The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - June 4, 2025

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

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Howdy folks, today is Tuesday, June 4th and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans reporter Cameron Abrams and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, Trump's U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas challenging provisions of the Texas Education Code that allow illegal aliens to qualify for in-state tuition. The DOJ is arguing that Texas' laws, quote, blatantly conflict with federal law. Attorney General Pam Bonney states in the DOJ press release,

quote, under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens. The Texas DREAM Act, which was passed in 2001, extended qualification for in-state tuition to non-citizen residents who live in Texas for three years before graduating from high school, lived in Texas the year before enrolling at a university in the state, and signed an affidavit declaring their intention to apply for permanent residency. The DOJ is seeking a court order declaring Texas's in-state tuition laws for undocumented immigrants unconstitutional, permanently blocking their enforcement, and awarding legal costs

and any other appropriate relief. While the Trump administration and the state of Texas are typically aligned on issues, this is a rare instance where the federal government is taking the state to court. Next, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hagar has removed BlackRock from the list of quote, fossil fuel boycotters for whom the state is required to divest its funds. For nearly three years, BlackRock, one of the world's largest investment firms, has been top of the target list for Texas Republicans who viewed the company as having pushed environmental, social, and governance metrics in the financial world. The Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 13 in 2021, which established a list of firms

deemed by the state to be, quote, boycotting the oil and gas industry. BlackRock has been on each iteration of the list since, which is maintained by the Comptroller of Public Accounts and in turn, the state's pension and other financials have been pulled from BlackRock or BlackRock Managed Investments. But on Tuesday, Hagar announced his office would remove BlackRock, releasing a lengthy statement of his reasoning behind the move. Hagar said, quote, we never set out to punish any of these firms. And the hope was always that any firm we included on the list would eventually take steps to ensure they were removed. Following the lead of many of its competitors, BlackRock has finally

done exactly that. While it took the company longer than others in the financial sector to make the shift, the end results are what matter. In other news, sitting behind more than a dozen photos of murder victims at Crime Stoppers of Houston, Governor Greg Abbott joined victims' families, members of law enforcement, and a slew of elected officials to sign new criminal justice and bail reform bills Tuesday. Hundreds of Texans have been murdered by violent criminals who had previously been arrested and released on easy bail, said Abbott. Judges have had far too much discretion to set easy bail policies for violent criminals.

Flanked by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and bill authors Senator Joan Huffman and House criminal jurisprudence chair John Smithey, Abbott signed into law three bills and a proposed constitutional amendment that allows judges to deny bill to suspects charged in one of several violent crimes. Of the failed bills, Abbott noted they had been introduced late in the session. So perhaps they need a little bit more time to come to fruition, said Abbott. You can be assured that those other proposals, as Schwarzenegger would say, they're going to be back and we're not done yet. Last but not least, after hours of public comments and discussion, on June 3,

the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court voted 3-2 to redraw district boundaries for the 2026 primary in general elections. The biggest changes will be made to the boundaries of districts 1 and 2, currently held by Democrats Roderick Mills and Alyssa Simmons respectively. They opposed the new district boundaries. Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare told the Texan during an interview last week that he had campaigned on redistricting with the intention of drawing the boundaries based on partisan politics to make them more solidly Republican.

Immediately after the redistricting vote, current state rep Tony Tinderholt announced his candidacy for Commissioner's District 2. He announced his retirement from the Texas House of Representatives on Monday. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.