The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 5, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, folks. Today is Monday, August 5th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, a grim scene of death, destruction, and crime is described among the harm suffered by two Texas border counties in a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging that the willful and unconstitutional refusal to enforce federal law has resulted in unprecedented harm inflicted upon the rural communities. Kinney and Atascosa Counties, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, and Rancher Dr. Michael Vickers are the plaintiffs in the petition filed in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas this past week, naming President Joe Biden, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and other federal immigration officials as defendants. The plaintiffs raised

Starting point is 00:01:02 unique arguments not yet seen in other legal disputes over the border crisis, including that the Biden administration violated the U.S. Constitution's Take Care Clause and a law requiring environmental impact studies. The Take Care Clause in Article 2, Section 3 states that the president, quote, shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Next, the Biden administration will not appeal a ruling that favored the Texas General Land Office after making an attempt to redirect funds away from border construction, Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced. In March, Judge Drew Tipton granted GLO's injunction against the Biden administration, which found issue with President Joe Biden's plan to redirect $1.4 billion previously designated by Congress for the purpose of, quote, construction of a barrier system along the southwest border. that President Biden, via proclamation, paused obligation of these funds the day he was inaugurated and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reassess the situation. The March ruling declared

Starting point is 00:02:12 that the DHS must On August 1, Paxton announced that the Biden administration had forfeited any further claims and declined to appeal the ruling after losing in federal court. In other news, in 2022, U.S. Border Patrol agents at a South Texas checkpoint conducted a secondary inspection on an ambulance, where inside they discovered and subsequently arrested Jose Paz Medina Cantu, who admitted to being illegally present in the United States. He also had a Taurus PT-58 handgun, loaded, with an extra 16 rounds of ammunition. Cantu had previously been deported, making this his subsequent arrest for illegal entry into the country.

Starting point is 00:03:02 A federal grand jury indicted him for being unlawfully present after deportation and for possessing the loaded handgun. He was then convicted at trial. In the appeal of his conviction to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Cantu cites two recent rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States relating to Second Amendment rights, the Bruin and Ramey decisions. The Ramey decision, handed down last year, found that a law prohibiting those under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms was constitutional. The Bruin decision was issued in 2022 and struck down a New York state law banning the concealed carrying of firearms in certain public places. Also, a state district

Starting point is 00:03:46 judge has set a hearing date that will determine the fate of a lawsuit against Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, seeking his removal from office under a new state rogue prosecutor law. The complaint that triggered the lawsuit was filed by Austin resident Mary Dupuy, alleging three separate grounds where Garza refused to enforce state laws that could subject him to being removed from office by a jury. Those grounds included the undue prosecution of police officers, placing officers on a do-not-call-to-testify list which prevents them from being witnesses in criminal cases, and refusing to prosecute certain state laws, including those related to drugs and abortion.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Last but not least, Austin Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Ramos has been placed on paid leave following his arrest on charges of insurance fraud unrelated to district activities. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Ramos was arrested by the Austin ISD Police Department last week after a warrant was issued from the Round Rock Police Department on allegations of insurance fraud. A district official explained to the statesman that the arrest does not involve his work with Austin ISD. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and

Starting point is 00:05:05 subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

Your Ad Here

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 5, 2024

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.