didn’t whip any with their reins, according to a federal investigation of chaotic scenes along the Texas-Mexico border last fall.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says authorities are prepared for an expected increase in migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border amid plans to lift a public health order that has been used to turn away migrants nearly 2 million times without a chance to seek asylum.

The brigadier general steps down from commanding Operation Lone Star’s military efforts after five months.

More than 8,600 Russians have sought refuge in the U.S. on the Mexican border in recent months, overwhelmingly using official crossings in San Diego.

The situation in Del Rio spiraled this week as more than 15,000 migrants, many of them from Haiti, arrived at the border in recent days, settling in a makeshift camp as they waited for CBP agents to process their petitions to stay in the U.S.

As the delta variant fuels an increase of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., some of President Joe Biden’s critics blame the surge on his border policies, which allow some migrants to enter the country to apply for asylum.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott and Texas after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order “dangerous and unlawful.”

Customs and Border Protection agents assigned to the Padre Island National Seashore were waved down by a concerned citizen visiting the beach on Saturday morning.

DONNA, Texas – The Biden administration’s decision this week to allow journalists to see Customs and Border Protection’s main holding center for unaccompanied migrant children answered some questions about the conditions they are being held in but raised others. Here are some of the takeaways from Tuesday’s visit to the facility in Donna, Texas, by The Associated Press and CBS. What's clear is that the Donna facility, which opened Feb. 9, is tremendously overcrowded. Rooms walled with plastic partitions and designed for 32 children held more than 500 on Tuesday. The Biden administration let journalists tour the Donna facility for the first time Tuesday, with permission for photos and video to be shot.

As soon as the sun sets, at least 100 migrants crossed through the Rio Grande river by smugglers into the United States. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)ROMA, Texas – As darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. Roma, a town of 10,000 people with historic buildings and boarded-up storefronts in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, is the latest epicenter of illegal crossings, where growing numbers of families and children are entering the United States to seek asylum. More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including about 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities. A group of Republican senators on Friday visited the Rio Grande Valley, which is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, and toured a holding facility.

SAN ANTONIO – Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland may house migrant minors who are unaccompanied at the U.S.-Mexico border, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday afternoon. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked the Pentagon for the request, which the Department of Defense is reviewing, Kirby said. “What I can tell you is we have a request and those are the two sites that HHS just asked for support from,” Kirby said. Greg Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding answers to the humanitarian situation at the border. The governor also demanded that the Biden Administration make clear what they are doing to prosecute human traffickers and address the surge in border crossings.

(Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune)A federal judge in Texas has extended the block on President Joe Biden’s deportation moratorium for two more weeks as the case continues to play out in court. Tipton originally issued a 14-day suspension of Biden’s moratorium on Jan. 26. The pause in deportations was part of Biden’s attempted day-one overhaul of several of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. In his order Tipton, a Trump appointee who took the bench last year, said Texas would face more harm than the federal government if the extension was not granted. Citizenship and Immigration Services agencies as the Biden administration developed its final priorities, according to the Biden administration.

Officials said Customs and Border Protection will use its authority to block products suspected of being produced with forced labor to keep out cotton, tomatoes and related products from the Xinjiang region of northwest China. That is especially true with Chinese cotton that is used to make clothing for export in other countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. The U.S. imported about $9 billion worth of cotton goods from China overall last year, according to Brenda Smith, the executive assistant commissioner at Customs and Border Protection's Office of Trade. China denies allegations of rights abuses and forced labor, saying it aims only to promote economic and social development in the region and stamp out radicalism. "The so-called forced labor is nothing but a lie fabricated by certain institutions and individuals in Western countries," he said.

The previous annual high mapped by the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson and the nonprofit Humane Borders was 224 migrant deaths in 2010. Despite the increase in deaths, U.S. Border Patrol apprehension figures suggest that the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in Arizona has actually fallen by almost 50% over 10 years. From January to September 2020, the Border Patrol listed 43 deaths in the Arizona border area. Arizona is not the only place with fluctuations in border deaths over the years. The Brooks County sheriff's office said this week that migrant deaths in its jurisdiction fell to 34 last year from 45 in 2019.

Any U.S. company seeking to import goods from the company would have to prove they were not made with the forced labor of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities subjected to the crackdown. It is the sixth enterprise from the Uighur region whose goods have been blocked by Customs in recent months. “China’s systemic abuse of forced labor in the Xinjiang region should disturb every American business and consumer,” acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said. “Forced labor is a human rights violation that hurts vulnerable workers and introduces unfair competition into global supply chains." Chinese spokesperson Hua defended Chinese labor practices and treatment of Uighurs, while accusing the U.S. of violating market principles and damaging the interests of both countries' companies and consumers.

LAREDO, Texas – Laredo U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized 904 pounds of alleged cocaine in two different drug busts over the weekend, officials said. Port authorities discovered 135 packages containing 337 pounds of alleged cocaine in the shipment, officials said. The same day, CBP officers discovered 223 packages containing 567 pounds of alleged cocaine within another tractor-trailer also hauling aluminum scrap. Andrew Douglas, acting port director for the Laredo port of Entry, said the alleged drugs have a combined estimated street value of $6,973,400. Related: El Paso Customs and Border Protection officers seize 120 water bottles filled with liquid meth

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 400,651 people on the southwest border during the 2020 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. “We’re already seeing the numbers increase.”From 2015 to 2018, apprehensions hovered between 415,000 to 553,000 before surging in 2019. During that time, the border saw an increase in family units and unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States. In Texas, only the Laredo Border Patrol sector saw an increase in the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended, from 2,521 in 2019 to 2,641 in 2020, a 5 percent jump. In the other four sectors along the Texas-Mexico border, the number of minors apprehended without an adult dropped between 32 percent and 70 percent this year.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers, National Guard units and a specialized U.S. Border Patrol team, were dispatched to a Houston suburb during the funeral for George Floyd, the man whose death in police custody reenergized national outrage over the treatment of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. Shaw Drake, policy counsel of the ACLU of Texas Border Rights Center said use of deadly force is a standing option for law enforcement officers under current law. “CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, and also the least accountable,” he said in a statement. The memo also includes screen shots of social media posts that alarmed citizens and law enforcement officers. Dallas County's district attorney is probing allegations that officers used unnecessary force during otherwise peaceful protests earlier this year.

BROWNSVILLE, TX U.S. Border Patrol announced Monday that they seized an exotic bird while taking a group of people illegally smuggled across the board into custody. As agents arrived to the location, they discovered evidence of several of people who entered the country illegally, CBP said in a statement. Additionally, agents noticed a plastic bag carried by one of the aliens with a live bird inside.After agents inspected the bag they determined the bird to be a toucan. CBP officials stated that while it is uncommon for exotic animals to be discovered in human smuggling attempts, agents rescued a tiger cub stuffed in a duffel bag near Brownsville two years ago. Related: CBP: Agents at World Trade Bridge in Laredo seize over $11 million in narcotics

FILE - In this March 18, 2020, file photo, a Border Patrol agent walks along a border wall separating Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego, in San Diego. What happened next illustrates how difficult it has become to seek asylum in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic. Alexy, 32, and his son Samuel were whisked to the border in the wee hours of June 28 and returned to Mexico. Alexy believes hiking in the San Diego mountains precipitated Karina's labor. Together with the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the group plans to ask the Homeland Security Department to investigate what happened.

Landowners in South Texas filed a federal lawsuit on Monday, alleging that construction of a border barrier is unconstitutional. Callie Richmond for The Texas TribuneLandowners in South Texas are launching another front in their battle against President Trumps efforts to build a wall on the Texas-Mexico border. Flores said that the administration has to show that it has a narrowly tailored compelling governmental interest to justify constructing the border wall. The lawsuit also argues that a border wall would hurt recreation and public safety: Fishing, hiking and recreation will all be affected. DHS/CBP is effectively commandeering these local resources as part of their wall construction.

About 12,800 family units were apprehended in August, a 38 percent increase in the number of apprehensions in July, which was 9,247. The latest numbers also show that more than 90,000 immigrants came as part of families crossing the southwest border illegally in the last 11 months. During the ride-along, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Marcelino Medina darted through spiny bushes and began searching for a group of people crossing the border illegally. AdDHS press secretary Tyler Houlton released the following statement:"August Southwest Border Migration numbers show a clear indicator that the migration flows are responding to gaps in our nation’s legal framework. Southwest Border Family Apprehensions StatisticsData obtained from Customs and Border Protection website.