Tag: Texas

Texas Sen. Cruz Introduces Bill Prohibiting Vaccine Mandate for Minors

The Center Square
Ted Cruz

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation that would prohibit the federal government and any entity at the federal, state and local level that receives federal funding, including school districts, from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for minors.

“Parents should have the right to decide what is best for their children in consultation with their family doctor,” he said. “My view on the COVID-19 vaccine has remained clear: no mandates of any kind.

“President [Joe] Biden and his administration have repeatedly ignored medical privacy rights and personal liberty by pushing unlawful and burdensome vaccine mandates on American businesses, and now they are preparing to push a mandate on kids by pressuring parents – all without taking into account relative risk or the benefits of natural immunity.”

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Music Spotlight: Kolby Cooper

Bethany Bowman
Musician Kolby Cooper smiling

Kolby Cooper is among the best songwriters I have ever interviewed. I wanted to find out how this 22-year-old got so talented so quickly.

Cooper got interested in country music as a child while riding around in a cattle truck with his dad. They would listen to artists like Waylon Jennings, Chris LeDoux, and Randy Rogers. He picked up a guitar at around age ten. When he learned to play he began writing as well. He was 12 years old when he wrote his first s

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Texas Police Refused Requests to Escort Biden Campaign Bus Bothered by Trump Supporters

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Transcripts of 911 calls last year from the San Marcos, Texas, police department show officials turned down multiple requests for assistance from a 2020 Biden campaign bus that was being harassed on the road by pro-Trump vehicles.

Individuals inside the bus at the time of the incident have filed suit against the police and the transcripts are now evidence in the case.

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Migrants Sleep Outside Immigration Offices to Check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement

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Migrants are sleeping outside immigration offices waiting to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Houston Chronicle reported on Friday.

Migrants started spending the night outside the Greenspoint Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Houston, Texas, so they would be guaranteed an appointment the next day, according to the Chronicle. Around a dozen migrants from Central America and Venezuela set up camping chairs or decided to sleep in their cars on Thursday.

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Biden Admin Rescinds ‘Remain in Mexico’ Again Despite Court Ruling

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The Biden administration said Friday that it intends to repeal former President Donald Trump’s “Remain In Mexico” policy after a federal judge denied its first attempt, the Department of Homeland Security announced in a statement.

President Joe Biden had originally suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, mandating non-Mexican migrants wait in Mexico until their immigration court date in the U.S., in June. However, a Texas federal judge ruled in August he was violating federal law in the way he went about ending it.

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Two Border Patrol Agents Fired, Dozens More Punished for Involvement in Facebook Group ‘I’m 10-15’

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Two U.S. Border Patrol agents have been fired in connection with a probe that found roughly 60 of them committed misconduct while participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers, investigators said Monday.

Most agents’ penalties were significantly reduced from those recommended by an internal agency review board, according to a House Oversight and Reform committee staff report obtained by the Associated Press.

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Texas Republicans Sound Off On Biden’s ‘Pathetic’ Claim That He’s Too Busy to Visit the Border

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Texas Republicans described President Joe Biden’s immigration policies as reckless and criticized him for claiming that he has been too busy to visit the southern border since taking office in January.

Biden said Thursday night that he “should go down [to visit the border] but the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to,” during a CNN town hall. The last time Biden was near the border was when he flew into an airport in El Paso, Texas, where his motorcade took him to New Mexico for a campaign event in 2008, according to The Washington Post.

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Big Tech Companies Are Defying Texas’ Vaccine Mandate Ban

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Man getting bandaid on vaccination shot

Major tech companies are continuing to require their employees to be vaccinated at their Texas facilities, in violation of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning all vaccine mandates.

Abbott signed an executive order on Oct. 11 prohibiting “any entity,” including private businesses, government contractors and local schools, from imposing a requirement that employees be vaccinated as a condition of employment. However, Google, Facebook, HPE, Twitter and Lyft have yet to lift their vaccine mandates in response to the order, Protocol first reported.

HPE spokesman Adam Bauer confirmed the company had not changed its vaccine policy, and told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the company was making “vaccination a condition of employment for U.S. team members to comply with President Biden’s executive order and remain in good standing as a federal contractor.”

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Over 94,000 Migrants in Southern Texas Released into the U.S. with Notices to Report, Leaked Docs Show

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Just over 94,500 migrants who entered the U.S. illegally were encountered by border officials in southern Texas and released into the country with notices to report, according to data obtained by Fox News on Wednesday.

The migrants were encountered in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors since March 20, according to Fox News. Notices to report (NTR) direct migrants to check in with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days and are different from notices to appear (NTA), which require migrants to show up at an immigration court, according to the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

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Over $100 Million Worth of Border Wall Equipment Wasted, Sitting Unused in Texas

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Ever since the Biden Administration halted all construction of the border wall, over $100 million worth of construction equipment intended to be used in finishing the wall has been sitting unused along the border in Texas, as reported by the New York Post.

After Biden ordered a halt to all construction and illegally cancelled numerous construction contracts with various companies, the material has been slowly rusting along the border, often right next to portions of the wall that were already completed.

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Commentary: The First Step to Rightsizing Education Spending Is Reforming Teacher Pensions

RealClearWire

In the past year, Congress has rushed more than $204 billion in federal emergency funds to states to support K-12 schools. 

But 23 states had fewer incoming students this fall. This declining enrollment is likely in part due to pandemic-related trends but is also a symptom of changing birth rates and families geographically relocating.

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Allen West, Former Texas GOP Chair Seeking to Oust Greg Abbott, Hospitalized with COVID-19

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Allen West, the former chair of the Texas Republican Party who is primarying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, is hospitalized with COVID-19 but said Sunday that he was “doing great.”

Allen West told the Associated Press that he had “no complaints” and was “just relaxing” in a hospital in Plano, Texas. West said on Twitter that both he and his wife, Angela, were hospitalized with the virus and that they underwent monoclonal antibody infusion therapy.

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Merrick Garland Cites Unexplained Threats of Violence to Involve Authorities in Culture War Issues

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Merrick Garland, once hailed as a “moderate” choice for President Joe Biden’s attorney general, has now twice referenced unexplained threats of violence in directing authorities to investigate hot button culture issues.

The attorney general directed the FBI on Oct. 4 to target parents who allegedly threaten violence against public school officials. He also ordered authorities in September to enforce the FACE Act in response to any violence from pro-life activists.

But the Department of Justice has not explained or offered examples of the violence it is referring to in either of these instances. The DOJ did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s many requests for comment on this point.

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Report: A Majority of Border Crossings Occur in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley

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Border officials reported that most encounters with migrants illegally entering the U.S. occurred in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Immigration officials encountered 441,855 migrants in the Rio Grande Valley sector between January and August 2021, according to CBP data. More than 1.3 million migrants have been encountered at the southern border since January, according to CBP.

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Texas School Shooter Released on Bail One Day After Mass Shooting

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A Texas high school student who opened fire on his campus and wounded four people has been released on bail the day after he carried out his shooting, as reported by the New York Post.

Timothy Simpkins, an 18-year-old African-American student of Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas, was on the run for a brief period of time after committing the shooting yesterday, with the story drawing national attention for several hours. He eventually turned himself in, accompanied by his lawyer, after an extensive manhunt.

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Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Reinstates Texas Abortion Law

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A federal appeals court on Friday night temporarily reinstated Texas’ restrictive abortion law, staying a preliminary injunction granted earlier this week by a federal judge who sought to block the law.

The ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday night handed a win to anti-abortion advocates and lawmakers in Texas who have sought to prohibit most abortions after six weeks of conception.

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Federal Judge Sides with Biden Admin, Halts Texas Abortion Law

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A federal judge has halted the enforcement of Texas’ Heartbeat Act, which banned abortions in the state after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected.

“It is ordered that the State of Texas, including its officers, officials, agents, employees and any other persons or entities acting on its behalf, are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing Texas Health and Safety Code,” Judge Robert L. Pitman wrote in his 113-page ruling, The New York Times reported.

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Oil Prices Hit a Seven-Year High as Industry Feud with Biden Administration Continues

The Center Square

Oil prices hit a 7-year high this week as American oil and gas companies continue to fight the Biden administration over policies restricting production.

As the economy began to reopen this year and the demand for fuel increased, President Joe Biden, through executive order, halted and restricted oil and gas leases on federal lands, stopped construction of the Keystone Pipeline, and redirected U.S. policy to import more oil from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia (OPEC+) instead of bolstering American oil and gas exploration and production.

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Arizona Faces Its Own Border Crisis, with Yuma Seeing Significant Increases in Illegal Crossings

The Center Square
Arizona-Mexico border

While much of the world watched roughly 15,000 Haitians illegally cross the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, last month, an area near Yuma, Arizona, has become the Grand Canyon State’s Del Rio equivalent.

Known as “The Gap,” a well-known break in the border fence near the Morelos Dam is where migrants illegally cross the border into Arizona – walking across the Colorado River from the Mexican border town of Los Algodones.

In August, 17,000 people illegally crossed into the Yuma Sector. That’s compared to 694 in August 2020, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data, an increase of more than 2,300%.

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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Other GOP Governors to Gather at Border to Pressure Biden on Illegal Immigration

The Center Square

Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona are hosting nine governors in Mission, Texas, Wednesday to denounce President Joe Biden’s policies leading to a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border.

“Texas and Arizona have stepped up to secure the border in the federal government’s absence, and now the Emergency Management Assistance Compact gives your state a chance to stand strong with us,” Ducey and Abbott said in a joint statement this summer. Both governors issued disaster and emergency declarations in their states earlier this year, citing increased crime and financial strains on county governments and law enforcement because of the surge in illegal immigration due to Biden’s policies.

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Gov. Abbott Says Texas Will Hire Border Patrol Agents If Biden Administration Fires Any

The Center Square

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would hire any Border Patrol agent fired by the Biden administration after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said agents would no longer be permitted to use horses to guard the border in Del Rio, Texas.

Criticism of mounted agents was widespread after a photograph showing agents using horse reins was misconstrued by members of the media and some politicians suggesting the agent was using the reins as a “whip.”

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Homeland Security Secretary Moves to Protect DACA after Texas Court Ruling Halted the Program

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Alejandro Mayorkas

The Biden administration Monday announced a plan to create a rule to reestablish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, following the decision by a Texas court that found the Obama-era program unlawful and halted the ability of “Dreamers” to apply for immigration protections.

The Homeland Security Department announced that the new rule aims to “preserve and fortify” DACA by addressing some of the court’s concerns over the way the policy was implemented.

In July, a federal district judge in Texas ruled that DACA violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The decision prevents future applications to the program, but leaves standing the program’s benefits that have already been afforded to close to 600,000 people.

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Texas Sues Biden Administration over ‘Transgender’ Pronoun, Restroom Mandates

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The state of Texas filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Biden Administration, over a mandate enacted in June dictating that “transgender” individuals must be referred to by their preferred pronouns and be allowed to use restrooms of their choice, Fox News reports.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a statement on the lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), said that “states should be able to choose protection of privacy for their employers over subjective views of gender.” Paxton declared that “this illegal guidance puts many women and children at risk. If the Biden administration thinks they can force states to comply with their political agenda, my office will fight against their radical attempt at social change.”

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U.S. to Begin Expelling Thousands of Migrants in Del Rio, Texas, Effort to Include Flights to Haiti

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A crowd of Haitian people

The Biden administration is expected to begin the large-scale expulsion Sunday of thousands of migrants encamped in the Texas border city of Del Rio, using several flights a day to return them to their home country.

The effort is expected to involve two to eight flights daily, sources told the Associated Press.

Migrants began arriving in Del Rio, a frequent destination for illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, several days ago, huddling under a bridge while they wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Many of them are from Haiti.

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Music Spotlight: Creed Fisher

Bethany Bowman
Creed Fisher

With over 22 million combined streams on Spotify and over 17 million views on YouTube with past releases like “Life of A Workin’ Man,” “The Way That I Am,” and “Old School” Texas-born and bred southern rock artist Creed Fisher is one of the most streamed and popular artists I have ever featured.

Fisher hails from Odessa, Texas, where his family’s roots trace back to his granddad, who was highly involved in the oil game back in the fifties. He started writing songs/poems at age nine. He states that “it wasn’t very good” but it was the beginning of his fruitful songwriting career.

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Judge Ruling Prevents Abbott from Closing Planned Entry Points Along Southern Border

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Greg Abbott

A ruling from a federal judge on Thursday led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to abandon his plan to close six entry points on the southern border amid a surge of migrants, the El Paso Times reported.

The U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia blocked President Joe Biden from turning away migrant families with children under 18, citing a health order related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the El Paso Times reported. The order will take effect in 14 days.

Abbott announced Thursday he had directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to close six entry points along the southern border in a statement obtained by Fox News.

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Texas Governor Signs Law Preventing Social Media Companies from Banning People for Their Views

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Gov. Greg Abbott signs law

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law Thursday preventing social media companies from banning users for their political views.

The law, known as HB 20, prohibits social media platforms from banning or suspending users, and removing or suppressing their content, based on political viewpoint. The bill was introduced by state Sen. Bryan Hughes partly in an effort to combat perceived censorship of conservatives by Facebook, Twitter, Google-owned YouTube, and other major tech companies.

“Social media websites have become our modern-day public square,” Abbott said in a statement. “They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.”

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Abbott Signs Texas’ Voting Reform Bill into Law, Ending Intense Political Fight

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Greg Abbott holding recently signed Texas voting reform bill

Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday signed Texas’ election reform bill into law, ending a months-long political fight over the controversial legislation.

Abbott, a Republican, traveled to Tyler, Texas to sign the Senate Bill 1, which repeals many of the voting measures that large cities in the state implemented amid the pandemic and overhauls the state’s mail-in voting and polling place systems.

Senate Bill 1 also bars election officials from sending voters unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters, threatening jail time if they do so.

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Video Game CEO Steps Down over Support of Texas Pro-Life Law

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The head of a video game studio stepped down Monday evening after speaking out in support of the Texas Heartbeat Act on Saturday.

John Gibson left his position as chief executive of Tripwire Interactive following a Saturday tweet in which he voiced his approval of the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law banning abortions after the unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected. The law was passed in May and the Supreme Court allowed it to go into effect last week.

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Archbishop Slams Catholics Biden, Pelosi for Condemning Texas Abortion Law

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Joe Biden, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and Nancy Pelosi

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone emphasized Sunday that Catholics have a duty to challenge pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny abortion providers’ requests to block Texas’ new law banning abortion after 6 weeks. Both Biden and Pelosi issued statements condemning the Supreme Court ruling and the Texas law and promising to take action to reverse the pro-life legislation.

“This summer, we provoked an uproar by discussing whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist,” Cordileone wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didn’t belong.”

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Biden Says He Respects Those Who Believe Life Begins at Conception, But Doesn’t Agree

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President Joe Biden said Friday that though he respects Americans who believe life begins at conception, he does not agree with them.

The president discussed Texas’ Heartbeat Act, which the Supreme Court declined to block earlier this week, Friday morning with reporters. The law bans abortion after six weeks and allows “any person” to sue doctors, abortion clinics, or anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion.”

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Texas State Senator Debunks Myths About the New Heartbeat Act

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Abortion advocates who insist Texas’ Heartbeat Act places bounties on pregnant women’s heads are misrepresenting the legislation, Republican Texas state Sen. Brian Hughes told the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday.

“I want to be very clear,” Hughes said. “There are no claims against the mother. We want to make sure folks realize that … I read a couple of places saying the mothers would receive criminal penalties. There are no criminal penalties in this bill at all. It’s driven by private civil enforcement against the doctor and against people who aid and abet the doctor and in doing illegal abortions.”

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Arizona Expected to Follow Texas’s Abortion Heartbeat Law

Rachel Alexander

With the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to block a Texas law banning abortions at six weeks when fetal heartbeats begin, Arizona’s Republican-dominated legislature is expected to enact a similar law. Until now, federal courts had struck down several laws regulating abortion enacted in Arizona. The unusual nature of the Texas law — allowing citizens to sue in order to enforce it instead of the state — is why a 5-4 majority on SCOTUS allowed the significant intrusion into Roe v. Wade.

Cathi Herrod, president of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy and a key architect of pro-life bills in the Arizona Legislature, said Arizona should copy the successful legislation in order to avoid being struck down. “The Texas heartbeat law is a road map to what other states can do,” she told Capitol Media Services. “The Texas heartbeat law is worthy of serious consideration by the Arizona Legislature.”

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Commentary: The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Texas’ Abortion Law Is Another Sign That It May Overturn Roe

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Couple kissing, holding up ultrasound in front of them

Just before midnight on Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued an order denying injunctive relief to the Texas abortion providers who had sought to halt Texas’ new abortion law which prohibits abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected. 

The majority opinion said the Court would not intervene because the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate whether the defendants, including state judges, can or will seek to enforce the law against them. The five conservative justices in the majority, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, noted that federal courts have the power to enjoin people tasked with enforcing laws, and not laws themselves. 

The Texas law gives citizens the power to sue abortion providers or anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion after six weeks gestation. This structure provided the legal technicality which allowed the near-ban on abortion to remain in effect. 

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Texas Passes Law Targeting Social Media Companies for Alleged Censorship

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The Texas state Senate passed a bill Tuesday that aims to curb perceived political censorship by social media companies.

The bill, introduced in the Texas Senate by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, would prohibit social media platforms from “censoring” users based on their viewpoints. “Censoring” includes actions such as removing content, banning users, demonetizing users, and suppressing posts, according to the bill.

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Minnesota Senator Tina Smith Criticizes Texas Abortion Ban

Hayley Feland

Minnesota Senator Tina Smith tweeted out Wednesday, criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision regarding a Texas abortion ban. Smith called the decision a “direct attack on Roe.” Smith said that she’s not “blind” to what is being done. She said, “I used to work at Planned Parenthood, not blind to what’s happening here.” Smith called the law unconstitutional saying they are going to “fight it.”

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Border Officials Are So Overwhelmed They’re Struggling to Verify Whether Illegal Migrants Are Adults or Minors

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border surge

MCALLEN, Texas — Customs and Border Protection agents are so overwhelmed with the number of migrants arriving at the southern border they’re having a hard time verifying whether some illegal migrants are minors or adults, agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are supposed to conduct extensive interviews with migrants they suspect of lying about their age, a senior agent told the DCNF. The agents spoke to the DCNF on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

“In the past, our intelligence would interview these subjects until eventually getting them to admit they had falsely claimed to be minors. But now with the sheer volume of people coming in and people that we have to process and move, that part of the equation is just a hindrance and would create a bottleneck,” the senior CBP agent told the DCNF. “In other words, our processing machine has now switched gears to quantity over quality. Sad.”

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Texas Gov. Abbott Bans Vaccine Mandates Statewide Despite FDA Approval

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday banned government-issued vaccine mandates despite the Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.

Abbott’s executive order applies to all government-run entities with the exception of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. “Vaccine requirements and exemptions have historically been determined by the legislature, and their involvement is particularly important to avoid a patchwork of vaccine mandates across Texas,” Abbott said in an accompanying statement.

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