Free Republic

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available. A package containing the deadly poison ricin addressed to President Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement sometime this week, before it was delivered to the president, two law enforcement officials told CNN on Saturday. Two law enforcement officials also told CNBC about the ricin package that was addressed to Trump. According to CNN, two tests were performed on the package, to confirm the presence of the deadly ricin poison, and the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the...

The Canadian woman accused of sending a letter containing ricin to President Trump has been identified as Pascale Ferrier of Quebec, authorities said. Ferrier was taken into custody Sunday by US Customs and Border Protection agents at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo, New York, where she is expected to appear in federal court to face charges. She was supposed to appear in court Monday, but her appearance was delayed until Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office, according to the CBC.

Through 2019 and 2020 the women worked to increase Republican turnout across South Texas, with Flores running Hispanic outreach. For the most part, they toiled out of the spotlight. Even when De La Cruz announced a congressional bid, in 2020, to try to unseat two-term Democratic congressman Vicente Gonzalez, national and state Republicans paid little attention to her campaign... In 2016 Donald Trump hadn’t even mustered 30 percent of the vote in Hidalgo County, where Gonzalez’s district was anchored. Then everything changed. The world of South Texas politics was rocked in November of 2020, when Trump far surpassed expectations in...

A Republican has won a mayoral race in a South Texas Hispanic Democratic bastion, sparking celebration from the GOP nationwide and alarm from some Democrats. Why it matters: Javier Villalobos' victory Saturday in Mexican American-majority McAllen, Texas, comes as some Latino Democrats say their party has been ignoring Mexican Americans in Texas, New Mexico and California as the Republican Party makes dents in areas once solidly blue. Villalobos, an attorney and former chair of the Hidalgo County GOP, beat Veronica Whitacre by about 200 votes in a nonpartisan race where Democrats have dominated for years. His victory drew praise from...

A woman suspected of sending an envelope containing the poison ricin, which was addressed to the White House, has been arrested at the New York-Canada border and is also suspected of sending similar poisoned envelopes to law enforcement agencies in Texas, officials said Monday. The letter had been intercepted earlier this week before it reached the White House. The woman was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo and is expected to face federal charges, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. Her name was not immediately released,...

Tuesday on MSNBC, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) called the Texas GOP a “death cult” who wants “African-Americans” and “Latinos” to do the dying. O’Rourke said, “You know, the United States has been hit hard by COVID. Texas, arguably, harder than almost any other state right now, perhaps with the exception of Florida and Arizona, and within Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, and particularly Hidalgo County, is just getting the stuffing knocked out of it. They’re running out of beds and space in their hospitals and clinics. They’re running out of nurses and doctors to take care of the patients....

Border residents in New Mexico say they are hesitant to report suspicious immigration activity to local and federal law enforcement because they fear the Mexican cartels moving drugs or people into the U.S. will retaliate against them. Seven residents who live 30 to 50 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border told the Washington Examiner that picking up the phone to call for help if they have been burglarized or found someone sleeping in their barn can lead to nasty consequences. Billy Darnell, a cattle rancher in Hidalgo County who has lived in the region more than 70 years, said he...

HIDALGO COUNTY, N.M.- There are so many voices, all of them important, in the national debate about border funding. Tribal politics has pitted the country into “us versus them.” This very debate has also paralyzed the federal government in the longest shutdown in our country’s history. But ranchers who live and work in New Mexico’s Boot Heel feel like their voices haven’t been heard on this issue, even though border issues affect their daily lives. New Mexico’s Boot Heel sits in Hidalgo County, wedged between Arizona and Mexico. The county shares 87 miles of its boundary with Mexico and there...

Hidalgo County officials say 35-year-old Oscar Davila Rodriguez was returned to the U.S. Wednesday. During the 2008 trial in Edinburg, prosecutors presented evidence that Rodriguez in 2005 broke into the McAllen home of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, Nydia Maldonado, and killed her. She was strangled and stabbed multiple times.

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that 100 miles of border fence will be replaced with funding from the 2018 appropriations. San Diego’s sector will receive 14 miles of fencing in two different areas or 28 miles. In Calexico, two miles of a 30-foot border wall will replace two miles of pedestrian barrier. Santa Teresa, New Mexico, will see 20 miles constructed in April while the Rio Grande Valley will receive 25 miles of levee wall and 8 of border wall. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection updates the construction of a proposed border wall between the...

Court of Appeals Judge Nora Longoria was allegedly begged for leniency during her DUI arrest in July. Last month, the District Attorney’s office said it lacked enough evidence to prosecute and another judge threw out the case. The DA said it never got the dashcam video, which showed Longoria stumble through her failed sobriety test. Could this be the evidence they never got? A month after a Texas court threw out a DUI case against a judge because it lacked strong evidence, police released dashcam video of her arrest that showed her stumble through a sobriety test.The new video, recorded...

Former Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino (D) — he stepped down a couple of weeks ago — has pleaded guilty today to federal charges of money laundering, according to the McAllen Monitor. Just 17 days after stepping down as sheriff and three days after his former chief of staff entered a related plea, Treviño stood before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez and pleaded guilty for his part in laundering campaign contributions that were tied to a convicted drug trafficker. Testimony in court this morning suggested that the amount of money laundered could be anywhere between $70,000 and $120,000. Treviño was...

HIDALGO COUNTY - Illegal immigration is forcing a rancher to move his livestock away from a property along the Rio Grande. Jose Cavazos said it's become nearly impossible to maintain his fences. He said immigrants damage them when they flee from Border Patrol agents. Cavazos isn't the only rancher dealing with the destruction. Damaged fences lead to stray cattle, ranchers said. "They completely destroyed the fence. I had to move (the livestock) to another 76 acres," Cavazos said. Cavazos lives along the Rio Grande, just south of Mission. Cavazos said Border Patrol boats force illegal immigrants onto his property. He...

City, county settle NM 'anal probe' lawsuit ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A city and county in southern New Mexico have settled a lawsuit filed by man taken to two hospitals and forced to have anal probes over suspicion of hiding drugs. Attorney for David Eckert said Monday that Hidalgo County and the city of Deming recently settled their portion of a lawsuit for a total $1.6 million. The lawsuit, filed against police and sheriff's officials in Deming and Hidalgo County, which borders Mexico, alleges Deming police sought a search warrant for Eckert because they thought he appeared to be clenching his...

McALLEN — The drug conspiracy trial of a former Hidalgo County sheriff's deputy has persistently turned attention to his one-time boss, Sheriff Lupe Treviño, who in a dramatic turn took the stand Friday morning to respond to allegations of illegal campaign fundraising tactics and how much he knew of his deputies' illicit activities. Jorge Garza, a retired warrant officer accused of helping to steal drug loads from smugglers for resale, is the only former lawman to stand trial in a scandal that has brought down the sheriff's son and called into question the integrity of Treviño, who has cast himself...

Family and friends of the late Gilbert Medina, Jr admit he is guilty of a lot of things. They said he was a drug addict, a panhandler and a bad father. "My heart just breaks because Medina was part of the family, part of our hearts," Victoria Gutierrez, Medina’s cousin said. They do not believe he deserved to die last March, when he tried to burglarize the Pumpjack restaurant off Monte Cristo road in Edinburg. "Not to kill a person...I don't think it's worth it," Catalina Ozuna, Gilbert's mother said. "I don't think it's worth it to kill a person....

HIDALGO COUNTY - Border Patrol agents on Monday arrested several immigrants at a busy medical center in Penitas. Those who work at the center say the area has become a human-smuggling corridor. Workers at Saenz Medical Center said they see immigrants darting behind cars and hiding in the dumpster. "We started hearing the helicopters, and when we hear that we know that something is going on," Mary Segura said. She works at the medical plaza. She witnessed Monday's arrests. "A little boy was running across the parking lot here, jumping on top of a car. I guess he was so...

EDINBURG — A restaurant owner fatally shot a man who police say appeared to have climbed through the roof of the establishment early Tuesday morning. About 4 a.m. Tuesday, Gilbert Medina broke into the Pumpjack Mexican Restaurant, 711 W. Monte Cristo Road, said Lt. Oscar Treviño, an Edinburg police spokesman. The restaurant had been broken into three times before in recent weeks, having cash and TV’s stolen, Treviño said. Since the thefts had previously taken place on weekends, police investigators had been preparing a surveillance operation for this coming weekend to catch burglars in the act, Treviño said. In the...

LOS EBANOS — Five men from Mexico face federal drug charges after U.S. Border Patrol agents were fired upon from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The shooting took place Friday evening along the river near Los Ebanos after agents saw a dark Ford Expedition that approached the river and then was loaded with bundles of marijuana by several men who had used rafts to move the bundles from Mexico to the U.S. side, court records show. The agents requested backup and moved in to intercept the vehicle as it was leaving the river, heading northbound. Upon spotting the...

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño has become the target of death threats from a member of a dangerous gang that has ties to Mexican drug cartels. The threats have forced the sheriff and his deputies to take precautions, he said. “As an elected official, and one with such a high-profile position, I don’t expect people to always agree with me,” Treviño said. “But when you make a threat against my life, one of my family members or one of my deputies, that is over the top.” Sheriff’s investigators are looking for two gang members believed to be behind...