Today is
Thursday November 21, 2024
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was detained by police at an airport near Washington, D.C. earlier this month.
McCaul said he became “disoriented” at Dulles International Airport after he took medication and drank alcohol before his scheduled flight back home to Texas.
“Two weekends ago, I made a mistake—one for which I take full responsibility. I missed a flight to Texas and found myself disoriented in the airport. This was the result of a poor decision I made to mix an Ambien—which I took in order to sleep on the upcoming flight—with some alcohol,” McCaul said in a statement.
“Law enforcement officers briefly detained me while I waited for a family member to pick me up. I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the officers who intercepted me that evening. This incident does not reflect who I am and who I strive to be. As a human, I am not perfect. But I am determined to learn from this mistake and, God-willing, make myself a better person.”
McCaul was reelected this month to an 11th term in his district that runs from Austin to the Houston suburbs.
A message left with Dulles International Airport was not immediately returned later Wednesday.
TYLER — Our news partner KETK is reporting that a former Tyler ISD employee was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to having improper relationships with students.
According to an affidavit, on April 15, three Tyler ISD students were discussing about J’Braylon Dewayne Fears, a paraprofessional at the campus, how he was “always surrounding himself around a bunch of little girls while on duty.”
“They were discussing how inappropriate it looked because of how close the girls were to him and how comfortable he looked while they were so close. The teachers were also discussing how students were skipping classes in [a teacher’s] classroom with Fears inside,” the affidavit said.
While the teachers were talking, a student approached them and told them of Fears, who she claimed was seeing a student at another Tyler ISD campus, was flirting with students at the middle school and asking inappropriate questions. Read the rest of this entry »
UPSHUR COUNTY – A February undercover investigation led to five East Texans sentenced to prison for methamphetamine distribution. On Tuesday, the last person awaiting sentencing received a combined prison term of 40 years according to our news partner KETK.
A search warrant was executed at Bob O’ Link Road where 39-year-old Cameron Scott Spears, 51-year-old Jimmy Wayne Skinner, 41-year-old Amanda Lynn Gage, 33-year-old Hailey Renee Shaddix and 45-year-old Benjamin Heath Evans were arrested.
The Upshur County Sheriff’s Office identified Spears as the main target of the investigation and he pled guilty on Tuesday to two charges of delivery of a controlled substance and one charge of possession of a controlled substance. The DA’s office said authorities performed an undercover operation because Spears had been selling and distributing “large quantities” of meth for a “long” period of time and they needed to penetrate the operation. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW — On Wednesday, a Louisiana man was sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering an East Texas deputy in 2019. According to our news partner KETK, Gregory Newson was found guilty of shooting and killing William Chris Dickerson, a Panola County deputy during a traffic stop on New Year’s Eve in 2019. Newson was accused of fleeing the scene that led to a high-speed chase ending in a crash.
Prosecutors in the case were seeking the death penalty, asking the jury to look at the evidence when making their decision.
“Your verdict is not going to bring Chris Dickerson back,” Wes May, a state lawyer said. “It’s not going to fill the hole left in the shield that these men and women who testified in this case and who Chris himself represented, but it will be one step toward taking justice.”
UPDATE: According to our news partner KETK, police continue to search for a Tyler 17-year-old who was last seen Nov. 1. The Tyler Police Department shared on Tuesday photos of what Lily Peppler was wearing on the day she went missing. Anyone with information on Peppler’s whereabouts is urged to contact the department at 903-531-1000.
TYLER — The Tyler Police Department is seeking the public’s help in finding a missing teen.
The police department said Lily Peppler, 17 from Tyler, was last seen on Nov. 1 at 8 a.m. leaving Legacy High School and walking in front of Mardel at Independence and S. Broadway. However, police said family have not heard from her since then, yet no evidence of foul play is suspected at this time.
UPDATE: The two people found dead at a Tyler residence Sunday night have been identified as Rolanda Garcia-Vasquez, 38 of Tyler, and Fidel Meza-Marmolejo, 43 of Dallas, officials said.
The Tyler Police Department said Garcia-Vasquez lived at the residence.
ORIGINAL STORY: TYLER – A woman and a man were found dead at a Mockingbird Lane home on Sunday and the Tyler Police Department said they’re investigating it as a homicide-suicide. According to our news partner KETK, shortly after 7 p.m. officers were dispatched to a shooting at the 1400 block of Mockingbird Ln. When police arrived, they found a woman dead who looked like had been shot.
Officials said a man who appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound was also found dead.
The identities of the individuals are being withheld until family can be notified and it is an active investigation, Tyler PD said.
PALESTINE – The City of Palestine said they’re planning a temporary water outage for a part of West Reagan Street this Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK, the outage is being done for utilities work and will impact West Reagan Street from South Durrance Street to South Fulton Street on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience,†the City of Palestine said.
To learn more, visit the City of Palestine online.
MIAMI (AP) — From Pennsylvania to Florida to Texas, areas with high numbers of Hispanics often had little in common on Election Day other than backing Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris for president.
Trump, the president-elect, made inroads in heavily Puerto Rican areas of eastern Pennsylvania where the vice president spent the last full day of her campaign. Trump turned South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, a decadeslong Democratic stronghold populated both by newer immigrants and Tejanos who trace their roots in the state for several generations.
He also improved his standing with Hispanic voters along Florida’s Interstate 4 corridor linking the Tampa Bay area — home to people of Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Colombian and Puerto Rican origin — with Orlando, where Puerto Ricans make up about 43% of the local Hispanic population. Trump was the first Republican since 1988 to win Miami-Dade County, home to a sizable Cuban population and the country’s metropolitan area with the highest share of immigrants.
It was a realignment that, if it sticks, could change American politics.
Texas and Florida are already reliably Republican, but more Hispanics turning away from Democrats in future presidential races could further dent the party’s “blue wall†of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, that had helped catapult it to the White House before Trump romped through all three this time. The shift might even make it harder for Democrats to win in the West, in states such as Arizona and Nevada.
Harris tried to highlight the ways Trump may have insulted or threatened Latinos.
Trump, in his first term, curtailed the use of Temporary Protected Status, which Democratic President Joe Biden extended to thousands of Venezuelans, and tried to terminate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He also delayed the release of relief aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 until nearly the end of his term, having long blasted the island’s officials as corrupt and inept.
Once he returns to the White House, Trump has pledge to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. That could affect millions of families in mixed-status homes, where people who are in the United States illegally live with American citizens or those with legal residency.
But the Democratic warnings did not appear to break through with enough voters for Harris. Now the party must figure out how to win back votes from a critical, fast-growing group.
“Trump, he’s a very confounding figure,†said Abel Prado, a Democratic operative and pollster who serves as executive director of the advocacy group Cambio Texas. “We have no idea how to organize against him. We have no idea how to respond. We have no idea how to not take the bait.â€
Ultimately, concerns about immigration did not resonate as much as pocketbook issues with many Hispanics.
About 7 in 10 Hispanic voters were “very concerned†about the cost of food and groceries, slightly more than about two-thirds of voters overall, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. Nearly two-thirds of Hispanic voters said that they were “very concerned†about their housing costs, compared with about half of voters overall.
Trump had a clear edge among Hispanic voters who were “very concerned†about the cost of food. Half said he would better handle the economy, compared with about 4 in 10 for Harris. Among Hispanic voters who were very worried about crime in their community, Trump had a similar advantage.
“When they looked at both candidates, they saw who could improve our economy and the quality of life,†said Marcela Diaz-Myers, a Colombian immigrant who headed a Hispanic outreach task force for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. “Did he sometimes offend? Yes. But that happens in political campaigns. Many of the people who voted for President Trump were able to get past this and trust that he will move the country in the right direction.â€
Harris promised to lower grocery prices by cracking down on corporate price gouging and to increase federal funding for first-time homebuyers. Also, recent violent crime rates have declined in many parts of the country.
Shen also spent many of the final days of the campaign trying to capitalize on remarks by a comic who spoke at a Trump rally in New York and joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.†She even leaned on Puerto Rican celebrities — from Bad Bunny to Jennifer Lopez — to decry racism.
But Trump nonetheless gained ground in some of the areas with the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, the state where Harris spent more time campaigning than any other. He won the counties of Berks, Monroe and Luzerne — and lost Lehigh County by fewer than 5,000 votes against Harris. Biden had carried it by nearly three times that margin in 2020.
Trump’s victory was even wider in Florida, where nearly one-quarter of residents are Hispanic. He won the state by 13 percentage points — or about four times his 2020 margin.
Trump also flipped the central Florida counties of Seminole and Osceola, where many Venezuelans have immigrated as their home country becomes increasingly unstable, and narrowed Democrats’ advantage in Orange County, which is also heavily Venezuelan.
Farther south, Trump won Miami-Dade County with an 11-percentage point advantage after losing it by 7 percentage points to Biden and by 30 percentage points to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Kevin Marino Cabrera, a Miami-Dade County commissioner who was state director for Trump’s 2020 campaign, said Hispanics rejected the “woke ideology.” Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his campaign.
“To be clear, Hispanic voters are not buying what Democrats are selling,†Cabrera said.
The same was true in South Texas, where Hispanics are largely of Mexican descent.
Prado, the Democratic operative and pollster, lives in Hidalgo County, which is 92% Hispanic and the most populous part of the Rio Grande Valley. Trump carried it after losing by more than 40 percentage points in 2016. Trump swept all the major counties along the Texas-Mexico border.
Prado said Democratic county commissioners and state legislators helped secure funding for new bridges across the Texas-Mexico border and for other initiatives that have sparked commerce and economic and job growth in the area. Yet, he said, “the Republican Party has done a really good job of inserting themselves as an answer to nonexistent problems and then taking credit for (things) that they didn’t do.â€
Prado said many Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley, particularly devoutly religious ones, were alienated by national Democrats’ focus on reproductive and transgender rights, with the latter becoming a key political weapon for Republicans.
“This nonsense about you’re going to send your son to school and he’s gonna come back a girl,†he said. “Our side scoffed because we said, ‘No one’s going to believe that.’ But, no, it struck a chord.â€
Others were simply looking to cast a defiant vote, Prado said, or were inspired by the idea of self-made people embracing the American dream, even though Trump got his start in business with a large loan from his father.
Daniel Alegre, CEO of TelevisaUnivision, which owns the Spanish-language television Univision, along with other television and radio properties, said Trump’s gain among Hispanics was less about party than issues and that Hispanics were most concerned about the economy and immigration.
Alegre, whose network hosted town halls in October with both Trump and Harris, also noted that there’s a growing feeling among Hispanic citizens that new immigrants were getting more government services than were available when immigrants who have been here longer arrived in the United States — and that the Trump campaign tapped into resentment around that issue.
“The most important thing either party can do is keep their ears to the ground and stay connected to the community,†he said, and in this case, the Trump campaign clearly accomplished that.
___
Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Linley Sanders in Washington and David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.
UPDATE: Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace identified James Robert Belcher as the worker who was found dead at a cell tower in Trinity on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Wallace said that Belcher’s next of kin has been notified.
TRINITY COUNTY — A man was found dead after he apparently fell off a cell tower he was working on near State Highway 94, Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said.
According to Wallace, the sheriff’s office got a call at around 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday from Mastec Network Solutions. The company asked them to do a welfare check at a cellphone tower located at 7587 State Highway 94 after worker assigned to that tower didn’t return home on Monday. When deputies arrived, they found the man dead after he seemingly fell off a platform raised about eight feet in the air, Wallace said.
The sheriff’s office is currently investigating the worker’s death.
CANTON – The Elmo Fire Department confirmed that one person was injured in a crash involving three 18-wheelers on Interstate 20 west of Canton on Saturday. According to our news partner KETK, the driver of one of the 18-wheelers was flown to a hospital in Tyler after being extracted from the truck cab.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The election of Donald Trump returns an ally of school choice to the White House, this time with a Republican-controlled Senate — and potentially House — that could be more supportive of proposals that fizzled during his first term.
Although proposals to expand private schooling suffered high-profile defeats in several states, Trump’s victory has brought new optimism to advocates of supporting school choice at the federal level. One of their main priorities: tax credits for donations to organizations that provide private school scholarships.
Jim Blew, who served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Education Department in the first Trump administration, said he’s hopeful the new Congress will greenlight ideas like tax credits for scholarships.
“The new members are all very clearly supportive of school choice, and I think that’s going to change the dynamics,†said Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute.
Private school choice comprises several ways of using taxpayer money to support education outside of traditional public schools, including vouchers, education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. The idea of giving this option to all families regardless of income — known as universal private school choice — has soared in popularity in recent years and is now enshrined in law in a dozen states. Nearly three dozen states have some form of private school choice.
Yet the concept has faced pushback — and not just from groups like teachers unions that have long advocated for keeping public money in public schools. Some conservatives in states with large rural communities have questioned the programs’ merits, citing the lack of private schools in sparsely populated areas. In those areas, public school districts are often the largest employer.
In Tuesday’s election, voters in Kentucky rejected a measure to enable public funding for private school attendance, and Nebraska voted to partially repeal a law that uses taxpayer money to subsidize private education. A proposed constitutional amendment in Colorado that would’ve established schoolchildren’s “right to school choice†also was defeated.
Concerns about diverting money from public education appeared to gain traction in deep-red Kentucky and Nebraska. Ferial Pearson, the chair of an organization in Nebraska that advocates for public education, said it would continue working to provide public schools “the support and resources they need to thrive.â€
In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that voters sent a clear message that taxpayer money should go to public schools.
“This should end any and all debate. And this should end any attempts to take money away from our public schools to send them to unaccountable private schools,†Beshear said at a news conference. He renewed his pitch for larger pay raises for public school teachers and other school personnel, along with his plan to establish universal pre-K across Kentucky.
To some observers, it was unsurprising that even states that voted for Trump took a stand against school choice.
“Especially in the wake of the pandemic, with all the school closures and learning loss and chronic absenteeism, parents want something different — but they also like their public schools,†said Liz Cohen, the policy director at FutureEd, a nonpartisan research center at Georgetown University. “People want something new, but it doesn’t mean they want to get rid of everything.â€
Cohen, who has studied private school choice expansion across the country, emphasized decisions on a ballot measure “feel a lot more local and specific than who you’re voting for for president.â€
During his campaign, Trump touted school choice as a form of greater parental rights, aimed at countering what conservative critics describe as leftist indoctrination in classrooms and promoting a free-market approach to education.
One of his platform pledges is to “serve as a champion for America’s homeschool families†and “to protect the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children’s education.†He proposes allowing homeschooling families to use 529 college savings plans for spending on their children’s educational expenses, an option he advanced for private-school families during his first term.
In that term, Trump tapped Betsy DeVos — a fervent supporter of school choice — as his education secretary. That administration, however, struggled to get its school choice pitches off the ground. An effort to provide federal tax credits for scholarship donations flopped, as did proposals to slash federal public school programs by billions of dollars.
With a more favorable Congress, those initiatives could have a better shot. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and the frontrunner to chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has supported tax incentives for scholarship donations. And Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will focus the next Congress on “maximizing school choice for parents and holding woke university administrators accountable.â€
Some conservatives argue there would be benefits to leaving the issue to states.
“I … worry that we’re going to return to the political dynamics of Trump’s first term, which were very bad for the charter schools sector in blue states,†said Michael Petrilli, the president of the Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “Because Trump strongly supported school choice, including charter schools, he made those issues radioactive on the left, so reform-oriented Democrats were sidelined or silenced.â€
In other races around the country, preliminary results show victories for school board candidates in Los Angeles and Chicago were concentrated among candidates who promoted traditional public education over alternatives such as charters.
In Texas, various pro-voucher legislators endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott won their races. Abbott had sought to unseat GOP legislators who’d voted against a plan to subsidize private school tuition with public money. The newly elected candidates could give Abbott the votes needed to pass that voucher legislation.
___
Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report from Louisville, Ky. ___
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.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City can’t use an unconstitutional, two-century-old “anti-pauper†law to block the state of Texas from offering migrants free bus rides to the city from the southern border, a state judge has ruled.
The court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mayor Eric Adams in January against charter bus companies contracted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It sought to bar them from knowingly dropping off “needy persons,†citing an 1817 state law that criminalized bringing an indigent person into the state “for the purpose of making him a public charge.â€
Justice Mary Rosado said in a sternly worded decision that the law is unconstitutional for several reasons.
For one, she wrote, states are not permitted to regulate the interstate transportation of people based on their economic status.
The statute also “violates a fundamental right — the right to travel,†she added.
Rosado said requiring bus operators to screen passengers based on the possibility that they may need public assistance when they get to their destination would infringe on that fundamental right, and punishing the bus companies for failing to keep poor people out of the city would be improper.
The judge concluded by saying that if city officials want to do something, they should turn to Congress rather than ask the court to enforce “an antiquated, unconstitutional statute to infringe on an individual’s right to enter New York based on economic status.â€
Starting in 2022, the state of Texas began offering migrants free bus rides to cities with Democratic mayors. At least 46,000 were sent to New York, 19,000 to Denver, 37,000 to Chicago and over 17,000 to other cities, according to Abbott’s office.
At the time, Adams, a Democrat, said the trips were illegal and amounted to “political ploys from the state of Texas.â€
It would have been difficult for New York City to sue Texas due to a legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity, so it went after the private charter companies instead.
Despite the court loss, the Adams administration said the lawsuit has had its desired effect: Fewer charter buses brought immigrants to the city after it was filed, and none have been identified since June, according to a statement from his office. Adams has not given up on further action, either.
“We are reviewing our legal options to address the costs shifted to New York City as a result of the Texas busing scheme,†mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia said in a statement.
The New York Civil Liberties Union applauded the court’s decision.
“Mayor Adams is not above the law and cannot keep wrongly exploiting the plight of newly arrived immigrants to bolster his own political agenda,†NYCLU senior staff lawyer Beth Haroules said. “Everyone, regardless of their citizenship status or income, has the right to freely travel and reside anywhere within the United States.â€
Abbot said during one visit to New York City that Adams was right to be upset about the surge in migrants but should be blaming President Joe Biden.
Adams ultimately did criticize the federal government, saying it had an obligation to help the city pay for housing and providing services to migrants.
New York has long provided shelter to more homeless people than any other U.S. city, in part because of a 1981 court ruling requiring it to shelter anyone who asks for it. City officials say they have provided shelter and other services to more than 200,000 immigrants in the past two years, only a fraction of whom arrived via Texas-sponsored buses.
As the new arrivals swelled, New York and other cities ended up following Abbott’s lead, offering migrants free bus tickets to other places. New York paid over 4,800 fares for immigrants to travel to Texas, including some who had been bused from there, according to city officials.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new initiative from two Texas state departments aims to crack down on dangerous driving that contributes to serious and fatal crashes.
The Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Public Safety unveiled their safety partnership at a joint press conference on Thursday. The day marked the 24th anniversary of the last time Texas saw a deathless day on state roads: Nov. 7, 2000.
“It’s astonishing to believe that every day for the past 24 years, someone has died on a Texas road,†TxDOT’s Executive Director Marc Williams said. “Every. Single. Day.â€
TxDOT detailed plans to develop traffic safety solutions and inform drivers on safer driving habits, while Texas DPS troopers will distribute tip cards during traffic stops to help promote better-driving behavior. The cards will be passed out over the next two weeks, officials confirmed.
Those messages will target some of the largest contributors to serious and fatal crashes, including unsafe driving speeds, impaired or distracted driving as well as travelers not buckling up.
More than 87,000 people have died in the past 24 years since the last death-free day on Texas roads. Nearly 4,300 people died on state roads last year, and the state is now averaging 10 traffic deaths a day based on current 2024 figures.
Prior to the somber anniversary, TxDOT announced this summer $17 billion allocated to roadway safety improvements as part of the state’s 10-year Unified Transportation Plan.
Story courtesy of KXAN Austin
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (AP) — Jorge Bazán’s family has lived on the U.S.-Mexico border for generations and voted for Democrats as long as he can remember.
He broke the family tradition this year and voted for Donald Trump because he doesn’t trust the Democratic Party’s economic policies.
“I think they forgot about the middle class,†said Bazán, who works for the utility company in Rio Grande City, seat of the most Hispanic county in the nation. “People are suffering right now. Everything’s very expensive.â€
The South Texas region — stretching from San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley — has long been a Democratic stronghold. A slide toward Trump in 2020 rattled Democrats in the predominately Hispanic area, where for decades Republicans seldom bothered to field candidates in local races. However, few Democrats expected the dramatic realignment that happened Tuesday, when Trump flipped several counties along the border including Hidalgo and Cameron, the two most populous counties in the Rio Grande Valley.
In Starr County, where Bazán lives, voters backed a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in a century. The predominantly Hispanic and working-class rural county, with a median household income of $36,000 that’s one of the lowest in the nation, gave Trump a 16 percentage-point victory margin over Vice President Kamala Harris. Roughly 2 million residents live at Texas’ southernmost point, among vast tracts of farmland and many state and federal agents patrolling the border.
Trump’s victories in the Rio Grande Valley starkly showed how working-class voters nationwide are shifting toward Republicans. That includes voters on the Texas border, where many Democrats long argued that Trump’s promised crackdowns on immigration would turn off voters.
“I was always a lifelong Democrat, but I decided to change to Republican with the political landscape that it is now,†said Luis Meza, a 32-year-old Starr County voter. “I felt that going Republican was the better choice, especially with the issues of immigration and everything like that that’s going on.â€
Meza said that he was against Trump at first, but noticed too few changes under President Joe Biden to justify voting for Harris.
Biden won Hidalgo County by less than half the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Since then, Republicans have invested millions of dollars to persuade Hispanic and working-class voters soured by Democratic policies.
A similar scenario played out in the state’s three most competitive races in nearby counties. Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz claimed a decisive victory in the 15th Congressional District. In the two other races, seasoned Democratic incumbents barely held on to their seats.
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar narrowly escaped defeat against a political newcomer in the most competitive race of his two-decade career. Cuellar, whose district includes Rio Grande City, was indicted this year on bribery and other charges for allegedly accepting $600,000 from companies in Mexico and Azerbaijan. His support for abortion restrictions makes him one of the most conservative Democrats in the House.
Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez also narrowly escaped defeat by an opponent he comfortably beat two years ago.
Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Biden four years ago, according to AP VoteCast data. More than half of Hispanic voters supported Harris, but that was down slightly from the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020. Trump’s support among those groups appeared to rise slightly compared to 2020.
In McAllen, Texas, Jose Luis Borrego said that inflation and the promise of tougher border restrictions made him vote for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time.
“I wanted to see change and that’s why I did vote for Trump. I did vote red. I would not call myself a Republican†Borrego, 37, said. He said that he voted for Hillary Clinton and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in prior elections.
Borrego’s whole family voted Trump.
“We just (made) this choice, because we didn’t have another choice that we felt comfortable with,†he said.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he had months of visits to the region during his campaign race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. In a victory speech on Election Day, Cruz said Hispanic voters are leaving the Democratic Party because of immigration.
“They are coming home to conservative values they never left. They understand something the liberal elites never will: There’s nothing progressive about open borders,” Cruz said. “There is nothing Latino about letting criminals roam free.â€
Michael Mireles, the director of civil engagement for labor rights group La Unión del Pueblo Entero, believes that Democrats did not engage Hispanic voters enough about the issues that concern them.
“I think that folks on the Democratic side have been really slow to have those conversations with Latino households and families.†Mireles said in Hidalgo County after Election Day.
“We can’t wait for a big election to have those conversations. By that point, it’s too late.â€
___ 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.
___
This story has been amended to correct the spelling of Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s first name and Jose Luis Borrego’s age.
A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.
The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country.
The temporary relief from deportation brought a brief sense of security to some 500,000 immigrants estimated to benefit from the program before Texas-based U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker put it on hold in August, days after applicants filed their paperwork.
Barker ruled Thursday that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority by implementing the program and had stretched the legal interpretation of relevant immigration law “past its breaking point.â€
The short-lived Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together†would have been unlikely to remain in place after Donald Trump took office in January. But its early termination creates greater uncertainty for immigrant families as many are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump’s election victory this week sets the stage for a swift crackdown on undocumented individuals after the Republican ran on promises of “mass deportation.†The president-elect energized his supporters on the campaign trail with a litany of anti-immigrant statements, including that immigrants were “poisoning the blood†of the nation.
During his first term, Trump appointed Barker as a judge in Tyler, Texas, which lies in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a favored venue for advocates pushing conservative arguments.
Barker had placed the immigration initiative on hold after Texas and 15 other states, led by their Republican attorneys general, filed a legal challenge accusing the executive branch of bypassing Congress to help immigrant families for “blatant political purposes.â€
Republicans argued the initiative created costs for their states and could draw more migrants to the U.S.
The policy would have applied to people who have been living continuously in the U.S. for at least 10 years, do not pose a security threat and have utilized the existing legal authority known as “parole in place†that offers deportation protections.
Those married to a citizen by June 17, the day before the program was announced, could pay a $580 application fee and fill out a lengthy application explaining why they deserve humanitarian parole. If approved, applicants would have three years to seek permanent residency and obtain work authorization.
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether anyone had received approval under the program, which only accepted applications for about a week before the judge placed it on hold.
Noncitizen spouses are already eligible for legal status but often have to apply from their home countries. The process typically includes a years-long wait outside of the U.S., which can separate family members with different immigration statuses.