Arizona

Democratic Representatives Elected In The Midterms Demand Immigration Reform At The Capitol

Published

49 mins ago

November 12, 2026

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November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States, but stetsons proliferated Wednesday in front of the Capitol. Politicians and business leaders from Texas and Arizona joined forces to demand immigration reform outside the landmark complex that houses both chambers of Congress, which will be under Democratic control starting in January. Familiar faces from the Senate, such as Arizona Senator Rubén Gallego, and from the House of Representatives, including Texas representatives Henry Cuellar, Vicente González, Joaquín Castro, Verónica Escobar, and Sylvia García, were present.

But there were also new faces, freshly elected on November 3, who have come to Washington hoping to shake up a Congress that for decades has been unable to pass immigration reform. JoAnna Mendoza, from Arizona, and Bobby Pulido, the former Tejano singer who was elected to represent Texas’s 15th district, were among them. “In the last election, on November 3, we sent a clear message: we are tired of cruelty and we are tired of corruption,” he said.

Pulido was one of the protagonists of the midterms that helped turn an emblematic Republican state blue — Texas became a key example of the Democrats’ sweeping success in the elections. In his region, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have wreaked havoc on families and the economy. “I am married to a Mexican. My son is from a mixed-status family. We need to fix this. And I want to tell you that I have taken note of the members who are here right now. Count on my commitment to work on this tirelessly. This is extremely important,” he added.

Pulido introduced his colleague Leticia Gutiérrez, a previously unknown face in Washington who will be sworn in as a congresswoman in January after defeating the Republican candidate despite her campaign’s limited resources. Her 9th district is where Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado was killed in July by gunfire from an ICE agent. At the altar where he was honored, residents placed their stickers on election day to show they had voted with immigration policy in mind.

“We should not be spending money on these racist policies that keep targeting our working communities, like Lorenzo Salgado’s, who was killed in my Magnolia Park community. That is my neighborhood, and my family lives there. He was not just a father; he was everyone’s father. Enough. We need to move forward,” Gutiérrez said.

Rejection of the Trump administration’s immigration policy was decisive in the Republican defeat in the midterms, and Democrats want to use the majorities they will enjoy in both chambers to push for a reform that would make it easier to legalize undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for years.

Joaquín Castro, the representative from San Antonio, Texas, said “change is on the way.” In January, “we will have a Republican president — President Trump — and a Congress with a strong Democratic presence. This is an opportunity to address the issue of immigration reform. It is an opportunity to be true to the history of this country. History tells us that our nation became the most powerful and prosperous on Earth not in spite of immigrants, but because of them. I want us to legislate along those lines,” he said.

Rubén Gallego durante la conferencia de prensa, este miércoles.

Deal with Trump

Rubén Gallego, for his part, recalled how the Latino vote was crucial in delivering victory to the Democrats, largely because of the harassment they face due to the racial profiling used in the deportation campaign.

“Latinos are giving Democrats the chance to win their vote back. And, in part, that requires us to push hard for immigration reform. That includes the possibility of reaching an agreement with Donald Trump,” the senator said.

Latinos voted en masse against the Republicans after a portion of their electorate switched parties in 2024 to support Trump’s return to the White House.

In an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, the president acknowledged that his immigration policy had been too harsh, resulting in the deportation of many migrants who had worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for years. However, the appointment of Stephen Miller — an advocate of the hardest line — as chief of staff sent contradictory signals about his intentions.

Among the business leaders demonstrating in front of the Capitol was Mario Guerrero, president of the South Texas Builders Association. His sector is one of the most-affected by the labor shortage caused by ICE arrests.

Guerrero is one of the Republicans who, after voting for Trump three times, chose to cast his vote for the Democrats. “To the Republicans: understand that we’ve lost the party; you lost Texas, you lost the Latino vote, you lost the House of Representatives and the Senate. It’s time for President Trump to step aside so we can get real results. Every election is important, but these were historic. Texas has gone Democratic,” he said. And he issued a warning: “A friendly reminder to my friends in the Democratic Party: don’t mess with us. And don’t squander this opportunity, like Biden and Obama did.”

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Arizona

Shayna Feinman, An American Woman Missing For Two Years, Wrongly Located In Tijuana

Published

2 weeks ago

October 29, 2026

Andres Rodriguez

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“Is she alive or not?” That is the torturous uncertainty Shayna Feinman’s family has lived with for the past four days. The last time the American woman was seen alive was more than two years ago, in March 2024, while she was walking to a friend’s house in Yavapai County, Arizona. Since then she has been missing and presumed dead. That was until October 24, when the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) of Tijuana, Mexico, announced on social media that she had been found alive. However, in a turn of events Kara Feinman, her sister, described on her Facebook page as “turmoil” and “heartbreaking,” authorities in Arizona said their Mexican counterparts were plainly wrong, having located and identified a different person by mistake.

Criticism from Arizona law enforcement of the Tijuana police came after the discovery was posted without prior proper verification. “The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) is aware of circulating news reports regarding the alleged discovery of Shayna Feinman. Those news stories were published without official law enforcement confirmation,” the agency said in a statement on its social media accounts.

According to the YCSO investigation, Feinman, who was 38 the last time she was seen, was believed to have been walking to a friend’s house. She never arrived at that destination or returned home with her dog. In the days after her disappearance, her car was found abandoned near where she lived with her boyfriend, Cavett Richards. Her wallet and identification were inside the vehicle, and her cellphone was later discovered on nearby land.

Although Feinman was not found, Yavapai County authorities later charged Richards and William DalCerro, the owner of the property where the couple lived, with second-degree murder, conspiracy, and concealment of a body in connection with her disappearance. Those charges were later dismissed. A $20,000 reward remains available for information as investigators continue to probe the case.

The SSPC of Tijuana said it located Feinman on the afternoon of Friday, October 23, in the Encino neighborhood. Its post stated that the person was “a woman whose characteristics matched those of the person reported missing.” The Mexican agency’s statement included a photo of a woman seated across from an official at a desk, on which one of the missing-person flyers with Feinman’s information is visible.

“After confirming her identity, officers provided her with protection and shelter and transferred her to a secure location so that U.S. consular officials and her family could make contact and follow the appropriate procedures,” the SSPC of Tijuana said in its statement.

A spokesperson for the SSPC told EL PAÍS that when interviewed by municipal authorities the woman claimed to be Feinman. “Given the woman’s assertion of being who she said she was, the consular authority was notified, and it was the consular authority’s responsibility to authenticate that claim or to establish the identity of the person who said she was a U.S. citizen,” the municipality’s statement said.

Kara Feinman told The Guardian that, in her view, the confusion about the possibility that her sister might be in Tijuana initially arose after at least one concerned person became convinced she was there and posted about it on social media. EL PAÍS contacted the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana and the YCSO about how the identity check was carried out and whether there were communication failures between the agencies of both countries, but as of the publication of this article no response had been received.

After the social-media announcement about the alleged recovery, both Kara Feinman and the Yavapai sheriff’s office received the Tijuana officials’ statement with obvious skepticism. Kara, in an interview with a local Arizona outlet over the past weekend, acknowledged that the woman in the SSPC of Tijuana photo had “similar physical attributes” to Shayna’s but said she preferred to be cautious: “I can only hope and pray for good news, but right now, we have to be realistic, rational and calm.”

Finally, after several days, the YCSO confirmed what had been feared: “Today, U.S. authorities confirmed to YCSO detectives, utilizing physical evidence, that the individual located is not Shayna Feinman. Detectives continue to work diligently with the family during this stressful time.”

Lance Leising, a former FBI agent and an expert in missing-person searches, said, “It’s outrageous that [the SSPC of Tijuana] would post something on social media before confirming it with a U.S. law enforcement agency. It’s a terrible action.”

“If you have heard about the woman in Mexico with features similar to Shayna, please take a moment to read the following: It is not her. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to help and share the information until we could confirm the facts and issue a definitive statement. And above all, thank you for your kindness and support. […] The search is not over,” Kara Feinman wrote Tuesday on her Facebook page.

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