Francesca D’Annunzio

3 weeks ago | texasobserver.org | Francesca D’Annunzio |Gus Bova

Over the weekend, the state House and Senate ironed out lingering differences in Senate Bill 8, a measure that will—assuming the governor’s signature—mandate previously voluntary agreements between Texas county sheriffs and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As passed, SB 8 will require all Texas sheriffs to apply for so-called 287(g) agreements, “or a similar federal program,” with ICE.

Jan 15, 2025 | palabranahj.org | Francesca D’Annunzio |Melissa del Bosque |Monica Camacho

Jones emphasizes different credentials depending on his audience. Sometimes he speaks as a correspondent for Newsmax, and other times as a member of Border911. In legislative settings, he often emphasizes his DPS career, such as when he advocated designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations at a press conference outside the Arizona Capitol.

Jan 14, 2025 | texasobserver.org | Francesca D’Annunzio |Melissa del Bosque |Monica Camacho

Editor’s Note: This report is part of “Seeds of Distrust,” an investigative collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, the Texas Observer, palabra, and Puente News Collaborative. Jaeson Jones is trained as a cop—not a journalist. Yet the 51-year-old holds a lucrative correspondent contract at one of the country’s most prominent MAGA-aligned television networks.

Jan 9, 2025 | texasobserver.org | Francesca D’Annunzio

The full cost of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass is greater than previously revealed. Between February and August of last year, the state attorney general’s office doled out expert services contracts and related amendments worth almost $1 million total as part of its defense against a federal Department of Justice lawsuit over the buoys, records obtained by the Texas Observer show.

Dec 12, 2024 | texasobserver.org | Francesca D’Annunzio

Two days before Thanksgiving, Texas Governor Greg Abbott jetted around deep South Texas to brag about his border security bonanza and pose for pictures with soon-to-be federal deportation czar Tom Homan, as the two served National Guard members and state troopers turkey, bread rolls, and cranberry sauce out of cafeteria-style containers. For the agencies of the soldiers and police, this was the fourth Thanksgiving of Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.