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US-MEXICO BORDER
SAN YGNACIO
Unclear role
Two arrested in Zapata County Cousins charged with bringing in, harboring illegal immigrants
Locals question Texas National Guard presence
By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
By SETH ROBBINS AND PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN — On U.S. 83, the highway that hugs the southern stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, law enforcement is everywhere. Even on a national holiday this week, the green-
and-white trucks of U.S. Customs and Border Protection circled tirelessly around the empty streets of Rio Grande City, a hotspot for illegal border crossings. Texas state troopers pulled over vehicles, and a Border Patrol helicopter hovered above,
See GUARD PAGE 12A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP file
In this June 25, 2014, file photo, a group of immigrants, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, are stopped in Granjeno.
TEXAS POLITICS
Two suspected human smugglers accused of guiding seven people into the United States were arrested in Zapata County, according a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. Court records identified the suspects as Jose Raul Cabrera-Aguilar and Javier Gonzalez-Aguilar,
who are cousins. They are being charged with bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants. Both men are in federal custody, pending a detention hearing. At 8:46 a.m. Feb. 11, U.S. Border Patrol agents working near Tejon Ranch discovered footprints of about nine people leading
See ARRESTED PAGE 11A
EAGLE FORD SHALE
TURNING TO GOD Photo by Eric Gay | AP
Suzanne Bryant, left, and Sarah Goodfriend exchange a kiss as they pose with their marriage license Thursday, in Austin.
Lesbian couple defies gay marriage ban Attorney general blocks other potential unions, calls marriage void By EVA RUTH MORAVEC AND PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — As a newlywed lesbian couple in Texas celebrate defying a statewide ban on gay marriage, the state’s Republican attorney general is preparing to tell a court Friday why it should rule their nuptials invalid. The marriage license given to two Austin women — who succeeded by seizing on a ruling this week in an unrelated estate squabble — thrust Texas back into the national spotlight over gay marriage but didn’t send same-sex couples rushing to courthouses. The Texas Supreme Court acted quickly after an appeal from Attorney
General Ken Paxton to block other potential gay marriages, making the nuptials somewhat bittersweet for Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend. “We just feel like we were in the right place at the right time, to maybe put a nice crack in that door that’s going to open up for all Texans,” Bryant said. Texas is one of 13 states where gay marriage remains outlawed. Friends and Democratic lawmakers toasted Bryant and Goodfriend, who have been together 30 years and have two teenage daughters, at a downtown Austin bar Thursday night after county officials obeyed a judicial order to wed the couple.
See MARRIAGE PAGE 12A
Photo by Gary Coronado/Houston Chronicle | AP
Vallilea “Valli” Blair, shown at the Valero refinery alongside U.S. Highway 281 located across the street from the United Methodist Church, has ministered at the church for two years, providing support to the oil industry and the community in Three Rivers.
Preacher helps oil workers idled in bust By MICHAEL BRICK HOUSTON CHRONICLE
G
ONZALES — Maybe God knew the price of crude oil would fall so far so fast. Across Texas, drilling rigs would come down. The bust would leave behind disposal wells and empty hotels, ruined roads and men with no
place to go. God was the one, Hollas Hoffman says, who called him out of retirement at the height of the boom, not even two years ago, to take up a new ministry in the oil fields. God sent him to address early morning safety meetings, to hand out his phone number and most
See GOD PAGE 11A
Photo by Gary Coronado/Houston Chronicle | AP
Hollas Hoffman, third from left, a chaplain, says a prayer with John Salmon, a truck driver with Wrangler Trucking.