BROWNSVILLE

SpaceX announced it completed a major test of its latest Starship prototype, as the company prepares for the first orbital launch of the towering rocket.

Americans in Texas set low expectations for President Biden — particularly regarding the economy — as his administration begins its third year later this month.

Motherhood has been at the centre of heated US debate - this school shows how it's reshaping lives.

Surfside home next in historic designation line by at MiamiTodayNews.com.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter

On Tesla's third-quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk told analysts how his car company plans to continue expanding regardless of what happens with the economy.

A border bridge connecting the U.S. and Mexico near Brownsville, Texas, has been temporarily closed because of a protest, U.S. consular officials said Friday. “The Gateway Bridge between Matamoros and Brownsville (Texas) has been closed due to a protest,” according to a statement on social media by the U.S. Consulate General in the nearby Mexican city. The border bridge is about 480 miles (770 kilometers) south of Dallas in southern Texas.

Shares of Tesla fell Monday after the electric vehicle maker released third-quarter production and delivery numbers that missed analysts' estimates.

The Florida governor’s cruel stunt will collide with the serious real-world problem of immigration.

The leader of a Northrop Grumman subsidiary sees exciting potential in the massive Starship rockets that Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing.

The disturbance over the northern Gulf spawned late last week by the leftovers of an old frontal boundary is moving inland over south Texas this morning between Brownsville along the U.S./Mexico border and Corpus Christi.

They were found in an apartment complex pond, officials said.

SpaceX will have a Starship prototype rocket "ready to fly" by July, Elon Musk says, for a crucial milestone that is pending a regulatory license.

SpaceX plans to launch rockets near Brownsville, Texas, and send the first person to Mars from there. Seven years after breaking ground, residents say the only thing skyrocketing is housing prices.

Police cars closed an entrance to the Miami-Dade Transit Central Bus Facility on Sunday.

Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas said Thursday he will soon leave office for a job in the private sector rather than finish what was already his final term in Congress. The five-term South Texas congressman confirmed he was taking a job with Akin Gump, a law and lobbying firm. Vela, who was among the first House Democrats to announce he would not seek reelection in 2022, said he has not yet determined the date of his final day in office.

Beirut's historic city center and the traditional territory of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas are among 25 places listed by World Monument Watch as in urgent need of preservation.

The Miami Medicare fraud being investigated was basic, according to U.S. Health and Human Services. What agents found in Miami’s Brownsville area Friday night was not.

According to officials, the man was found alone and may be a victim of fraud.

Federal agents are searching for information about an 85-year-old man from Miami-Dade County who was neglected and exploited in a scheme to defraud Medicare.

How a suburban mom became an activist by leaning into her Afro-Latina identity

The teenage boy who was wounded during a confrontation with a veteran sergeant has a criminal record that goes back several years and includes arrests in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Feet away from a tribute mural to Martin Luther King, Jr., crime scene tape surrounded an area behind a bus stop. A Miami-Dade sergeant shot a troubled Black teenage boy who was armed on Sunday, police said. And on Martin Luther King Day, the wounded teen remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Towering above Liberia's ramshackle capital Monrovia stands a hotel that once symbolised an African dream yet today lies in ruins, a legacy of brutal conflict.

Miami-Dade police responded to the scene of a shooting Monday morning, and police tell Local 10 News that a lieutenant in an unmarked vehicle was the target of that shooting.

Daniel Pacheco said Miami-Dade police officers damaged his home surveillance cameras and his main door before they stormed inside on Thursday morning in Brownsville. There was gunfire near his grandson and his teenage son was arrested.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested Thursday morning after he confronted officers with a gun inside a home in Miami-Dade County, authorities said.

Miami-Dade police are investigating after three men were shot in a suspected drive-by in the Brownsville area Monday afternoon.

Breaking up an old ship is a costly process. The US Navy sold two aircraft carriers to a firm which will profit from the boats' scrap metal.

Pastors, parishioners and members of community-based organizations are combating gun violence by helping residents get assistance with housing relocation, clothing, jobs, entrepreneurship and mental health.

Mansfield police acted quickly after they got information Saturday that a kidnapped child might be in their area.

An Amber Alert was issued after the girl was reportedly abducted Saturday night.

Two people, 19-year-old Lucretia Braithwaite and 19-year-old Johnnie Dixson Jr., were killed in the shooting.

Two people were killed in a drive-by shooting early Tuesday in Brownsville, Miami-Dade police said. Homicide detectives are combing the area for clues.

Police say they responded just before 1 a.m. to the 5200 block of Northwest 29th Avenue to find a car crashed into a fence and two people inside it with gunshot wounds.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue were called to the scene of multiple cars and a school bus on fire.

Carolyn Villalobos said she couldn’t believe the man who she believes killed her son was free to shoot two other people on Thursday in Miami-Dade County.

To fight climate change, the administration supports a huge expansion in offshore wind farms by 2030.

CBS News spoke to several families with young children pursuing asylum claims in the U.S. about why they decided to leave their home countries and what it was like to undertake the perilous journey to the border.

In New York, the Mayor and police leadership have repeatedly voiced commitments to “create a bond” between cops and communities of color. The problem, according to high-level officials, is that the city chose the wrong people for the right job.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Before he recognized the man who was arrested for allegedly abducting, raping, and shooting a 12-year old boy, Vicente Izaguirre said that he had seen him acting strangely in South Beach. Izaguirre said that before officers arrested Aliex Santiesteban he parked his black car near a dumpster in an alley on Monday, and he pulled stuff out of his car and threw it away. After leaving the boy to die on Saturday in Miami-Dade County’s Brownsville neighborhood, he drove to South Beach, police said. AdAccording to Officer Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department, Santiesteban alleged that he was the victim of a robbery. He received medical attention at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, police said.

BROWNSVILLE, Fla. – Miami-Dade police are investigating a shooting that occurred Wednesday morning outside a food store in Brownsville. The shooting was reported shortly before 8:30 a.m. outside The Heat Food Market at 5201 NW 27th Ave.Sky 10 was above the scene as glass from the front door was scattered across the ground. Police confirmed that a man was shot. They said he was taken to a local hospital by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel, where he was pronounced dead. However, someone who identified themselves as a family member of the victim told Local 10 News that the victim has not died.

Police say the boy was walking in Brownsville near Northwest 43rd Terrace and 30th Avenue between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. Saturday when Santiesteban rolled up and forced him into his car. He drove him about two blocks away and assaulted him. During the struggle, Santiesteban shot the boy in the face and later kicked him out of the car, police say.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police are searching for the person they say sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy before shooting him. Police said the boy was walking around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Saturday in the Brownsville neighborhood of Northwest Miami-Dade County. That’s when authorities said a man pulled up, forced the boy into a vehicle, sexually assaulted him, shot him and then forced him out of the vehicle. Police officers surround a 12-year-old boy after they said he was abducted, sexually assaulted and shot. He was driving a black sedan and was last seen in the area of Northwest 45th Street and 31st Avenue — the area where authorities said the boy was sexually assaulted and shot.

A surge of migrants on the Southwest border has the Biden administration on the defensive. President Joe Biden’s administration has been sharply criticized for its response to a surge in crossings of unaccompanied immigrant children. “I feel like I have to wait and try again.”The Biden administration is not expelling immigrant children unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. But Pfluger and other Midland officials said the Biden administration wasn’t answering their questions or giving them assurance that officials would keep the surrounding community safe. HHS opened the Midland site without notifying some top local officials who say many of their questions aren't being answered.

Team Brownsville, a humanitarian group, is helping the migrants reach their final destination in the U.S. A surge of migrants on the Southwest border has the Biden administration on the defensive. Still, the encounters of both unaccompanied minors and families remain lower than at various points during the Trump administration, including in spring 2019. They deride the policies Trump implemented to deter asylum as cruel and inhumane and an abdication of the country’s humanitarian responsibilities. "The Trump administration did everything in their power for four years to make the already broken immigration system as cumbersome and ineffective as possible. ... You leave yourself nowhere to go.”Ad“They’re kind of stuck in a corner,” agreed Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies think tank, which advocates on behalf of more restrictive immigration policies.

Team Brownsville, a humanitarian group, is helping the migrants reach their final destination in the U.S. A surge of migrants on the Southwest border has the Biden administration on the defensive. Still, the encounters of both unaccompanied minors and families remain lower than at various points during the Trump administration, including in spring 2019. They deride the policies Trump implemented to deter asylum as cruel and inhumane and an abdication of the country’s humanitarian responsibilities. "The Trump administration did everything in their power for four years to make the already broken immigration system as cumbersome and ineffective as possible. ... You leave yourself nowhere to go.”Ad“They’re kind of stuck in a corner,” agreed Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies think tank, which advocates on behalf of more restrictive immigration policies.

The Department of Justice on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it will no longer defend a Trump administration rule that put limits on immigrants seeking permanent U.S. residency. Trump's White House made the so-called public charge rule tougher on immigrants if they were likely to need noncash benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps or federal housing aid. The move is the latest in a series of decisions by the Justice Department after President Joe Biden took office in January to drop positions taken by the department during President Donald Trump's administration. The Trump administration moved to expand that definition to include noncash benefits, such as Medicaid, which provides health coverage to primarily low-income people. But the Trump administration successfully overturned those injunctions on appeal to circuit courts of appeal and ultimately at the Supreme Court in late January.

MIAMI, Fla. – The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in Liberty City looked a little different this year because of the pandemic, but it was still the spirited and colorful event that’s been going on for 44 years. The parade happened on Friday, but you will only be able to watch it online and on television on Local 10 and Local10.com. If you want to tune in, we’ll be airing it Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. on Local10.com. “First of all, it’s creativity over everything else and is a way to bring a little bit of normal into our new normal,” she said.

Pursuit of BMW with teenage mother asking for help ends in Brownsville, FHP reportsBROWNSVILLE, Fla. – A teenage girl told authorities on Monday that she and her baby were with a violent man in a white BMW traveling northbound on the Florida Turnpike and they needed help. FHP troopers followed the BMW as it traveled to State Road 836 and exited northbound onto Northwest 27 Avenue in Miami-Dade County, Camacho said. The driver stopped at Northwest 50 Street, just south of the Brownsville Train Station. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded to check up on the baby and the teenage girl. Troopers arrested the man who is facing charges of domestic violence and child endangerment.

Garceno, Texas — A 4-year-old boy was rescued from a 44-foot well here early Wednesday morning, reports CBS Brownsville, Texas affiliate KVUE-TV. The Starr County's Sheriff's Office also called on the McAllen, Edinburg and La Rosita fire departments. Rescuers work to save 4-year-old boy from well in Garceno, Texas early on December 9, 22020. Responders also used special equipment from trench rescue special operations teams. Esmeralda Muniz, from Starr County Sheriff's Office, said the boy fell 9 feet down in the well.

SpaceX may attempt the next test flight of its Starship prototype rocket as early as Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk shared on Twitter. The flight will be the company's most ambitious test of Starship yet, as SpaceX is aiming to reach about 50,000 feet altitude with Starship prototype Serial Number 8, or SN8. Starship SN8 is built of stainless steel, with the prototypes representing the first versions of the rocket that Musk unveiled last year. But asked what he thought about chances of the Starship prototype landing intact after the flight, Musk gave SN8 low odds of complete success on the first try. The company is building the Starship prototypes at its growing facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A wounded victim was hospitalized on Friday after a shooting outside of a convenience store in Miami-Dade County’s Brownsville area, police said. Detective Lee Cowart, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said officers responded to investigate the shooting at the 4300th block of Northwest 27th Avenue. Officers were investigating a shooting on Friday outside of a convenience store in Brownsville. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel rushed the victim, who was conscious, to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took the victim of a Friday shooting in Brownsville to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police officers spent several hours investigating a double shooting inside a Miami-Dade County apartment building. It happened in Brownsville at approximately 11:30 p.m. Saturday near the corner of Northwest 50th Street and 24th Avenue. According to authorities, Miami-Dade police officers responded after receiving calls regarding a sick or injured person and arrived to find two men who had been shot. Police in Miami-Dade are investigating a death at a Brownsville apartment. Authorities said they did not have any information to provide regarding a subject or shooter.

NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. – A house fire in the Brownsville neighborhood of Miami yielded some tense moments for firefighters when they discovered 3 portable propane tanks near the structure, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. When MDFR responded to the fire near Northwest 48th Street and 21st Avenue on Sunday at 2:45 p.m., smoke was pouring out of a laundry room, which was located at the back of the structure, according to a report from fire rescue. Crews quickly began to extinguish the fire then noticed the propane tanks, which, “made the firefight more dangerous,” MDFR stated, due to the risk of the tanks possibly exploding. As a precaution, the structure was evacuated. There were no injuries, but volunteers from the American Red Cross Greater Miami & Keys Chapter arrived on the scene with members of its Disaster Action Team to help coordinate emergency aid to the 2 people who were impacted by damage to the home.

BROWNSVILLE, Fla. – Detectives witnessed a shooting and saw a man running before he collapsed and died on Tuesday in Miami-Dade County’s Brownsville neighborhood, police said. The detectives, who work for the department’s burglary unit, also saw a white sports utility vehicle and a U-Haul rental box truck speeding away, Zabaleta said. Officers found a box truck matching the detectives’ description and detained two people near the intersection of East Third Avenue and East Eighth Street, police said. Miami-Dade detectives are investigating if a U-Haul box truck found in Hialeah is related to a fatal shooting on Tuesday in Brownsville. Officers are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The rain isn’t over yet. There is a flood watch in areas of South Florida until Sunday morning. On Friday night, the floodwater was sloshing outside Los Caneyes Restaurant in Miami-Dade County. This and other flood-prone areas in South Florida were challenging businesses and drivers. Tow truck drivers were pulling out stranded vehicles in Kendall.

MIAMI, Fla. – A 7-year-old girl killed in a drive-by shooting in July was the victim of a grievance between the young girl’s older brother and two other men, according to the state attorney’s office. One of the two suspects charged in the drive by shooting of Alana Washington was in court Thursday. The person who shot and killed Alana and injured 3 others, according to Rundle, was Jaris Baker-Flanders, 23, who was apprehended in Georgia. WATCH: Miami-Dade State Attorney holds news conference giving details on July drive-by shooting. Alana’s mother Niecey Drayton told Local 10 she has been waiting for this day since the drive by shooting in Brownsville.

BROWNSVILLE, Fla. – “Justice for Alana Washington!” That was the plea from a group of protesters who met on Thursday night in Miami-Dade County’s Brownsville neighborhood. The protesters said they are concerned about the frequency of pediatric firearm injuries and deaths in Miami-Dade. In the case of Alana, there is a $55,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Gun violence factsFor years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has considered gun violence — that is killing children and causing them mental health issues and disabilities ― as an important public health problem. Source: The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

MIAMI – Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers announced on Wednesday the reward for information leading to an arrest in the murder of a 7-year-old girl increased to $55,000. Alana Washington, a second-grade student at KIPP Sunrise Academy, a charter school in northwest Miami-Dade, was shot in the head on Saturday in Brownsville. The fatal drive-by shooting was outside of her home at Northwest 51st Street and Northwest 29th Avenue. Detectives in Hialeah are investigating a Tuesday afternoon shooting that left two girls injured. There is a $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in Humphery’s murder.

“Alana was a super loveable, calm, and sweet, shy girl,” Ramirez wrote in a GoFundMe to benefit Drayton. Miami-Dade Commission Chairwoman Audrey M. Edmonson announced there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. On Monday afternoon, Edmonson, Ramirez and other Miami-Dade County community leaders met for a news conference at the crime scene. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and Tangela Sears, an advocate for mothers who have lost their children to gun violence, were among the leaders who made public pleas for help. Detectives are asking anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Chris Headen battles with his umbrellas as Hurricane Hanna begins to make landfall, Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Some areas in South Texas had already reported receiving up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain, including Cameron County, which borders Mexico and where Brownsville is located. First responders in Corpus Christi proactively placed barricades near intersections to have them ready to go if streets began to flood, Mayor Joe McComb said. More than 43,700 people throughout South Texas, including Corpus Christi, Harlingen and Brownsville, were without power Saturday evening, according to AEP Texas. Other counties and cities throughout South Texas had also opened shelters, with many requiring face masks.

The state’s highest numbers are Miami-Dade County with 1,300 new cases. Little Havana is one of several neighborhoods in Miami-Dade now designated a COVID-19 hotspots, along with Brownsville and Allapatah. Surge teams will soon be going door to door dropping off materials and educating residents. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said rather than the new case numbers, it’s the increasing positivity rate that has him concerned, especially among the younger population. He’s also seeing an increase in hospitalizations, but, the mayor said, the county still has plenty of beds available.

MIAMI City of Miami officials distributed face masks Friday to areas that have been identified as coronavirus hot spots, including Allapattah, Brownsville and Little Havana. I see people walking without masks, walking dogs in the park, in the street. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez distributed 10,000 masks to the long line of eager recipients waiting in the heat. As of Thursday, masks are now required in the city of Miami to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and there are consequences for noncompliance. The city of Miami has received more than 100,000 masks to pass out so far, and is expecting more donations.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. Police in Miami-Dade County are searching for a car that was involved in a drive-by shooting. It happened just after midnight on Saturday morning at a graduation party in Brownsville, in the area of NW 54th Street and 30th Avenue. According to police, a subject in an unknown vehicle pulled up and opened fire on a crowd that had gathered for the party. A man was shot in the head and transported to Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition. Anyone with information is urged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

MIAMI The flight manifest for ICEs Tuesday, May 26th deportation flight from Brownsville, Texas to Haiti includes 78 names, among them notorious former death squad leader and U.S. criminal Emmanuel Toto Constant. Emmanuel Toto Constant has been linked to the murders of at least 3,000 people in Haiti. He has not served his full 37 year sentence in the United States and his presence in Haiti now would be highly destabilizing. On May 10th, the Haitian scientific governmental panel on COVID-19 requested a moratorium on all U.S. deportations during the pandemic. Marleine Bastien, Executive Director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM), stated, The deportation of Emmanuel Toto Constant to Haiti endangers the entire country.

Published: May 15, 2020, 4:14 pm Updated: May 15, 2020, 4:25 pmBROWNSVILLE, Fla. – Detectives are investigating how a woman ended up dead Friday near the Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Brownsville. Detective Argemis Colome, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department said officers found the woman in the area of Northwest 46th Street and Northwest 31st Avenue. Officers were searching for evidence northeast of the Quick Stop at 3101 NW 46th St.Officers asked anyone with information to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477. This is a developing story.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A police officer placed his hands in a shopping cart to dig through clothes, as he searched for a live grenade on Thursday afternoon near Miami’s Brownsville. According to Detective Christopher Thomas, a spokesman for the department, officers found “the possible grenade” in a trash can near the Caraf Oil gas station, at 6151 NW 32 Ave.Leo Gutierrez, the owner of the gas station, said a man who keeps all of his belongings in a shopping cart walked in flustered alerting them about a grenade, so he called 911. “He came like all crazy saying, ‘Oh! I have a grenade ... No one was injured.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Surveillance cameras were rolling as a thief was seen snooping around the Tires Land auto shop in Brownsville, near Northwest 53rd Street and Northwest 32nd Avenue, early Sunday. In the video, the thief can be seen rummaging through a vehicle and searching for anything he can find. “Happens all the time," Orlando Cruz, a mechanic at the auto shop, said. "There’s people that go into cars just to steal change.”A man, later identified as Christian Hernandez, is seen on surveillance video burglarizing a car at Tires Land in Brownsville. (WPLG)Cruz said the owner, Luis Correa, received an alert on his phone while the thief was still on the property.

Cameron County, Texas, Sheriff Omar Lucio said Tuesday that authorities discovered about 270 animals about two dozen of them dead on property in the small community of Los Fresnos, which is north of Brownsville in the far southern part of the state. They were found Sept. 9 after authorities received complaints from neighbors about barking dogs, according to Lucio and Cameron County prosecutor Edward Sandoval. Deputies found many of the dogs covered in feces and urine, with two or three of them packed together in each cage. Authorities estimated that more than half of the Texas dogs wouldn't survive or would have to be euthanized.

A shootout that left one man dead and 11 people wounded at a Brooklyn community festival over the weekend may have been gang related, the New York Police Department said Monday as the hunt continued for at least two gunmen. Several victims of the shooting late Saturday had gang histories, including the man who was killed, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. Commissioner James O'Neill said police are looking at the possibility of gang involvement, in part because gang violence accounts for about half the shootings in that area of the city. The neighborhood, Brownsville, had a violent crime rate last year that was more than double the citywide average. He was a member of the Bloods gang, Shea said, adding that it wasn't yet clear if he was a target of the shooting.

WABC via CNN(CNN) - Multiple people were shot in Brooklyn Saturday night, the New York Police Department said. The shooting took place in Brownsville, a neighborhood in east Brooklyn. At least six people have been injured, a New York Fire Department spokesperson told CNN. We will do everything in our power to keep this community safe and get guns off our streets," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted shortly after midnight. Officials are working to determine the exact number of people shot and their injuries, Navarro said.

McALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Friday called President Donald Trumps latest anti-immigration initiatives unacceptable and warned his administration against misappropriating funding authorized only for humanitarian use. Immigration, one of Trumps signature issues in the 2016 presidential campaign, is already shaping up as a central issue in November 2020. The government will add Brownsville, Texas, as a fifth border city for processing applications of migrants who must wait for a decision in Mexico. Brownsville is in the Rio Grande sector, where almost 40 percent of all southern border apprehensions since October have been made, Customs and Border Protection data show. Federal judges have blocked other measures to limit asylum applicants at the U.S.-Mexico border until legal challenges go to trial.

McALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Friday called President Donald Trumps latest anti-immigration initiatives unacceptable and warned his administration against misappropriating funding authorized only for humanitarian use. Immigration, one of Trumps signature issues in the 2016 presidential campaign, is already shaping up as a central issue in November 2020. The government will add Brownsville, Texas, as a fifth border city for processing applications of migrants who must wait for a decision in Mexico. Brownsville is in the Rio Grande sector, where almost 40 percent of all southern border apprehensions since October have been made, Customs and Border Protection data show. Federal judges have blocked other measures to limit asylum applicants at the U.S.-Mexico border until legal challenges go to trial.

McALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Friday called President Donald Trumps latest anti-immigration initiatives unacceptable and warned his administration against misappropriating funding authorized only for humanitarian use. Immigration, one of Trumps signature issues in the 2016 presidential campaign, is already shaping up as a central issue in November 2020. The government will add Brownsville, Texas, as a fifth border city for processing applications of migrants who must wait for a decision in Mexico. Brownsville is in the Rio Grande sector, where almost 40 percent of all southern border apprehensions since October have been made, Customs and Border Protection data show. Federal judges have blocked other measures to limit asylum applicants at the U.S.-Mexico border until legal challenges go to trial.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will start returning migrants to Mexico to wait out their U.S. court hearings in Mexico through Brownsville, Texas on Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. The program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, began in January this year and is already operational in several cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. This week the expansion will continue into the Rio Grande Valley, the spokeswoman said in an email, an area that has seen some of the largest increases in migrants crossing into the United States. DHS has coordinated with the Government of Mexico on this development and anticipates the first returns will occur as early as July 19, the spokeswoman said.

The U.S. government on Friday expanded its requirement that asylum seekers wait outside the country to a part of the Texas Rio Grande Valley across from one of Mexico's most dangerous cities. DHS says it anticipates the first asylum seekers will be sent back to Mexico starting Friday. Under the so-called "Remain in Mexico" policy, asylum seekers are briefly processed and given a date to return for an immigration court hearing before being sent back across the southern border. Only a few migrants daily have been allowed to seek asylum under another Trump administration policy limiting asylum processing known as "metering." About 1,800 asylum seekers and migrants are currently waiting in Nuevo Laredo, where some have reported being kidnapped and extorted by gangs.

Brownsville, Texas Many migrants come to America illegally because entering as a legal asylum-seeker is getting more difficult. In Matamoros, Mexico, just across the bridge from Brownsville, Texas, the wait to request asylum seems endless. In Mexico, some migrant families have been waiting for weeks to apply for asylum. CBS NewsU.S. volunteers from a group called Team Brownsville, cross from Brownsville, Texas to feed families. There are more than 19,000 people waiting in Mexico to request asylum.