News Roundup: Reports Indicate Family Separations Are Continuing At The Border

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

June 25, 2019 3:38 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

New reports indicate the federal government is continuing to take children away from their parents at the border.

Houston Public Media’s Elizabeth Trovall has more on the status of the policy that separated thousands of families.:According to the Houston Chronicle, between June 2018 and May 2019 the federal government took another 700 children from their parents or other relatives.

Separations are happening under a provision by a federal judge that says family separations can continue if the parent is deemed a serious criminal or poses a threat.

That provision was made without guidelines and now advocates say many of these removals are happening without much justification of whether or not someone actually poses a threat.

After these parents are detained by federal officials, their children are placed in federally-run shelters or foster care.




This year, Dallas has seen an unprecedented spike in violent crime, with almost 100 murders between the beginning of the year and May 31.

It’s become such a concern that earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott pledged to send additional state police to Dallas to assist Dallas police. And now, a Dallas-area funeral home is offering help for grieving families who have lost loved ones to violence. Mansfield Funeral Home says that they’ll begin offering free basic funeral services for victims of violent crime in the city, to help with the costs of an unexpected death.

Christie Moore is the owner of Mansfield Funeral Home. She told WFAA news in Dallas that she hopes that the offer lightens the financial burden for victim’s families.

“There may be other expenses, but this does take care of the bulk of what they would have to pay,” Moore said.

The funeral home posted the offer to social media last week. Moore estimates the offer could save families about three thousand dollars in funeral expenses.




Nonprofit Arts in the Armed Forces is headed to San Antonio this weekend for a reading of “True West.”

It’s a play that explores the dynamic between two long-estranged brothers: one a successful screenwriter and the other a drifter.

Lindsey Miserandino is the executive director of Arts in the Armed Forces:

“A lot of people have come to us after these readings and said, ‘I recognize my family. I recognize my brother. This is how we interact.’ It very much connects and elicits some personal responses to the family dynamic there,” Miserandino says.

The nonprofit was founded by actor and former servicemember Adam Driver. Its mission is to provide arts programming for active duty service members, veterans, and their families free of charge.

Tickets for Saturday’s performance are are available on EventBrite.