Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers. Emmanuel Gonzalez, a 15-year-old who has a serious intellectual disability, walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in Houston in October. His mother […]
Category: Immigration
The Barbed Wire immigration coverage
Posted inNews
How Texas College Students Are Helping Thousands of Undocumented Classmates
Obed Valencia wasted no time in his first two years of college. He joined several clubs, made friends, got an internship — he even won a “Most Involved” student award in his first year at Texas A&M San Antonio, he said. “I made the most of it just because I wasn’t sure when would be […]
Posted inNews
‘They Tricked Me’: A Father Was Chained After He Went to ICE to Reunite With His Kids
This piece was originally published by KFF Health News and written and reported by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Renuka Rayasam, and Amanda Seitz. Carlos arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Mexico in December, believing he was one step closer to reuniting with his children. By that point, his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter had been in […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t Call It ‘Self-Deportation.’ Moving Back to Mexico Felt Like Reclaiming My Life.
A breeze swept over me as I looked over Laguna del Carpintero in Tampico, Tamaulipas. Nearby, my three-year-old son Lucas and a local boy about the same age took turns rolling their miniature monster trucks down a blue playground slide. Lucas’ Hot Wheels rattled down first, then the other boy’s lime green truck. Off in […]
Posted inCulture
From ‘Kung Flu’ to the Matcha Craze, Asian American Business Owners Say It’s Been a Whiplash Six Years Since Covid
Walk into Hannah Foy’s specialty coffee shop LauLau in Central Austin, and there’s a good chance her father is washing dishes in the kitchen. Her mother — whom the cafe is named after — is usually at the register taking orders for their signature Mala Latte with Sichuan peppercorn or Black Sesame Hot Chocolate. The […]
Posted inImmigration
From Minneapolis to El Paso, Every City Is Now a Border City
I can’t stop thinking about Gustavo’s truck. On a cold Monday morning this January, Gustavo Navos Morocho, 43, of Ecuador, and two relatives had been driving to a carpeting job in central Minnesota when federal immigration agents began to tail them. The officers pulled the men over, accused them of carrying fake identification papers and […]
Posted inImmigration
‘Something’s Different’: LGBTQ+ Texans Are Organizing in Defense of Immigrants
It’s hard to ignore Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they come crashing into your neighborhood. It’s become the topic of conversation in Austin’s North Loop, Reilly, a 42-year-old transgender resident, told The Barbed Wire one February evening from a graffiti-covered picnic table in the grass behind Epoch, the neighborhood’s beloved 24-hour coffee shop. “I […]
Posted inNews
ICE Has Considered Adding 20,000 Detention Center Beds in Secretive Expansion Across Texas, Reports Say
A group of buildings in El Paso, next to apartment complexes and a pediatrician’s office. A towering office building in the Woodlands, across from a preschool. A sprawling, vacant warehouse South of Dallas. Each could be transformed into mega detention centers or headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to an investigation by Wired. […]
Posted inImmigration
2-Month-Old Baby Juan Nicolás & His Mother Were ‘Abandoned Across the Border’ Hours After He Was Hospitalized With Bronchitis, Castro Says
A recently hospitalized 2-month-old baby has been deported with his mother, father, and 16-month-old sister, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said Tuesday. Juan Nicolás was rushed to the hospital on Monday night after spending nearly a month in federal custody at Dilley Family Detention Center, Univision’s Lidia Terrazas first reported. In a Sunday evening social media […]
Posted inImmigration
Texas Lawmakers Say They’re Demanding Major ICE Reforms Because ‘Families and Children Are Terrified’
EXCLUSIVE “Families and children are terrified” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents breaking into homes without warrants, Democratic state Rep. Josey Garcia, of San Antonio, told The Barbed Wire this week. That’s one of the reasons Garcia and 20 other Texas state representatives say they’ve signed a letter demanding that Congress enact serious agency reforms […]