Border Report Live

Mexico has dodged, at least for now, a new tariff for failing to pay a massive water debt to the United States in October.South Texas farmers suffered from the stunted deliveries of water to the Rio Grande over the past five years, so President Trump threatened to impose a 5 percent tariff on Mexico by year’s end if it didn’t catch up.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum maintains her country went through several years of extreme drought and doesn’t have enough to comply with a 1944 binational treaty.In this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz explains how the two countries nonetheless reached a deal last Friday for “timely repayment” of the deficit. It begins with the delivery of 202,000 acre-feet this week. The deliveries are stored at Amistad Dam and Falcon Lake in South Texas.

New data shows mixed-status families are fearful of being deported and they’re discussing self-deporting to other countries as families to avoid separation.On the latest episode of Border Report Live, professor Austin Kocher of Syracuse University talks about results of a survey he took part in with American Families to expose what mixed-status families currently are contemplating as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ramp up raids in the United States.Kocher tells South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez that some families, including U.S. citizens, have actually left the United States in order to avoid family separations.

A group that represents immigration lawyers on Monday criticized the Trump administration's travel ban and new asylum ban on migrants from 19 countries and accused the policies of being outside the realm of judicial review.
Ben Johnson, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the new polices will add to the backlog of immigration cases and will cause migrants who already have undergone years of vetting, to undergo additional evaluations.
Johnson questions how much this will cost the Department of Homeland Security and says it is unfair to ban migrants from applying for asylum simply because of their country of origin. And he says because the government is taking discretionary action, it is not subject to court approval.
In the latest edition of Border Report Live, South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez talks about AILA's reaction to these policies, which were announced after the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard soldiers over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Migrants crossing the border from Guatemala into Mexico's southern city of Tapachula, en route to the United States, are facing a "dead end" city with no where to go, and they're often hurt and suffering, the director of Doctor's Without Borders says.
In the latest edition of Border Report Live, Nicholas Gildersleeve, base director in Tapachula for the nonprofit organization Doctor's Without Borders, tells South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez about the harrowing conditions migrants stuck there face, and how his organization tries to help them.

American Families Against Cartel Terrorism thinks it’s time that the La Línea gang be added to the list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.La Línea , often described as the enforcement unit of the old Juarez cartel, is accused of shooting and killing nine Americans and torching the vehicles they were riding in on Nov. 4, 2019.The shooting happened on a dirt road near the Chihuahua-Sonora state line. The victims included three women and six children.Adriana Jones is the sister of one of the women. She now heads American Families Against Cartel Terrorism, or AmFACT, which recently urged the State Department to label La Línea as a terrorist organization.Jones was a guest on Border Report Live. She described the pain of losing so many loved ones, but also touted the terror designation as a powerful tool to combat cartel violence.

The idea of working 40 hours a week is foreign to folks in Mexico, but that could soon change.Lawmakers south of the border are considering lowering the standard workweek from 48 hours to 40, which is common in places like the U.S., England, Canada and Japan.Mexican workers who spoke with Border Report said they welcome a shorter workweek, adding that they’ve spent so much time away from their families in order to provide for them.But not everyone is on board, and in this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz explains why industry leaders question the benefits of a shortened workweek, and why some argue that it is increasingly unfeasible.

New travel restrictions placed on 19 countries are scarce on details and it’s uncertain how it will affect asylum-seekers wanting to come to the United States.In the latest episode of Border Report Live, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, spoke with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez on whether he believes the Trump administration is justified in issuing new restrictions.The restrictions were announced on Thanksgiving after the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., which left one dead and one seriously injured.

Military forces in Latin America are responding to a surge in drone attacks with drones of their own.In October, the Colombian army activated its first unmanned aircraft battalion at the military base in Tolemaida. The so-called drone battalion is designed to attack and defend against illegal armed groups such as guerrillas, who have also adopted the use of drones to target not only military personnel but also civilians.According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Colombia reported its first drone attack in the summer of 2024 but has already recorded 50 so far this year. Mexico recorded 77 drone bombings in 2024, compared with 35 such attacks a year earlier.In this episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz discusses how criminal organizations are using drones. During a recent online presentation by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, experts also shared their thoughts on how to counter these criminal drones.