The two leading Senate Democratic candidates have made it a point to spend time along the border early in the cycle, a sign of the region’s importance in 2026.

In the shadow of SpaceX, Rio Grande Valley students will have a chance to build their own rockets and launch them 11,000 feet in the air, under a program that hopes to spark interest in aerospace jobs.

The deal between the new South Texas city and Cameron County mirrors a similar agreement with South Padre Island and requires a plan to combat beach erosion.

A faction of Hidalgo County Democrats has raised concerns over how the party is spending money and blocking the group from doing business for several months.

Mounted patrol officers, known as tick riders, who typically patrol the southern border to protect cattle from fever tick, will also now serve as the first line of defense against screwworm.

The three-judge panel agreed with a lower court that Ken Paxton’s office can’t question officials from Catholic Charities under oath without first filing a lawsuit.

Texas Republicans are poised to redraw the state’s congressional map during a special session that starts Monday.

Abbott ordered two Texas agencies to begin working together and with residents and business leaders to stop the spread of the invasive fly before it even starts.

Screwworm is a parasitic fly that targets warm-blooded animals and has the potential to disrupt Texas’ $15 billion cattle industry.

A federal judge says the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement must reconsider the cases of some migrant children who have been stuck in government custody since the Trump administration changed the identification requirements for would-be family sponsors.

U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz hope to fund an operation to kill the parasitic fly before too much damage is done.

Leaders hope to treat groundwater and capture more rain as the water from one of the nation’s most iconic rivers becomes less reliable.

The Texas House took its first step toward revising a priority Senate bill last week. The changes were lauded by the state’s water community.

Some churchgoers in the Rio Grande Valley remembered the leader of the Catholic Church as a forward-thinking figure who cared for everyone.

The four students were involved in minor criminal cases that have been resolved, which they argue shouldn’t be used to justify ending their higher ed goals in Texas.

In 2024, President Donald Trump won all four counties in the Rio Grande Valley, once considered a reliable Democratic stronghold.

The Tamaulipan thornforest once covered 1 million acres on both sides of the border with Mexico. Restoring even a fraction of it could help the region cope with the ravages of a warming world.

The lawmakers behind the bill promised there would not be an increase in the number of days the beach is closed.

The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law used to prosecute smugglers.

Farmers and elected officials told a Senate committee Monday that the lack of water is becoming dire, with little relief in sight.

As the Edinburg facility and others seek to assist people experiencing food insecurity, state lawmakers have more than a dozen bills that could tackle Texas’ food deserts.

South Texas College in McAllen launched one of the first registered nursing apprenticeships in the country as area hospitals expect the need for nurses to increase.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley have seen a sharp drop in apprehensions along the southern border since the new administration started.

Across the state, immigrants and their loved ones are changing their daily habits as the Trump administration orders at least 1,200 daily arrests of undocumented people.

The Edinburg shop owner shared her support for Trump — and special pastries — on social media following the election, garnering a rush of customers.

In Brownsville, the city and local hospital have helped residents lose more than 23,000 pounds since 2008.

During his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders and announced policies impacting border security and immigration.

Republicans are stepping up their scrutiny of dozens of shelters run by aid groups on the U.S. border with Mexico.

A hurricane and winter freeze devastated the South Texas industry. A lack of water is preventing a full recovery.

As Republican Texas leaders show support for Trump’s mass deportation plans, undocumented people — some who have lived in America for decades — are weighing their options amid mounting fears.

The U.S. is still separating some migrant children from parents while holding them after they cross the border despite broad improvements at detention centers in Texas.

Groups are urging the state’s estimated 1.6 million undocumented migrants to prepare financially and make plans for their loved ones if they’re detained.

Advocates say a law school in one of the state's poorest regions would exponentially help communities with legal aid.

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.