Texas agreed to take 120,000 acre-feet of water from Mexico this month, only after the U.S. and Mexico agreed to an updated treaty.

The former president captured 55% of Latino voters in the state, according to exit polls. He also won 14 out of the 18 counties within 20 miles of the border, a number that doubled his 2020 performance in the Latino-majority region.

Hinojosa won the only competitive seat in the Texas Senate this cycle, besting Sen. Morgan LaMantia two years after she narrowly defeated him.

Farmers say they want the water, but not if it goes against the allotment they need for the spring planting season.

Denton has renamed itself Halloween, Texas, and has planned 31 days of events to drive up tourism and family entertainment.

In their only debate before Election Day, Gonzalez and Flores traded jabs over the economy, immigration and abortion, and regularly spoke over each other.

The South Texas city is the latest to grapple with aging water infrastructure, which officials suggested could have been the cause for the E. coli outbreak.

One group estimated more than 568,000 cats and dogs entered shelters in 2023. About 82,000 cats and dogs were euthanized.

Reporters from both organizations spent a day documenting the reality on the border. Here’s a summary of what they found.

The Texas Tribune and The Associated Press visited five locations along the 1,254-mile span to separate the facts from the political narrative during a heated election year.

The small business owner featured in the ad previously shared memes calling 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic inside jobs and mocking U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.

Inspired by the work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the biennial “cumbre” helps South Texans organize for political change.

The first-term Republican defending her seat said a private school voucher program will help her community, especially students from low-income families.

A federal agency has paused some of SpaceX's plans amid concerns over the environment.

The request came from a local pastor who is part of a group that trains people to “defend their freedom and liberty.” Other faith leaders have pushed back.

This week’s ruling was the latest twist since cities and groups in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley sued to block the projects.

After Texas deployed the barrier, a panel ordered it removed. The full appeals court says it can stay while a lower court hears a case on the merits.

Local leaders began debating a household limit on the number of pets after two residents were arrested for having 93 dogs and a cat in their home.

Many of the solutions are costly, putting them out of reach for small towns. But the region's most populous cities are getting innovative.

At least two counties, Nueces and Refugio, have issued mandatory evacuation orders.

After years of competing with each other for new businesses, Valley cities want to present a united front to highlight the region’s assets.

Cascos began his political career as a Democrat but later flipped to the Republican Party.

The region's two major reservoirs are at record-low levels and agriculture leaders are worried the citrus industry could be devastated this summer.

Texas is losing an estimated 1,000 acres of farm land a day, mostly to other industries. The Rio Grande Valley is losing land at a faster clip.

Ground Game Texas, a group that has pushed for progressive policies in cities across the state, is working to make it easier for McAllen residents to change local laws.

From brisket to carne asada, Texas is known for meat, making this annual gathering in a small Rio Grande Valley town stand out.

Conservation groups found a sign of hope, but scientists say it's too soon to celebrate.

National Republicans are investing heavily in Flores’ bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in South Texas.

With the hottest days still ahead, local leaders have declared emergencies. And farmers are lobbying for the U.S. government to pressure Mexico to release water.

Rio Grande City officials called Ediel Barrera’s requests “vague or ambiguous.”

A state-appointed board of managers overseeing the La Joya Independent School District is set to consider the policy this week.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is negotiating a land trade involving part of Boca Chica State Park.

A company that provides services for immigrants in federal detention has been ordered to pay more than $811 million in restitution and penalties in a lawsuit alleging it used deceptive and abusive tactics.

The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a $30 monthly subsidy to help low-income households pay for internet service. The program is slated to run out of money at the end of the month.

The Starr County district attorney dropped the improper charges, but the fallout “forever changed the Plaintiff’s life,” a new federal lawsuit says.

The South Texas Democrat said Latinos who support former President Donald Trump are voting against their self interest, but Republicans recoiled at the comparison.

Presidential visits to the border are usually short on substance and long on political theater and symbolism, starting with the choice of location.

Some areas are starting the year with low water reserves. Forecasters don’t expect substantial relief from the weather.

The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.

A couple in the Rio Grande Valley was arrested Tuesday after they allegedly sold a margay cub and attempted to sell a jaguar cub, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced Wednesday.

Areas of the Texas Gulf Coast are seeing blooms of the algae, which can make people sick and kill fish.

Republicans recently announced Mayra Flores’ comeback effort with great fanfare, but Democrats argue that a redrawn district — and Flores’ voting record — are hurdles the GOP can’t clear.

All four of the deceased were found within 48 hours in the Rio Grande, a common but dangerous crossing point into the United States from Mexico.

An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come.

Whole Woman’s Health, which owned the building for nearly two decades, said they were “duped” after the doctors who bought the building sold it to the McAllen Pregnancy Center.

The two-time Democratic presidential candidate visited Central Texas and South Texas amid concerns that young and working-class voters are not mobilized enough for the midterm election.

Since Congress lifted the U.S. oil export ban in 2015, three proposed LNG export facilities have fallen victim to the protest. But the war in Ukraine is an impetus for two remaining projects.

The two companies awarded contracts on Thursday will erect border barriers in Del Rio and the Rio Grande Valley.

In these historically Democratic border areas, some voters are turning to the Republican party, while others remain unmoved.

The Texas Education Agency has dismissed the notion that the accountability ratings are a poverty rating. As evidence, they point to districts like those in the Rio Grande Valley, which have achieved high marks while serving a high number of economically disadvantaged students.

O’Rourke wants more debates, but Abbott has indicated this is the only one he is willing to do before the November election.

“If it’s gonna rise by that much, I don’t think we’re prepared,” one South Texas mayor said of temperature increases.

Authorities say migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, a second straight monthly decline.

The governor said Tuesday he has agreed to debate O’Rourke, his Democratic opponent, on Sept. 30 in the Rio Grande Valley.

The national Democratic Party needs to stop taking voters in the Valley for granted and better understand their values, Texas lawmakers said during a Texas Tribune event Wednesday.

In a Texas Tribune event Tuesday, university leaders discussed why Hispanic students finish higher education programs at a lower rate than the state average but have better performance in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso.

A Mexican immigrant who worked in cotton fields to pay for school supplies, Flores is a source of hope for Republicans looking to gain ground in the Rio Grande Valley. But her staying power will be put to the test this November.

Processing will continue, but time is running out to submit draft applications to the GLO for eligibility consideration and assistance with missing documentation.

García served as the president of the University of Texas at Brownsville until it merged with the University of Texas-Pan American to become the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is the first Mexican American woman to lead a college or university in the United States.

Starr County, one of the four counties that make up the Rio Grande Valley, has not been able to produce campaign finance reports that it is required to maintain, according to a GOP group targeting the area.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s too-close-to-call runoff got most of the attention, but three other primary runoffs Tuesday carried big stakes for Democrats as they try to defend South Texas from a new GOP offensive.

A woman was arrested Tuesday after being busted attempting to smuggle four people from the Rio Grande Valley into the Houston area, the Wharton County Sheriff's Office said.

Cheap regulated and unregulated medication is available over the counter at Mexican pharmacies, including abortion-inducing drugs that are strictly regulated in the U.S.

The full and often unchecked power of the prosecutor was on display when a South Texas woman was charged with murder for a self-induced abortion.

The law went into effect in September, a week before Mexico’s Supreme Court dissolved a Coahuila state law that made abortion a crime. Now some Texans further along in their pregnancies are going there for abortion-inducing drugs.

The winner of the special election will replace former U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, who resigned last month to work for Akin Gump.

The Rio Grande Valley, often seen as a reliable vote against abortion, has a long history of advocacy to increase access to the procedure.

Commercial traffic at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge stopped Monday and a similar protest affected traffic into and out of El Paso. The blockades could impact the flow of produce to restaurants and grocery stores.

A special election will determine who finishes Vela’s term, and while the winner will only serve for a short period, Republicans are already eyeing the contest to show momentum in South Texas.

Democrats in the region still had higher turnout, but Republicans celebrated the narrowing of the gap. Despite the improvement, nearly 87% of registered voters in the Rio Grande Valley did not vote in the primary, similar to the rate in 2018.

The administration says it’s filling in wall gaps for agent safety and flood control, and documents suggest an environmental assessment for 86 miles of wall in South Texas is a stalling tactic.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a rule earlier this week to list the prostrate milkweed, which lives along the Texas-Mexico border, as an endangered species. The rare plant is threatened in part by border security activities, scientists say.

The National Butterfly Center, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, has been the target of conspiracy theorists since 2019.

The Brownsville Democrat said his resignation will be effective Jan. 31. That sets up a potential special election to finish his term, though whoever wins would only serve for a short time.

The Republican governor officially announced his reelection campaign Saturday in McAllen, while likely Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke campaigned in El Paso.

Republicans including former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas and former Texas GOP chair Allen West are challenging Abbott for the Republican nomination.

The U.S. government has withdrawn from settlement negotiations to end lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who were forcibly separated under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy.

Construction is expected to begin soon on a 1.7-mile portion of the Texas border wall.

The number of people caught illegally crossing our southern border or deemed inadmissible to the United States has dropped for the third straight month.

The number of people caught illegally crossing our southern border or deemed inadmissible to the United States has dropped for the third straight month.

Lucio announced Thursday that he is not seeking reelection after three decades in the Senate.

The Brownsville Democrat, who made the announcement Thursday, has served in the upper chamber since 1991.

Garza, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, had been running to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville. U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is now running for Vela's seat after redistricting made Gonzalez's seat more competitive for Republicans.

Texas lawmakers made Gonzalez’s current 15th Congressional District more competitive for Republicans. The representative now plans to run in the 34th District, which is safer for Democrats.

Designed more than a century ago, the Rio Grande Valley’s canal system in South Texas was built to irrigate the booming agricultural industry that once dominated the local economy.

The likely new district comes as Texas Republicans continue to try to make new inroads in South Texas after the 2020 election.

With proposed maps out, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, says he might switch to a neighboring district where U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, is retiring. The initial maps are also sure to impact decisions in regional legislative races.

Border wall opponents say President Joe Biden broke his promise to halt border wall construction when Homeland Security started building a wall and calling it a levee.

Migrant crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border reached a 21-year high in July. This video takes you to the epicenter: Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where more crossings are happening than in any other region in the country.

Several border leaders continue to call on President Joe Biden to pause the release of asylum-seeking migrants into the United States. These calls for help come as many border communities are struggling under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott and Texas after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order “dangerous and unlawful.”

One day after Abbott told state troopers to pull over vehicles with migrants suspected of having COVID-19, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the governor's order violated federal law.

While final details have not been hashed out, Galveston and Montgomery County officials announced they will send local resources to the southern border.

Here are things to know for Thursday, June 24:

Many local officials and business leaders along the border say that the rhetoric is misplaced and that the broader needs of their communities can often get lost.

With Texans finally stepping out in public again, we asked photographers across the state to give us a look at people enjoying themselves after the long shutdown.

The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults are coming without families.

The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults are coming without families.

Data just released by Customs and Border shows the number of encounters along our southern border continues to rise and reached a level not seen since the year 2000.

The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities.