Convenience Big Store: A new section of the Texas border facing migration surge

Migration surge in the Valley

The debate over the Texas border is only going to get more heated as a new surge of migration through the Rio Grande Valley has fueled a 70 percent increase in border encounters in Texas over the last two months.

For most of the summer, El Paso and Eagle Pass have been the center of the border security debate, as those communities struggled with an increase in border crossings. In El Paso, NBC affiliate KTSM reports that city officials have been using Gov. Greg Abbott's migrant busing program to help relieve the strain on social service networks there.

Meanwhile, in Eagle Pass, Washington reporter Benjamin Wermund reports on the growing tension between landowners there and the Texas Department of Public Safety. One rancher says Texas DPS hasn't had the authority they are claiming to arrest hundreds of people on his land.

The Rio Grande Valley had been seeing declining border crossing numbers for much of the year, according to federal immigration data. But that is changing fast. Federal border patrol officials reported almost 47,000 encounters with migrants in August — making it the most crossed section along the border in Texas once again.

The surging numbers come at a time when Abbott is preparing to call the Legislature in for another special session starting Oct. 9. While that will mostly focus on education issues, Abbott has said he'll include immigration issues on the call.

Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter

jeremy.wallace@houstonchronicle.com

Who's up, who's down

Up: Morgan Luttrell.

The first-term congressman from Montgomery County was able to add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act late last week to provide $15 million to the Pentagon to conduct clinical trials on the use of psychedelics to treat soldiers for post-traumatic distress disorder. Others had already been pushing to simply allow the research, but Luttrell's effort could put real money behind the effort. Now, Luttrell and others in the House will have to work on the U.S. Senate, which so far has not backed the idea.

Down: Matt Gaetz.

The Florida congressman failed in his bid to shut down the federal government on Saturday and now he's lost a key potential ally in his announced effort to oust fellow Republican and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as retribution. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, who hasn't been shy in calling out McCarthy, said on Monday he would not support Gaetz's plan to remove McCarthy as the leader.

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What else is going on in Texas

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Photo by: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

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Pick of the day

Photo by: Jeremy Wallace

Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will call for another special session of the Texas Legislature to start on Oct. 9 to tackle primarily expanding school choice.

What else I'm reading

GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott is going to Dallas on Tuesday he said to personally welcome Mayor Eric Johnson into the Republican party, The Dallas Morning News reports. Johnson announced last week he was switching from the Democratic Party to the Republicans.