María Méndez | The Texas Tribune
María Méndez reports for Texas Public Radio from the border city of Laredo where she covers business issues from an area that is now the nation’s top trade hub. She knows Texas well. Méndez has reported on the state’s diverse communities and tumultuous politics through internships at the Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Tribune and The Dallas Morning News. She also participated in NPR’s Next Generation Radio program while studying at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT, she wrote for The Daily Texan and helped launch diversity initiatives, including two collaborative series on undocumented and first-generation college students. One of her stories for these series won an award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She spent the last year reporting for The Dallas Morning News as a summer breaking news intern and then as a fellow in the paper’s capital bureau in Austin. She is a native of Guanajuato in Central Mexico.
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The Biden administration officially plans to use military bases in San Antonio and El Paso to house a growing number of unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody. It has also considered using Bexar County buildings. -
Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Congressman Henry Cuellar visited a facility for child migrants in Carrizo Springs Friday before meeting with leaders in Laredo to discuss the increasing number of migrants arriving at the border. -
Abbott detailed the state’s increased law enforcement presence in the area and critiqued President Joe Biden's immigration policies. He also doubled down against federal aid for border communities taking in and testing a rising number of migrants. -
The U.S.-Mexico border remains closed to many people, including most migrants and asylum seekers, and those allowed in are currently tested for COVID-19. Here’s a rundown of what’s happening at the Texas border and what changes Biden has made. -
Texas grocery store shelves have begun filling out again. But for the state’s agriculture industry, recovering from the winter storm will take time, and consumers are likely to feel it in their pockets. -
The South Texas border is facing power outages and major economic losses from the winter storm, but community organizations are stepping up to offer support amid their own struggles. Check the end of the story for a list of local aid. -
President Joe Biden ordered a 60-day pause on border wall construction, but what happens after that remains uncertain. -
Border residents and activists welcomed Biden’s inauguration and his immigration and border security plans, but they say they know their work must continue to ensure Biden’s promises of a pathway to citizenship for millions unauthorized immigrants and ending border wall construction are carried out. -
Laredo’s latest COVID-19 bind follows efforts to expand hospital capacity and to slow down rising hospitalizations, but officials have been unable to control the spread of the virus under Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders allowing bars and restaurants to remain open. -
While Joe Biden promised there would be “not another foot” of wall and that he would “withdraw lawsuits” against border landowners, he has not yet publicly detailed his exact plan to stop the hodge-podge of wall projects he will inherit from the Trump administration. -
Under the tentative plan, Trump would fly into Harlingen and take a helicopter to McAllen. -
After three months without flights, the first American Airlines flight took off from the Del Rio International Airport early Wednesday morning. But the future of the airport remains uncertain.
