Texans don’t shy away from a fight.

The Lone Star State leads the nation in protecting our citizens and assets against malign foreign influence. With today’s digitized economy, one of the most critical layers of protection is for our data and privacy.

Washington has moved too slowly on data and privacy protection. That’s why our state legislators took matters into their own hands by enacting the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, which passed Texas’ House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023. The TXDPSA is a bipartisan, good-government win.

The TXDPSA went into full effect on July 1, just in time to protect Texans against threats from China’s government. The law ensures that Texans have rights over their own personal data, along with privacy protections against corporations, both foreign and domestic, that do business in the Lone Star State.

As we enter into a new era of cyberwarfare and espionage, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is America’s most comprehensive foreign threat. The party views digital applications as espionage tools to seize as much American data as possible for Beijing’s use. Unbeknownst to many Texans, Temu, the Chinese e-commerce giant that has spent billions of dollars marketing to Americans, is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arsenal of such tools.

While Temu is not explicitly mentioned in China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, as a company based in the People’s Republic of China, Temu and its parent company are subject to the law’s requirement to turn over consumers’ data to the Chinese government, as outlined in a Department of Homeland Security report: “A PRC intelligence agency may request that any PRC firm or entity secretly share access to a U.S. business or individual’s data, or otherwise face penalties.”

Like TikTok, Temu is another Trojan horse for the Chinese.

Temu is part of a long-term, comprehensive strategy that China has been implementing in the United States for the better part of the last decade, using social media, advertising and e-commerce platforms to gain access to our data. The Temu app has infiltrated our homes, schools, military bases and hospitals, and that’s just the beginning.

As of May 2024, Temu had approximately 50 million users in the U.S. — approximately one third of all users across the globe, according to Sensor Tower.

To be blunt: The Chinese won’t stop unless we stop them.

The good news is that Americans are beginning to take notice and take legal action. According to a high-profile class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois, Temu has “wiretapped the electronic communications of its website visitors and failed to alert customers of a data breach.” The lawsuit continues saying that Temu “is purposefully and intentionally loaded with dangerous malware and spyware activities on user devices … all while going to great efforts to intentionally hide the malicious intent and intrusiveness of the software.”

It’s time for Texas to get in the fight.

Gov. Abbott has led the fight against China’s technological influence by enacting a Model Security Plan for Prohibited Technologies, which has become a national blueprint. Abbott banned TikTok and a series of other applications on official state devices and broadband. Abbott should add Temu to this prohibited list. In fact, the app should be banned as broadly as possible in any interaction with Texas’ government, which the security plan allows.

Next, Texas should eliminate its financial exposure to Temu and other adversary companies. For example, Texas’ ERS pension fund holds shares of PDD Holdings, which owns Temu.

Recently, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a Data Privacy and Security Initiative to protect Texans from foreign companies attempting to harvest American data. Paxton should immediately use his authority to launch a consumer protection investigation into Temu and its ties to Beijing. If evidence justifies it, Temu’s activities should be broadly curtailed within the Lone Star State to protect Texas consumers. Giving China’s government access to our cellphone data provides seamless access to our biometrics, home addresses, credit card information and more.

In addition to investigating Temu, Paxton should also lead the charge against China’s infiltration by rallying other states’ attorneys general into taking a stronger stance against Temu. Turning a blind eye to China’s proxies puts all states in danger.

Texas must make it unequivocally clear that if China wants to launch a spy campaign in the Lone Star State, they’ll be met with the full force of our government. Unlike Washington, D.C., here in Texas, we know how to quickly and decisively recognize and eliminate threats. With a crystal-clear Chinese threat in our state, it’s time to act.

Michael Lucci is the Founder and CEO of State Armor, a research nonprofit focusing on state policy solutions to global security threats.

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An illegal migrant from Venezuela who shot and injured a cop in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday was set to be deported after entering the US last year — but an immigration judge gave him a second chance to stay in the country, a Homeland Security source told The Post.

Alleged cop shooter Jorge Chacon-Gutierrez, 25, crossed the southern border in November 2023 with a group of nearly 600 migrants, according to the source.

At the time, border agents were processing him for “expedited removal,” but he argued he had a fear of persecution in Venezuela so he went before an asylum officer, who rejected his claim and continued to process him for removal.

Chacon-Gutierrez, however, asked to make his claim before an immigration judge, who quickly vacated his order of removal and let his case continue.

The case highlights how the US immigration system has “so many loopholes,” the source said.

Chacon-Gutierrez allegedly got into a shootout with police, who were responding to a domestic violence call in the early morning hours, before he died, police said.

The Venezuelan national allegedly fired the first shots, but it’s unclear how he died.

Chacon-Gutierrez’s girlfriend told police he had assaulted her. When cops entered the apartment, they found Chacon-Gutierrez lying in bed with a rifle by his side.

He then allegedly began shooting at the responding officers, who returned fire and exited the apartment.

A female officer was injured after being shot multiple times during the shooting, police said. She was later taken to a hospital and underwent surgery.

“The officer is in good spirits but has a long road to recovery ahead of her,” a spokesperson for the San Antonio police told The Post.

The shooting is just one of several recent prominent violent crimes committed by migrants who were recently vetted and released into the US.

Two migrants from Venezuela are accused of raping and brutally killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston last month.

In New York, Venezuelan gang members associated with the violent Tren de Aragua have been committing moped snatch and grab robberies, smuggling guns into city-run migrant shelters and attacking cops.

Police are currently investigating whether the man who shot and killed two people outside a Brooklyn migrant shelter on July 21 had links to the gang.

Quinn Ewers is ready to lead the Texas Longhorns into a 2024 college football season that comes with extremely high expectations.

Not only are the Longhorns expected to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff, they’re expected to win a championship. There are a few teams around the nation with “championship or bust” expectations and Texas happens to be one of them.

That is a lot of pressure to put on a quarterback. Add in the fact that Ewers is also looking to prove himself ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft and the season comes with a lot at stake.

Ewers has been showing off strong ability on the field that has forced his name into the discussion to potentially be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft class. He has also shown off the ability to be a star in the NIL marketplace.

Currently, On3 has ranked Ewers as the No. 6 overall NIL athlete in the nation. When it comes to college football players specifically, he’s ranked No. 5. He has been given an impressive NIL valuation of $1.7 million.

While his success to this point in his career has been great, he’s at the top of the list for players with the most to gain from having a big-time season in 2024.

ESPN NFL Draft analyst Jordan Reid made it clear that Ewers is the obvious choice for that title.

“The most to gain? I think it is Quinn Ewers without question. Honestly, just because there’s a lot of question marks about him and scouts that I talk to guess he probably would’ve gone in the second or the third round if we would have came out last year.”

Reid continued forward, revealing some of his concerns about the Texas star quarterback.

“I thought he was inconsistent for most of the season last year, but there’s some spots. They really give you a lot of hope for Quinn. … The deep ball accuracy does need to improve. I definitely think he leaves it hanging a little bit too high at times, but what I love about Quinn and what is very similar to Carson Beck this year is that they lost a ton of production on offense. … So he’s going to have to shoulder the load while he’s getting older.”

During the 2023 season, Ewers completed 69.0 percent of his pass attempts for 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He also scored five touchdowns on the ground.

Heading into this season, the Longhorns will need to see more consistency and bigger numbers. If he can do those two things, Texas will have a strong chance to win a National Championship.

Also, with a strong season, Ewers will set himself up to be a very high pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.