LAREDO, TX (KGNS) - A non-profit organization in Laredo is marking a quarter century of providing support to women and children surviving abuse and situations of violence.

Local leaders were on hand to recognize the Casa de Misericordia on its 25 year anniversary.

So far, more than 240 families have been helped year after year.

It’s the people that come through the organization’s doors that provides Sister Rosemary Welsh with a sense of motivation.

“When we were back in the early 90s, we were working all over, not just the colonias, plantation. All over, and we saw there was a real issue of domestic violence. And that people didn’t feel that there was an option, or that there was help,” said Sister Rosemary Welsh. So we starting a coordinated effort to work with law enforcement and everyone. What gives me motivation are the families that come to us. And that little kid that went to our easter party and said this is the best day of my life.”

Officials with the shelter are reminding the community that they have a variety of services to offer people in need including counseling and legal advice for people needing to escape situations of domestic violence.

ALLEN, TX (KGNS) - Authorities in Allen, Texas have released body camera video that shows an officer at a shopping mall running toward the sound of gunfire and taking down a gunman who killed eight people.

On May  31, the unidentified officer was in the parking lot of the Allen Premium Outlet Mall chatting with a woman and two young children when he heard the sound of gunshots.

The officer can be seen grabbing a rifle from his car and heading in the direction of the shots while telling people to leave the area and find cover.

Just over three minutes after hearing the first shots, the officer located the gunman and opened fire bringing an end to the shooting spree.

The gunman was killed in the exchange.

In addition to eight deaths, seven other victims were injured.

The Allen Police Department released the video on Wednesday after a grand jury cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Border agents are using a new, massive soft-sided facility in Northeast El Paso to process thousands of migrants apprehended throughout the Southwestern United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection erected the 360,000 square-foot tents this spring in response to a historical increase in migration through the El Paso-Juarez-New Mexico corridor. That’s when the volume of encounters averaged more than 1,500 people per day at times. CBP also relied heavily on “decompression” flights, sending to South Texas and to California some of the foreign nationals surrendering at the border wall.

But migrant apprehensions here are down more than 60%, and the El Paso Sector is now receiving daily migrant flights from Tucson, Arizona, and Del Rio, Texas, federal officials told Border Report.

“We are getting lateral flights from other parts of the border for processing here in El Paso,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. “It’s important to recognize that the flow of people has not stopped south of us. While El Paso and other communities are seeing more manageable flows, there are still tens of thousands of people traveling through the (Panama) Darien Gap and attempting to make their way (north).”

Border Patrol sectors like Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley in May surpassed El Paso in migrant apprehensions, CBP data shows. Those sectors are now looking to El Paso for help just like El Paso looked to them a few months ago.

That explains why the migrant population at El Paso processing centers is at 2,600 right now despite the lower number of daily apprehensions locally, federal officials said.

“El Paso County and El Paso Sector have been at the forefront of this border crisis for three years or even longer if you look back. While El Paso may only have 400 to 500 (migrant encounters), they’re having 800 to 1,000 in Del Rio,” said U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, whose congressional district extends from Far East El Paso to Del Rio. “Tucson is also 800 to 1,000, so they’re flying everyone to El Paso through decompression flights. […] There is never a day off for the El Paso Sector.”

CBP’s May operational update shows the Rio Grande Valley displaced El Paso as the epicenter of irregular migration on the southern border. El Paso recorded 26,067 migrant encounters in May, trailing Del Rio (29,941), Tucson (30,087) and Rio Grande Valley (36,189).

U.S. Border Patrol officials acknowledge that encounters — the surrender of asylum-seekers plus the apprehension of economic migrants trying to avoid capture — are down in El Paso since mid-May. But they said the situation could change at any time.

“The El Paso Sector fiscal year 2023 migrant encounters through May are 334,283, which leads the nation. Since June, our daily average encounters is 438 a day,” the Border Patrol said in a statement. Despite the decrease in numbers, the El Paso Sector remains prepared in case we experience another migrant influx.”

Gonzales and Escobar said migrant arrivals at the U.S. border will continue to go up and down unless Congress steps in.

Escobar is pushing for a comprehensive package known as The Dignity Act of 2023 that would legalize millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country and expand legal immigration avenues. That will keep migrants from risking their lives coming in between ports of entry or trying to get past highway checkpoints hidden in the back of sweltering trailer trucks, she said.

Gonzales, aware of the deep political divisions in Washington, D.C., is proposing a more pragmatic approach.

“There’s a lot of people that have gone down this route of immigration reform and a lot of people view it in a holistic manner. I am of the mindset of not what I want, but what can we get accomplished in the 118th Congress?” Gonzales told Border Report. “In my eyes, you start with work visas. I’ve got a piece of legislation that I’m working on, we’ll roll this out in the coming weeks.”

Gonzales proposes linking foreign nationals who want to come work in the United States with employers in sectors that have unfilled jobs. That contrasts with letting people in and leaving them to their own devices to find jobs or have a relative or sponsor say they’ll take care of them.

“It’s about streamlining it (the work visa program), vetting people so we know who’s coming into our country, so we don’t have people who are unvetted and also link them up with employers that have these vacancies,” Gonzales said.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - A multiple vehicle accident causes damage to a utility pole and creates heavy traffic in central Laredo.

On Wednesday afternoon at around 3:30 p.m. a five-vehicle collision was reported near East Saunders and New York.

Authorities say three of the vehicles involved were unoccupied during the time of the crash.

During the accident a pick-up truck crashed into a utility pole resulting in damages.

AEP officials are working on repairing the pole and power lines.

Florida’s largest police union endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential bid this week, after endorsing former President Trump in 2020. 

“For the over 30,000 men and women in the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the choice for us could not be clearer,” the group’s president, John Kazanjian, said in a statement to Fox News, calling DeSantis “most effective governor in the nation.”

The Florida Police Benevolent Association cited DeSantis’s actions to combat the fentanyl crisis in the state and increase officers’ salaries. 

“In major cities and communities across America, many Americans are grappling with increased crime rates that not only jeopardize public safety, but also threaten the quality of life in their communities,” Kazanjian said. “The ideological experiment of defunding the police and scapegoating law enforcement for America’s social problems has failed.”

DeSantis, along with other GOP hopefuls, have made combating crime a major priority going into 2024. Last week, the governor’s campaign released an ad from his visit to San Francisco in which he lamented the state of the city. 

The one-minute spot shows DeSantis standing in San Francisco after a visit in which the GOP presidential candidate says he saw people using heroin, smoking “crack cocaine” and “defecating on the street.”

“The city is not vibrant anymore,” DeSantis says. “It’s really collapsed because of leftist policies, and these policies have caused people to flee this area. They don’t prosecute criminals like they do in most parts of the country, and the wreckage is really sad to see.”

“It just shows you that policies matter. Leadership matters. They are doing it wrong here,” he adds