iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Sister Leticia Ugboaja, a nun arrested on a Sunday morning walking to mass in McAllen, TX, in June, showed up to her ICE check-in today. Her attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, said no ankle monitor was placed but government is still pursuing a third country removal. Context: apnews.com/video/nun-wh...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income families, estimates 79,600 people could be forced to leave their homes, with a disproportionate impact on children and Latinos. HUD collected public comments. If finalized, the rule will likely face legal challenges.

Two sisters play alone at Port Isabel Housing Authority playground after dozens of families self-evicted following bungled message from housing authority.

A plastic dollhouse sits in a pile of hastily discarded furniture on the curb of a Port Isabel Housing Authority subdivision after large exodus.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

PIHA asked for two things HUD does not yet require them to demand from residents: -citizenship documentation only -docs from assistance-ineligible residents A follow-up letter tried walking it back, but it was too late. PIHA occupancy rate plummeted from 91% to 43%. The national avg. is 94%.

Chart show how occupancy rate at Port Isabel fell from 91% before the letter was sent to 43% in May.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

McAllen ISD students and their parents are waiting to welcome the Gamez Cuéllar brothers with open arms back home.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

The 18 year old Mariachi band member, Antonio Gamez-Cuéllar was released this afternoon after his family was detained by ICE last week. He was held separately from his family at a detention center in Raymondville, Texas. He’s seen here in the maroon shirt. Story: apnews.com/article/immi...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

It’s now past 7 pm and the long lines seen all day at McAllen’s Lark Community Center are closed but anyone in line will get to vote. Voters have averaged an hour to an hour and a half waiting to cast their ballots.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Media gets ten spaces at today’s trial for former Uvalde schools officer Adrian Gonzales. Spots were allotted after all journalists decided Uvalde’s newspaper should have a permanent seat. Support local journalism. (I’ll also be inside. No cells or computers allowed.)

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Update: DHS shared a response to today’s decision from Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee. For context, the government initially claimed Guatemalan parents asked for their kids back to be reunited, but they retracted that last week following contradictory evidence.

Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:
"This judge is blocking efforts to REUNIFY CHILDREN with their families. Now these children will have to go to shelters. All just to 'get Trump.' This is disgraceful and immoral."

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Breaking: Judge denied the Trump administration’s request to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement which protects immigrant children in federal custody. The judge noted the government made improvements, but attributed them to the agreement. Story: apnews.com/article/immi...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Some tragic news: BP agent from the Rio Grande Valley drowned after saving his children caught in a rip current at SPI.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

The 16 year old is an English speaking Valley resident and cheerleader at her high school before she was arrested at a BP checkpoint during a family spring break roadtrip. She told legal advocates she is trying to keep it together under immense pressure like Luisa from Encanto.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

This is the first insight into conditions at these detention centers since they started taking families in March. One 16 year old from Donna, TX held with her mom and two siblings said an adult pushed her 12 year old sister to try to get bottled water first.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

You heard right. That was on Tuesday in Colorado.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Some context on how much time others were given to fight the designation:

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

BREAKING: The US is now only giving migrants 12 hours to decide whether they want to contest removal under the wartime authority, Alien Enemies Act, down from 24 hours. The government attempted to seal the document but judge just unsealed it.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño today shared his opposition to bill HB 4660 affecting beach access in Boca Chica beach near Spacex. Context on bills by KRGV’s Christian von Preysing: krgv.com/videos/new-bil…

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

An important note on the possible future use of the Alien Enemies Act, via @elliotspagat.bsky.social:

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

In Curry States, an Hidalgo County colonia, the water turned into a playground for kids who brought out an inflatable and pulled each other. Meanwhile, a day after the heavy rains, residents like Emma Alaniz waited for the water to recede or someone to help pump it out.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Today I spoke with a man who had knee-depth water in his rented Palm Valley home. Despite the hardship of losing valuables, him and his wife worried most about their pets, including an Axolotl which needs a precise water temperature. Story: apnews.com/article/texa...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

New: Hundreds of migrants have died crossing the border but in a first for the Border Vigil, a nonprofit spanning the US/MX border, a funeral was held Thursday to bring a family closure nearly two years after their son drowned near Eagle Pass, TX. Story: apnews.com/article/immi...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

“Every pair of shoes is someone’s story,” Amerika Garcia-Grewal of the Border Vigil, Frontera Federation said Tuesday morning. The shoes of migrant women and children were placed in a spiral by the Eagle Pass welcome sign, near the border park that VP JD Vance visited today.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Key federal agencies refuse to comply with Musk’s latest demand in his cost-cutting crusade. DHS told its employees today they would respond on their behalf to Musk’s recent demand for a justification of their employment. Story: apnews.com/article/musk...

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

In the RGV, the busiest part of the border as of December, the number of daily arrests went down, too. BP RGV Chief Gloria I. Chavez said it’s down to about 50 a day, or less.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

New: BP Chief Michael Banks told us the current daily average is about 350 apprehensions per day along the whole southern border. It was about 500 a day last month. Numbers have been falling since 2024 with about 1,500 arrests per day in December. Now, we’re in the hundreds.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

The privately built border wall in Hidalgo County appeared maintained and patrolled during Thursday’s Border Patrol ride along with the AP. It had been a few years since I last saw it up close.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

It almost got me. A memorial to gas prices of the early 2000s. As seen in Hidalgo, TX.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

In Matamoros this afternoon, we saw two groups of CBP One appointees who arrived from the airport to the international bridge and made aware that all appointments would be cancelled. Some had appointments for that afternoon. Dismayed and frustrated, they wondered where they’d go next.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

FYI: Questionable account for anyone who follows or is followed by @jonathanrothschild.bsky.social Pictures from 2017 are being passed off as current and the message sent is circulating from other accounts. 🚩

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

This horse almost made up for the three hours in queue at the Reynosa international bridge, almost.

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Valerie Gonzalez @valontheborder.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Don’t let the Nolana tree see you run a red light. 🎄

Two red traffic lights float in the foreground of a multistory Christmas tree appearing as two angry eyes

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