Sam Kelly

1 week ago | houstonchronicle.com | Matt Degrood |Sam Kelly

Houston police say it will cost more than $4,000 and take at least 220 days to produce videos of nearly two dozen incidents in which officers called federal immigration agents to the scene of a police response this year. Officials with the Houston Police Department’s records divisionblamed the delay on a backlog. But an expert in the state's open-records law says the agency could be running afoul of the Texas Public Information Act by taking so long to produce information.

2 weeks ago | houstonchronicle.com | Sam Kelly

A Venezuelan man believed to have been deported to El Salvador remains unaccounted for after the U.S. attorney's office said it is unable to provide information about his health and whereabouts — despite a Houston’s judge’s order to do so. At a pre-trial hearing on Monday afternoon, District Court Judge Keith Ellison gave the government 24 hours to provide evidence of Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino's location and health and explain the basis for his continued detention.

2 weeks ago | houstonchronicle.com | Sam Kelly

A Houston judge on Monday ordered the U.S. government to track down a Venezuelan man who is believed to have been deported to El Salvador after government attorneys told the court they did not know where he was. Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino, 24, was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last fall after arriving in Houston as a refugee, but his family and attorneys stopped hearing from him on March 15 as his asylum case was awaiting a decision.

2 weeks ago | houstonchronicle.com | Sam Kelly

As the Houston area continues to grow at breakneck speed, Houstonians say the region's diversity is its biggest draw, but they hold persistent concerns about crime and traffic, according to a new survey conducted by Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The 44th Annual Kinder Houston Area Survey released Monday is the largest in the survey's history.

2 weeks ago | houstonchronicle.com | Sam Kelly

Houston has spent years preparing to host hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world next summer for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, putting the Bayou City on the global stage during the biggest sporting event in the world. Experts are now raising questions about America’s ability to receive such an influx of people, however, as some tourists wait months to obtain a visa, and the Trump administration strains relations with international allies and adversaries alike.