LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - In a bid to address the growing concern of underage vaping, the City of Laredo is actively considering the adoption of an ordinance that would prohibit the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes in close proximity to schools, childcare homes, and playgrounds.

This issue was discussed during the City Council meeting held on Tuesday, June 20, prompting Council Member Alberto Torres to express his support for the proposed regulation.

Council Member Torres emphasized the need for preventive measures after hearing concerns from teachers and parents regarding the increasing prevalence of vaping among students. He stated, “In this meeting, we instructed the city manager and our legal team to explore legal avenues that would prevent the sale of vaping products within a certain distance from areas where students and youth often gather. It is crucial to address this issue promptly to protect students from accessing these harmful devices, which not only affect their disciplinary records but also hinder their educational opportunities and college applications.”

The findings and recommendations are expected to be presented to the City Council within the next 30 days.

JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – The battle for Benito the giraffe is heating up on par with rising temperatures in this Mexican border city.

Animal rights activists from all over Mexico are planning a Sunday march to demand that the city’s tallest resident be moved to a more suitable environment. The 10 a.m. demonstration starts at Plaza Juarez Mall and concludes at the park half a mile south.

Concerned citizens and international organizations say Benito’s tiny habitat at the mostly concrete-lined park is inadequate and exposes him to excessive heat. The temperature in the Juarez, Mexico-El Paso, Texas region is expected to soar to between 108 to 110 degrees between Sunday and Tuesday.

FALFURRIAS, Texas (Border Report) — A South Texas sheriff says he issued an arrest warrant for a Mexican councilwoman who had federal drug charges dropped, “because she violated state law.”

Migrant smugglers adjust to extreme heat in rural South Texas, sheriff says

In an exclusive interview with Border Report at his offices in this rural South Texas town, Brooks County Sheriff Urbino “Benny” Martinez says he couldn’t let the charges go, and says he intends to transfer her to his jail as soon as he has space.

“I got 10 days. We have very limited space in our jail so I’m grateful for Hidalgo County for holding on to her for this long and we’ll be able to do the transition,” he said.

Denisse Ahumada-Martinez, 34, is a city councilwoman from the Mexican border town of Reynosa. She was first arrested June 10 when federal officials say they found 92 pounds of cocaine hidden in bundles wrapped in duct tape inside the seats and door panels of a car she was driving at the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, which is in Brooks County.

On June 15, in Hidalgo County, U.S. Magistrate Judge Juan Alanis dismissed the federal drug-trafficking charges against Ahumada-Martinez during a hearing in which he said federal prosecutors had lacked probable cause to arrest her.

The following day, Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies arrested her — on a warrant that Sheriff Martinez issued from Brooks County — as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were preparing to deport her back to Mexico at the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, her lawyer, Samuel Reyes, told Border Report on Thursday.

Reyes said his client remains at the Hidalgo County Jail.

After Sheriff Martinez learned the case was dropped by the feds, he said he issued the warrant for her arrest on state charges.

“I always believe that we shouldn’t let people walk after a crime. There needs to be consequences. It’s a bad signal when you just let people walk and there’s nothing in return,” he said. “That’s the norm for Brooks County to adopt cases from the checkpoint. That’s the agreement we have with them. There are certain cases that just don’t quite meet the criteria that they have or standards. So we adopt them.”

“There needs to be consequences.”

BROOKS COUNTY SHERIFF URBINO ‘BENNY’ MARTINEZ

Reyes says drug cartel operatives threatened to kill her and her two young daughters if she didn’t drive the vehicle from Reynosa to San Antonio.

He says she comes from a “humble” family and makes a minimum salary as one of several regidoras, which is the equivalent of a councilwoman, who report to the mayor of Reynosa.

The northern Mexican border city of about 700,000 is known for drug cartels, and fighting among various factions, for control of the human trafficking and drug trade.

Ahumada-Martinez makes so little money, Reyes said, that he was appointed to defend her.

During the June 15 hearing, Reyes said, she told the court the story that she gave that she was threatened that she was under duress.

“And that was a reason why she was transporting this vehicle” he said.

“She explained to them that she had been threatened by individuals in Mexico that they had threatened her some time back. And that the only reason she was transporting this vehicle was under threat of death to her and her daughters,” Reyes said.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra told Border Report that Ahumada-Martinez has been very compliant in his jail. He says Brooks County has until Sunday to pick her up and transfer her, according to the warrant.

Sheriff Martinez says his ranching county of 7,200 has a lot of land, but limited resources. He says he just doesn’t have the space for a female inmate and is trying to find a way to work her into their jail before the deadline.

On Wednesday, District Court Judge Ysmael Fonseca set a cash/surety bond of $250,000 on the state charges for Ahumada-Martinez. Fonseca represents the 476th Judicial District Court in Hidalgo County and was appointed in March by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Reyes says she cannot afford the bond and will stay in jail. Even if she could, he says she doesn’t want to get out of custody because she fears that Mexican drug cartel members will find her and kill her.

If convicted, she faces 10 years to life in prison.

“She’s holding up well,” Reyes said. “She’s a remarkable young woman. She’s scared, but she’s tough and she knows that she’s in for a fight.”

BROOKS COUNTY, Texas (Border Report) — Prolonged extreme heat in deep South Texas this month has killed at least one migrant and is even prompting coyotes to adjust how they smuggle migrants through, Border Report has learned.

The Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday had its ninth consecutive day under an “extreme heat” warning, which has led to several record-high temperatures.

In rural Brooks County, temperatures hit 106 degrees with a heat index of 115, according to the National Weather Service.

“The heat wave has been extremely unbearable,” Brooks County Sheriff Urbino “Benny” Martinez told Border Report on Wednesday. “We picked up what I refer to as a full body just yesterday, which is the first one.”

That means the body was intact with all its limbs, he explained. Most times they find migrant remains they aren’t whole, he said.

The body found Tuesday was the 22nd set of migrant remains found in this rural ranching county about 70 miles north of the Mexican border.

Brooks County has been the deadliest for migrant remains in all of the Southwest because migrants must find a way to get around a heavily staffed Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, in order to get to points north like San Antonio or Houston.

In 2021, Brooks County set a record with 119 migrant deaths.

Most migrants die from dehydration and exposure to the harsh elements here. Some are hurt, and others are lost or left behind by smugglers, Martinez says.

But the recent extreme heat has even affected smuggling routes and tactics, Martinez says. Instead of making them trudge through this county’s thick brush, more undocumented migrants are being driven through, and that has resulted in more high-speed chases and bailouts, and lots of property damage to ranchers, he said.

“The issue we’re having now is they’re driving the group through in vehicles without having them walk anymore,” Martinez said. “They’re driving them through and we got more fence damage now.”

“They’re cutting the fences and cutting the locks,” in order to short-cut north around the checkpoint, Martinez says. “They’re doing both and they’re filtering through so it’s difficult.”

Dr. Mike Vickers, a veterinarian, says he has incurred over $40,000 in damage from human smugglers charging through the fences of his three South Texas ranches this year.

He says he and others have taken matters into their own hands.

Vickers, 73, is chairman of the Texas Border Volunteers, a nonprofit group with 300 members who come from South Texas and several other states to help patrol these rural parts and notify Border Patrol and law enforcement when they see what they call illegal activity.

“It’s become quite a problem here,” said Vickers, who on Aug. 3 will celebrate his 50th year practicing veterinary medicine. “Probably over half of my clients have been forced to leave their ranch because of the smuggling; they feel threatened, the eminent threat of danger and they’ve moved to McAllen or Corpus Christi, San Antonio or even farther north.”

He says he feels like the federal government doesn’t care that people in Brooks County don’t feel safe in their own homes, or that property values have dropped because of the dangers of living here.

“Because of the smuggling through their ranches, they can’t even sell it,” he said.

Vickers met with Border Report on Wednesday near his ranch at his clinic, the Las Palmas Veterinary Hospital, located about 4 miles north of the checkpoint on Highway 281.

A couple of weeks ago, he says, he found a teenager on his ranch. The boy said he had been left by smugglers — called coyotes — and said he hadn’t eaten in days.

“All this smuggling and open-border stuff and all this criminal element coming through private property is having a huge negative impact on ranchers and farmers who live in the rural areas,” Vickers said.

“And despite the heat they’re still coming,” he said. “They’re still paying criminal organizations to bring them in here. The guys bringing them in are gang members. We’ve got pistoleros, Mexican mafia, we’ve got MS-13. All these different groups align with the Gulf Cartel or the Zetas or some of these other newer cartel groups that have shown up and they bring these people through and they bring the drugs through.”

The National Weather Service predicts temperatures in Brooks County will remain above 106 degrees through June 28.

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Title 42 expulsions are no more, but policies such as the Biden administration’s online asylum applications and a so-called “travel ban” are putting LGBTQ migrants in harm’s way, according to U.S. and Latin American advocates.

That’s because online appointments take time and force the migrants to wait in countries where discrimination and violence based on gender orientation are palpable; likewise, forcing LGBTQ migrants to first apply for protection in those countries is wrong, a group of advocates assembled by the Welcome With Dignity campaign said Thursday on a Zoom call.

“Asylum is a lawful pathway to the United States. […] If you are fleeing persecution or torture and make it to American soil, you have a fundamental right to ask for asylum. The new Biden rule is illegal,” said Aaron Morris, executive director of Immigration Equality in New York City.

He was referring to the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule the Department of Homeland Security published in May. It requires asylum-seekers to apply for an appointment through the CBP One app or to apply for protection first, and be denied, in the countries they travel through on the way to the U.S.

Guatemalan migrant Estuardo Cifuentes said he experienced insecurity and a lack of shelter and other resources when he and more than 70,000 other asylum-seekers returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program. The LGBTQ activist who fled his country because of threats said he experienced harsh conditions during his stay in Mexico, which he says have only gotten worse with time.

“Policies change, but conditions become more difficult every day,” he said, referring to migrants living on the streets in Mexico, being victimized by criminals and lacking the technology – internet access and literacy – to apply for an asylum appointment online.

Welcome With Dignity campaign members said they welcome the administration’s expansion of legal pathways but will continue to advocate for the removal of barriers to asylum, particularly for vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ migrants.