By ELLIOT SPAGAT and NOMAAN MERCHANT

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seven immigration agents filed into a 7-Eleven store before dawn Wednesday, waited for people to go through the checkout line and told arriving customers and a driver delivering beer to wait outside. A federal inspection was underway, they said.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas charged to the forefront of the national debate over immigration as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a so-called "sanctuary cities" ban that lets police ask during routine stops

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Republican-controlled Texas House approved a strict ban on "sanctuary cities" early Thursday, empowering local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law against anyone they detain and threatening police chiefs and sheriffs who refuse to do so with jail.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A private prison company announced Thursday it has won a $110-million federal contract to build in Texas the first new immigrant detention center under the Trump administration.