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Sunday November 24, 2024
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FORT WORTH (AP) — American Airlines is suspending flights to Israel through late March, extending a break in service that started in the early days of the war in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the airline said Wednesday that customers with tickets for flights to Tel Aviv can rebook at no extra charge or cancel their trip and get a refund.
The airline said flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv will be suspended through March 29. The airline updated a travel advisory on its website over the weekend.
“We will continue to work closely with our partner airlines to assist customers traveling between Israel and European cities with service to the U.S.,†the spokesperson said.
Delta Air Lines extended its suspension of Tel Aviv flights through Sept. 30 from Aug. 31. United Airlines has suspended service indefinitely.
All three airlines stopped flying to Israel shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war. Many other international airlines did the same, although some later resumed them.
Germany’s Lufthansa announced Monday that based on a “current security analysis†it would halt all flights to Tel Aviv, Amman, Beirut, Teheran and Erbil in Iraq through Monday.
About 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, died in the Oct. 7 attack, which was followed by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. About 40,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry there. U.S. attempts to broker a cease-fire agreement have been unsuccessful.
HOUSTON (AP) — A breakdown in communication, a lack of training, inconsistent protocols and an ineffective records management system were some of the reasons that led to Houston police dropping more than 268,000 cases over nearly the past decade, a committee said Wednesday.
The cases, whose existence was made public earlier this year, were never submitted for investigation as officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of available personnel. Among these cases were more than 4,000 sexual assault cases and at least two homicides.
“It’s a new day in Houston dealing with public safety,†Mayor John Whitmire said after members of the independent committee, which he formed in March, detailed their findings to Houston City Council at its weekly meeting.
Christina Nowak, one of the committee’s five members, told city council that the group found “significant issues†within Houston police’s case management and operations, including understaffing and inadequate communications between divisions and executive leadership. There was also a lack of adequate training for supervisors at all levels.
The committee found the Houston police department’s various investigative divisions were “operating in near total autonomy, leading to inconsistent and outdated case management practices,†Nowak said. The department’s current records management system is outdated, with information on investigations scattered across multiple systems, making it difficult to analyze and share. A new, improved system is set to be operational next year.
The committee said the police department also does not adequately use technology to help officers with their investigations and has a shortage of civilian staff who could help officers in their casework.
The committee recommended Houston police standardize its case management procedures, implement its new records management system, increase training for officers and department leadership and increase and retain its civilian staff.
“The committee wants to acknowledge that (Houston police) has recognized the severity of these issues, and is taking proactive steps to prevent further recurrence,†Nowak said.
Ellen Cohen, the committee’s chairperson, said the recommendations are focused on enhancing the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the police department’s case management practices.
“We realize that these recommendations require significant, significant investments in resources, technology and infrastructure,†Cohen said.
Whitmire said it was still shocking to him that Houston police had used this policy of dropping cases for lack of personnel for nearly 10 years. “We’re going to improve (Houston police) based on the recommendations,†he said.
The controversy and criticism involving the dropped cases resulted in the sudden retirement in May of then-police chief Troy Finner. A new police chief, J. Noe Diaz, was appointed earlier this month.
Finner had first made public the existence of the dropped cases in February. An investigation revealed a code first implemented in 2016 to identify why a case was dropped later became a way for officers to justify decisions to stop investigating all manner of crimes, including when violence was involved.
Finner previously told the Houston Chronicle that he regrets failing to grasp the extent of the dropped cases earlier. He said the department and its leaders — himself included — were so busy, and the use of the code was so normal, that the severity of the issue didn’t register with anyone in leadership.
Whitmire said Houston police were still working through the backlog of dropped cases.
“I am currently reviewing the committee’s detailed report and am carefully considering its recommendations. We believe this report will help us become better servants to the community and improve our department for generations to come,†Diaz said in a statement.
SMITH COUNTY — A Mesquite man who was a part of an organized criminal ring accused of stealing 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. According to our news partner KETK, Ramon Perez-Torres was convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity on Tuesday. The criminal group is accused of using fraudulent credit card information and using pulser tampering devices on motor fuel dispensers.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said in a release, “A pulser is part of the motor fuel metering system that counts fuel flow and determines the amount of fuel flow per penny. The criminal tampering device slows down the pulser, allowing suspects to pump hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel for pennies on the dollar.â€
The group is accused of stealing more than 10,000 gallons of fuel from gas stations in nine different counties across Texas. Authorities suspect a large number of people to be a part of the group and eight have been indicted.
TYLER – On Wednesday, Tyler Animal Services was alerted by the Texas Department of State Health Services that one bat submitted for analysis tested positive for rabies. The bat was found near the 2200 block of Bateman Avenue and Troup Highway. The known individuals and animals with possible exposure have been identified and addressed.
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Tyler Animal Services Director Shawn Markmann reminds people not to handle bats, skunks, raccoons or other wild animals. It is important for children to tell their parents of any contact with wild animals or any sick animals. If a person is bitten by an animal, it must be reported to the Local Rabies Control Authority to be investigated
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Tyler Animal Services advises all pet owners to confirm their dogs and cats are currently vaccinated for rabies. Preventative immunization for rabies is the only effective defense against the fatal disease.
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Anyone with questions on rabies control may contact Tyler Animal Services at (903) 535-0045.
WHITE OAK – The White Oak Independent School District board unanimously named one person for the superintendent position on Friday. According to our news partner KETK, Jackson Parker, former White Oak High School principal and assistant superintendent, was named superintendent.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be named the lone finalist, and I will work each and every day to make it a place where all students thrive,†Parker said. “My job will be made much easier by the incredible staff at all campuses. The best is yet to come. Go Roughnecks!â€
After a 21-day waiting period passes, per state law, Parker can be offered a contract. He is scheduled to sign the contract for the superintendent position on Sept. 5. Mr. Parker has been in education for a total of 33 years.
White Oak ISD students returned to class on Wednesday for the new school year.
GLADEWATER – The City of Gladewater issued a boil water notice on Tuesday evening after a water main break affected a large area. According to our news partner KETK, city officials said, “We are issuing a boil water notice for the entirety of Gladewater.â€
The release stated, that while repairs have been made to the water main and water pressure was restored after it decreased to below 20 psi. Samples will be taken and tested on Wednesday, after which the city said they’ll be able to lift the notice.
Until then, residents are urged to bring water to a vigorous rolling boil for two minutes to destroy harmful bacteria and other microbes. Water should be boiled before drinking, cooking, washing hands or face and brushing teeth.
The City of Gladewater said they will update residents on their Facebook page when the boil water notice is lifted.
SMITH COUNTY – Firefighters responded to a trash truck that caught on fire early Tuesday morning. According to our news partner KETK, a call came in to Smith County Emergency Services District 2 around 10 a.m. Nikki Simmons, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Smith County ESD2, reported a trash truck caught fire in Overton on County Road 244. Fire officials stated that, the driver of the trash truck was able to get out and there were no injuries reported.
Simmons added, “Firefighters from Engine 141 and Engine 132 quickly arrived on scene to contain the fire and keep it from spreading to the woods. Smith County Fire Marshal’s office will handle the investigation. â€
HENDERSON COUNTY – With hot and dry conditions continuing throughout our region. Some counties in East Texas have enacted burn bans. Our news partner KETK has a list of those counties under a burn ban. You can find the list here.
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ARP – A boil water notice has been issued for the City of Arp. According to our news partner KETK, city officials say the notice was posted following a water line break. Residents are asked to bring water to a vigorous rolling boil for two minutes to destroy harmful bacteria and other microbes. Water should be boiled before drinking, cooking, washing hands or face and brushing teeth. However, those affected may use bottled water instead. The City of Arp said they will issue another notice when the boil water notice is rescinded. Those having questions cane call Arp Public Works Director Donnell Brown at 903-859-6131 or 903-360-5038.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – For years, Carmen Cavazos’ neighborhood in southeast Houston has voted reliably for Democrats up and down the ballot. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 68% of the vote in Cavazos’ voting precinct, a mostly residential enclave of about 3,000 people near Hobby Airport.
But something is changing in the precinct, where about nine out of 10 residents are Hispanic. President Joe Biden carried it by 20 points in his 2020 race against Donald Trump — a solid showing for Democrats, but half of Clinton’s 40-point advantage from just four years earlier against the same Republican.
Cavazos, a 44-year-old flight attendant and Republican precinct chair, said she expects the trend to continue in November. She has been trying to accelerate the political shift, helping organize regular meetings of the Saturday Menudo Club, a group that meets monthly at local Mexican restaurants to hear from conservative candidates and other speakers.
“The messaging and voter engagement in our community is critically important,†Cavazos said. “When presented with data, facts, and statistics, the false narrative of identity politics and ideology propaganda encouraged by Democrats crumbles.â€
Republicans have logged historic gains in South Texas the last couple of elections, making political battlegrounds out of border communities that voted solidly Democratic for years. That sea change has largely overshadowed the more subtle rightward shift of Latino voters in cities and suburbs away from the border.
The threat of eroding Latino support in urban areas could spell even bigger trouble for Democrats’ abiding hopes of turning Texas blue, because far more Latino voters live in these areas than in South Texas. While Democrats may not lose precincts like Cavazos’ anytime soon, they will continue to be locked out of statewide elections if Republicans are able to continue peeling off nearly 40% of the vote there.
Latino voters have long been a steady Democratic voting bloc in Texas. In 2016, exit polls measured Clinton winning Latino voters by a 27-point margin statewide — virtually unchanged from Barack Obama’s 28-point edge in 2008.
But in 2020, Biden won the statewide Latino vote by only 17 points, as about four in 10 Latinos pulled the lever for Trump. Across Texas, including in Houston, San Antonio and other big cities, the Democratic margin fell an average of 17 percentage points from 2016 in precincts that were at least 80% Latino, according to The New York Times.
And heading into November, polls in Texas and elsewhere have shown Democrats atop the ticket still underperforming with Latino voters, with Biden even trailing Trump among Latinos in Texas before he dropped out of the race.
“Latinos are still a growing Democratic majority,†said Houston Democratic strategist Jaime Mercado. “Latinos are voting Democratic holistically, across the county and across the state. But we should be very aware of these precincts where we’re starting to see something go in the other direction. That should concern us, and we should engage in it.â€
Republicans bullish
Texas Republicans are bullish about continuing their momentum with Latino voters this fall, betting a message focused on inflation and the economy, immigration, and crime — issues they are talking about with voters across the board — will resonate with Latinos.
In his reelection bid, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, is pouring $4.4 million into an ad campaign targeting Latino voters, a majority of which is going toward Spanish-language advertising. Cruz’s first spot aimed at Latinos — titled “El Valiente Senador,†or “The Brave Senator†in English — portrays him as a fighter battling high taxes and working to keep Texas “free and safe.â€
“We see a massive opportunity to win a bigger share of the Hispanic vote,†said Cruz campaign spokesperson Macarena Martinez. “It has long been said that Hispanics are Republicans, they just don’t know it yet.â€
This election is the first since the U.S. Census Bureau reported Hispanic Texans now outnumber the state’s non-Hispanic white residents. Hispanics make up nearly one-third of Texas’ eligible voting population, more than all but two other states, according to the Pew Research Center. A quarter of Latinos in Texas will be voting in their first presidential election this fall, according to the nonprofit UnidosUS.
“That means that there’s no traditional legacy of them wanting to vote Democrat or Republican,†said Jorge Martinez, the Texas strategic director for the LIBRE Initiative, a conservative Latino voter outreach group. “They are going to be voters that any side can reach out to to earn that vote.â€
Robert Cardenas, outreach director for the Harris County Republican Party, said he has found a receptive audience among Hispanic voters at party-sponsored town hall events focused on crime and in settings like a recent gun show in Pasadena, where the party operated a booth where attendees could register to vote.
Most of all, Cardenas said, concerns about the inflated cost of basic goods are driving Latinos, and working-class voters of all races and ethnicities, toward the Republican Party. The issue has dogged Biden for much of his term, though Democrats are optimistic that the problem has finally begun to ease.
“Whether that’s going out, or being able to pay their bills, that is what is affecting them,†Cardenas said. “It’s the economy, and that’s why I think we’re seeing a big shift.â€
In a statewide poll by Univision earlier this year, about two-thirds of undecided Latino voters put inflation, the cost of living and jobs among their top issues, more than all other topics.
Mercado said he worries that overall Democratic messaging has suffered in recent years from the influence of party elites who have spent too much time online and not enough time door-knocking. They have helped craft a message overly focused on identity politics and less on talking about jobs and opportunity, he said.
“Some of the elements of, frankly, the MAGA message, some of it has endeared itself to blue-collar, hard-working, non-college educated people,†Mercado said. “And guess who fits those demographics really well? Latino populations.â€
For all the GOP gains among Latinos in urban areas, though, some Republicans think their party can do better. In urban counties across Texas, most predominantly Latino areas still lean solidly Democratic. And many of the voting precincts in these areas lack GOP precinct chairs — an issue that rankles Orlando Sanchez, founder of Texas Latino Conservatives.
Sanchez, whose group works to get Latinos more involved in politics, said that if he had to grade Texas Republicans’ recent Latino outreach efforts in urban counties, “I’d say it went from a D to a C-minus.â€
“In major urban areas, we’re doing a very poor job of delivering a conservative message,†said Sanchez, a former Houston City Council member and mayoral candidate. “(Republicans) are good at criticizing communities that want to defund the police … but they’re not very good at delivering a positive message of economic opportunity to Hispanics.â€
Sanchez believes Republicans should more aggressively pitch their free-market economic vision to working-class Latinos, and he said they have missed the boat on criticizing specific policies pushed by the Biden administration such as debt relief for student loans.
“Republicans are missing the opportunity to explain to Hispanics that their hard-earned paycheck is now going to pay the debt for some kid in Massachusetts who went and got a liberal arts degree at Boston University,†Sanchez said. “Explain that to the Hispanic family, and I’ll tell you, they’re not going to vote for the Democrats anymore.â€
The Univision poll found that 60% of Hispanic voters in Texas “support the Biden Administration’s efforts to forgive student loans,†compared to 21% who voiced opposition.
“The Latino voteâ€
In 2020, some of the most astonishing political shifts anywhere in the country came along the border in Starr County, which Trump lost by 5 points after losing it by 60 points four years earlier. Neighboring Zapata County flipped red after going to Clinton by 33 points in 2016.
But while a flood of national media attention captured the changing voter sentiments there, the two predominantly Latino counties tallied only about 21,000 combined votes in 2020; in Harris County, by contrast, more than 337,000 Spanish-surname voters turned out, according to estimates from Hector de Léon, a Harris County elections official who tracks Houston-area voting patterns.
Public polling has revealed key differences between the values and attitudes of Latino voters in urban counties compared to those in South Texas — a reminder of the wide array of backgrounds, nationalities, and religious and cultural beliefs within what is often lumped together as “the Latino vote.â€
An April statewide poll by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found that Hispanic voters in major urban areas were much less likely to support GOP Gov. Greg Abbott ’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border than those in the suburbs and South Texas. The poll measured a similar regional split over the multibillion-dollar cost of Abbott’s border crackdown: 70% of Hispanic voters in border counties and South Texas supported the use of billions in state tax dollars for border security, compared to 48% in large urban counties.
Latinos in major cities are also more likely to support abortion rights than those in South Texas, the poll found. The regional disparities suggest that each party’s generic messaging on those issues will be received much differently by Latino voters depending on where they live, said Mark Jones, the Hispanic Policy Foundation’s chief information and analytics officer.
“A lot of the national Democratic policies that criticize Gov. Abbott, and sort of criticize the Republican approach to the border, are going to go over very poorly in South Texas and the (Rio Grande Valley) and, most importantly, in the two congressional races that are actually in play this cycle,†said Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, referring to the battleground races for Texas’ 15th and 34th Congressional Districts.
But there are also parallels between the regions.
Daniel Vasquez, a 35-year-old San Juan resident, regularly makes the three-hour commute to his job as a safety coordinator at a Port Lavaca refinery. He said he started paying attention to politics during Obama’s 2008 campaign and voted for him twice, along with Clinton in 2016. But he found himself aligning more with the Republican Party midway through Trump’s term, driven by a humming economy and the GOP’s petrochemical-friendly policies.
Energy politics may also be driving some of the Latino shift around Houston. Dozens of predominantly Latino precincts in east Harris County, where many residents work in petrochemical jobs around the Ship Channel, drifted to the right between 2016 and 2020.
Vasquez’s views were only solidified, he said, by some of the Biden administration’s policies aimed at combating climate change, such as an attempted pause on natural gas export permits. Vasquez said he believes environmental concerns are important, but that Biden should be striking a better balance.
“The economy, to me, it was thriving,†Vasquez said. “My paycheck had more purchasing power. And I mean, there was work all across the state. The oil and gas sector was booming.â€
MIAMI (AP) — As registration opened Monday for an estimated 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens to gain legal status without having to first leave the country, Karen and Xavier Chavarria had nothing to celebrate.
Like many others, Karen left the United States voluntarily — in her case, for Nicaragua — as the price of living in the country illegally, planning to accumulate enough time away to be able reenter and reunite with her husband, Xavier, on a path to citizenship.
Joe Biden’s offer of a path to citizenship without having to first leave the country for up to 10 years is one of the biggest presidential orders to ease entry for immigrants since 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed temporary but renewable stays for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as young children with their parents.
To be eligible, spouses must have lived in the United States continuously for 10 years as of June 17, 2024, and been married by then. The Biden administration estimates 500,000 spouses could benefit, plus 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens.
“Without this process, hundreds of thousands of noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens are likely to instead remain in the United States without lawful status, causing these families to live in fear and with uncertainty about their futures,†the Homeland Security Department said Monday in a document that details the policy. Forcing spouses to leave the country “is disruptive to the family’s economic and emotional wellbeing.”
Spouses who fall outside the prescribed dates and other eligibility criteria face an agonizing choice: leave the country voluntarily for years for the right to reenter or remain in the United States without legal status.
Karen Chavarria returned to Nicaragua in 2017 and reported to a U.S. consulate for an interview as part of her petition to reunite with her husband in the United States. She crossed the border from Mexico in 2002 and applied for legal status after marrying Xavier, 57, who works a building maintenance job in New York and lives in Garfield, New Jersey. They have two children, both U.S. citizens.
Xavier travels at least twice a year to see Karen, 41, and their 12-year-old son, who live in Jinotega, north of Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua. Xavier said he can’t live in Nicaragua because he can’t find work there, lacks treatment options for diabetes and fears for his safety because his family has been in the political opposition there for years. Their 20-year-old daughter lives in the U.S.
Karen has missed big moments, including her daughter’s high school graduation and birthdays. The Biden administration’s offer to spouses who chose to remain in the U.S. filled her with despair.
“It is something that we have been fighting for and after so much struggle, to get here without giving ourselves any hope,†she said while crying in a video interview from Nicaragua.
It is unclear how many spouses left the U.S. voluntarily. But Eric Lee, an immigration attorney with offices in Michigan and California, said it is a “massive†number. Immigrants and advocacy groups have urged the White House to include them in the new policy.
“The only reason why so many are being punished is because they tried to step out of the shadow, they tried to follow the law,†Lee said.
Homeland Security did not respond to questions about whether people who left the country voluntarily will qualify, saying only that they “may be eligible for continued processing abroad.â€
Groups favoring restrictions on immigration consider the policy overly generous. The Federation for American Immigration Reform said Monday that it is a disservice to those waiting to legally immigrate and that Biden is “clearly in a hurry†to enroll people before he leaves office, making it harder for a court to overturn their benefits once they are granted.
The department said Monday that 64% of potential beneficiaries are from Mexico and 20% are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They become eligible to remain in the United States for three years under presidential authority known as parole for a $580 fee, which includes ability to apply for work authorization, a green card and, eventually, citizenship.
People deemed national security or public safety threats and those convicted of what are considered serious crimes, including felonies for driving under the influence, are disqualified, as are those found to belong to a gang.
Juan Enrique Sauceda 47, is biding time in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. He was deported in 2019 while married to a U.S. citizen and applied to reenter. His wife and two children live in Houston.
“I want to return to the United States because I grew up there, I have my wife, my children, everything,†Saucedo said. “I don’t fit in here.â€
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — On May 17, with just one week to go until the end of the school year, the superintendent of the South Texas Mission school district received an email with a list of 676 books a group of local pastors believed were “filthy and evil.â€
The email came from the personal assistant of Pastor Luis Cabrera, who leads a church in Harlingen, about 30 miles east of the Mission school district.
The email was clear. Cabrera and “the community†wanted them removed.
The email cited state law, House Bill 900, that requires vendors to rate their books and materials for appropriateness, based on the presence of sex depictions or references, before selling them to school libraries.
Despite that law being blocked by a federal appeals court, then-superintendent of the Mission school district, Carol G. Perez, replied within five minutes that the district would check to see if they had the books to remove them.
Later that evening, Deputy Superintendent Sharon A. Roberts asked the district’s director for instructional technology and library services, Marissa I. Saenz, to look into removing them.
“Can you prioritize researching these books to ensure we remove them from the school libraries? Can your IT coaches help you track the location of the books to expedite this request?†Roberts wrote in an email.
The emails, which The Texas Tribune obtained through an open records request, offer a window into how close the 14,500-student district was to removing a trove of books over the summer break. It also illustrates the continued pressure — public and private — school leaders in every corner of the state face over access to books that discuss race, religion and LGBTQ+ themes.
School district and community libraries have been inundated with requests since 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s death. The public backlash started in the suburbs of Dallas. But communities large and small have wrestled with these questions.
Prior to the May 17 email, Cabrera had made similar requests to other school districts in the Rio Grande Valley. He spoke during public comment at several school board meetings last spring. Cabrera was following, in part, the lead of an organization called Citizens Defending Freedom.
Established in 2021, the nonprofit empowers “citizens to defend their freedom and liberty, and place local government back into the hands of the people.†Until recently, most of its work had been in North Texas counties.
Now at the dawn of a new school year, a coalition of Rio Grande Valley faith leaders are denouncing the effort to remove books from South Texas school libraries.
The McAllen Faith Leaders Network, a group of religious leaders in the upper Rio Grande Valley, wrote a letter to local school districts after hearing about the Mission school district’s “knee jerk response†to the Christian conservative group’s request.
The local faith leaders’ open letter had specifically taken issue with the inclusion of “Anne Frank’s Diary†on the book list. A spokesperson for Citizens Defending Freedom, Dan Thomas, clarified that that title referred to the graphic novel, an adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank.â€
This month, seven members of the McAllen Faith Leaders Network signed the letter, which called for a separation between religious organizations and public entities.
“We don’t believe that a religious organization should exert decision making power over our public schools or any public body,†the religious leaders said.
Rabbi Nathan Farb of Temple Emanuel in McAllen said in an interview with The Texas Tribune that this coalition does not have a political agenda and members of the group often disagree politically and on other topics.
“We thought it was important as faith leaders to speak up and let our educators know that this individual was not speaking on behalf of all faiths, not speaking on behalf of all Christians, was not representing the religious voice of the entire Valley.â€
Rev. Joe Tognetti of St. Mark United Methodist Church in McAllen said limits on what is accessible to schoolchildren can be appropriate. However, the process to determine which books are appropriate should be determined among parents, students and teachers — not a national conservative nonprofit.
Ultimately, the Mission school district did not remove any books, the district told the Tribune late last week.
A few days after the district received the request to remove the books, Saenz, the library director, replied she would review the list against the district’s collection to ensure any books that did meet the standards set in state law were weeded out.
However, Saenz noted that Cabrera appeared to misunderstand the extent of state law and pointed out that some of the books on the list might not be sexually explicit.
For books that do not meet the criteria in state law, Saenz said board policy states only parents, students 18 years or older, an employee or a resident of the school district can challenge the appropriateness of books.
The school district assured that no books had been reconsidered, restricted, or removed at this time.
“Mission CISD understands the concerns that have been raised regarding this situation,†a district spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain committed to meeting the educational needs of our students within the district.â€
Mission was not the only school district to receive requests to remove books last spring. At a May 7 meeting, Cabrera threatened to sue the Brownsville school district if it did not remove certain books.
The district, which serves about 38,000 students, removed five books from its shelves, according to a May 24 email from the district’s chief operations officer to the superintendent.
Cabrera had just begun his partnership with Citizens Defending Freedom when he began contacting Rio Grande Valley school districts, according to Thomas, the spokesman for the citizens group. The group did not supply the list of books and Thomas said the manner in which Cabrera had approached the school districts was not their usual process.
Cabrera did not respond to a request for comment.
Thomas said they typically take action when people within school districts reach out to them with their concerns.
Thomas also argued that they were not exerting decision-making power on school districts, as the local faith leaders had accused, by trying to remove “vulgar†books.
“Our position is simple,†Thomas said. “We would like school libraries to contain books that have educational value. We do not think it’s appropriate to have vulgar books with no educational value in public school libraries.â€
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