Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Reporting Fellowship. See part one here. (Leer en español aquí.)
On a balmy, overcast afternoon in late March 2025, a crowd gathered outside Texas Southmost College’s auditorium in downtown Brownsville. With them came signs, many of them directed at the city’s mayor, John Cowen, who was giving the annual “State of the City” address inside.
