Border Report Live

Since 1917, the American Friends Service Committee has been working for peace and social justice. The Quaker-founded organization has provided its services worldwide, and in 1977, brought its work to the U.S.-Mexico border. As part of the San Diego-based U.S.-Mexico Border Program, the organization helps migrant and border communities with issues revolving around immigration, enforcement and human and civil rights. In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Salvador Rivera speaks with Pedro Rios, director of AFSC’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program.

Advocacy organizations are defending an Arizona lawmaker’s use of social media to alert the public about ongoing immigration raids in their communities. State Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Glendale, is a self-described Latina activist. She has long been vocal against racial profiling and social justice in the past. But recent posts in various social media accounts seem to have struck a nerve. The president of the state Senate, meantime, is calling for a federal investigation because he believes his colleague may have committed a crime by trying to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from doing their job.

A donation from El Paso’s Hope Border Institute has helped feed 110 migrant families in Juarez, Mexico. The Catholic Church-affiliated nonprofit partnered with Mexico’s Derechos Humanos Integrales en Accion (DHIA) to deliver social services information and then take the families grocery shopping this week.In this episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles and correspndent Julian Resendiz speak about the work the Hope Border Institute does on both sides of the border.

The Trump administration is requiring bonds of up to $15,000 for visas for immigrants from certain countries under a new pilot program designed to safeguard security and prevent overstays. The State Department on Tuesday announced the new Visa Bond Pilot Program in the Federal Register. It did not, however, list the countries that those required to post bonds will come from.

In 2003, then-House Democratic Caucus Chairman state Rep. Jim Dunnam, of Waco, led over 50 fellow Democrats to Oklahoma from Texas to break quorum on a proposed redistricting plan. Now history appears to be repeating itself as over 50 Democratic lawmakers from Texas have once again left the Lone Star State to avoid a redistricting vote set to begin today in Austin. In today’s Border Report Live, Dunnam talks with South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles about the five days his group spent in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and what he believes it accomplished.

Migrant apprehensions along the Southwest border hit a new record-low in July. In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondents Julian Resendiz and Sandra Sanchez discuss the dramatic drop in migrant activity at the border, as well as some of the factors that keep El Paso in the lead.

A dozen Democratic members of Congress this week sued the Trump administration after being denied access to immigration detention facilities, including El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. Across the state line, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico, took into consideration what Escobar had experienced and gave ICE officials further notice to enter the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico. In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Julian discusses his interview with Vasquez.

Border Czar Tom Homan questioned people who protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the agents who are carrying out President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Speaking to reporters outside of the White House, Homan said ICE is merely enforcing laws passed by Congress, and if anyone should be protested, it’s the lawmakers. He said 70% of everybody who’s arrested is a criminal. In this episode of Border Report Live, Austin Kocher, a professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University speaks with host Rudy Mireles and correspondent Sandra Sanchez about the ICE detention and arrest data that is available, which in many cases tells a different story.