Selene Rodriguez is the Assistant Director of Federal Affairs at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In this role, she conducts research on public policy issues; assists the Foundation in academic publication; educates lawmakers and members of the public on Foundation research; and provides formal testimony to local, state, and federal entities.
Rebecca Kiessling testified before Congress to talk about the risk of fentanyl poisoning and why it is of the upmost importance to her. Fentanyl killed her two young sons, Caleb and Kyler. And she is just one of millions of parents experiencing this tragedy. When confronted about it, the president did what he does best—mumble,...
Just a few miles away from my hometown, three migrants and one suspected smuggler were killed during a DPS pursuit today. Yesterday, 13 migrants, including two small unrestrained children, were discovered following a high-speed chase in Arizona. Last week, DPS Special Agents in Laredo discovered 50 migrants, including seven minors, concealed in a Conex container....
As citizens and communities throughout the nation are fast realizing, the chaotic border policies of the Biden administration impose steep housing, transportation, health care, public safety and education costs on taxpayers. In addition to the fiscal hit, these costs also include tragic and unexpected impacts on American families and basic public services. In our South...
Growing up in a small border town, we weren’t accustomed to large volumes of crime, such as road chases, home break-ins, damaged property, large amounts of drugs, and human smuggling rings in our own backyard. The morning chatter from my neighbors used to be ranchers looking for lost livestock or congratulating the local basketball team...
The genesis of the horrific impact of the disastrously managed U.S. asylum system on American border security can be traced to 2010, the second year of the Obama administration. It was in January of that year that Obama ICE Director John Morton first directed the agency to routinely apply “catch and release” parole to asylum applicants entering...
A 13-year-old child in Connecticut collapsed during gym class and was rushed to the hospital; he died two days later of what doctors concluded was a fentanyl overdose. Two other students at the school were also rushed to the hospital over similar concerns. When school officials investigated, they found 40 bags of powdered fentanyl hidden...
Turmoil in the Middle East, an invigorated Communist China, and an increasingly aggressive Russia—these are all very real concerns. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has instead designated climate change as one of the greatest threats Americans face. Following the lead of President Joe Biden’s “Climate Day” executive order, DHS released its first ever...
Slavery is alive and well today all across the world, and it comes in the form of human trafficking. January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Human trafficking is today’s form of slavery as men, women, and children are recruited and exploited by being forced into labor against their will. There are many forms of...
The year 2021 saw the new administration in Washington unleash a historic crisis along America’s southern border with grave repercussions for the entire nation. Through a series of deliberate decisions that simultaneously enabled massive abuse of the US asylum system and sharply curtailed federal immigration law enforcement, in practically no time the Biden-Harris administration created...
Thank you for your service. It’s a five-word sentence that sounds so simple, and to the person saying it, it is. But to the person on the receiving end of the compliment, there is just never the right response. I knew I wanted to be a Marine when I was 7 years old. After 9/11,...
In a little over one week, the small town of Del Rio, Texas saw more than 15,000 migrants surge their border. Thanks to the quick response from Texas, the migrant-made encampment has been cleared, but that does not mean the crisis is averted. Border Patrol sectors across Texas continue to apprehend and rescue migrants attempting...
Woke society continues to take aim at the nation’s education systems, insisting that minority students are simply incapable of meeting the academic standards that other students are expected to reach. One example: Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 744 into law in July. The governor’s deputy communications director said in an email that suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements...