During a tense debate with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, Flores attacked Gonzalez for being soft on border security, then suggested requiring residents to prove citizenship in some instances was appropriate.

The Brooks County Sheriff’s Office has issued as Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue (CLEAR) Alert for a missing 56-year-old man.

It’s an operation that Brooks County sheriffs deputies say knows no time and has no bounds. Smuggling of migrants can happen in backroads or in high traffic areas. Reporter Alicia Barrera and photojournalist Sal Salazar take you to areas where migrants are often loaded up to be smuggled across the nation.

Operation Lone Star has helped fund the miles of concertina wire and militarization along the U.S. border. But how are funds invested in communities more than 80 miles north of the border? Reporter Alicia Barrera and photojournalist Sal Salazar visit Brooks County for a closer look.

A Texas man who transported two men from Mexico in a U.S. flag-draped coffin has pleaded guilty to human smuggling.

During the February winter storm that left millions of Texans without access to electricity or water, testing rates dipped below 50,000 tests per day on average for the first time since September. Testing levels rebounded after the winter storm, but the number of tests reported in March is still significantly lower than during December, January and February at the peak of the pandemic in Texas. Testing rates are down across the country as well, which concerns some experts who say testing is crucial for identifying new cases and stopping the virus’ spread, but also reflects the overall improvement the country is seeing in terms of cases and vaccinations. AdWhen transmission rates drop, testing rates will follow, said Dr. Mary Peterson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Driscoll Health System in Corpus Christi. Peterson said in January and February, when infections were soaring and people were traveling for the holidays, testing reflected people’s anxiety.

NEAR SAN MARCOS, Texas – What are believed to be the last of the unidentified remains exhumed from Sacred Heart Cemetery in Falfurrias are now at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University, their official repository since last year. AdBaker’s students were the first to exhume the unidentified remains that were then taken to Texas State for processing. He said that’s hard to do when family members are in the U.S. illegally or in another country. Instead, Gocha said the center reaches out to nongovernmental groups, such as the South Texas Human Rights Center in Falfurrias, and consulates to help contact family members. Spradley said Thursday that the Forensic Anthropology Center had only received partial funding from a private foundation to continue its work.

FALFURRIAS, Texas – In response to published reports of mass graves at a Falfurrias cemetery, Brooks County Judge Raul Ramirez said a local funeral home had been paid to transport and “dispose” of immigrant remains. Ramirez said at a cost of $450 per body in 2005 to $740 now, he understood they would be buried in pauper's graves. "Plastic bags are not pauper's graves," Ramirez said. Dr. Lori Baker, a Baylor University forensic anthropologist, also said they were not in mass graves. AdShe said it was nothing like the mass graves she encountered years ago working in Peru.