Texas
Why Texas Latinos voted for Donald Trump | Texas: The Issue Is
Latinos, long considered a foundational component of the Democratic Party’s prospects in the Lone Star State, abandoned the progressive ship in mass during the 2024 election.
Overall, Republicans saw a 28 percent gain among Texas Latinos from 2020 to 2024.
In men, that number was 40 percent.
Republicans hope the staggering shift away from Texas Democrats is permanent.
State Rep. Mano DeAyala, R-Houston, talked with FOX 26’s Greg Groogan about the GOP’s gains.
READ MORE: What went wrong for Democrats on election night? | Texas: The Issue is
Rep. Mano DeAyala: “We’re seeing the voters coming out in droves. For the first time in modern history a Republican president has won the Hispanic vote statewide. That’s amazing.”
Greg Groogan: “That is cataclysmic for the Democrats. It’s landscape changing for Republicans. Is it a one and done? How do you hold that?”
DeAyala: “Well, that’s the concern, is this a one and done? Did the stars align in so many reasons to make this happen? Or is this a progression that we see continuing? I think it’s the latter.”
Groogan: “The Democrats presented a message heavily weighted on abortion rights and failed to defend their policy on the border, failed to defend their policy on transgender issues.”
DeAyala: “It’s this welfare state mentality. It’s this, what am I going to do for you? Not what I can help you do for yourself. It is the, let’s go focus more on those that are here undocumented than the people that are citizens and residents here and the list goes on. All of that resonates. If you have the message and the right message. The truth ultimately prevails, and I think in this election cycle it did.”
Groogan: “Folks would much prefer an environment in which they can thrive and prosper on their own, versus asking for some type of support, aid or handout from the government. Do you agree with that?”
DeAyala: “A vast majority of Texans agree with that. It’s basically when you define American exceptionalism, that’s really what it is. I look in the mirror, I don’t look to the government and that is how I’m going to have my livelihood. The government’s job is to get out of the way and let opportunity abide for us to prosper and succeed. There’s a few, and I called them the kind of the super-educated elite, that feels like they have to play the parent and say I know what’s best for you. Let me let government do this for you. That’s a Band-Aid that’s temporary and usually causes more harm than good.”
READ MORE: 2024 Presidential Election: How Texas voted by county
Groogan: “Our mutual friend Bill King met with some Mexican-American lawmakers from South Texas who felt compelled to remain in the Democratic Party for a while, but said they were tolerated. Their pro-life positions were tolerated within a party that looked down on them because of that. Do you think this opens up an opportunity that [Rep.] Ryan Guillen took?”
DeAyala: “Ryan Guillen didn’t leave his party necessarily, his party left him. And you hear that over and over, you have [Houston State Rep.] Shawn Thierry, who left the Democrat Party and other. What you’re seeing here are are Democrats, especially in South Texas, in the valley, that say, you know what, I align more with the Republican Party, you’re not seeing it the other way around.”
Groogan: “Are Latinos in Texas just tired of waiting?”
DeAyala: “If we as a party do not capitalize on these gains that we had this last cycle, and I don’t mean next election cycle, I mean tomorrow. If we don’t continue to build on that, shame on us.”
You can watch Texas: The Issue Is every Sunday night on TV and anytime on FOX LOCAL.
Texas
ICE begins immigration raids across Texas
TEXAS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids around Texas on Sunday, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Sally Sparks, DEA Houston Division spokesperson, told Spectrum News, “The DEA Houston division along with our Department of Justice partners, is assisting DHS and other federal law enforcement partners with their targeted enforcement actions.”
Sparks added that the raids occurred in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Brownsville and McAllen.
On Jan. 20 and 21, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency concerning immigration, enacting multiple executive orders.
The first group of active-duty military personnel arrived in El Paso and San Diego last week to bolster border security, according to defense officials.
The Associated Press reported on Jan. 23 that no requests had been made to use military bases for migrant housing or troops for law enforcement.
Texas
Multi-agency operation targeted immigrants in Austin and San Antonio
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Agents from multiple federal agencies carried out immigration enforcement operations in Austin and San Antonio on Sunday, federal officials said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives collaborated on “enhanced targeted operations” in both cities, an ICE spokesperson said. A similar operation took place Sunday morning in the Rio Grande Valley, a local station reported.
The spokesperson said the operations were to “enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.” The official did not say what kind of offenses the targeted individuals were suspected of committing or whether anyone was detained.
KXAN first reported ICE was conducting an operation in the Austin area on Sunday afternoon through a spokesperson for the DEA’s Houston division. DEA spokesperson Sally Sparks said the agency’s Houston office “mobilized every agent in our division,” whose jurisdiction spans from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, Del Rio and Waco.
“We got information that we had to mobilize, so we mobilized,” Sparks told The Texas Tribune. “The majority of our agents assisted.”
A Houston DEA post on X on Sunday showed photos of law enforcement officers in a residential area escorting a man in handcuffs.
Neither ICE nor the DEA answered questions about the scale of the operations. Spokespeople for the Travis and Bexar counties’ sheriff’s offices said they had not been notified of the operations. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said Doggett did not receive advance notice that ICE would conduct an operation in Austin.
Sunday’s operations came less than one week after President Donald Trump began his second term as president and promised mass deportations across the country. Trump issued more than a dozen immigration-related executive orders last week, including halting the use of an app that lets migrants make appointments to request asylum and authorizing immigration officers to raid sensitive locations such as churches, schools and hospitals.
The Trump administration has also directed federal officials to investigate and potentially prosecute local officials who interfere with deportation efforts. Some local Texas officials said they are ready to assist Trump, though they have offered scant details on how they would cooperate. A group of Texas lawmakers asked state education officials last week for clear guidance on how school districts should prepare for federal immigration enforcement.
Federal officials also conducted raids in Chicago on Sunday, and ICE officials have been directed to increase the number of people they arrest from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, The Washington Post reported Sunday. ICE made 956 arrests Sunday and sent 554 requests to take custody of individuals currently being held in jails, prisons or other confinement facilities, the agency said in a Sunday evening post on X.
Trump’s actions over the past week have left some migrants stranded on the U.S.-Mexico border, and the threat of deportation has left others in fear. Texas is home to approximately 1.6 million undocumented people, according to a Pew Research Center Report.
Texas
First soaking storm of 2025 brings heavy rain, flooding concerns to North Texas
Following a nice and above-average start to the weekend, a cold front swept through North Texas overnight, bringing light rain to kick off Sunday.
Shower coverage will be fairly isolated in the Dallas Fort-Worth area and will only stick around for about the first half of the day. However, scattered showers may persist in eastern and southeastern counties.
As far as temperatures go, North Texas will feel about a 10-degree drop from Saturday, with highs falling back below average to the lower 50s this afternoon.
Looking ahead to the start of the new workweek, expect partly cloudy skies on Monday, with highs in the mid-50s.
By Tuesday, clouds build back in, but a southerly flow sends temperatures back to the upper 50s, approaching 60 degrees.
Tuesday afternoon and evening will mark the beginning of a significant weather shift.
Scattered showers roll in Tuesday evening as an area of low-pressure heads through the southwestern U.S.
This low-pressure system will continue its eastward track, bringing heavy, soaking rains on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
For this reason, CBS News Texas meteorologists have issued First Alert Weather Days for all three days, warning of soaking rains, a few thunderstorms and the potential for some flooding, especially from Thursday into Friday.
Temperature-wise, North Texas will remain near- and above-normal throughout the extended forecast.
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