Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Following the horror of a human-smuggling attempt that left 53 people dead, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state troopers to inspect more trucks — again expanding a border security mission that has cost billions, given the National Guard arrest powers and bused migrants to Washington, D.C.

What Abbott’s get-tough plans haven’t done in the year since he began rolling them out is curb the number of people crossing the border.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A prosecutor’s office said Friday that it won’t move forward with a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over his refusal to release his communications relating to his appearance at a pro-Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last year.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A man was sentenced to life in prison in the 2018 fatal shooting of an undercover Fort Worth, Texas, police officer, prosecutors said.

A jury on Wednesday gave Timothy Huff, 36, a life sentence without possibility of parole in the death of Garrett Hull, an officer who was promoted to corporal after his death. The Tarrant County jury found Huff guilty of capital murder Monday.

HOUSTON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Another migrant died Tuesday at a local hospital, pushing the death toll of migrants found Monday inside a sweltering 18-wheeler in San Antonio to 51.

Authorities said the tragedy in this major Texas city saw the highest ever death count from human trafficking near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Among the dead, five were children. At least 27 were from Mexico, three from Guatemala and four from Honduras, local media reported, citing officials from these countries.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victims have been found with no identification documents at all and in one case a stolen ID. Remote villages lack phone service to reach family members and determine the whereabouts of missing migrants. Fingerprint data has to be shared and matched by different governments.

More than a day after the discovery of a stifling trailer in San Antonio where 51 migrants who died were abandoned in the sweltering heat, few identities of the victims have been made public, illustrating the challenges authorities face in tracing people who cross borders clandestinely.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Forty-six people were found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including four children.

A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck shortly before 6 p.m. Monday and discovered the gruesome scene, Police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer and bodies remained inside as authorities responded to the calamity.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Multiple police officers armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield stood and waited in a school hallway for nearly an hour while a gunman carried out a massacre of 19 elementary students and two teachers, according to a Monday news report that marks the latest embarrassing revelation about the failure of law enforcement to thwart the attack.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history said in his first extensive comments, published Thursday, that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republicans aiming to retake control of Congress have already sharpened a message centering around blaming Democrats for high inflation, expensive gas, migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and violent crime in some cities.

But GOP leaders landed on an issue this week that it hopes could prove even more potent: tying President Joe Biden to a shortage in baby formula.

HOUSTON, April 24 (NNN-Xinhua) — Thousands of residents have been asked to evacuate as “half the state” of New Mexico faces the threat of growing wildfires, authorities said.

More than 20 wildfires were burning in at least 16 of the state’s 33 counties, fueled by gusty winds and drought conditions, the state’s governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said at an online news conference.

“Half the state has a fire issue,” said the governor. Since Friday, a state of emergency has been declared for five counties.