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HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the Texas Department of Insurance has rejected a rate increase proposed by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association that would have raised premiums on about a quarter-million residential and commercial properties along the coast. The proposed 10% rate hike would have been “unjust and unfair,” wrote TDI Commissioner Cassie Brown in her order rejecting the filing, which was posted to TDI’s website Monday. TWIA confirmed the news but did not immediately make a statement. The not-for-profit insurance association, an insurer of last resort, provides residential and commercial policies covering wind and hail damage to home and business owners in Texas’ 14 coastal counties, as well as the portion of Harris County east of Texas 146. As of March, there were about 250,000 TWIA policies in force in coastal Texas, a 37% increase from 2020.

TWIA’s board voted to seek the rate increase in August, after the association’s 2024 Rate Adequacy Analysis found that current rates fell significantly short of being able to cover expenses and losses. That analysis was released July 1, a week before Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Matagorda County, causing extensive damage in Texas and further complicating TWIA’s finances. As of last week, TDI’s order notes, TWIA had received 31,163 claims arising from Hurricane Beryl and paid more than $250 million to settle them. Ultimately, Beryl claims could wipe out TWIA’s Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund, which had a balance of $451.4 million at the end of June. Proponents of the rate increase had argued that such a move was necessary given the association’s financial picture and the prospect of further extreme weather events, which have led many insurers to raise rates — or even pull back — in coastal Texas.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that as polls show his race tightening, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is lashing out at national Republicans for not doing more to help him in his battle against Democrat Colin Allred. Cruz told Fox News he’s being massively outspent by Allred on the airwaves and couldn’t even afford to get his own ads on TV until three weeks ago. And he complained U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t spent a penny on the race even though his PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, is sitting on millions of dollars meant to fight for a GOP majority. “Mitch McConnell runs the largest Republican super PAC in the country and has $400 million. But that super PAC is used to reward the Republican senators who obey him and to punish those who dare to stand up him,” Cruz said during an interview on Life, Liberty & Levin on FOX News on Friday.

Cruz’s comments come just days after Allred’s campaign announced it had raised $30.3 million since July — about $9 million more than Cruz raised during the same period. But Cruz said Allred is getting help from national Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last month announced it is preparing to spend millions to support Allred as they see his chances improving to oust Cruz. The committee didn’t spell out exactly how much it would spend. But Cruz told Fox that the combination of national money and Allred’s fundraising haul has his back against the wall going into the final three weeks of his bid to hold onto his seat in the U.S. Senate. “We are in the middle of a full-on battle,” Cruz said. “We are being massively outspent.” There is a heightened tension in part because in-person early voting in Texas starts next week and public polls have shown Cruz and Allred in a tight battle. On Sunday, Politico reported on an internal polling memo by the Senate Leadership Fund that highlighted the trouble Cruz is in. The fund’s internal polling, done by the Tarrance Group in Virginia, showed Cruz leading Allred by 3 percentage points in September. But as of Oct. 8 that was down to just 1 point. In the memo, the group pointed out Cruz has much higher unfavorable ratings among voters than Allred. While 48% of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of Cruz, Allred’s unfavorables were at 36%.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with just five years ago as smuggling gangs steer them — exhausted, dehydrated and malnourished — mostly into the hot desert, canyons or mountains west of El Paso, Texas.

During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed migrants mostly from Mexico and Central America were found near the border in New Mexico and often less than 10 miles (6 kilometers) from El Paso, according to the most recent data. The remains of 113 presumed migrants were found in New Mexico in 2023, compared with nine in 2020 and 10 in 2019.

It’s not clear exactly why more migrants are being found dead in that area, but many experts say smugglers are treating migrants more harshly and bringing them on paths that could be more dangerous in extreme summer temperatures.

The influx has taxed the University of New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator, which identifies the dead and conducts autopsies that almost always show the cause as heat-related.

“Our reaction was sadness, horror and surprise because it had been very consistently low for as long as anyone can remember,” said Heather Edgar, a forensic anthropologist with the office.

Serving the entire state, the office over two years has added deputy medical investigators to handle the extra deaths on top of the usual 2,500 forensic cases.

“We’d always had three deputies down in that area, and I think we have nine or 10 now,” Edgar said of New Mexico’s eastern migration corridor.

Immigration and border security are among voters’ top concerns heading into the Nov. 5 presidential contest, but the candidates have focused on keeping migrants out of the U.S. and deporting those already here.

The increase in deaths is a humanitarian concern for advocates as smugglers guide migrants into New Mexico through fencing gaps at the border city of Sunland Park and over low-lying barriers west of the nearby Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

“People are dying close to urban areas, in some cases just 1,000 feet from roads,” noted Adam Isacson, an analyst for the nongovernmental Washington Office on Latin America. He said water stations, improved telecommunications and more rescue efforts could help.

New Mexico officials are targeting human-smuggling networks, recently arresting 16 people and rescuing 91 trafficking victims. U.S. Customs and Border Protection added a surveillance blimp to monitor the migration corridor near its office in Santa Teresa, in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County. Movable 33-foot (10-meter) towers use radar to scan the area.

U.S. officials in recent years have added 30 more push-button beacons that summon emergency medical workers along remote stretches of the border at New Mexico and western Texas. They have also set up more than 500 placards with location coordinates and instructions to call 911 for help.

This summer, the Border Patrol expanded search and rescue efforts, dispatching more patrols with medical specialists and surveillance equipment. The agency moved some beacons closer to the border, where more migrants have been found dead or in distress.

Border Patrol says it rescued nearly 1,000 migrants near the U.S. border in New Mexico and western Texas over the past 12 months — up from about 600 the previous 12 months.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the faith-based Hope Border Institute in El Paso, said 10-member church teams recently started dropping water bottles for migrants in the deadly New Mexico corridor alongside fluttering blue flags.

“Part of the problem is that organized crime has become very systematic in the area,” Corbett said of the increased deaths. He also blamed heightened border enforcement in Texas and new U.S. asylum restrictions that President Joe Biden introduced in June and tightened last month.

New Mexico’s rising deaths come as human-caused climate change increases the likelihood of heat waves. This year, the El Paso area had its hottest June ever, with an average temperature of 89.4 degrees Fahrenheit (31.8 Celsius). June 12 and 13 saw daily record highs of 109 F (42.7 C).

Those high temperatures can be deadly for people who have been on strenuous journeys. Some smugglers lead migrants on longer routes into gullies or by the towering Mount Cristo Rey statue of Jesus Christ that casts a shadow over neighboring Mexico.

Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Juan Bernal of the El Paso Sector said migrants are weak when they arrive at the border after weeks or months without adequate food and water in houses smugglers keep in Mexico.

“They’re expected to walk, sometimes for hours or days, to get to their destination where they’re going to be picked up,” he said.

The deaths have continued even as migration has fallen along the entire border following Biden’s major asylum restrictions.

New Mexico’s migrant death numbers now rival those in Arizona’s even hotter Sonoran desert, where the remains of 114 presumed border crossers were discovered during the first eight months of 2024, according to a mapping project by the nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson.

Nearly half of those who died in New Mexico this year were women. Women ages 20 to 29 made up the largest segment of these deaths.

“We are awaiting for you at home,” a family in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas implored in early June in a missing person post for a 25-year-old female relative who was found dead days later. “Please come back.”

After a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman’s remains were discovered that same month, a mortuary in her hometown posted a death notice with a photo of her smiling in a blue dress and holding a floral bouquet.

“It should not be a death sentence to come to the United States,” Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Maj. Jon Day told a recent community gathering. “And when we push them into the desert areas here, they’re coming across and they’re dying.”

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Snow reported from Phoenix. Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

DALLAS (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred will meet Tuesday night in the only debate of their Texas Senate race that could help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while much of their attention is focused on defending seats that are crucial to their thin majority, including in Montana, Ohio and West Virginia.

Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that he is in another competitive race. The last time Cruz was on the ballot in 2018, he only narrowly won reelection over challenger Beto O’Rourke.

The debate presents Allred, a three-term congressman from Dallas and former NFL linebacker, with a chance to boost his name identification to a broad Texas audience. Allred has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign and has been sharply critical of the state’s abortion ban, which is one of the strictest in the nation. The issue has been a winning one for Democrats, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas, ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion.

Cruz, who fast made a name for himself in the Senate as an uncompromising conservative and ran for president in 2016, has refashioned his campaign to focus on his legislative record. He portrays his opponent as too liberal. Allred has meanwhile sought to flash moderate credentials and has the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

The two candidates alone have raised close to $100 million, according to the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission. Tens of millions more dollars have been spent by outside groups, making it one of the most expensive races in the country.

Despite Texas’ reputation as a deep-red state and the Democrats’ 30-year statewide drought, the party has grown increasingly optimistic in recent years that they can win here.

Since former President Barack Obama lost Texas by more than 15 percentage points in 2012, the margins have steadily declined. Former President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points in 2016, and four years later, won by less than 6. That was the narrowest victory for a Republican presidential candidate in Texas since 1996.

“Texas is a red state,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “But it’s not a ruby-red state.”

BOSTON (AP) — At a sparsely attended meeting last year, the Saugus Public School Committee approved a new admissions policy, it said, to streamline the process of enrolling students.

But critics say the policy — including stringent requests for proof of “legal” residency and “criminal and civil penalties” for violators — has another goal: keeping immigrants out of the small school district outside Boston.

The debate over welcoming immigrant children into America’s schools extends far beyond the Boston suburbs. Advocates fear it could figure more prominently into a national agenda if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Conservative politicians in states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee are questioning whether immigrants without legal residency should have the right to a public education, raising the possibility of challenges to another landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.

For decades, children of families living in the country illegally have had the right to attend public school based on a 1982 Supreme Court decision known as Plyler v. Doe. In a 5-4 vote, justices held it is unconstitutional to deny children an education based on their immigration status.

The new Saugus policy requires new students to share immigration records and says children must be “legal residents whose actual residence is in Saugus,” where the share of students who are learning English has nearly tripled to 31% over the last decade. Families must also complete a town census, sign a residency statement and provide occupancy and identity documents.

Civil rights attorneys say the requirements are onerous and violate federal law by disproportionately harming students from immigrant families, who may lack many of the required documents, regardless of whether they’re living in the country legally.

The chairman of the Saugus school committee, Vincent Serino, said during the meeting the policy is “tightening up” of existing residency rules and is not intended to keep out immigrants.

But a Nicaraguan woman said it took six months for her to enroll her 8-year-old child because of the document requirements. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her child would face retaliation, said the town wouldn’t accept her lease and her complaints to the school were rebuffed.

Growing attempts to undermine Plyler v. Doe should be taken seriously, immigration experts say, pointing to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s readiness to overturn longstanding legal precedent, notably on abortion rights and affirmative action in higher education.

Trump, a Republican, has made immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign, vowing to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history if elected. He refers to immigrants as “animals” and “killers” and has spoken of immigrant children bringing disease into classrooms. A photo displayed at a recent Trump rally showed a crowded classroom with the words “Open border = packed classrooms.”

There is no disputing immigrant populations have strained schools in many communities, contributing to crowded classrooms and forcing teachers to adapt to large numbers of Spanish-speaking students.

But until recently, the idea of denying children an education would have been considered “too far to the right and too far fringe,” said Tom K. Wong, director of the U.S. immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego. “But now we are seeing a political climate where previously fringe policies are becoming mainstream.”

Earlier this year, the conservative Heritage Foundation urged states to pass legislation requiring public schools to charge tuition to families living in the country illegally. Doing so, it said in a policy brief, would provoke a lawsuit that likely would “lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its ill-considered Plyler v. Doe decision.”

Over the summer, Oklahoma’s education superintendent, Ryan Walters, announced his agency would be issuing guidance to districts about gathering information on the “costs and burden” of illegal immigration to school districts.

“The federal government has failed to secure our borders. Our schools are suffering over this,” Walters said.

Several school districts have pushed back, saying they will not check students’ immigration status.

“Federal law is quite clear on this topic, as it prohibits districts from asking students or their families about their immigration status or to request documentation of their citizenship,” said Chris Payne, a spokesperson for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, outlining a common interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.

In Tennessee, a proposal for universal school vouchers by Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, led to debate over whether immigrant students should be excluded. The idea appealed to many of the Legislature’s conservative members, but some worried the exclusion would spark legal challenges. Ultimately, Lee abandoned his voucher proposal after several aspects of the plan failed to gain support.

The Saugus school committee in Massachusetts approved its admissions policy at a committee meeting in August 2023, two days after Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency over the state’s migrant crisis. At the time, Healey said nearly 5,600 families — many of them immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela — were living in state shelters, up from about 3,100 families the year before.

Serino, the school committee chairman, said the group began considering updating its residency policy more than a year before migrants became an issue in the state. He said the policy requires documents like a signed landlord affidavit or property tax bill, “simple stuff that everyone has.”

“We haven’t hurt anyone and no one has come to us — no migrant, no parent has come to us to complain about the policy,” Serino said.

Local legal advocates say the policy has been a hurdle for at least two immigrant families trying to enroll in Saugus schools. Lawyers For Civil Rights and the group Massachusetts Advocates for Children said it took their intervention to get the students into the school.

“The policy itself is illegal,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights. “Schools should be welcoming (all) children who are in the district and educating them.”

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in 2022 that Plyler v. Doe should be challenged and the federal government should pay for the public education of students who are not legal residents. He drew backlash from immigrant advocates and the White House. The following year, Republican lawmakers in Texas introduced several unsuccessful bills aimed at limiting non-citizen children from enrolling in public schools.

In June, the idea also was included in the Republican Party of Texas platform.

The party’s priorities for the upcoming Legislative season include “ending all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens, except for emergency medical care.”

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Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this article. Gecker reported from San Francisco.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.