Patients begin lining up before dawn at Operation Border Health , an annual five-day health clinic in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. Many residents in this predominantly Latino and Hispanic region spanning the Mexican border lack insurance, making the health fair a major source of free medical care in South Texas for more than 25 years.

Until this year. The Trump administration's plan to strip more than $550 million in federal public health and pandemic funds from Texas helped prompt cancellation of the event just before its scheduled July 21 start.

"Some people come every year and rely on it," said Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Director Dairen Sarmiento Rangel. "Some people even camp out outside of Border Health so they can be the first in line to receive services. This ev

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