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The Deportation Should Be the Punishment, Not the Funeral
A post on Threads has gone viral: immigration is paperwork law, and nobody should die over paperwork. No caveats can soften that sentence, and none are needed. It sets a moral floor that predates any statute. The floor has needed restating all year, in different states, under different agencies. An ICE officer fatally shot a man on Canal Street in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of Houston in July, prompting LULAC to demand release of all body cam, dash cam, and bystander

Maria Salinas
Jul 173 min read


Nun Detained on Way to Mass, Released After Three Congressmen Claim Credit
For more than a decade, immigration agents largely avoided entering places of worship to make arrests, under a "sensitive locations" policy formalized by ICE Director John Morton in October 2011. The Department of Homeland Security rescinded that policy on January 21, 2025, removing the restriction entirely. Sister Letty Ugboaja's detention this past Sunday, while walking to morning Mass in McAllen, shows what enforcement looks like without it. Sister Letty Ugboaja returned h

Maria Salinas
Jul 24 min read


The Truth Behind Dilley's "Blue Butterfly Zone"
The "Blue Butterfly" at Dilley: What's Real, What Isn't, and Why It Matters The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is not a place most people think about until something goes wrong. And lately, something has, though the full picture is considerably messier than social media wants it to be. Dilley is an ICE family detention facility. It has held mothers, their children, and more recently single adult women. The facility is operated by a private contractor,

Maria Salinas
Jun 94 min read


A Banker Who Builds Ladders
2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue The 2008 crash taught Seby Haddad something most bankers never learn. Numbers are not abstract. They sit across the table. Foreclosures. Bankruptcies. Failed businesses. Families losing everything. His supervisor said it plainly: 'These are good people going through bad times.' He didn't know it then, but his role as a banker would set up a life in public service. Victor Sebastian "Seby" Haddad learned early that knowing how systems f

Maria Salinas
Feb 104 min read
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