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NEW YORK (AP) — A Texas man was sentenced to a year and a half in prison Wednesday over his effort to dupe George Santos out of nearly $1 million by offering to destroy evidence in the disgraced congressman’s corruption case.

Hector Medina, 40, admitted to fabricating an identity as a politically connected fixer, then trying to extract money from Santos by claiming that he could have “evidence that is on you removed, disappeared.”

Federal prosecutors said Medina — using the alias Michael Soto — tried the scam on other high-profile criminal defendants, including the actor Danny Masterson, but convinced no one.

Medina’s attorney, Joseph Veith, said he was seeking to pay off gambling debts through a scheme that “lacked the sophistication and credibility necessary to pose any real threat of success.” Continue reading Texas man who tried to scam ex-US Rep. George Santos sentenced to 18 months

Texas lawmakers proposed spending billions of dollars over the next two years to create a school voucher-like program, cut property taxes, raise teacher pay, shore up water infrastructure and continue the state’s presence at the southern border, according to initial budget drafts House and Senate leaders filed Wednesday.

Both chambers set aside $1 billion in their initial spending plans for education savings accounts, a voucher-like policy that would let families use state funds to cover the cost of private school tuition and other education-related expenses. That amount is double what was on the table two years ago and is a sign that supporters are emboldened after recent electoral gains in the House, the chamber that has thwarted past voucher proposals.

The chambers also aligned on putting $6.5 billion toward what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s office described as maintaining “current border security operations.”

Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott had previously suggested they would look to redirect some of the state’s border spending surge toward other uses now that President Donald Trump is set to crack down on federal immigration policy.

The spending proposals provide the first glimpse of how the Republican-controlled Legislature is looking to use the state’s projected $24 billion surplus in the next two-year budget cycle, which begins in September. Both chambers proposed spending around $5 billion to increase public school funding and at least $6 billion for property tax cuts.

While the two chambers unveiled similar spending priorities, they will have to iron out scattered differences in their nearly 1,100-page budget drafts before sending the final version to Abbott’s desk. Much of the spending also depends on lawmakers passing separate bills to unlock the money, as is the case with education savings accounts and property tax cuts.

The Senate’s $332.9 billion proposal was filed by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, while Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, introduced the House’s $335.7 billion proposal.

Newly elected House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has not yet announced his committee chairs, including who will lead the House Appropriations Committee. But the chamber’s budget draft was filed by Bonnen, the House’s lead budget writer for the last two terms, signaling that the Friendswood Republican is likely to keep the post.

Passing a balanced budget is the only thing state lawmakers must do during their 140-day session that began on Jan. 14 and concludes on June 2.

This article was originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the original article, click here.

AUSTIN – The Austin Business Journal reports that as Austin’s downtown skyline climbed higher and higher in 2024, so too did the city’s office vacancy rate. Downtown has seen years of development and expansions that have resulted in glittering high-rise additions — such as the impressive Sail Tower on Lady Bird Lake and Austin’s current tallest tower, Sixth and Guadalupe. But as striking as those additions have been, the Central Business District is having trouble filling up all of its office space and vacancy rates are at an all-time high. Austin as a whole is experiencing record office vacancy — estimated at 17.6% citywide as of the first quarter this year, according to CoStar — but things are even worse downtown. Office vacancy in the CBD is estimated at 22.3% to start the year, the highest level since it began tracking the data in 2000, CoStar analyst Israel Linares said.

Some other real estate analytics firms put the figure even higher. A recent report from CommercialEdge pegged Austin’s citywide office vacancy as 27.7%, the second-highest in the nation behind only San Francisco. A number of factors are responsible for the elevated vacancy rates, experts say. Part of the trend stems from a rush of development downtown beginning in the 2010s that has resulted in several new towers, which now are drawing tenants away from older towers. Another major factor is uncertainty regarding office needs in the post-Covid world, in which hybrid and remote work are commonplace. In addition, the large amount of office space in Austin available for sublease has increased competition for tenants, even though space up for sublease isn’t reflected in vacancy rates because it’s technically leased. The upshot is an overall Austin leasing environment — particularly downtown — that’s “difficult” for the owners of office buildings, to say the least.

WASHINGTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that a Texas congressman is pushing legislation to end birthright citizenship — an effort that comes as President Donald Trump’s attempt to cut off the longstanding constitutional right through an executive order drew immediate legal challenges this week. U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Woodville Republican, filed a bill Tuesday that would limit automatic citizenship to those born in the U.S. with at least one parent who is a citizen, a lawful permanent resident or an immigrant serving in the military. “America’s citizenship laws should reflect fairness and respect for the rule of law,” Babin said in a statement. “This common-sense legislation corrects decades of misuse and closes the loophole that incentivizes illegal immigration and exploits U.S. citizenship through birth tourism.”

At least nine other Texas Republicans had signed on as cosponsors by Tuesday afternoon, according to Babin’s office. They included U.S. Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Houston, Troy Nehls of Richmond, Chip Roy of Austin, Brandon Gill of Flower Mound, Randy Weber of Friendswood, Morgan Luttrell of Magnolia, Nathaniel Moran of Whitehouse, Jodey Arrington of Lubbock, Ronny Jackson of Amarillo and Keith Self of McKinney. Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to stop recognizing the citizenship of future children born to undocumented immigrants. The order would cut off access to social security numbers, passports and more for those children. It was set to take effect in 30 days, but it drew immediate lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and 18 Democratic-led states. Legal scholars have said the president likely does not have the authority to end citizenship granted to those born in the U.S. And it’s unclear if Babin’s bill would accomplish it either. That’s because the right has long been enshrined in the Constitution through the 14th Amendment, a view that has held since a Supreme Court ruling in 1898. Removing it from the Constitution would require a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, as well as the support of three-fourths of the country’s state legislatures. Babin’s bill does not seek to overturn the amendment. “Most legal scholars in the country believe that to end that will require a constitutional amendment,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. The Trump administration, however, has argued the 14th Amendment extends citizenship only to those both born in and “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.” Trump officials argue those born to undocumented parents are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. — a distinction that historically has only applied to the children of diplomats living in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many U.S. adults are on board with the idea of beefing up security at the southern border and undertaking some targeted deportations, according to a new poll. But as President Donald Trump begins his second term with a series of sweeping executive orders on immigration, the findings suggest his actions may quickly push the country beyond the limited consensus that exists on the issue.

There is a clear desire for some kind of action on U.S.-Mexico border security, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Half of U.S. adults think increasing security at the border should be a high priority for the federal government, according to the poll, and about 3 in 10 say it should be a moderate priority. Just 2 in 10, roughly, consider it a low priority.

The vast majority of U.S. adults favor deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes, and the Trump administration’s deportation efforts may begin there. But Trump’s initial executive orders have gone far beyond that — including efforts to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico and end automatic citizenship.

And Trump, a Republican, is continuing to signal an aggressive and likely divisive approach, with promises to deport millions of people who entered the country illegally while declaring a “national emergency at our southern border.” About 4 in 10 American adults support deporting all immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and a similar share are opposed.

Most Americans think local police should cooperate with federal immigration authorities on deportations in at least some cases, but implementation could quickly become unpopular. On Tuesday, the Trump administration threw out policies limiting arrests of migrants in sensitive places like schools and churches, even though a shift to such arrests would be largely unpopular.

Some support for more immigration enforcement

Immigration was a key issue in the 2024 election, and the poll indicates that it’s still a high priority for many Americans as Trump takes office.

Illegal border crossings soared under Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, with border arrests from Mexico reaching a record-high of 250,000 in December 2023. Despite Trump’s claims of an immigrant invasion, crossings have plunged since then, amid increased Mexican enforcement and the Democratic Biden administration’s June 2024 order that dramatically limited asylum claims at the border.

But memories of those rising numbers, and the chaos that ensued when migrants were bused by Republican governors to northern cities, may have helped shape American attitudes. The survey found that about half of Americans think the government is spending “too little” on border security, and the vast majority favor deportations of people who have been convicted of violent crimes.

“I want to see more people coming here legally,” said Manuel Morales, a 60-year-old Democrat who lives near Moline, Illinois. He first came to America by crossing the border illegally from Mexico nearly 40 years ago. “But at the same time, I’m against all these caravans coming (to the border), with thousands and thousands of people at one time,” said Morales, a technician for an internet provider.

He’s deeply sympathetic to migrants who come to the U.S. to escape repression or poverty and feels that too many Americans don’t understand the yearslong efforts required to enter the U.S. legally. Yet, he also believes the number of migrants has simply become too great in the past few years.

“We cannot just receive everybody into this county,” he said.

Trump’s most sweeping plans are less popular

Trump rarely gives specifics when he calls for mass deportations, but the survey indicates many Americans are conflicted about mass roundups of people living in the U.S. illegally.

Removing immigrants who are in the country illegally and have not committed a violent crime is highly divisive, with only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults in support and slightly more than 4 in 10 opposed.

And relatively few Americans, about 3 in 10, somewhat or strongly favor changing the Constitution so children born in the U.S. are not automatically granted citizenship if their parents are in the country illegally. About 2 in 10 are neutral, and about half are somewhat or strongly opposed.

Doug DeVore is a 57-year-old Republican living in southern Indiana who believes that immigration “went haywire during the Biden administration.”

But the idea of large-scale operations to check people’s immigration status makes him uncomfortable.

“I probably wouldn’t be 100% against it,” he said. “But there’s that fine line” between gathering information on people living in the U.S. illegally and automatically deporting them, added DeVore, who works in a candy factory.

Local cooperation with immigration authorities is popular — but not arrests in schools or churches

As the Trump administration prepares to attack sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the poll finds that the vast majority of U.S. adults think police in their community should cooperate with federal immigration authorities to deport people who are in the country illegally in at least some cases.

Only about 1 in 10 Americans say the local police should never cooperate with federal law enforcement on these deportations.

There’s a divide, though, on whether cooperation should happen across the board or if it should happen only sometimes. About two-thirds of Republicans say local police should always cooperate, a view that only about one-quarter of Democrats share. But relatively few Democrats say local police should never cooperate and most, about two-thirds, say cooperation should happen in some cases.

And a wave of arrests could quickly spark a backlash, depending on how they happen. U.S. immigration agents have long abided by guidance that deters arresting parents or students at schools and other sensitive places, but some of Trump’s rhetoric has raised questions about whether those policies will persist.

The poll finds that a shift toward arresting people in the country illegally at places like churches and schools would be highly unpopular. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults somewhat or strongly favor arresting children who are in the country illegally while they are at school, and a similar share support arresting people who are in the country illegally while they are at church. Solid majorities, about 6 in 10, oppose these kinds of arrests.

Even Republicans aren’t fully on board — less than half favor arrests of children in schools or people at church.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rioters locked up for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were released while judges began dismissing dozens of pending cases Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that shook the foundation of American democracy.

With the stroke of a pen on his first day back in the White House, Trump’s order upended the largest prosecution in Justice Department history, freeing from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss.

The federal Bureau of Prisons by Tuesday morning had released all of the more than 200 people in its custody for Jan. 6 crimes, officials told The Associated Press.

The pardons and commutations cement Trump’s efforts to downplay the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured as the mob fueled by his lies about the 2020 election stormed the Capitol and halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

Trump’s decision to grant clemency to even rioters who assaulted police — whom his own vice president recently said “obviously” shouldn’t be pardoned — underscores how Trump has returned to power emboldened to take actions once believed politically unthinkable. And it shows how Trump plans to radically overhaul the Justice Department that also brought criminal charges against him in two cases he contends were politically motivated.

“The implications are clear,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian. “Trump will go to great lengths to protect those who act in his name. This is the culmination of his effort to rewrite Jan 6, in this case using his presidential muscle to free those who were part of a violent assault on the Capitol.”

As defendants celebrated their release outside lockups across the country, the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington that spent the last four years charging rioters filed a flurry of motions to dismiss cases that have yet to go to trial. The motions were marked with the name of the man Trump has named to lead, at least temporarily, the capital’s U.S. attorney’s office — Ed Martin, a board member of a group called the Patriot Freedom Project, which portrays the Jan. 6 defendants as victims of political persecution.

Trump defended the pardons Tuesday, saying the defendants had “already served years in prison” in conditions the president described as “disgusting” and “inhumane.”

The former leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department, were both released from prison hours after Trump signed the clemency order. Stewart Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was serving an 18-year prison sentence, and Enrique Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence.

After their release from federal custody, Rhodes and some other Jan. 6 defendants gathered in frigid temperatures outside the District of Columbia jail, where a handful of defendants remained behind bars as of Tuesday afternoon. Some supporters of Capitol rioters danced while songs like “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy played on a loudspeaker.

Outside the jail, Rhodes continued to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and he claimed Capitol riot defendants couldn’t get a fair trial in Washington. Rhodes said he had “full faith” all along that Trump was going to offer clemency to the Jan. 6 defendants.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Kevin Loftus, traveled to the jail in Washington after his release from another lockup. Loftus was sentenced in December to six months behind bars for violating the terms of his probation after trying to fly overseas to join the Russian military and fight against Ukraine. He said he was going to have the pardon from Trump framed.

“I’m just a working man, dude. People like us don’t get presidential pardons,” Loftus said.

John Pierce, an attorney who has represented several Jan. 6 defendants, said he was “pleasantly surprised” that Trump’s pardons went as far as they did, considering Vance’s recent comments that suggested only nonviolent offenders would receive relief. Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, also indicated that she did not believe violent rioters should be pardoned, telling lawmakers at her confirmation hearing that she condemned violence against police.

“He did not have to do this. He had a lot of opposition within his own party,” Pierce said. “I do think it showed a lot of courage by President Trump to pardon everybody, so we are obviously grateful for that.” Pierce said clemency for all the defendants was justified because, he contends, they couldn’t get a fair jury in the nation’s heavily Democratic capital.

The federal courthouse in Washington, which has been jammed with Jan. 6 cases over the last four years, was quiet Tuesday as proceedings were abruptly canceled. Hallways that would have been teeming with prospective jurors were empty. Judges who would have been hearing cases were not on the bench.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly made a brief appearance in her sixth-floor courtroom to formally dismiss a Jan. 6 case against a father and son from Minnesota whose trial started last week. The court had notified jurors that they didn’t need to return this week.

“The parties are excused,” the judge said, without commenting on Trump’s clemency order.

The son, 22-year-old Caleb Fuller, hugged his attorney and then his mother, Amanda, who wore a sequined jacket with an American flag on the front and the words “Proud American” emblazoned on the back.

Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. Many of the attacks were captured on surveillance or body camera footage that showed rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police as officers desperately fought to beat back the angry crowd.

One man was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to smash a widow with a metal tomahawk and hurling makeshift weapons at police officers guarding the building. Another man received 20 years behind bars for swinging poles at officers defending a tunnel, striking an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacking police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture.

A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through the broken window of a barricaded Capitol doorway. Authorities cleared the officer of any wrongdoing after an investigation. Three other people in the crowd died of medical emergencies.

At least four officers who were at the Capitol later died by suicide. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

___

Associated Press journalists Chris Megerian and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A major winter storm that slammed Texas and blanketed the northern Gulf Coast with record-breaking snow moved east overnight, spreading heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and eastern Carolinas.

The weather warning areas included big cities like Jacksonville, Florida, which is expected to see snow, sleet and accumulating ice into Wednesday. The Jacksonville International Airport closed because of the weather Tuesday evening and said it planned to reopen at noon Wednesday. Schools canceled classes, and government offices were closed Wednesday.

“We are expecting some winter weather we’re not used to in Northeast Florida,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook. ”The safest place you can be Tuesday night and Wednesday is at home!”

In eastern North Carolina, drifting snow was expected with near-blizzard conditions in the state’s Outer Banks, where up to 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) were predicted to fall.

Dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills were also expected to last over much of the week in the region. Authorities say three people have died in the cold weather.

The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
Record-setting snow days

It had been more than a decade since snow last fell on New Orleans. Tuesday’s rare snowfall set a record in the city, where 10 inches (25 centimeters) fell in some places, far surpassing its record of 2.7 inches (6.8 centimeters) set Dec. 31, 1963, the National Weather Service said.

“Wow, what a snow day!,” the weather agency said in a social media post. “It’s safe to say this was a historic snowfall for much of the area.”

Snow closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

Snow fell in Houston and prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida.

“Believe it or not, in the state of Florida we’re mobilizing snowplows,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

People made the most of it — from a snowball fight on a Gulf Shores beach to sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, to pool-tubing down a Houston hill.

In New Orleans, urban skiing was attempted along Bourbon Street, a priest and nuns engaged in a snowball fight outside a suburban church, snowboarders shredded behind a golf cart, and people went sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.

High school teacher David Delio and his two daughters glided down the levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board.

“This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” Delio said. “We’ve had tons of hurricane days but never a snow day.”

The nuns at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School near New Orleans encouraged their students last week to pray for the snow day they received Tuesday, the Rev. Tim Hedrick said. The priest said he invited the nuns to make snow angels, and they challenged him to a snowball fight that has since received tens of thousands of views on social media.

“It’s a fun way to show that priests and sisters are humans, too, and they can have fun,” Hedrick said.

Mobile, Alabama, hit 5.4 inches (13.7 centimeters) Tuesday, topping the city’s one-day snowfall record of 5 inches (12.7 centimeters), set Jan. 24, 1881, and nearing its all-time snowfall record of 6 inches (15.5 centimeters) in 1895, the weather service said.
Flight cancellations, states of emergency and fatalities

More than 2,300 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. Both Houston airports suspended flight operations, and nearly every flight was canceled at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport. Most airlines planned to resume operations Wednesday.

The NWS said up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow fell in the Houston area. Texas transportation officials said more than 20 snowplows were in use across nearly 12,000 lane miles in the Houston area, which lacks its own city or county plows.

Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida — the Sunshine State — declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday. School closures were planned in some coastal communities in North and South Carolina.

In the Texas capital, two people died in the cold weather, according to a statement from the city of Austin. No details were provided, but the city said emergency crews had responded to more than a dozen “cold exposure” calls.

Officials said one person has died from hypothermia in Georgia.

A state of emergency was also declared in at least a dozen New York counties with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) of lake-effect snow and extreme cold expected around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday.
Santa Ana winds expected to return to Southern California

In Southern California, where blazes have killed at least 27 people and burned thousands of homes, dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds remained a concern.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website.

The site — currently https://www.whitehouse.gov/es/ — now gives users an “Error 404” message. It also included a “Go Home” button that directed viewers to a page featuring a video montage of Trump in his first term and on the campaign trail. The button was later updated to read “Go To Home Page”.

Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion at the abrupt change and frustration at what some called the administration’s lack of efforts to maintain communication with the Latino community, which helped propel him to the presidency.

The Spanish profile of the White House’ X, @LaCasaBlanca and the government page on reproductive freedom also were disbanded. Meanwhile, the Spanish versions of other government agencies such as the Department of Labor, Justice and Agriculture remained available for users on Tuesday.

Asked about the changes, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields responded Tuesday that the administration is “committed to bringing back online the Spanish translation section of the website.”

“It’s day two. We are in the process of developing, editing and tweaking the White House website. As part of this ongoing work, some of the archived content on the website went dormant. We are committed to reloading that content in a short timeline,” he said without elaborating.

Trump removed the Spanish version of the page in 2017. At that time, White House officials said they would reinstate it. President Joe Biden reinstated the page in 2021.

The page’s removal coincided with Trump’s first-day wave of executive orders highlighted by the launch of an illegal immigration crackdown that was one of his key campaign pledges. Trump on Monday declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and announced plans to send U.S. troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.

According to 2023 Census Bureau estimates, about 43.4 million Americans — 13.7% of the U.S. population age 5 and older — speak Spanish at home. The U.S. has no official language.

Monica Rivera, a brand and communications strategist in New York City of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, said the shutdown sends a clear signal.

“There are 43 million Latinos who speak Spanish as their first language and removing access to information directly from the White House draws a distinct line as to who they are serving and more dangerously, signals to the administration’s MAGA base that we as Latinos are ‘other’ and a less significant part of this country,” Rivera said.

Anthony Hernandez, a paralegal in the nation’s capital, wasn’t initially aware of the move and said it suggests what the coming years of a second Trump presidency would look like, with specific issues making headlines while “minor but equally malicious things like that go unnoticed.”

“A move like shutting down the Spanish White House page and X profile serves no purpose other than to cut off resources for millions of Hispanic Americans and immigrants attempting to enter the United States legally,” Hernandez said. “And it’s a slap in the face to the millions of Hispanic voters that supported him in this recent election.”

Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is Cuban American and speaks Spanish. At his swearing-in Tuesday, he gave remarks in Spanish, thanking God, his family and Trump.

Meanwhile, Hispanic leaders and communication strategy experts expressed surprise with the page’s removal, given Trump’s popularity with certain Latino voters.

“If the White House is seriously interested in engaging with Latinos, the second largest group in this country, then they need to make sure that updates can also be distributed in Spanish, a preferred language for millions in our community,” said Frankie Miranda President and CEO of the Hispanic Federation.

He called that a way to ensure “everyone is a part of the civic process.”

Kris Klein Hernández, a U.S. historian specializing in race, gender, and sexuality at Connecticut College, said the content removal from official White House websites not only limits the access available to Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens and migrants but leads “some to question which constituencies the administration prioritizes.”

Jeff Lee, former deputy cabinet secretary and deputy director of external and international affairs for former California Gov. Jerry Brown, said the move seems counterintuitive given the opportunity to “showcase” policy changes, especially ones related to economics and border security.

“I didn’t see any other language mediums that got the kibosh. So I think that’s a really interesting thing to single out — if that’s the case,” Lee said.

AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters, found Trump won a larger share of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, and most notably among men under age 45. Young Latinos, particularly young Latino men, also were more open to Trump than in 2020. Roughly half of young Latino men voted for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, compared with about 6 in 10 who went for Biden.