Texas Legal News

Supreme Court Takes Up the Border Asylum Case

On Friday, November 13, 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in No. 26-239, Mullin v. Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, limited to two questions: whether Presidential Proclamation 10888 and its implementing guidance are lawful, and whether 8 U.S.C. 1252(f)(1) bars the classwide relief a district court ordered. The lead respondent is a San Antonio legal services organization, and a second respondent is based in El Paso. The restrictions remain in effect while the case is decided, because the lower court ruling against them has been stayed. Here is what the order does and does not do, who along the Texas border it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one person and one set of dates.

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Screwworm Zones 34, 35 and 36 Add Six Texas Counties

On November 13, 2026, the Texas Animal Health Commission signed three New World Screwworm Executive Director Orders on one day, after three separate detections confirmed on November 12. Infested Zone 34 covers parts of Brooks, Jim Hogg and Starr Counties; Infested Zone 35 covers parts of Dimmit, Frio, La Salle and Zavala Counties; Infested Zone 36 covers parts of Goliad County. Two of those names are where the Texas outbreak began. Zavala County held the June 3 index case and was released on September 3; La Salle County was in the second zone of the outbreak and was in the first area the Commission ever released, on August 31. Both are back under restriction. Goliad County is the first restriction in the Coastal Bend and the furthest east this outbreak has reached. The Commission notice now lists movement restrictions in parts of 31 Texas counties, up from 25 on November 11. Inside a zone, no warm-blooded animal may leave without prior Commission authorization, and each order states that unauthorized movement is subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution. Here is what the three orders say, which counties they name, and what a lawyer can review for one operation.

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Texas Flood Maps: Appeals Close February 11

FEMA published eight flood hazard determination notices in the Federal Register on November 13, 2026, and three of them carry Texas. One opens the formal appeal and comment period on the preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps for the unincorporated areas of Bandera County, with a hard deadline of February 11, 2027. The other two record finalized map changes for 29 communities across 14 Texas counties, among them San Antonio, Fort Worth, Laredo, Cedar Park, Denton, Rockwall, Vernon and unincorporated Bexar, Collin, Denton, Grayson, Kaufman, Kendall and Midland counties, plus Hillsboro in Hill County. A map change can move a property into or out of a Special Flood Hazard Area, which is the line that decides whether a federally backed mortgage carries a mandatory flood insurance requirement and which building rules apply. Here is what the notices say, which Texas places they name, the deadlines printed in them, and what a lawyer can review for one property and one map panel.

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El Paso County Flooding: Texas Requests SBA Disaster Loans

El Paso County flood recovery moved a step toward federal help on November 11, 2026, when the Governor requested a disaster declaration from the U.S. Small Business Administration for the severe storms and flooding that hit Far West Texas in late October. The request follows joint preliminary damage assessments that the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced on November 5, with SBA officials walking the damage alongside state and local partners, and the state disaster declaration issued October 29 remains in effect. The request has not been granted: federal assistance is still pending. It is also worth knowing what is being asked for. An SBA disaster declaration opens low-interest federal disaster loans for eligible homeowners, renters, businesses and private nonprofits; a loan is debt and a contract, not a grant, and an SBA-only declaration is a narrower form of help than the FEMA household assistance that reached twenty other Texas counties after the July floods. State officials are still collecting damage reports through the iSTAT survey, and those reports are part of how the thresholds get met. Here is what each primary document says, what an SBA declaration would and would not cover, and what a Texas attorney can read alongside an insurance policy.

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HUD Housing Status Rule Effective Dec. 14

A HUD final rule published in the Federal Register on November 12, 2026 takes effect December 14, 2026. It requires every applicant and tenant in public housing, the Section 8 voucher and project-based programs, and Section 236 below-market-rent units to submit evidence of U.S. citizenship or eligible immigration status, regardless of age. It removes the long-standing option to elect not to contend eligible status, and it turns prorated assistance for a household with unverified members into a temporary condition pending verification rather than an indefinite one. Housing authorities and owners must notify affected tenants within 30 days after the effective date, and families may request extensions of up to 60 days to gather documents. Here is what the rule says, who in Texas it reaches, and what a lawyer can review for one household and one notice.

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Texas July Flood Aid: Both Federal Deadlines Are Now December 29

Two federal programs for the July 2026 Texas storms and flooding are now running on the same clock. FEMA published its application deadline for the first time on November 11, 2026: December 29 for residents of twenty counties, from Bexar and Kerr through Uvalde, Val Verde and Zavala. The same week, the Small Business Administration filed a formal correction to its own Federal Register notice, moving the physical property damage loan deadline from December 30 to December 29, 2026 and fixing the incident period at July 12 through August 4, 2026. That corrected incident period matters: it settles a conflict between official documents that had left a household damaged in early July unsure which window governed its file. In-person Disaster Recovery Centers staffed by FEMA and the SBA are now open at the Las Palmas Branch Library in San Antonio and Calvary Temple Church in Kerrville, with no appointment needed. Here is what each primary document says, which counties are on which list, and what a Texas attorney can read alongside an insurance policy.

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Screwworm Zones 31 and 32 Add Four More Texas Counties

On November 10, 2026, the Texas Animal Health Commission signed two Executive Director Orders creating New World Screwworm Infested Zone 31 across parts of Bandera and Medina Counties and Infested Zone 32 across parts of Crockett, Irion and Reagan Counties, after the parasite was detected in a horse in Bandera County and in a bovine in Reagan County on November 9. Bandera and Medina are not new to this outbreak. They were under a screwworm order in June and were released on September 16, 2026, which makes this the first time in the Texas outbreak that movement restrictions have come back to a county that had already been freed of them. Medina adjoins Bexar County, so the quarantine line now sits one county from San Antonio. The Commission notice lists movement restrictions in parts of 25 Texas counties, up from 21 three days earlier. Inside a zone, no warm-blooded animal may leave without prior Commission authorization, and each order states that unauthorized movement is subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution. Here is what the two orders say, which counties they name, and what a lawyer can review for one operation.

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Supreme Court Stays the Big Bend Construction Halt

On October 2, 2026 a federal district court in the Western District of Texas blocked the Secretary of Homeland Security from waiving environmental and conservation laws for a border-construction project in the region Customs and Border Protection calls the Big Bend Sector, and halted the associated construction. On November 9, 2026 the Supreme Court stayed that injunction. The order is short, it is per curiam, and it decides nothing about whether the waivers are lawful. It does decide something that reaches every Texas landowner, rancher, outfitter, preservation group and local government along that stretch of border: which courthouse door is open to a challenge at all. The Court held that a major-questions argument is a statutory argument, not a constitutional one, and that the jurisdictional provision Congress wrote into the 1996 immigration statute lets a district court hear only constitutional claims. Here is what the order says, what it leaves open, and what an experienced Texas lawyer can review against your own property, permits or business.

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Fourteen Charged in the Rail-Container Smuggling Deaths of Seven People

The Justice Department announced on Monday, November 9, 2026 that a federal grand jury in the Western District of Texas returned a superseding indictment charging fourteen people over a smuggling organization that, according to court documents, loaded seven people — including a 14-year-old from Honduras — into a Conex shipping container on a Union Pacific train in Del Rio on May 9, 2026. The container had no ventilation and could not be opened from the inside. Six were found dead in the container at the Laredo rail yard on May 10; a seventh was found dead by the tracks in San Antonio. Eleven of the fourteen had already been indicted in July. An indictment is an allegation, and every defendant is presumed innocent. What is checkable is the law the case now runs on: 8 U.S.C. Section 1324 sets out the smuggling offenses and the separate penalty tiers for serious bodily injury, for placing a life in jeopardy, and for a death resulting; the Crime Victims’ Rights Act gives enumerated rights to the families of people who died in a federal offense; Section 1227(a)(1)(E) makes smuggling a ground of deportability with a narrow waiver; and Texas wrongful-death law runs on its own clock, separate from the prosecution. Here is what the record says, what each of those provisions actually does, and what a federal criminal defense lawyer, an immigration lawyer, or a lawyer for a family can read in one file.

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Houston Limits When Police Contact ICE

On Friday, November 6, 2026, the City of Houston announced that the mayor had signed an executive order directing the Houston Police Department to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when a person is arrested for a new jailable offense and also has an administrative immigration warrant. The police chief issued a department-wide memo the same day. The order reaches one city department and nothing else: officials in Austin and San Antonio asked their own staff to look at similar changes, but neither department had changed its rules. What the order says, what Texas Government Code Chapter 752 still requires of a municipal police department, the separate December 1, 2026 deadline that applies to county sheriffs, and what an immigration or criminal defense lawyer can review for a specific stop, arrest, or transfer.

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Screwworm Zone 30 Reaches Four New Texas Counties

On November 5, 2026, the Texas Animal Health Commission signed an Executive Director Order designating parts of Fisher, Mitchell, Nolan and Scurry Counties as New World Screwworm Infested Zone 30, after the parasite was detected in a bovine in Mitchell County on November 4. These are four counties that had never been under a screwworm order before, and they sit in the Rolling Plains around Snyder, Sweetwater and Colorado City, far northeast of the Big Bend and border counties that held every earlier zone. A separate order signed November 4 redrew the Brewster, Jeff Davis, Pecos and Reeves zone after a detection in an elk. The Commission notice now lists movement restrictions in parts of 21 Texas counties, up from 16 five days earlier. Inside a zone, no warm-blooded animal may leave without prior Commission authorization, and each order states that unauthorized movement is subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution. Here is what the November 5 order says, which counties it names, and what a lawyer can review for one operation.

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Venezuela TPS Restoration Paused by a 14-Day Stay

November 6, 2026 was the date the restoration of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans under the 2023 designation was expected to take effect. It does not. On November 3, 2026 the same three-judge Ninth Circuit panel that had refused the government a stay four days earlier withdrew that refusal and granted an administrative stay of 14 days, beginning when the Supreme Court judgment issues on November 6. The order is one page, gives no reasons, decides nothing about whether the termination was lawful, and says the court will set an expedited merits briefing schedule separately. It says nothing about work permits, and as of November 6, 2026 USCIS has published no guidance. Texas has the second-largest Venezuelan-origin population of any state and Houston the third-largest metro. Here is what the order says, what it does not decide, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one person and one file.

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SBA Flood Loans: A December 30 Deadline in 40 Texas Counties

The Small Business Administration has opened low-interest federal disaster loans for the July 2026 storms and flooding under Texas Disaster Number TX-20085, and the filing deadlines are now fixed: December 30, 2026 for physical property damage and July 30, 2027 for economic injury. Twenty counties qualify for both kinds of loan, and twenty more adjacent counties qualify for economic injury loans only. Homeowners may apply for up to 500,000 dollars for a primary residence and up to 100,000 dollars for personal property; businesses and most private nonprofits may apply for up to 2 million dollars. FEMA has opened its own Individual Assistance applications for the same 20 counties and has published no deadline for them. One detail matters for anyone whose damage came early: the SBA documents give an incident period starting July 7, while FEMA gives July 12, and a third FEMA release gives a different end date again. Here is what each primary document says, which counties are on which list, and what a Texas attorney can review alongside an insurance policy.

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El Paso County Intoxication Manslaughter Charge After San Elizario Crash

El Paso County sheriff’s deputies say a head-on crash in the 11900 block of Socorro Road in San Elizario on the morning of Sunday, November 1, 2026 killed Lydia Burrola, 54, and that Daniel Martinez, 61, was arrested on a charge of intoxication manslaughter and held on a $150,000 bond. A charge is an accusation rather than a finding, and the reported facts come from a preliminary investigation that can change. What is checkable is the law around the charge, and most of it operates long before any trial: Penal Code Section 49.08 makes intoxication manslaughter a second-degree felony, Section 49.01(2) gives two separate routes to proving intoxication of which an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more is only one, Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.441 directs a magistrate to require an ignition interlock on release for this charge unless the magistrate finds it would not be in the best interest of justice, Article 42A.102(b) removes deferred adjudication from the table for a Section 49.08 case, and Article 42A.401(a)(5) sets a minimum 120-day term of confinement as a condition if community supervision is ever granted. On the family side, Section 16.003(b) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code runs two years from the date of death. Here is what the record says, what each of those provisions actually does, and what a defense lawyer or a lawyer for the family can read in one file.

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Screwworm Zones Now Reach 16 Texas Counties

On November 1, 2026, the Texas Animal Health Commission issued another New World screwworm Executive Director Order, creating Infested Zone 28 across parts of Presidio and Jeff Davis Counties after the parasite was confirmed in a chicken in Presidio County on October 31. It followed three orders issued the day before, two of them prompted by something different from an infested animal: trapped wild screwworm flies, identified as fertile, in Pecos and Hudspeth Counties. As of November 2, 2026 the Commission lists movement restrictions in parts of 16 Texas counties, up from the 14 reported two days earlier. Inside a zone, no warm-blooded animal — livestock or pet — may be moved out without prior Commission authorization, and each order states that unauthorized movement is subject to administrative penalties and/or criminal prosecution. For ranchers, livestock haulers, feeders, auction operators and landowners, that is an agency order with compliance obligations, contract consequences and penalty exposure attached. Here is what the orders say, which counties they name, and what a lawyer can review for one operation.

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Texas Grand Jury Indicts an ICE Officer

On October 30, 2026, a Harris County grand jury indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — the deadly weapon named in the charge being his vehicle — over an October 10 vehicle pursuit in Houston in which Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48, was struck and had both legs run over. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony in Texas, which carries two to twenty years. The officer is contesting the charge through counsel, who calls the collision an accident; ICE and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas have each publicly called the prosecution political. None of that is settled, and this page does not try to settle it. What is settled enough to write down is narrower and more useful: a state criminal case now exists, Texas law gives crime victims a compensation claim with a three-year filing window, federal law gives a person injured by a federal employee two years to present a claim in writing, and the man at the center of this case was reported to be in immigration custody and missing immigration court dates from a rehabilitation facility while all of it ran. Those are the moving parts an attorney can line up against one person and one set of dates.

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Illegal-Voting Arrests and Voting After a Felony

On October 31, 2026, the Texas Attorney General office announced that its Election Integrity Unit had arrested people accused of casting ballots in the 2026 election while on parole after a felony conviction. Arrest warrants issued in Montgomery County on October 30; the ballots were allegedly cast in Harris County during early voting. The announcement names no one, gives no count, and lists no charges filed, and an arrest is an accusation rather than a finding of guilt. The law underneath is short and checkable. Texas Election Code Section 11.002(a)(4) restores eligibility once a sentence is fully discharged, including any term of incarceration, parole, or supervision, with no separate application or pardon required, and Section 11.002(b) treats a deferred adjudication differently from a conviction. Section 64.012 makes illegal voting a second-degree felony, but only where the person knew they were not eligible. Here is what the statutes say, what the release does not say, and what a criminal defense lawyer can check against the judgment and the discharge paperwork in one file.

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Texas Declares Flood Disaster in El Paso County

On October 29, 2026, Governor Greg Abbott signed a proclamation declaring a state of disaster in El Paso County after the storm that began October 23, 2026 brought heavy rainfall and flash flooding to the Far West Texas region. El Paso County Judge Ricardo A. Samaniego had issued a local disaster declaration two days earlier, on October 27. County and fire officials have described flooded and evacuated homes in the Horizon area and in Northwest El Paso, with no injuries or deaths reported in the coverage reviewed. There is no federal disaster declaration for this event, and the iSTAT damage survey the State is asking residents to complete is not an application for assistance: it is how officials document whether damage thresholds for state and federal programs are met. Here is what the proclamation actually does, what the state and county are asking of residents, and the insurance, repair and tenant questions a Texas attorney can review for one household.

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Venezuela TPS Set to Return November 6

On October 30, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit denied the government two requests at once: a stay of the district court order that blocked the end of the 2023 Venezuela Temporary Protected Status designation, and a shorter administrative stay of at least 21 days. The order is two pages long and gives no reasons. What it leaves standing is a schedule the government itself described in its motion: the Supreme Court stay now holding that district court order in place expires when the Supreme Court mandate issues on November 6, 2026. Unless the Supreme Court acts again before then, the district court order takes effect that day and the appeal continues on an expedited schedule the Ninth Circuit says it will set separately. Texas has the second-largest Venezuelan population of any state, and Houston the third-largest of any metro area. As of October 31, 2026, USCIS has not published guidance on how a restoration would be carried out. Here is what the order says, what it does not decide, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one person and one file.

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4,170 ICE Arrests in Texas in Ten Days

On October 29, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security announced the results of Lone Star Mission, a ten-day enforcement operation run from October 19 to October 29 by the five ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field offices in Texas. DHS reported 4,170 arrests statewide. Secretary Markwayne Mullin said about 60 percent of those arrested had criminal histories and described the remaining 40 percent as collateral arrests; DHS did not publish a breakdown. That leaves roughly 1,600 people, by the Secretary own figures, taken into custody without a criminal record being cited. Two Texas rulings from the past week change what happens next for all of them: the full Fifth Circuit held on October 23 that people detained under one section of the immigration statute have no constitutional right to a bond hearing, and on October 27 the Supreme Court left in place the judgment ending administrative closure. Here is what the announcement actually says, how to locate someone in ICE custody through official systems, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one person and one file.

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FEMA Approves Individual Aid for 20 Texas Counties

On October 30, 2026, FEMA announced that the President amended the DR-4935-TX major disaster declaration to make Individual Assistance available to households in 20 Texas counties hit by the July 2026 storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding. This reverses, on the state appeal, the September 28 FEMA letter that had denied Individual Assistance for the same event and left Texas flood survivors with no federal household program at all. There is now an application: disasterassistance.gov, the FEMA helpline, or the FEMA app. The 20 Individual Assistance counties are not the same list as the 23 counties already designated for Public Assistance, FEMA had not yet published an application deadline for the new designation, and the appeal for Hazard Mitigation grant funding remains pending. Here is what the two primary documents say, which counties are named, what the program covers, and what a Texas attorney can review for one household.

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IRS Moves Tax Deadlines to Feb. 1 in 62 Counties

On October 27, 2026, the IRS issued announcement TX-2026-05 and postponed a long list of federal tax filing and payment deadlines to February 1, 2027 for individuals and businesses in 62 Texas counties affected by the storms and flooding that began July 14, 2026. The relief follows the state disaster proclamation Governor Abbott issued on July 14 and the request he made on October 15, and it is separate from the Individual Assistance that FEMA declined for the same storms in September. For most people in the covered counties the postponement is applied automatically, but several pieces are not automatic: a taxpayer outside the covered area whose records are inside it has to ask for the relief by phone, a late-filing notice that arrives anyway has to be called in to be abated, 2025 balances that were due in April 2026 are expressly excluded, and the retirement, casualty-loss and refund-window questions underneath all of this are decisions rather than filings. Here is what the two primary documents say, county by county and deadline by deadline, and what a Texas tax attorney can look at for one household or one business.

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No-Fee Reopening for CBP One Parole Denials

In April 2025, people who had entered the United States through a CBP One appointment received an email telling them it was time to leave, and their parole was terminated. A federal court in Massachusetts later held those emails had no legal effect. On September 28, 2026, the same court ordered the Department of Homeland Security to undo certain consequences that followed from them, and on October 26, 2026, USCIS published the instructions for doing it: a class member whose benefit request was denied, dismissed, deemed abandoned, administratively closed, rejected or sent to the immigration court between April 1, 2025 and April 21, 2026 may ask USCIS to reopen or reconsider that decision with no filing fee, and the court order sets no deadline for asking. The rules differ by form, asylum cases go to an asylum office rather than on Form I-290B, parole-based work permit denials are excluded, and anyone in removal proceedings has a sequencing problem to solve first. Texas is where most CBP One entries happened. Here is what each document says, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one file.

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Refugee Green Card Hold Sued; 10-Day Rule Paused

On October 26, 2026, six refugee organizations and four refugees filed a class action in federal court in Boston challenging three federal policies at once: a hold that has kept pending refugee green card applications from being decided, a directive to re-review and re-interview refugees admitted between January 2021 and February 2025, and the interim final rule that cut the response window on a notice of intent to terminate refugee status from 30 days to 10. The next day, October 27, a federal judge paused enforcement of the 10-day rule through November 6, 2026, and ordered that people served with those notices are not required to respond during that window. The order did not reach the green card hold or the re-vetting directive, and it did not decide the case. Texas received more refugees than any other state in fiscal year 2024, so these three policies land here harder than almost anywhere. Here is what each document says, what the pause does and does not do, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one file.

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CMS Proposes ACA Subsidy Verification Rule

More than four million Texans picked a Marketplace health plan for 2026, the largest number of any state. A proposed federal rule published in the Federal Register on October 27, 2026 would change how those plans get their financial help. Under the proposal, an Exchange could not pay advance premium tax credits or cost-sharing reductions until it has verified four things: household income and family size, U.S. citizenship or eligible noncitizen status, other health coverage, and place of residence. Automatic re-enrollment with subsidies would end unless an enrollee returns between August 1 and December 31 to confirm that information. The changes would first apply to plan year 2028, and the first pre-open-enrollment verification window would open August 1, 2027. Here is what the proposal says, who in Texas it reaches, and what a lawyer can review for one household.

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Administrative Closure Ends

If an immigration judge paused a removal case rather than deciding it, that pause rested on a 2024 rule that a federal court in Wichita Falls vacated on June 22, 2026. Three cities and a legal-services organization asked the Supreme Court to put that judgment on hold while their appeal continued. On October 27, 2026, in application No. 26A500, the Court denied the request in a one-sentence order with no noted dissents, so the rule stays vacated. The practical consequence is the one the district court itself described: cases that are currently closed may be recalendared. Here is what the order did and did not decide, how many people have been affected by administrative closure, who in Texas is holding one of these closed cases, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one file.

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FEMA Denies Individual Aid for July Texas Floods

The federal major disaster declaration signed on September 1, 2026 for the July flooding across southwest and south-central Texas is a Public Assistance Only declaration, and a letter dated September 28 from FEMA to the Governor denied the separate requests for statewide Individual Assistance and statewide hazard mitigation, along with Public Assistance for eight further counties. There is still no FEMA household application for this event. Here is what each document does, which counties are named in it, what the state has said about appealing, and which private insurance routes and dated federal loan windows are still open.

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DHS Ratifies Immigration Civil Fines

The Department of Homeland Security has ratified every final immigration civil penalty decision issued between June 27, 2025 and October 13, 2026 under the interim version of 8 CFR part 281, except those reversed on appeal, pending appeal, or reopened and rescinded. The notice, signed by the Secretary of Homeland Security and scheduled for the Federal Register on October 26, 2026, also opens a narrow and short window: a person who says the interim procedures prejudiced them may raise that claim to ICE, and the notice states that all claims must be received on or before November 16, 2026. It is not an appeal, and it does not replace the appeal deadlines that already exist. Here is what the notice says, what it does not say, who in Texas is holding one of these fine notices, and what an immigration lawyer can review against one persons paperwork.

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Fifth Circuit revives Meta Pixel health privacy class action

On October 23, 2026 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided Rand v. Eyemart Express, L.L.C., No. 25-10784, reversing a Northern District of Texas dismissal and sending a putative class action back for further proceedings. The plaintiffs are five Facebook users who say the Meta tracking pixel on an eyewear retailer’s website sent their eyeglass prescriptions, product searches and eye-exam scheduling to Meta without their knowledge or consent. The panel held that the unauthorized disclosure of that health information is a concrete injury that gets a plaintiff into federal court, and that the complaint plausibly alleged the information reached Meta. Here is what the opinion decides, what it expressly does not decide, and what a Texas lawyer can review.

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Fifth Circuit: no constitutional right to a bond hearing

On October 23, 2026 the en banc Fifth Circuit decided Sosnava Rodriguez v. Vergara, No. 26-50183, holding that three longtime Texas residents detained under 8 U.S.C. section 1225(b)(2)(A) were not entitled to individualized hearings on dangerousness or flight risk, and that the length of their detention raised no constitutional issue warranting habeas relief. The court reversed three Western District of Texas habeas grants and vacated the relief. The ruling binds Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and it arrives while the Supreme Court has already agreed to hear the same question in a case from another circuit. Here is what the opinion holds, who it reaches, what it does not decide, and what an immigration lawyer can review in one person’s papers.

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EB-2 Recovers Three Months on November 1

The Department of State has published the Visa Bulletin for November 2026, about three weeks later than the usual mid-month posting. The worldwide employment second-preference final action date moves forward three months, from January 1, 2025 to April 1, 2025, returning part of what the October bulletin took away. EB-3 and EB-3 Other Workers advance, the family-sponsored categories move forward about a year in several columns, F-2A reaches October 22, 2026, and USCIS says the Dates for Filing chart governs November adjustment of status filings in both the family and employment categories. Here is what changed, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one household.

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Lubbock County Intoxication Manslaughter Charge After Tahoka Woman Killed

Texas DPS says a 47-year-old Tahoka woman, Elizabeth Metcalf, was killed at the intersection of FM 1585 and County Road 3100 in Lubbock County just after 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, 2026. A 34-year-old Lubbock man was arrested on an intoxication manslaughter charge and held on a $100,000 bond. What that second-degree felony covers under Texas law, how a criminal case differs from a family civil claim, and the two-year wrongful death deadline that runs from the date of death.

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Texas School Staff Data Exposed in Frontline Breach

Frontline Education, a software company used by school districts across Texas, told districts that an August 14, 2026 security incident exposed employee names, home addresses, email addresses and Social Security numbers. A breach report filed with the Texas Attorney General on October 16 lists Klein ISD at about 37,966 Texas residents. Lubbock, Waco, Fort Worth, Crowley and Laredo districts have also told staff they were affected. Individual notice letters are scheduled to begin October 26, 2026. Here is what the records say, what Texas law requires after a breach, and what kind of lawyer reads a notice like this.

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Dayton ISD Bus Driver Arrested After Student Struck on U.S. 90

Dayton police say a 14-year-old Woodrow Wilson Junior High student was struck near U.S. 90 and Stilson Road early on Friday, October 16, 2026, and that the driver did not stop or render aid. A 70-year-old Dayton ISD bus driver was arrested the same day; jail records list a charge of collision causing serious bodily injury. What the charge means, how a claim against a Texas school district works differently from any other injury claim, and the six-month notice deadline in the Texas Tort Claims Act.

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Death in ICE Custody at the Laredo Processing Center

Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, 56, a Mexican national who had lived in Dallas for decades, was found unresponsive in his cell at the federal immigration processing center in Laredo on the morning of Saturday, October 17, 2026 and was pronounced dead. The cause has not been released and an autopsy is being performed at the Webb County Medical Examiner’s office. Mexico’s foreign ministry has asked United States authorities for a prompt and transparent investigation. Here is what has been reported, what ICE’s own death-reporting policy requires, and the questions a Texas lawyer can take up for a family in this position.

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Ukraine and Sudan TPS: the October 19 Date Arrived

Two Federal Register notices from January 17, 2025 extended Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine and for Sudan from April 20, 2025 through October 19, 2026. That date is today, and no determination extending or terminating either designation has been published. The Department of Homeland Security told the Associated Press that the people covered “retain protection” and that an announcement will come “at the appropriate time,” without saying for how long and without answering a question about work permits. The statute describes a six-month extension when the review date passes in silence. Here is every document that exists today, the one that does not, and what an immigration lawyer can read on a particular person’s papers.

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Court Orders DV-2027 Diversity Visa Lottery Opened

The registration window for the fiscal year 2027 diversity visa lottery never opened on the Department of State’s usual autumn schedule. On October 14, 2026 a federal court in California granted a preliminary injunction ordering the Department to open it, and under the revised timetable the court approved the Department is to announce the registration dates by October 29, 2026 and begin accepting entries by November 1, 2026, with the window open about thirty days. As of October 17 the Department had not yet posted DV-2027 instructions. Here is what the order says, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one family.

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CenterPoint Breach Reported at 1,062,060 Texans

CenterPoint Energy told the Texas Attorney General that 1,062,060 Texas residents were affected by the cybersecurity incident it disclosed to the SEC on September 14, 2026. The listing describes names, addresses, Social Security information and driver license numbers, and it records that affected customers had not yet been notified. A separate claim posted by a third party puts the number far higher and remains unconfirmed. Here is what the filings actually say, what Texas law requires of a company after a breach, and what kind of lawyer reads a notice like this.

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Texas Sues Gerber and Nestlé Over Baby Food Metals

On October 14, 2026 the Office of the Texas Attorney General sued Gerber Products Company and Nestlé USA, Inc. under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleging that Gerber marketed its baby food as safe, pure and rigorously tested while its own testing showed arsenic, lead and cadmium at multiples of what federal rules allow in bottled water. The coverage reported the allegations. What it did not report is the part that decides whether any of this reaches a particular family: a state enforcement suit is not a class action, the civil penalties it seeks are paid to the state, a parent purchase claim and a child injury claim run on two different clocks, and one of those clocks does not start until the child turns eighteen. Here is what was filed, who in Texas it reaches, and what a Texas attorney can review against one household records.

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Proposed Rule Would End Deference on Visa Extensions

The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on October 14, 2026 that would remove the regulation telling USCIS officers to defer to a prior approval when an employer files to extend the same worker in the same job. Nothing has changed yet, and the current deference rule still applies while the comment period runs through November 13, 2026. But DHS projects roughly 6,044 more requests for evidence a year across about 208,429 affected filings, and the last time deference was withdrawn the denial rates on these extensions went up sharply. Here is what the proposal says, who in Texas it would reach, and what an immigration lawyer can review against one worker and one employer timeline.

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Immigration Civil Fines Rule Finalized

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice published a final rule on October 14, 2026, effective that day, that locks in a fast-track process for civil money penalties against people who miss a voluntary departure deadline, willfully fail to depart after a final removal order, or are apprehended entering unlawfully. The penalty amounts are not new, and the appeal is now internal to DHS on a 15-business-day clock with no appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The rule makes one change from the 2025 interim rule: a late appeal may be accepted when documented mail delays were beyond the person who was fined. Separately, a federal judge in Massachusetts stayed the underlying interim rule on September 30, 2026 and blocked enforcement of fines imposed under it while that case proceeds. Here is what each document says, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one notice.

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Refugee Termination Notice: Response Window Now 10 Days

The Department of Homeland Security published an interim final rule on October 14, 2026, effective the same day, that shortens the time a refugee has to respond to a Notice of Intent to Terminate refugee status from 30 days to 10 days. Three days are added when the notice is mailed. A refugee who does not respond in time gives up the chance to rebut, and USCIS may then terminate status, end work authorization, and process the person for removal. There is no appeal from the USCIS decision itself. Texas received more refugees than any other state in fiscal year 2024, so this is a Texas-heavy rule. Here is what the document says, who it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review.

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Automatic Work Permit Extensions End

The Department of Homeland Security filed a final rule on October 13, 2026, scheduled to publish and take effect October 14, 2026, that adopts without change the interim rule ending automatic extensions of Employment Authorization Documents for people who timely file a renewal. The date that reaches an individual is not October 14 but October 30, 2025: a renewal filed on or after that day carries no automatic extension, so work authorization generally ends on the date printed on the card while USCIS decides. Renewals timely filed before October 30, 2025 keep the up-to-540-day extension, and extensions granted by statute or by Federal Register notice, including Temporary Protected Status documentation, are untouched. Here is what the rule says, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one set of dates.

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Texas Proposes Rules for the SB 17 Property Law

On October 9, 2026 the Office of the Texas Attorney General published proposed new Chapter 67 of Title 1 of the Texas Administrative Code in the Texas Register, the rules that would run enforcement of Senate Bill 17 and the property-ownership restrictions it added to the Texas Property Code in 2025. The proposal is procedural on its face, and three pieces of it change where ordinary people stand: a mandatory complaint duty placed on title companies, lenders, appraisers and licensed real estate professionals, with a due-diligence safe harbor; an optional way to report property acquired before the statute took effect; and a reading of the statute under which successive short-term leases and acquisitions of entities that already own Texas land can count as covered acquisitions. Written comments are accepted for 30 days after publication, and the earliest the rules could be adopted is November 8, 2026. Here is what the proposal says, who it reaches, and what a Texas attorney can review.

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Rubinsky Roofing Judgment: A 90-Day Claim Window

On October 8, 2026 the Office of the Texas Attorney General announced a final judgment against a North Texas roofing company and its owner for 27 violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, five of them involving consumers 65 or older. The coverage reported the money: more than $1.5 million in civil penalties to the state and at least $500,000 for victims. The order itself carries the part the coverage left out. A consumer has 90 days after notice is sent to submit documentation of what they paid and what they lost, the money an insurer paid the company on a homeowner behalf counts as an amount paid, and the notice only reaches consumers who appear on a list the defendants themselves have to produce. Here is what the order says, who it reaches, and what a Texas attorney can review.

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Federal Diesel Tax Deferral: What EO 14435 Directs

When Texas suspended its dyed-diesel road ban on September 28, 2026, the federal dyed-fuel penalty stayed in place, because a Governor cannot suspend a federal statute. Executive Order 14435, signed October 5 and published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2026, directs the Treasury Secretary and the IRS to reach exactly that gap: deferral of federal diesel excise tax incurred October 5 through December 31, 2026, and an announcement that the dyed-fuel penalty will not be imposed on highway sale or use during that window. Two things matter as much as the order itself. The relief is conditioned on Treasury determinations and guidance, and a deferral is a postponement rather than a forgiveness. Here is what the order directs, who in Texas it reaches, and what a Texas attorney can review.

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DHS Proposes a $70,000 OPT Fee

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on October 8, 2026 that would require an SEVP-certified school to pay 70,000 dollars before a designated school official can recommend an F-1 student for initial Optional Practical Training, and 30,000 dollars for any subsequent OPT recommendation, including a STEM OPT extension. Nothing has changed yet: the rule is a proposal, comments are due November 9, 2026, and the fee would reach only recommendations dated 60 days or more after a final rule is published. Texas held 92,020 international students in October 2025 SEVIS data. Here is what the proposal says, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can review for one student or one school.

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Oracle Health Breach Reaches About 3 Million Texans

A filing reported to the Texas Attorney General puts the 2025 breach of legacy Cerner systems at nearly 20 million people, with as many as 2,992,244 Texas residents among them. The records describe names, Social Security numbers and laboratory information, notification letters that went out more than a year after the intrusion was discovered, and class actions already consolidated in Texas. Here is what the notices say, who in Texas they reach, and what kind of lawyer reads a letter like this.

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Court Vacates the $100,000 H-1B Fee Policies

On September 30, 2026 a federal judge in California vacated the agency guidance that required a one-time 100,000-dollar payment with every new H-1B petition, and enjoined the agencies from enforcing it, including as extended by the September 18, 2026 proclamation. The court left the proclamations themselves standing and sent the guidance back to the agencies, which means the question is now how and whether a payment requirement returns through formal rulemaking. Texas is one of the largest H-1B states in the country. Here is what the order actually says, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one employer or one worker.

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New Immigration Filing Fees: October 1 and October 16

Three Department of Homeland Security notices published in the Federal Register on October 1, 2026 set the fiscal year 2027 inflation-adjusted amounts for the immigration fees created by H.R. 1, effective October 16, 2026, and the notice says a benefit request postmarked on or after that date without the proper fee will be rejected. A separate Justice Department notice already raised the amounts for several DHS forms filed with the immigration courts, effective October 1. Two agencies, two dates, two sets of numbers. Here is what changed, who in Texas it reaches, and what an immigration lawyer can check against one family’s actual filing.

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