Texas
Asian Americans are one of Texas’ fastest-growing demographics. But they feel ignored by politicians.
![Asian Americans are one of Texas’ fastest-growing demographics. But they feel ignored by politicians.](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/CXOTr_9S1gFdwHAKFgqDkRODRMI=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/03c9a3e94778c3ae69938d779e806fac/Asian%20Voters%20MYL%2018%20-%20retoned.jpg)
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Xin Huang is sad in regards to the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, and there are few issues that would deter the Chinese language American software program engineer who lives in Flower Mound from voting this fall.
“The stakes are simply too excessive proper now,” he mentioned. “I might crawl via damaged glass to vote.”
Having began to tune in to politics throughout Barack Obama’s first presidential marketing campaign, Huang has continued to be engaged since then, together with canvassing for Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 run for U.S. Senate. However all through this course of, he’s observed how underrepresented Asian Individuals are in nationwide and native workplaces — and the way each the Democratic and Republican events have largely uncared for them.
“Particular Asian outreach, I’ve seen little to none on both facet,” he mentioned. “I actually hope we get extra of a voice in American politics.”
Huang shouldn’t be alone in feeling this fashion.
In keeping with a latest report by Asian Texans for Justice, a nonpartisan group specializing in Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders within the state, round 80% of AAPI Texans surveyed say their pursuits “should not effectively represented in authorities.” In the meantime, a July survey from a trio of nationwide organizations, which focuses on Asian American voters throughout the nation, discovered that “lower than half of them have been contacted by both of the key events” up to now 12 months. And these tendencies have continued this election cycle, amid the speedy rise of the AAPI inhabitants and their voter turnout.
“We’re coming near Election Day, and there’s a complete inhabitants you’re lacking out on,” mentioned Lily Trieu, interim government director of Asian Texans for Justice.
That’s to not say all political candidates are fully ignoring AAPI voters. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott delivered the keynote tackle at a luncheon hosted by the Asian American Alliance of San Antonio. On Saturday, O’Rourke, who’s working to unseat Abbott, is slated to talk at a rally in Houston’s Asiatown with a number of AAPI candidates.
And whereas Trieu feels inspired that the 2 most high-profile candidates are placing in effort to interact the group earlier than early voting begins on Oct. 24, she mentioned extra is required from everybody.
Gov. Greg Abbott delivers the keynote tackle on the Asian American Alliance of San Antonio luncheon on Thursday. Many Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders in Texas say politicians largely ignore them — throughout election season in addition to throughout legislative periods.
Credit score:
Chris Stokes for The Texas Tribune
“A lot extra nonetheless must be performed to interact with voters daily and to handle AAPI points as soon as they’ve been elected to workplace,” she mentioned. “We’d like to see extra significant voter engagement and listening to the wants of the group by all candidates.”
As Texas lawmakers debated payments narrowing voting entry and limiting entry to abortion final 12 months, some legislators pointed to disproportionate results the legal guidelines would have on folks of shade. However she recalled listening to little dialogue concerning their impression particularly on AAPI Texans, regardless of that group constituting nearly 20% of the state’s inhabitants development up to now decade.
In 2021, Texas lawmakers additionally redrew the state’s political maps and cut up up a number of closely Asian communities, particularly in Fort Bend and Harris counties, successfully diminishing AAPI voters’ political energy. Whereas Texas Republicans have insisted that the redistricting course of was “race blind,” many AAPI voters testified in opposition to the plans and a few subsequently responded by becoming a member of the authorized battle in opposition to the brand new maps.
“It was extraordinarily disheartening,” Trieu mentioned. “People had been feeling blatantly ignored within the redistricting course of.”
The federal trial for the case has been delayed and won’t have an effect on the upcoming elections. However Trieu believes these challenges, together with the Cease Asian Hate motion which grew amid rising racist assaults in opposition to Asian Individuals, will encourage the group — particularly youthful voters — to prove this fall.
“I actually suppose it’s going to be a group effort led by the younger,” she mentioned.
A rising, motivated inhabitants
AAPI voters and organizations who spoke to The Texas Tribune famous a number of causes this hole in political consideration might need persevered. However they added that governments and political candidates ought to heed the demographic tendencies and start participating with what’s a fast-growing a part of the citizens.
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Trieu attributed candidates’ lack of outreach and illustration to the longstanding concept that AAPI voters are apathetic. However she identified that nearly two-thirds of AAPI Texans are “extremely motivated” to vote this 12 months, based mostly on her group’s report. And whereas that is nonetheless a decrease charge than the final Texan inhabitants’s motivation degree, the state has additionally been seeing main development in Asian votes lately, together with a 71% leap — or a acquire of 101,000 ballots forged — between 2016 and 2020.
Alternatively, Huang famous that AAPI Texans — regardless of their development — nonetheless make up solely a small a part of the state inhabitants. In keeping with nonprofit AAPI Knowledge, such voters command just below 5% of the citizens in Texas this 12 months.
“From a cost-benefit evaluation, that may be the explanation why politicians don’t appear to essentially need to spend a disproportionate quantity of sources making an attempt to succeed in a comparatively small variety of voters,” he mentioned.
However with the GOP attracting an growing variety of Hispanic voters lately, the AAPI group might supply new avenues for the Democratic Get together, mentioned Nabila Mansoor, government director of progressive group Rise AAPI and president of Asian American Democrats of Texas.
“There’s a lot development occurring in Texas which you can’t outrun it,” Mansoor mentioned.
Lily Trieu, interim government director of Asian Texans for Justice, at her workplace on Tuesday. The group produced a report researching Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, discovering that nearly two-thirds of AAPI Texans are “extremely motivated” to vote this 12 months.
Credit score:
Might-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune
Nonetheless, the AAPI group shouldn’t be a monolith. In keeping with AAPI Knowledge, the highest Asian ethnicities in Texas by inhabitants are Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese language, Filipino, Korean and Pakistani. In the meantime, the group is combined in the case of political affiliations. In keeping with Asian Texans for Justice’s report, simply over 40% of AAPI voters are Democrats whereas round 60% are cut up in half between Republicans and Independents. There are additionally totally different voting patterns inside every ethnic group. As an example, whereas Indian Individuals lean towards Democrats, Vietnamese Individuals have traditionally aligned with Republicans — although there was a rising shift particularly from the youthful era within the latter group.
“It does take some work on the a part of political events to essentially perceive what the AAPI group desires and wishes, however I feel our group deserves that,” Trieu mentioned.
Widespread pursuits
Regardless of this range, nonetheless, Trieu identified that the Asian Texans for Justice report does word a number of key considerations AAPI voters share.
Because the state’s near-total ban on abortion and the Supreme Court docket’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion entry has grown as an vital situation for a lot of voters. Past entry, Chanda Parbhoo, a progressive organizer and founding father of South Asian Individuals for Voter Schooling + Engagement + Empowerment, mentioned the necessity to navigate new guidelines and restrictions has created lots of considerations for medical professionals and college students, lots of whom are South Asian. The confusion about what remedies are nonetheless authorized for pregnant sufferers might additionally spur some to depart Texas or select different careers.
“Physicians had been coming as much as me and saying, ‘Who do I would like to speak to? As a result of I don’t really feel secure being a doctor.’ They’re all feeling very weak and actually unsure,” she mentioned.
Schooling is one other key situation. Parbhoo mentioned mother and father are involved in regards to the impression that the rising politicization of crucial race concept — although it isn’t really being taught in Texas public grade faculties — may have on the standard of their kids’s schooling.
“Individuals are actually afraid of what the loud voices are speaking about and what [they are] turning schooling into,” she mentioned. “Our communities flock to essentially good college districts. They need to stay factual.”
Public security can be a hot-button subject, with gun reform being a giant precedence, in response to the Asian Texans for Justice report. On the similar time, voters who spoke with the Tribune like Filipino American Mark Sampelo additionally highlighted the necessity to guarantee continued sources for AAPI people and companies, in addition to additional schooling for police on the problem of anti-Asian hate. Texas noticed the fourth-highest variety of anti-Asian incidents logged between March 2020 and February 2021, in response to nonprofit group Cease AAPI Hate.
A duplicate of the report researching AAPI voters produced by Asian Texans for Justice. The report discovered that round 80% of AAPI Texans surveyed say their pursuits “should not effectively represented in authorities.”
Credit score:
Might-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune
“Though what we’ve seen within the media is actually powerful to see, it’s a really small proportion of what’s occurring,” he mentioned. “So [we] simply need to make certain transferring ahead that there’s dedication and there’s accountability that our communities will likely be secure.”
And with AAPI Texans being “considerably extra probably” to be immigrants in comparison with the final state inhabitants, immigration is a serious space of curiosity for some voters who spoke with the Tribune. Huang mentioned the H-1B visa program for extremely expert employees was a giant concern for him and his spouse earlier than she not too long ago grew to become an American citizen. And Sampelo, who works with varied Filipino organizations together with Pilipino American Unity for Progress, mentioned it’s vital to assist the tago ng tago inhabitants, a Tagalog time period for undocumented immigrants.
“These people are being taken benefit of in ways in which we could not even acknowledge,” he mentioned, describing a case through which 70 Filipino academics, together with many from Latin America, had been tricked into coming to Garland Unbiased College District via a fraudulent visa program. Victor Leos, former GISD human sources director and a central determine within the scheme, pleaded responsible within the fraud case in 2017.
However in the end, the problems that matter most within the upcoming elections are issues that politicians are already effectively versed on: inflation and financial restoration.
“Every thing goes up, and that may be a fear for everyone,” mentioned Anthony Nguyen, president of the Texas Asian Republican Meeting of Austin.
And with AAPI Texans trending comparatively reasonable on either side, voters and organizers mentioned there may be nonetheless a centrist inhabitants up for grabs if main events really interact them.
“Sadly, lots of our politics are dedicated to polarizing points,” Nguyen mentioned. “You possibly can’t change the minds of the bottom voters. However within the center, you’ll be able to change as a result of they care about surviving day after day, not about extremist points that either side have.”
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Texas
How Texas is still investigating migrant aid groups on the border after a judge's scathing order
![How Texas is still investigating migrant aid groups on the border after a judge's scathing order](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/gmg/YZRKIGRR6BCH5M5NAHT2OLCDPM.jpg?_a=ATAPphC0)
MCALLEN, Texas – Texas is widening investigations into aid organizations along the U.S.-Mexico border over claims that nonprofits are helping migrants illegally enter the country, taking some groups to court and making demands that a judge called harassment after the state tried shuttering an El Paso shelter.
The efforts are led by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office has defended the state’s increasingly aggressive actions on the border, including razor wire barriers and a law that would allow police to arrest migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.
Since February, Paxton has asked for documents from at least four groups in Texas that provide shelter and food to migrants. That includes one of the largest migrant aid organizations in Texas, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which on Wednesday asked a court to stop what the group called a “fishing expedition into a pond where no one has ever seen a fish.”
The scrutiny from the state has not stopped the organizations’ work. But leaders of some groups say the investigations have caused some volunteers to leave and worry it will cast a chilling effect among those working to help migrants in Texas.
Here are some things to know about the investigations and the groups:
What started the investigations?
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott sent Paxton a letter in 2022 urging him to investigate the role nongovernmental organizations play in “planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders.” Two years earlier, Abbott began rolling out his multibillion-dollar border security apparatus known as Operation Lone Star.
Without citing evidence, Abbott’s letter referenced unspecified “recent reports” that some groups may be acting unlawfully. Paxton later accused Annunciation House in El Paso, one of the oldest migrant shelters on the border, of human smuggling and other crimes.
The groups have denied the accusations and no charges have been filed.
Other Republicans and conservative groups have cheered on Texas’ effort.
Which groups are targets?
Many nonprofit organizations on the Texas border are faith-based and have operated for years — and in some cases decades — without state scrutiny.
Several groups have coordinated with Abbott’s busing program that has transported more than 119,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities across the U.S. Some of those partnerships began to erode, however, following reports of poor conditions onboard the buses and frustration among migrant aid groups that migrants were arriving in cities without warning.
In addition to Annunciation House, Paxton has sent letters to Angeles Sin Fronteras in Mission, Texas; Team Brownsville; and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
The Catholic Charities group is part of the Brownsville diocese and offers services to existing residents as well as migrants. It opened a shelter for migrants in 2017 that typically receives more than 1,000 people a week, most of whom stay only a few days.
In court documents, Catholic Charities said it provided over 100 pages of documents to Paxton’s office and a sworn statement from its executive director. But in June, Paxton asked a court to allow the state to depose a member of the organization about intake procedures, communication with local and state law enforcement, and the organization’s “practices for facilitating alien crossings over the Texas-Mexico border.”
Catholic Charities has denied wrongdoing and this week asked a judge to deny Paxton’s request.
What have courts said so far?
This week, a judge in El Paso accused Paxton’s office of overreaching in its pursuit of evidence of criminal activity.
That ruling involved Annunciation House, whose records Paxton began seeking in February. The Catholic shelter in El Paso opened in 1978.
In a scathing ruling, state District Judge Francisco X. Dominguez said Paxton’s attempts to enforce a subpoena for records of migrants violated the shelter’s constitutional rights.
“This is outrageous and intolerable,” the judge wrote.
Paxton’s office has not returned messages seeking comment on the ruling. The state could appeal the decision.
It is not clear when a court might rule in the investigation involving Catholic Charities.
Have Texas’ actions disrupted aid groups?
Each group that received letters from Paxton’s office has continued to offer aid to migrants.
But at Annunciation House, executive director Ruben Garcia said negative comments from Paxton have caused some volunteers to leave over concerns that they could get caught up in the legal process.
Marissa Limon Garza, the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, said the legal actions toward their partners are seen as an attack on values of binational communities that help migrant communities. Garza added it’s had a “chilling” effect.
“If this organization that has over 40 years of commitment to standing in solidarity with the most vulnerable in our region is in the eye of the administration, that makes you wonder if your organization will be next,” Limon Garza said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Texas
Old pipes cause Texas cities to lose tens of billions of gallons of water each year
![Old pipes cause Texas cities to lose tens of billions of gallons of water each year](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/NVdYWGZmj64aly55jjb7c6zD-XY=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/8a8851f5e56a6f3768d059adcebaf520/SAWS%20Water%20Main%20Break%20CS%2012%20TT.jpg)
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Texas’ most populous cities lost roughly 88 billion gallons of water last year because of aging water infrastructure and extreme heat, costing them millions of dollars and straining the state’s water supply, according to self-reported water loss audits.
The documents show that bigger municipalities are not immune to water issues often seen in smaller, less-resourced communities around the state. All but one big city saw increased water loss from last year’s audits.
While cities are losing water because of inaccurate meters or other data issues, the main factors are leaks and main breaks.
Here’s how much each of Texas’ biggest cities lost last year, according to their self-reported audits:
- Houston: 31.8 billion
- San Antonio: 19.5 billion
- Dallas: 17.6 billion
- Austin: 7.1 billion
- Fort Worth: 5.9 billion
- El Paso: 4.8 billion
Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso must submit water loss audits to the Texas Water Development Board yearly. Other water agencies must do audits only every five years, unless the city has over 3,300 connections or receives money from the board.
“What we have right now is not sustainable [or] tenable,” said Jennifer Walker, National Wildlife Federation’s Texas Coast and Water Program director.
The cities of Houston and Dallas saw the biggest increase in lost water reported. Houston saw a 30% jump from last year’s audit, while Dallas saw an increase of 18%.
Houston is the largest populous city in the state, home to roughly 2.3 million Texans; it lost around 31 billion gallons of water last year.
Houston Public Works blames the region’s long drought from June 2022 to December last year for the increase. Droughts cause clay in soil to dry up and shrink, stressing older water lines and making them more likely to break and leak. Officials said this, combined with aging infrastructure, led to a significant increase in water leaks across the city.
“HPW will continue to pursue all funding options available to help replace aging infrastructure,” the Houston spokesperson said.
Aging infrastructure isn’t only a Houston problem. Dallas officials said they only expected a roughly 4% increase in water loss in 2023. They saw a double-digit increase instead.
A Dallas Water Utilities spokesperson said the city is investigating the cause of the increase and “reviewing records to ensure all allowable unbilled/unmetered authorized uses were properly accounted for in the 2023 calculation.”
On the other side of North Texas, Fort Worth saw an increase from 5.6 billion gallons lost in 2022 to 5.9 billion gallons in 2023, losing Cowtown more than $8 million.
Walker, from the National Wildlife Federation, said numbers are also rising because cities are getting more accurate in reporting water loss.
Fort Worth has a “MyH2O program” that replaced all manual read meters with remote read meters and implemented a Real Water Loss Management Plan in 2020 to focus the city efforts related to leak surveys, leak detection and the creation of district metering areas.
“It is actually a testament to how we are using available data to make better decisions and improve reporting with a higher level of confidence,” said Fort Worth Water Conservation Manager Micah Reed.
Last year, voters passed a proposition that created a new fund specifically for water infrastructure projects that are overseen by the Texas Water Development Board.
The agency now has $1 billion to invest in projects that address various issues, from water loss and quality to acquiring new water sources and addressing Texas’ deteriorating pipes. It’s the largest investment in water infrastructure by state lawmakers since 2013.
Walker calls the $1 billion a “drop in the bucket.”
Texas 2036, an Austin-based think tank, expects the state needs to spend more than $150 billion over the next 50 years on water infrastructure.
While some of the Texas Water Fund must be focused on projects in rural areas with populations of less than 150,000, Walker said the bigger cities could also receive some funding.
In San Antonio, the San Antonio Water System isn’t “waiting for [the state] to come and tackle the problem for us.”
The city lost around 19 billion gallons of water in 2023 and has seen an increase over the last five years.
“We’re in a state that doesn’t even fund public education,” said Robert Puente, president and CEO of the San Antonio Water System. “So good luck to us getting some money from the state on these issues.”
Earlier this week, the SAWS board of trustees unanimously approved a new five-year water conservation plan.
The city of Austin lost around 7 billion gallons of water in 2023.
Austin has hired a consultant to review our water loss practices and metrics, according to city officials. The capital city is also in the process of replacing water mains around Austin.
Walker said while Texas lawmakers should invest more money in water infrastructure, city officials also need to hire more staff and better planning to address water loss.
The one city that lost less water in 2023 was El Paso, which reported losing 475 million fewer gallons last year. Since El Paso is in the desert, water conservation and having a “watertight” infrastructure is the city’s main focus, said Aide Fuentes, El Paso Wastewater Treatment Manager.
“That makes us a little bit different from the rest of Texas in that sense,” Fuentes said.
El Paso Water officials aim to reduce water loss by 10%.
Walker said the data shows that cities should make the case to the state lawmakers to continue to address water Infrastructure in the next legislative session. She added this issue isn’t going away.
“We really need [to] try to live with what we have and not lose the water that we already have in place and make sure that it’s reaching its intended destination,” Walker said.
Disclosure: San Antonio Water System and Texas 2036 have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Texas
Four injured in Fourth of July shark attacks in Texas, Florida
![Four injured in Fourth of July shark attacks in Texas, Florida](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2024-07/240704-south-padre-shark-jk-2055-23e805.jpg)
A shark bit three people off a southern Texas beach in what the city’s fire chief called an unprecedented incident on the Fourth of July, the same day another person was bitten by a shark in Florida, officials said.
In Texas, three people were bitten in the city of South Padre Island, on a barrier island near Brownsville, and the shark was later located and “pushed out to deeper water,” Fire Chief Jim Pigg said.
“It’s unprecedented here on South Padre Island,” he said. There were two shark bite incidents at different times and locations Thursday, he said.
Police responded to a 911 call that reported “a severe shark bite to the leg” at 11 a.m., city spokesperson Nikki Soto said, and the victim was taken to a local hospital.
After a second 911 call about a shark attack, firefighters found two people who had been bitten by a shark, Pigg said. They were also taken to a hospital.
Kyle Jud, 46, said he saw a woman pulled from the water who appeared to have a bite to a leg.
“Beach patrol lifted her up — her calf was just gone, shredded. Horrific,” Jud said. He posted video of a shark in the water as a helicopter and a boat patrolled.
One of the victims was flown out of a Brownsville hospital for further treatment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said.
“Shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas,” the department said. “When bites from sharks do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food.”
Pigg said that it has not been determined what type of shark was involved and that an investigation was underway.
Lifeguards were encouraging people in South Padre Island, a beach town of around 2,000 on the barrier island of the same name, to stay out of the water or at least to go no further than knee-deep, Pigg said.
After the shark was spotted and pushed out to deeper water, there had been no further sightings, but Pigg said officials would stay vigilant.
South Padre Island Mayor Patrick McNulty said, “Our hearts and prayers are with the injured and their families and we hope for a speedy recovery.”
In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a 21-year-old man was bitten by a shark while he was playing football in knee-deep water around 4 p.m., said Tamra Malphurs, interim director of Volusia County Beach Safety.
The man, who was visiting the city on the Atlantic coast from Ohio, was taken to a hospital, and his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, Malphurs said.
There were 36 unprovoked shark attacks against humans in the U.S. last year, and two of those people died, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File said in its most recent annual report.
The project, which documents shark attacks around the world, says that the risk of being attacked by a shark is relatively very small but that swimmers can minimize their risk even further by staying in groups and closer to shore.
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