KTBB News, Weather, Talk

A federal judge has ruled that a Georgetown scholar’s petition challenging the constitutionality of his arrest should be heard in Virginia, denying the Trump administration’s request to move the case to Texas.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said she would hear arguments in mid-May on whether Badar Khan Suri should be returned to Virginia while his deportation case proceeds in Texas, where he’s now detained. His next hearing in the immigration case is in June.

The judge’s late Tuesday memo says that by swiftly moving Khan Suri from Virginia to Louisiana and then Texas within days of his arrest, the government appeared to be trying to thwart his lawyers’ efforts to challenge his detention in the jurisdiction where it happened.

Khan Suri’s lawyers went to court the day after masked, plain-clothed officers arrested him on the evening of March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. Officials said his visa was revoked because of his social media posts and his wife’s connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

By the time Khan Suri’s petition was filed, authorities had already put him on a plane to Louisiana without allowing him to update his family or lawyer, Khan Suri’s attorneys said. A few days later, he was moved again to Texas.

“This atypical movement would make it difficult for any diligent lawyer’s filings to ’catch up’ to their client’s location,” and followed a pattern now evident in multiple efforts to deport students based on their speech, Giles wrote.

The judge noted that Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record who was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations was moved within 48 hours of his arrest in Manhattan through lockups in New York, New Jersey, Texas and, then, Louisiana.

She also cited the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student who was arrested in a Boston suburb, driven New Hampshire and then Vermont, and then flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered ICE to return Ozturk to Vermont.

Each scholar “was arrested on different days and in different regions,” Giles wrote. “What is similar? … the Government attempted to move each outside of their jurisdictions to Louisiana or Texas.”

Unlike the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, the courts in Texas and western Louisiana are dominated by Republican-appointed judges, and any appeals go to the reliably conservative 5th Circuit, where 12 of the 17 full-time appellate judges were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by President Donald Trump.

Khan Suri came from India to the U.S. in 2022 on a J-1 visa. A visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, and lived with his wife, who is a U.S. citizen, and three children.

U.S. attorneys argued that Khan Suri was quickly moved because a facility in Farmville, Virginia, was overcrowded and a nearby detention center in Caroline County had “no available beds and only had limited emergency bedspace.”

But the judge observed that for weeks thereafter, Khan Suri had to sleep on a plastic cot on the floor of an overcrowded detention center in Texas, and that according to his attorneys, he now sleeps on a bed in an overcrowded dormitory with about 50 other people. The government’s representations, she wrote, “are plainly inconsistent and are further undermined by the fact that Prairieland Detention Center, where Petitioner (Khan Suri) is currently held, is overcrowded.”

A bill that would make college less affordable for undocumented students, including those who have called the state their home for most of their lives, is advancing in the Texas Senate.

The Senate’s K-16 committee voted 9-2 on Tuesday to bring Senate Bill 1798 to the chamber’s floor for a full vote. It would eliminate undocumented students’ eligibility for in-state tuition and require those previously deemed eligible to pay the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton, who authored the bill, said taxpayers are subsidizing higher education for people in the country illegally, which he estimated cost $150 million in the 2024-2025 academic year.

“These are funds that could have been used for lawful residents, perhaps even to lower tuition and fees,” Middleton said during an April 22 Senate education hearing when the bill was discussed.

The House is contemplating similar legislation. House Bill 232 by state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, would require students 18 or older to provide proof that they had applied to become a permanent U.S. resident to be eligible for in-state tuition.

Both bills would also make the students liable for covering the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition should their school determine they had been misclassified or if their application for permanent residency in the U.S. is denied.

The Senate’s measure would go further by allowing universities to withhold a student’s diploma if they don’t pay the difference within 30 days of being notified and if the diploma has not already been granted.

The Senate bill also bars universities and colleges from using any state money on financial aid to help undocumented students, requires them to report students whom they believe have misrepresented their immigration status to the Attorney General’s Office, and ties their state funding to compliance with the law.

Groups that advocate for more restrictions on immigration have expressed support for the Senate’s bill.

“This dismantles one of the many incentive structures that help drive illegal immigration into our state. Certainly not the biggest incentive structure, but one of a plethora,” said Texans for Strong Borders president Chris Russo, who has connections to a white supremacist movement.

Many undocumented students spoke for hours in opposition to both the Senate and the House bills during testimony before lawmakers in recent weeks. They said investing in them has paid dividends for Texas.

Emiliano Valencia, who was brought to the U.S. when he was 2 years old, said paying in-state tuition and working as a bank teller made it possible for him to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance, start a restaurant and later a construction company in the state.

“Altogether, I’ve created over a hundred jobs,” he said. “I’m not an American by paper, but I am in my heart and in my work ethic.”

Out-of-state tuition is typically three times more expensive than in-state tuition.

In 2001, Texas became the first state to extend in-state tuition and grant eligibility to undocumented students. Twenty-three states now offer it, too, although Florida recently repealed its law.

As it stands, Texas law allows undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they have lived in the state for three years before graduating from high school and for a year before enrolling in college. They must also sign an affidavit stating they will apply for legal resident status as soon as they can.

These so-called “affidavit students” accounted for only 1.5% of all students enrolled at Texas universities in 2023, said Luis Figueroa, chief of legislative affairs at the liberal think tank Every Texan.

Each new graduating class of “affidavit students” generates $461.3 million to the Texas economy per year, according to the American Immigration Council.

While efforts to eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students have failed in the Texas Legislature in the past, these bills are concerning because they come at a time when the federal administration has made immigrants public enemy No. 1, said Faye Kolly with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Kolly submitted written testimony opposing the House’s version of the bill. While it doesn’t explicitly eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students like the Senate’s version does, both bills would have that effect.

“Just because it gives a glimmer of hope doesn’t mean a vast majority of students are going to be able to meet that criteria,” she said.

Kolly said she included in her written testimony her assessment of a recent executive order from President Donald Trump.

Trump ordered “the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and appropriate agency heads,” to “identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of state and local laws, regulations, policies and practices favoring aliens of any groups of American citizens.” Trump said this included state laws that provide in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Kolly thinks the 2001 Texas Dream Act does not conflict with federal law because it is tied to students’ residency, not their legal immigration status.

“Everyone in Texas qualifies under the same pathway for in-state tuition, and so there isn’t any discrimination against U.S. citizens, and oddly this bill, if it passes, because it does single out people based on their immigration status, might violate federal law,” she said.

___

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

AUSTIN (AP) — Six people in a rural Texas county, including two City Council members and a school board trustee, have been indicted in a widening elections investigation led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, bringing felony charges to a case that Latino rights activists have criticized as politically driven.

The top executive in Frio County, home to about 18,000 residents, a county elections worker and a local resident were also among those indicted on May 1, Paxton said Wednesday. The charges expand an investigation that included raids last year on the homes of Latino campaign volunteers near San Antonio, including an 87-year-old woman, although none of them have been indicted.

Most of the six are charged with what is known in Texas as vote harvesting, a felony that often involves payment for collecting and dropping off other people’s absentee ballots. Several of the officials indicted in Frio County are accused of using Cash App to pay for vote harvesting services.

“The people of Texas deserve fair and honest elections, not backroom deals and political insiders rigging the system. Elected officials who think they can cheat to stay in power will be held accountable,” Paxton said in a statement.

The League of United Latin American Citizens last year called for a federal investigation into Texas authorities after its members’ homes were raided. No charges have been filed against any targets of those searches, according to spokesperson David Cruz, and the organization said it had not made decisions on whether to represent those who were indicted.

Gabriel Rosales, the Texas director for LULAC, called the charges unsubstantiated.

“This is voter suppression 101,” he said. “There’s no vote harvesting going on. There’s nobody creating these ballots. That’s a lie.”

The vote harvesting charges are third-degree felonies and carry up to 10 years in prison. Those accused are Frio County Judge Rochelle Camacho, the county’s top official; Pearsall City Council members Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza; Pearsall ISD Trustee Adriann Ramirez; and Frio County resident Rosa Rodriguez.

Another official, former Frio County Elections Administrator Carlos Segura, is charged with tampering with evidence.

“The only word I have right now is that it’s ridiculous,” Segura said. He added that his lawyer advised him not to speak further.

Camacho, Trevino, Garza and Ramirez did not immediately respond to phone calls or an email requesting comment. A number could not be found for Rodriguez.

The indictments were the latest development in an investigation that Paxton started after the 2020 election to root out voter fraud, which is rare and typically occurs in isolated instances. Texas has tightened its voter laws in recent years and increased penalties that Democrats and opponents say are attempts to suppress turnout among Black and Latino voters.

Investigators with the Texas Attorney General’s Office were first told of allegations of vote harvesting by Mary Moore, who was Camacho’s opponent in the March 2022 Democratic primary for county judge, according to search warrant affidavits.

Moore accused Camacho of hiring a woman who had been collecting mail ballots for candidates in Frio County for nearly three decades. Moore alleged that the woman charged candidates anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 to collect mail ballots, applications for ballot by mail and to even drive people to vote curbside, according to the affidavit.

Investigators allege that the vote harvesting scheme targeted elderly people at a Pearsall subdivision. Camacho and Ramirez, who were identified in court documents as sisters, allegedly took part in an effort in October 2022 to gather mail-in ballots from residents there, according to the affidavit.

Investigators allege the woman who was Camacho’s main vote harvester hid ballots underneath her shirt and used different vehicles “to throw off investigators.”

Segura would provide the woman with information on when ballots were mailed and delivered, investigators allege.

A federal appeals court last year upheld the state’s law that tightened voter restrictions and increased penalties for vote harvesting.

___

Lozano contributed from Houston. Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Houston Mayor John Whitmire on Tuesday kept his promise to balance the city’s finances, unveiling a $7 billion budget with no tax increase or new fees for city residents. The city was facing a budget deficit of more than $330 million during Whitmire’s time in office. Whitmire credited department consolidations for eliminating part of the deficit. The city also saved money in a legal agreement that requires the city to invest millions more in streets and drainage — but not all at once. The budget proposal does not factor in potential state money as lawmakers convene in Austin for their legislative session. One contentious bill would give Houston millions more from the Harris County Toll Road Authority.

While the city used METRO dollars to help offset costs incurred as a result of a drainage lawsuit that led to the legal agreement, the city is not using any more METRO dollars to bolster the budget, nor did it get any additional revenue from Harris County, Whitmire’s staff said. “This day is one of the reasons I ran for mayor,” Whitmire said. Whitmire’s 2026 budget is $7 billion, which is 2.3% more than last year’s budget. While the city plans to operate with more money this coming fiscal year, around $74.5 million was cut from the city’s nearly $3 billion general fund, which is bolstered by property and sales taxes. The general fund cuts came from consolidations and Whitmire’s voluntary retirement plan, which was open to all retirement-eligible employees except for police and fire. Whitmire’s team estimated the city would save around $30 million from retirements alone.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that amid President Donald Trump’s chaotic trade war, this much is certain: Business is being put on hold. The question, business leaders say as they scrap profit forecasts for the rest of the year, is how deep a hole they’re sliding into. From San Antonio’s Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. and Rush Enterprises Inc. to Tesla Inc. and Southwest Airlines, executives say there are just too many uncertainties to give investors much guidance. Though the next two or three months promise more of the same, most are hesitant to say what they anticipate beyond that.

“The runway is really short,” Rush Enterprises CEO Rusty Rush said during a recent call with investors. “There’s a lot of haze, a lot of fog … And that’s not just for me, that’s for our customers. I mean, we’re driven by what customers see, what they do, what affects them.” Right now, he said, customers aren’t buying new heavy trucks — the New Braunfels-based commercial vehicle dealer’s bread and butter. Companies aren’t growing or replacing their fleets, Rush said, just replacing vehicles as they break down. That’s happening less often as drivers are putting fewer miles on their rigs as business slows. As imports continue to drop, truckers also have less merchandise and other freight to pick up from ports to drop off at stores, distributors and manufacturers. The uncertainty is being seen this week on Wall Street, too. After breaking a nine-day winning streak Monday, its longest such run in more than 20 years, the S&P 500 fell another 0.8% Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.9%.

AUSTIN – Fentanyl test strips are among the cheapest and easiest ways to prevent overdoses, but multiple attempts to legalize them — even with Gov. Greg Abbott’s support in the past — have failed in the Senate. This year, legislation to legalize these test strips faces similar challenges.

“I think that there’s a different stream of thought that feels like if you give an inch, you give a mile, and that any sort of lessening of prohibition stance is sort of giving up and giving over to drug use,” said Katharine Neill Harris, a drug policy fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

House Bill 1644, by state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, would remove testing strips for fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary sedative also known as “tranq,” from the list of banned drug paraphernalia. This bill passed unanimously in the House last month and is now pending in the Senate.

Fentanyl, a potent drug commonly mixed with other substances and has caused the deaths of more than 7,000 Texans in the last six years, is odorless and tasteless, making detection nearly impossible without specialized equipment.

This is why Oliverson called fentanyl testing strips a “mine detector” for a person trying to walk across a minefield.

The cost of fentanyl test strips can range from $10 to $30 for a box of 30. To use the strips, testers dissolve a small amount of a drug in water and then dip the strip into it. One line indicates fentanyl is present, and two lines indicate a negative result.

This is the second legislative session in a row that Oliverson has tried to get his bill passed. Both times, his legislation didn’t get a committee hearing in the Senate. With less than four weeks left in the legislative session, his bill this session hasn’t yet been considered in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Oliverson, in his speech from the House floor, suggested that Senate lawmakers fear that legalizing the strips would mean that people would start “using drugs to their heart’s content safely.”

“I want every person in Texas who is struggling with addiction to get the help they need. But I can’t fix that if they are dead,” Oliverson told lawmakers last month when his bill passed.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, did not return a request for comment nor did the criminal justice committee chair, Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton. Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, credited by drug policy advocates last legislative session for blocking fentanyl testing strips from a hearing, didn’t comment on whether she supports legalization.

“The structural nature of the Senate, where the lieutenant governor has the power to decide whether a bill gets a hearing or not, can be quite a big hurdle,” Harris said.

Travis County Judge Andy Brown said the delay in legalizing fentanyl testing strips is only costing lives with each passing year.

“Our fight against the number one cause of accidental death in Travis County is hampered by the fact that we haven’t legalized fentanyl test strips in Texas,” Brown said.

Early last year, a rash of over 70 overdoses rocked Travis County in a span of three days, killing more than nine people. However, more deaths could have occurred if the county and the state hadn’t made efforts to get overdose reversal drugs like Narcan and naloxone to the general public last legislative session.

To combat the growing number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Texas, state lawmakers in 2023 launched a $10 million fentanyl awareness campaign and plan to distribute doses of Narcan to every county in the state.

“I also get the sense that publicity campaigns that we have done and that the state has done have helped get the education out there, too,” Brown said.

Brown said Travis County, despite the harrowing encounter last year, saw a decline in fentanyl related deaths, dropping by 36%, from 279 in 2023 to 179 in 2024.

During this same period, deaths from fentanyl overdose statewide dropped 14%, to 5,070 in 2024.

“We don’t know yet if this is a long-term decline. Certainly, it’s an encouraging development that we hope to see continue,” Harris said, pointing out that 87,000 deaths are still a lot.

A dip doesn’t mean a complete decline as the drug market is unpredictable. This is why drug policy advocates and others are clamoring for the legalization of drug testing strips, which are cheaper to stock than Narcan and can keep someone from using fentanyl in the first place.

In December 2022, Abbott announced his support for fentanyl testing strips as he believed the opioid crisis had gone too far. Attempts to contact Abbott to see if he still supports testing strips were not returned. Abbott did not respond to a request for comment on whether he still supports legalization.

“I think we would reduce the number of deaths that we’re seeing in the state of Texas if we just made test strips legal,” Brown said.

Maggie Luna, executive director of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, an Austin-based nonprofit that does outreach and operates a drop-in center for people who might need Narcan, condoms, bandages, and more, has seen firsthand the demand for fentanyl testing strips.

Their organization can’t legally buy testing strips but accepts tests donated to them from other states.

“People are always asking for fentanyl testing strips and xylazine test strips,” Luna said.

The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance has been on the front-lines of this fight against drug-related deaths, reversing more than 300 overdoses in 2024 alone with Narcan, Luna said.

If fentanyl use continues, Luna is concerned about it worsening because of federal funding cuts to substance abuse programs, Texas lawmakers’ attempt to ban intoxicating substances like hemp and kratom, and the economic downturn, which notoriously leads to spikes in drug usage.

“We are going to start seeing people seeking drugs at the same time we are clawing back the money that we have for tools to keep people alive,” Luna said. “We are heading to a period of death.”

Luna said legalizing test strips allows organizations like hers, which face an uncertain future, a cheap option to save lives.

“Every overdose can be reversed if we are applying the right education and giving out the correct tools,” Luna said.

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

NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City are investigating whether the department violated policy by sharing a report with federal immigration authorities that included a record of a Palestinian woman’s sealed arrest. The report was generated by the NYPD in response to a federal request for information about Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman living in New Jersey. While federal authorities said they were investigating Kordia for criminal money laundering, the record is now being used as evidence in civil deportation case. The city’s police commissioner said an internal investigation into the information-sharing was underway. Kordia remains in a Texas immigration jail.

ODESSA — Texas will need a lot more energy in the future.

Driven largely by demand from businesses such as data centers and the oil and gas industry, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, predicts the state’s energy needs will nearly double in six years.

State Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, worries ERCOT is not working with a full picture.

He told a legislative panel as much in February.

“We do not have accurate load forecasting. No one knows if the forecast is real,” he said. Large companies, he added, are requiring ERCOT to plan “for load growth at dramatically higher levels than experienced ever in the history of Texas, and frankly, ever in the history of the United States.”

And “without credible data, we run the risk of overbuilding, with high costs being passed on to consumers, or underbuilding, further exacerbating scarcity,” he said.

He believes his legislation, Senate Bill 6, will put restraints on the state’s open-energy market, and help the grid plan for the future to save rate payers money and avoid another catastrophe when extreme weather strikes again.

The bill, which has already won Senate approval and is expected to start its journey in the Texas House Wednesday with a committee hearing, would place more requirements on businesses meant to help ERCOT better forecast the electricity needs. Businesses would also have to pay more in advance of operating.

While business groups have said they agree the grid needs more security, they believe King’s bill is too heavy-handed. They said some of his proposals won’t help ERCOT’s planning and put their operations at risk.

They want changes to the bill, such as removing language that would grant ERCOT the ability to disconnect power to major energy users during an emergency, and new rules on arrangements between power generators and companies.

Michael Jewell, an attorney who has represented large industrial companies on energy issues and policy, said King’s legislation will need to strike a balance between addressing the growth without scaring companies away.

“This legislation is important to finding that balance, that we can bring these large loads into the ERCOT region, grow the Texas economy, and support the development of this technology,” he said. “But we also want to be sure that we, as Texans, will continue to have reliable electricity.”

King’s bill only applies to industrial-sized facilities, or those needing more than 75 Megawatts.

Under the bill, businesses wanting to plug into the grid must disclose whether they have similar requests elsewhere in Texas or out of state. Companies must tell ERCOT if their backup generators can meet at least 50% of their power. During an emergency, ERCOT could instruct facilities to use that power, instead of the grid. Another provision allows ERCOT to shut off a facility’s power in an emergency. ERCOT must give the facilities a day’s notice.

Facilities sometimes negotiate directly with power generators, like gas-fired plants, to satisfy their electricity needs without connecting to the grid. The bill gives the Public Utility Commission, which regulates electricity and some water and wastewater, authority over such arrangements, allowing it to approve or reject them, in addition to 180 days of review.

Companies would also have to pay an electric, municipal utility or a cooperative at least $100,000 to study the transmission work necessary to transport electricity to their facilities. Companies must also demonstrate that they can afford to contribute to the construction of transmission lines and purchase any equipment or services.

The bill also directs the utility commission to determine how to better allocate transmission costs, including looking at peak demand, the point at which supply meets demand.

King acknowledged the strain on the state’s power grid means more businesses are moving to Texas, something he supports.

“I want to make it very clear that while this load growth is a strain on the ERCOT grid, it is also an excellent opportunity for the state of Texas,” King said in February. “So long as we manage it properly (and) not create reliability risks or pricing issues for everyday Texans.”

Groups consisting of the facilities King is targeting said parts of his proposals won’t benefit ERCOT’s efforts to make the grid reliable or lower prices.

Dan Diorio, a government affairs expert for the Data Center Coalition, a national group, said it is supportive of the goals the bill is trying to reach. But in its current form, the group said it has lingering concerns as the bill moves through the House, including a provision requiring companies to disclose information that he said is unnecessary for the grid, such as out-of-state requests for electricity. He said ERCOT can separate serious requests within Texas.

“This is a highly competitive industry,” he said. “So not only do we have competitive concerns about that, because this is proprietary information, but how is that going to inform the forecast correctly?”

He said diesel makes up most backup power generation, and is a fuel overseen by the federal government and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Forcing companies to run emergency generators could lead to air emissions violations and air pollution, Diorio said.

Diorio added that the information data centers collect and maintain — including from local and state authorities — could be put at risk when the system shuts down. Proposing to shut off power, even with a notice, could risk public safety, adding that the bill does not offer enough specificity regarding how the shut-off would be implemented.

Walt Baum, president of Powering Texans, a group representing natural gas power generators, said the bill imposes administrative requirements on agreements between power companies and facilities.

In this case, the company would pay the power generator directly for the needed electricity. Baum said a company could otherwise go directly to the grid, drawing out the same amount of electricity it would have gotten from the generator directly. The amount of energy used would not change.

“And the impact on the grid is the same,” he said.

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