The U.S. plans to build a $750 million factory in southern Texas to breed billions of sterile flies, ramping up its efforts to keep flesh-eating maggots in Mexico from crossing the border and damaging the American cattle industry.
Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture hopes to be producing and releasing sterile male New World screwworm flies into the wild within a year from the new factory on Moore Air Base outside Edinburg, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the border. She also said the USDA plans to deploy $100 million in technology, such as fly traps and lures, and step up border patrols by “tick riders” mounted on horseback and train dogs to sniff out the parasite.
In addition, Rollins said the U.S. border will remain closed to cattle, horse and bison imports from Mexico until the U.S. sees that the pest is being pushed back south toward Panama, where the fly had been contained through late last year through the breeding of sterile flies there. The U.S. has closed its border to those imports three times in the past eight months, the last in July, following a report of an infestation about 370 miles (595 kilometers) from the Texas border.
American officials worry that if the fly reaches Texas, its flesh-eating maggots could cause billions of dollars in economic losses and cause already record retail beef prices to rise even more, fueling greater inflation. The parasite also can infest wildlife, household pets and, occasionally, humans.
“Farm security is national security,” Rollins said during a news conference at the Texas State Capitol in Austin with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “All Americans should be concerned. But it’s certainly Texas and our border and livestock producing states that are on the front lines of this every day.”
The pest was a problem for the American cattle industry for decades until the U.S. largely eradicated it in the 1970s by breeding and releasing sterile male flies to breed with wild females. It shut down fly factories on U.S. soil afterward.
The Mexican cattle industry has been hit hard by infestations and the U.S. closing its border to imports.
Mexico’s Agriculture ministry said in a statement Friday that Mexico Agriculture and Rural Development Secretary Julio Berdegué Sacristán and Rollins signed a screwworm control action plan. It includes monitoring with fly-attracting traps and establishing that livestock can only be moved within Mexico through government-certified corrals, the statement said.
And on the X social media platform, Berdegué said, “We will continue with conversations that lead to actions that will permit the reopening of livestock exports."
The new fly-breeding factory in Texas would be the first on U.S. soil in decades and represents a ramping up of the USDA's spending on breeding and releasing sterile New World screwworm flies. The sterile males are released in large enough numbers that wild females can't help but mate with them, producing sterile eggs that don't hatch. Eventually, the wild fly population shrinks away because females mate only once in their weekslong lives.
In June, Rollins announced a plan to convert an existing factory for breeding fruit flies into one for breeding sterile New World Screwworm flies, as well as a plan to build a site, also on the air base near Edinburg, for gathering flies imported from Panama and releasing them from small aircraft. Those projects are expected to cost a total of $29.5 million.
The Panama fly factory can breed up to 117 million flies a week, and the new Mexican fly factory is expected to produce up to 100 million more a week. Rollins said the new Texas factory would produce up to 300 million a week. She said President Donald Trump's administration wants to end the U.S. reliance on fly breeding in Mexico and Panama.
“It’s a tactical move that ensures we are prepared and not just reactive, which is today what we have really been working through,” Rollins said.
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed reporting.
Technicians prepare bait to attract flies near a cattle auction in Hermosillo, Sonora state, Mexico, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Flies of various species sit stuck in a trap near the pens of an auction in Hermosillo, Sonora state, Mexico, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Cowboys push a cow out of its spot to a veterinarian inspection at a ranch that exports livestock to the U.S., in Zamora, northern Mexico, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday released a new video timeline and a slightly clearer image of the man suspected in the Brown University shooting, though investigators provided no indication that they were any closer to zeroing in on his identity.
Investigators have been canvassing Providence homes, yards and dumpsters in search of videos or other clues that might help them figure out who was behind Saturday's campus shooting, which killed two students and wounded nine others.
In all of the videos made public, the suspect's face was masked or turned away, and authorities have only been able to give a vague description of him as being stocky and about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall.
The FBI also put out a video timeline that includes new footage of the man from before the attack. It shows him running at times along quiet and empty residential streets near campus. Authorities believe he was casing the area, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said in a news conference Tuesday.
Perez asked the public to look at their camera systems in the area to see if they have any footage that might help officials identify him.
“We’re looking for a moment that is shorter than someone taking a breath,” Perez said.
Perez said there was no clear video of the gunman from inside the engineering building where the shooting took place. Attorney General Peter Neronha said there were cameras in the newer part of the building but “fewer, if any, cameras” where the shooting happened “because it’s an older building.”
The Brown University president said the campus is equipped with 1,200 cameras.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that from his perspective, the investigation was going “really well.” He pleaded for public patience in locating the suspected killer.
Providence is understandably tense, and additional police were sent to city schools on Tuesday to reassure worried parents that their kids will be safe. Ten state troopers were assigned to support the local police sent to beef up security at schools, district Superintendent Javier Montañez said.
“We recognize that the tragic incident at Brown University, occurring so close to where many of our students and families live and learn, is deeply unsettling and frightening,” he wrote in an email to parents.
Alex Torres-Perez, senior director of communications and external affairs for the Providence Public School District, said the district canceled all after-school activities and field trips for the week “as a precaution.”
Locals expressed fear as well as defiance as the investigation continued Tuesday.
“Of course it feels scary. But at the same time, I think that if the person really wanted to scare us, we shouldn’t allow him or her to win," said Tatjana Stojanovic, a Providence parent who lives next door to the Brown campus. "Despite all of that, we should just go about our lives. I mean, obviously, you cannot forget this. But I think we shouldn’t cower and just sort of stop living despite what has happened.
The attack and the shooter's escape have raised questions about campus security, including a lack of security cameras, and led to calls for better locks on campus doors.
Others pushed back, saying such efforts do little to address the real issue.
“The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building as police stormed in Saturday. “And all of this, like, ‘Oh, the doors need to be locked.’ I get it, parents are scared. But any of us could have opened the door for the guy if the doors had been locked.”
After spending of her life in schools where every door was locked and school shootings continued to persist, Kass said such security measures only created “the illusion of safety.”
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said it had 30 people in the city to support survivors, victims and loved ones, noting that the toll a tragedy like this takes on them is “immeasurable.”
Details have emerged about the victims, who were in the first-floor classroom in the school's engineering building studying for a final.
Two of the wounded students had been released as of Tuesday, Brown spokesperson Amanda McGregor said. Of the seven people that remained hospitalized, Mayor Brett Smiley said one remained in critical condition, five were in critical but stable condition and one was in stable condition.
One of the wounded students, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told the New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald that there was a mad scramble after the gunman entered the room. Many students ran toward the front, but Yang said he wound up on the ground between some seats and was shot in the leg.
Jacob Spears, 18, a freshman from Evans, Georgia, was shot in the stomach, “but through sheer adrenaline and courage, he managed to run outside, where he was aided by others," according to a GoFundMe site organized for him.
Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore who was one of the two students killed, was vice president of the Brown College Republicans and was beloved in her church in Birmingham, Alabama. In announcing her death Sunday, the Rev. R. Craig Smalley described her as “an incredible grounded, faithful, bright light” who encouraged and “lifted up those around her.”
The other student killed was, MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, who was majoring in biochemistry and neuroscience. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a kid.
As a child, Umurzokov had a neurological condition that required surgery, his sister Samira Umurzokova told The Associated Press by phone. He knew from an early age that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon to help others like him.
“He had so many hardships in his life, and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise he made when was 7 years old,” she said.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Jennifer McDermott and Matt O'Brien in Providence; Brian Slodysko in Washington; Michael Casey in Boston; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas.
A Brown University student leaves campus, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, after all classes, exams and papers were canceled for the rest of the Fall 2025 semester following the school shooting, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Brown University students Gloria Kuzmenko-Latimir, left, and Haleema Aslam walk by Manning Hall on their way to a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Visitors kneel at a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims outside the Engineering Research Center at Brown University, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Photos of Brown University shooting victims Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, are seen amongst flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Engineering Research Center, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A memorial of flowers and signs lay outside the Barus and Holley engineering building at Brown University, on Hope Street in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt OBrien)
Brown University senior Zoe Kass and her boyfriend return to the engineering building they fled Saturday to leave flowers on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Matt OBrien)
A classroom in Brown University's Barus and Holley building is pictured two days after a shooting occurred inside the building. in Providence, R.I., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)
This combo image made with photos provided by the FBI and the Providence, Rhode Island, Police Department shows a person of interest in the shooting that occurred at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (FBI/Providence Police Department via AP)
A makeshift memorial is seen on the campus of Brown University, close to from the scene of the shooting, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial for the victims of Saturday's shooting, at the Van Wickle Gate at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
