Border Report Live

Reimbursing tariffs on goods from other countries, and giving rebates to American consumers for the higher costs associated with those tariffs, was discussed on the latest episode of Border Report Live.
So far, several Democratic lawmakers have filed two bills in Congress that would give tariff rebates to reimburse consumers for price increases due to tariffs imposed in 2025 by President Donald Trump on other countries.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that Trump exceeded his executive powers in issuing the tariffs by executive order.
South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar has filed the American Consumer Tariff Rebate Act of 2026, which, if passed by Congress, would give “direct refunds to taxpayers for increased consumer costs attributable to tariffs imposed without congressional authorization,” according to the bill filed March 9.

Dozens of license plate readers have been popping up in Southern California, especially near the border, and they’re raising concerns with privacy experts, civil liberties advocates and humanitarian aid workers.  
According to CalMatters, the license plate readers are being operated by the Border Patrol and other federal agencies that were granted permits by the state of California. The news agency also learned that as many as 40 are feeding information into Trump administration databases.
CalMatters spoke with one of those aid workers, who first spotted the cameras, thinking it was an abandoned trailer possibly related to some of the humanitarian work he does to help migrants in distress.
CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry, who, along with Khari Johnson, reported on the license plate readers, appeared on Border Report Live on Friday.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, says the Trump administration has eliminated almost all legal pathways for asylum-seekers wanting to enter the United States.
Reichlin-Melnick appeared on Border Report Live on Wednesday. He tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles that it is effectively impossible to seek asylum at the southern border.
“Migrants cannot go to ports of entry to seek asylum. And even the limited ways in which they were processing people in ports of entry in Trump’s first term have been cut off,” he said.
His comments come after the release of a McAllen family that had been recently detained by ICE. An ICE official earlier this week said the family had “illegally” entered the United States in May 2023. They were detained and arrested when they went for a mandatory routine meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Feb. 25.

The lawyer for a member of McAllen High School’s mariachi on Tuesday discussed how he helped get him released from an ICE detention facility and what he endured in this Border Report Live exclusive.
Efrén Olivares, of the National Immigration Law Center, tells South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez and host Rudy Mireles how Antonio Gamez-Cuellar, 18, was arrested with his two younger brothers, Caleb, 14, and Joshua, 12. Their parents, Emma Guadalupe Cuellar Lopez, and Luis Antonio Gamez Martinez, also were detained when the family went to a mandatory meeting with U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement officials on Feb. 25, he said.
Olivares says normally the children did not attend these ICE check-ins. But on this day, ICE officials required the entire family to be present. “And when they showed up, they arrested all five of them without any justification, without giving them a reason and no change in circumstances whatsoever,” Olivares said.
Because Antonio is an adult, he was separated from his family and held at the El Valle Detention Family in Raymondville, Texas. The others were held about 215 miles away at the ICE facility in Dilley, Texas

A member of a high school mariachi from McAllen, Texas, was released from immigration detention Monday afternoon after public outcry prompted a Republican congresswoman to go to the facility and help get him out.
Word of Antonio Gamez-Cuellar’s release from the El Valle Detention Facility on Monday in Raymondville, Texas, broke as Border Report Live started.
U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, was seen walking out of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility with Gamez-Cuellar. De La Cruz spoke briefly before the two got into a vehicle and rode away.
Protesters had gathered outside of the facility during the weekend.

A bishop from Southern California has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and was reportedly seen at a brothel south of the border.
Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta, 69, was reportedly arrested moments before boarding a flight out of the country.
According to FOX5/KUSI in San Diego, Shaleta, 69, of the diocese of St. Peter the Apostle, was arrested on suspicion of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his own church.
The former leader of the Chaldean El Cajon Church had been under investigation from the Vatican and the sheriff’s department after members of the church lodged complaints.
In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Salvador Rivera and host Rudy Mireles discuss the case, including reports from a Catholic-centric publication that Shaleta was seen going into the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club, a renowned strip club and brothel in Tijuana.

The sudden firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday reverberated from the halls of Congress to border communities.
Trump on Thursday posted on social media that he’d let Noem go and had replaced her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma.
“Current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere … I thank Kristi for her service at “Homeland,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
This announcement came moments before Thursday’s Border Report Live show with host Rudy Mireles and correspondents Salvador Rivera, Julian Resendiz and Sandra Sanchez, who discussed recent visits by Noem to the various border communities they cover and her rocky tenure leading the agency and over 260,000 employees.
Noem’s last day at DHS is March 31. According to The Hill, Noem has been reassigned as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a regional coalition of countries in Latin America that Trump says will work together on ideology and policy initiatives to help secure the Western Hemisphere and pursue U.S. interests

Primary elections held Tuesday in Texas had some surprising results, especially in border districts where Democrats are vying to gain ground in a state they have not held statewide office in since 1994.
In Texas’ 23rd Congressional District 23, incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales faces a surprising May 26 runoff for the Republican nomination against YouTuber and firearms manufacturer Brandon Herrera after neither received over 50% of the vote, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Gonzales decries ‘filthy campaign tactics’ from opponent as he heads to runoffIn the latest episode of Border Report Live, El Paso correspondent Julian Resendiz also talks about a formal investigation announced Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee against Gonzales, who has been accused of having had an affair with a former staffer who committed suicide.
South Texas correspondent Sandra Sanchez breaks down several border races, including that of two-time Latin Grammy winning singer Bobby Pulido, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night to go against Republican incumbent Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District. De La Cruz was unopposed on Tuesday.