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WASHINGTON — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been tapped to chair President Donald Trump’s new commission on religious liberty, which was announced during the National Day of Prayer celebration at the White House on Thursday.

“You are restoring the hopes and the prayers of millions upon millions of believers of all faiths,” said Patrick, referencing Trump, during a speech at the event.

The commission, according to Trump’s executive order, will make a report about threats to religious liberty and strategies to increase awareness of religious pluralism in the country.

This commission is a part of Trump’s push to “bring back religion,” to the United States. Trump on Thursday touted his pardons of anti-abortion protesters, the reinstatement of military members who were discharged due to vaccine mandates, creation of a Department of Justice task force to eradicate “anti-Christian bias,” and executive order against anti-semitism.

Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary in the first Trump administration, will serve as the commission’s vice-chair. Other commission members include television host Dr. Phil McGraw, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, various religious leaders, and Kelly Shackelford, the CEO of First Liberty, a Plano-based conservative legal organization. Commission members will serve at least until July 4, 2026.

Patrick approached Trump with the idea for the commission, Trump said during his speech in the Rose Garden.

Patrick, who was in Washington on Thursday for the announcement, said during his speech that the United States was “birthed by prayer,” and founded on the “Judeo-Christian ethic,” that people can worship without government interference. Patrick accused the Biden administration of having attacked people of faith.

“We have a magnificent inheritance of religious liberty and every believer today, no matter your faith, has a claim to that inheritance,” Patrick said.

Patrick has long promoted policies to infuse religion into public life, most recently prioritizing legislation that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms and allow time for prayer in public schools. Patrick has referred to the United States as “a Christian nation” and echoed many of his political allies in arguing that there “is no separation of church and state. It was not in the Constitution.”

“We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said in 2022.

Jasper Scherer contributed to this report.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

AUSTIN – Two recent University of Texas at Austin graduates and two current students filed a federal lawsuit against the university over their arrests during an on-campus pro-Palestinian protest in April 2024

Arwyn Heilrayne, Citlalli Soto-Ferate, Iliana Medrano and Mia Cisco are also suing the University of Texas System Board of Regents, former UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell, Gov. Greg Abbott, as well as officers for the UT Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“These students committed no crimes but endured violent arrests,” said Christina Jump with the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), one of the groups representing the students. “They have scars — physical and mental — from their experiences.”

The four students allege they were unlawfully targeted because they expressed pro-Palestinian views. According to the suit, they all plan to continue their activism in the future but are afraid of additional retaliation.

“Texas [officials] want to treat people differently based on their views. The law just simply doesn’t allow that,” Jump said. “And we’re glad to help these students fight back against it.”

The national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, one of the other groups that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the students, said this case is about more than one protest.

“It’s about safeguarding two of the most sacred rights in our democracy — free speech and peaceful assembly,” Abed Ayoub said in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, the students’ First Amendment rights were violated when they faced “unconstitutional restrictions” on their right to protest. The students said violent police tactics during the protests resulted in injuries, trauma and had a long-term impact on their academic and professional endeavors.

Heilrayne, a current student, said when she was observing the protest, police officers rushed at her and knocked her to the ground. She said her arrest “caused significant pain” when officers twisted her arms behind her back to secure her wrists with zip ties. Heilrayne said she told officers the zip ties were too tight, but they ignored her request to loosen them. She said she began to experience a panic attack.

In the lawsuit, Heilrayne claims she heard officers talking about needing to meet a quota of arresting 50 students. She alleged one DPS trooper asked his colleagues whether the students were actually doing anything illegal.

“‘We’ve been asking this question, but what are they doing that’s illegal?’ He went on to ask, ‘What if this was after a game or something? That many people is out … after a basketball game. We do this after the Aggie games?’ His colleague replied, “No,’” Heilrayne said in the lawsuit.

Medrano, Cisco and Soto-Ferate also said they were injured during their arrests. Cisco said an officer removed her hijab, which she did not get back until she was in jail.

All four plaintiffs said they felt compelled to accept disciplinary actions imposed by UT-Austin in the wake of the protests to avoid harsher penalties or interruptions to their degrees and careers.

“They’re in between a rock and a hard place,” MLFA attorney Chelsea Glover said. “Some of them were risking their entire four years of graduation over speaking up and standing up for what they believe was right.”

The students are seeking, among other things, a jury trial and for any compensatory damages to be determined during the trial. They are also requesting UT-Austin reverse the disciplinary actions against them.

KUT News reached out to defendants in the lawsuit for comment. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment but directed KUT News to previous statements, including an April 23, 2024, letter from the Office of the Dean of Students informing the Palestine Solidarity Committee that the demonstration planned for April 24 violated university policies and rules.

The university has disputed claims that the April 24 protest was targeted because it was pro-Palestinian and said it supports free speech.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Abbott, who deployed state troopers to respond to pro-Palestinian protests at UT-Austin, this week threatened to pull state funding for San Marcos if the City Council approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Texas Legislature may also soon send him a bill that came in response to last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

CALHOUN COUNTY – Plans for a large new plastics plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas crept forward on Tuesday evening when officials at a small, rural school district moved to enter into tax break negotiations with ExxonMobil, the project developer.

The Calhoun County Independent School District board voted unanimously at a public hearing to begin developing the terms for an agreement with Exxon on its plan to build a $10 billion complex nearby.

“This is not the final decision tonight,” said Mali Hanley, a consultant for the school district and an attorney with O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, at the hearing. “This is the first step in the process.”

Exxon, world’s largest private oil company, has proposed to build a “world scale” plastics plant in Calhoun County, population 20,000, according to the tax abatement application it filed with the district in December. The project would pipe in gas from the Permian Basin to produce up to 3 million annual tons of plastic polyethylene pellets for export, primarily to Asia, according to the 97-page application, making it potentially among the largest such plants on earth.

It would not be Exxon’s only such plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas, alongside others in Beaumont, Baytown, and Gregory. The project follows a period of steep growth in U.S. plastics production, fueled by cheap gas from the oilfields of Texas and beyond.

Tax break agreements are a common but controversial part of economic planning. Intended to attract competitive investments, they are often criticized as giveaways by small public entities to massive corporations.

“The decision tonight from the board is to go forward, that means to find out more,” Hanley said. “Find out what the commitment of Exxon is for the protection of the community.”

Exxon, which reported nearly $34 billion in profits in 2024, is seeking a 50% reduction in its school district property taxes for 10 years, beginning in 2031, when the project would come online. It’s one of hundreds of similar agreements under various programs across Texas.

Exxon’s application said it also planned to seek abatement agreements with the county government, the groundwater conservation district and the Calhoun Port Authority.

“Tax abatement programs drive local economic progress by spurring new jobs, investments, and long-term additional tax revenue,” said an Exxon spokesperson, Kelly Davila. “The abatement program we’re applying for will do just that for Calhoun County, if we move forward with the project.”

Once completed, the project would create 600 jobs with competitive pay, Davila said. During peak construction, it would employ 3,000 workers. After the abatement agreements expire, the project will pay more than $80 million per year in local taxes, Davila said.

Substantial doubt exists over the effectiveness of many tax abatement programs in Texas. Even the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation has called the school district program “unnecessary and wasteful” as well as “handouts to favored industries.”

Scant research has been done about whether these agreements actually benefit the entities that issue them, according to Trey Cowan, a Houston-based oil and gas analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“While it’s economic theory that’s driving all this, it’s never proven how good or bad the deal is for these little counties,” he said. “It seems more like we just want more industry and we’re not really concerned with the cost-benefit.”

Calhoun County has foregone about $209 million in revenue under currently active tax break agreements with petrochemical companies, according to a recent study by New York-based Autocase Economic Advisory, which was commissioned by Texas Campaign for the Environment.

“While these incentives aim to attract and retain businesses, they also result in significant revenue losses for local jurisdictions and statewide funding for schools,” the report said.

Autocase compiled 13 active agreements with Calhoun County or the school district beginning as early as 2013 and ending as late as 2035. The largest share of all tax breaks, some 71%, went to Formosa Plastics, a $250 billion company that employs 3,700 people and nets about $1 billion per year at its 2,500-acre complex on Lavaca Bay, and to its sister company, Nan Ya Plastics. Other tax breaks went to Dow Chemical’s Seadrift complex, and to Lynas Rare Earths, an Australian company that is building a “first of its kind” facility to separate rare earth minerals in Calhoun County. Autocase did not consider tax break agreements that have previously concluded, or agreements with non-chemical companies.

A Formosa spokesperson, Amy Blanchett, said Calhoun County has benefited from those agreements “through increased economic activity, increased sales tax revenue, increased inventory taxes, increased school taxes, increased property values and new job creation.”

“More individuals are paying taxes and buying goods and services,” she said.

Formosa has also made cash donations as part of the agreements, Blanchett said, including $1.5 million to a medical clinic, $1.5 million to a water treatment plant and “several million dollars directly paid to Calhoun County.”

Some Calhoun County residents are wary of so many tax break agreements, said Dana Dworaczyk, principal of Calhoun High School, and a candidate for a school board seat in an upcoming election.

“I talk to a lot of people in the area and they’re not necessarily enamored with the number of tax abatements that have been allowed by the school board,” said Dworaczyk, a 1981 graduate of Calhoun High School whose mother was also principal. “I think we’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Dworaczyk questioned whether all the tax breaks were really creating the desired effect of economic growth. Despite many tax agreements with big industry over decades, the population of Calhoun County has not grown. Since 2016, it has shrunk by 2,000 people. Today, the population is the same as it was in 1981.

School enrollment has also declined. Ten years ago, Dworaczyk said, Calhoun High School had 1,100 students. Now it has 950, and last year it cut three teacher positions, she said.

“The abatements need to be highly scrutinized before they’re allowed, because we haven’t really grown in the number of jobs, the number of citizens, the tax base,” said Dworaczyk, a former math teacher. “I’m not sure where the county gets an advantage.”

Her incumbent opponent in the May 3 school board election did not respond to requests for comment, nor did any other member of the school board, nor district superintendent Evan Cardwell.

About 25 people turned out for the hearing on Tuesday evening, many of them dressed in suits. Jonas Titas, president of the Victoria Economic Development Corporation, called the Exxon project “a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity.” Vicky Lilly, a homeowner from Port Alto, said she was “very concerned about having another petrochemical plant in our backyard.”

Diane Wilson, a veteran environmental activist and retired fourth-generation shrimper in Calhoun County, said she believed the district had intentionally obscured its announcements of the special meeting on Tuesday in order to avoid public attention and turnout.

“Quite frankly I feel there was deception,” said Wilson, who repeatedly called the district in April asking when Exxon’s application would be considered. “They have deliberately tried to keep the information from us.”

The district failed to meet legal requirements of a 15-day advance notice for special meetings, and to post notices in “a place readily accessible to the general public,” according to an April 29 letter from Wilson’s attorney, Marisa Perales, to the school board. District officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Local residents said they learned of the special meeting from a notice hung on a district office door on April 25. Before that, the district posted an online notice on April 15 — 14 days in advance of the meeting. But rather than posting in the typical “School Board Meeting Schedule” tab of the district website, it posted a file for download under the “Required Postings” tab, buried between the district budget, campus improvement plans and federal evaluations.

“Even after clicking on the ‘Required Postings’ tab, the notice is not readily apparent; one must click through three pages and 20 documents before finding the ‘notice of public hearing’ link,” Perales’ letter said.

But the link text does not say the meeting date or topic. A user must download and view a PDF for that information.

“This notice was not posted in a place that is readily accessible to the general public, and it failed to clearly inform the public about what the Board intends to discuss,” the letter said. “Because of this failure to satisfy Texas legal requirements, we urge you to postpone or cancel the April 29 public hearing and special meeting.”

The meeting was not canceled or postponed.

Wilson, who previously won a $50 million settlement in her lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, said she plans to sue the district over the decision.

Article originally published by The The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

ALEXANDRIA, VA (AP) — The Trump administration told a federal judge Thursday that a Georgetown University scholar’s lawsuit against deportation should be moved from Virginia, where it was filed, to Texas, where he’s jailed over allegations of “spreading Hamas propaganda.”

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles seemed skeptical of the government’s request, which would involve her dismissing the case in Virginia. She raised concerns that a dismissal in her court would void her order in March to keep Badar Khan Suri in the U.S. while his First Amendment case plays out.

David Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, told Giles that he would need to talk to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement about the judge’s concern. Byerley said he didn’t see why ICE wouldn’t honor her order against deporting Khan Suri while the case is refiled in a Texas federal court.

“OK,” the judge said. “I’m not going to rely on that. But thank you.”

In a government filing before the hearing, U.S. attorneys argued that Khan Suri’s attorneys filed his suit in Virginia after he was already taken out of state. They said filing his case in Texas is “relatively straightforward application of well-settled law.”

The Trump administration said it quickly moved Khan Suri from a facility in Farmville, Virginia, because of overcrowding to a detention center in Louisiana and then Texas.

But the judge seemed skeptical of the government’s overcrowding claim. She asked the U.S. to provide details about the number of open beds in Farmville at the time of Khan Suri’s arrest as well as the number of people who’ve been transferred because of overcrowding.

Khan Suri’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union told the judge that once in Texas, Khan Suri slept on the floor of an overcrowded detention center for at the least the first few weeks. However, they said, he now has his own cell in Texas.

Khan Suri’s attorneys said the real reason he was moved to Texas was to bring the case before a more conservative judge. The attorney, Vishal Agraharkar, accused the government of what’s often called “forum shopping.”

Unlike the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, federal district courts in Texas and western Louisiana are dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Win or lose, appeals of such cases go to the reliably conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 5th Circuit is one of 13 federal appellate courts around the nation and has 17 full-time judges. Twelve were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by former President Donald Trump.

Agraharkar’s statements before the judge in Alexandria were echoed by another attorney for Khan Suri, Hassan Ahmad, outside the courtroom after Thursday’s hearing.

“There is a reason why the detention facilities exist there,” Ahmad said, adding, “This kind of rigged game has to stop.”

Ahmad was among a group of people who gathered at the courthouse to show support. They included Khan Suri’s wife, Georgetown students and faculty and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents the northern Virginia district where Khan Suri lives.

Khan Suri’s lawsuit was filed shortly after masked, plain-clothed officers arrested him on March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia.

His attorneys say he was unconstitutionally arrested and jailed because of his wife’s connection to Gaza. He and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh’s father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri’s attorneys say.

The ACLU said in the memo that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.

According to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which Khan Suri “euphemistically refers to as ‘the government of Gaza.’”

Khan Suri’s arrest also stems from his social media posts about the war in Gaza, in which he expressed support of Palestinian people. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on the social platform X that Khan Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and was determined to be deportable.

The ACLU has argued that arrests on such grounds violated his First Amendment rights.

Khan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and Saleh have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.

Before his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.

ALVORD (AP) — Talk about some serious coin.

Millions of coins spilled onto a Texas highway this week after a tractor-trailer hauling $800,000 in dimes rolled over in an accident, authorities said.

The spillage led to the closure of a portion of the southbound lanes of U.S. 287 in Alvord for about half a day as workers got on their hands and knees to pick up the coins in addition to using brooms and shovels and large industrial vacuums.

The tractor-trailer rolled onto its side at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday after veering off the road and overcorrecting, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The highway reopened at about 7 p.m. that day, DPS said.

The driver and a passenger were transported to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, DPS said.

Alvord is located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Dallas.

The tractor-trailer appears to be part of the fleet of trucks operated by Western Distributing Transportation Corporation, which has a division that moves cargo for the government in armored vehicles with armed personnel. A person answering the phone at the company Thursday said they had no comment.

The U.S. Mint says on its website that it’s the nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coins. A message left with the agency on Thursday was not immediately returned.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Defense Department said Thursday that it has designated a second stretch on the U.S. border with Mexico as a military zone to enforce immigration laws.

The newest area is in Texas and is attached to the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso. Like the first zone established last month in New Mexico, military personnel are authorized to take custody of migrants who illegally cross the border until they are transferred to civilian authorities in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“The establishment of a second National Defense Area increases our operational reach and effectiveness in denying illegal activity along the southern border,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

In New Mexico, people who entered the U.S. illegally were charged Monday with breaching a national defense area after the Army assumed oversight of a 170-mile (274-kilometer) strip that is treated as an extension of U.S. Army Garrison Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

A press release from the military didn’t say how large the second zone in Texas was and officials were unavailable to comment on its dimensions Thursday night.

Border crossers in the military zones face potential prosecutions on two federal crimes — entering the U.S. illegally and trespassing on military property. The moves come as President Donald Trump’s administration has deployed thousands of troops to the border and arrests have plunged to the lowest levels since the mid-1960s.

The military zones have allow the federal government to escape the reach of an 1878 law that prohibits military involvement in civilian law enforcement.

“Any illegal attempting to enter that zone is entering a military base, a federally protected area,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on a recent visit to New Mexico. “You will be interdicted by U.S. troops and Border Patrol.”