The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 8, 2026

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at https://thetexan.news/ and leave us a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Ken Paxton, Mayes Middleton Lead John Cornyn, Chip Roy in New Republican Primary Runoff PollDemocrats Home In on South Texas as Bobby Pulido Added to National 'Red to Blue' ProgramTexas Officials Continue Fight Against EPIC City, Despite Recent Travis County Court RulingState Commission Disciplines Harris County Judge Who Terminated Probation for Child Sex OffendersTexas Supreme Court Restores Delta-8 THC Regulation, State Hemp Product Ban Remains BlockedU.S. Supreme Court Pauses Lower Court Ruling Requiring In-Person Dispensing of Abortion PillsNew Legal Challenge to Texas Law Criminalizing Illegal Immigration Rebuked by Lt. Gov. PatrickU.S.-Mexico Water Treaty Oversight Group Created in 2026 Federal Farm BillIllegal Alien Arrested in Texas and Indicted for Raping Man in New York Previously Entered U.S. Four TimesTexas Judge Strikes Down Federal Treasury Requirement to Report Cash Real Estate TransactionsPatrick, Burrows State Texas Camps Can Meet 'Spirit of the Law' on New Internet Requirements for Summer 2026

Well, howdy folks. Welcome back to the Texans' weekly roundup podcast. I'm the Texans senior editor, Rob Lauscious. And joining me today are the Texans senior reporter Holly Hanson, the Texans reporter Mary Aliso Barr, and the Texans reporter Hannah Brewer. How's everybody doing today? Bright-eyed and bushy-tail, even though it's dark.

It is dark and rainy, yeah, over here in Austin. I was going to say, Yeah, I was going to say I'm still working through my first cup, so I'm about to be bright-eyed and bushy-tail. I'm in this same boat. I wanted to save my first cup for the podcast so I could get progressively more energetic as time went on. Well, I'm not brave. Oh, sorry. Good stuff.

We'll all balance out on the energy levels, I think, by the time we're done here. Good deal. Absolutely. Mary Elise, are you all dealing with any dark skies and, Hannah? Is it rainy and cloudy where you all are? We've had a lot of, we've had a lot of rain and a lot of dark skies and a lot of storms. And I think it was not sure if it was related or not, but we had a complex wide electricity outage again, which is a little bit surprising that they don't have a generator or a backup plan,

but that has been interesting navigating that. I'm sorry to hear that. It's an adventure. We are actually in Florida right now with family and it's also dark skies, so lots of wind, lots of chopy waves. It's not really meeting the name of the sunshine state, though, is it? Not at all. Not this weekend. Is it cold over there too?

Because it was like 65 degrees last night, which in May in Texas is crazy. It is 58 degrees here at my place this morning. Wow. No way. And it's just wild. So. That's the thing is to quote a great man, you know, when it comes to the weather in Texas, if you don't like it, just wait a minute.

But also, to quote another great man, Texas has the strangest weather in the country, right? This is for Brad Johnson, if you're watching this. Right. It's amongst the staff at the Texan. You know, if it came to, you know, fist of cups, but it got pretty huge. It would have, I think, if we'd all been in the same, if we'd all been in the same room at the same time and not messaging over Slack, it probably would be. Right. It's a virtual fish that's, but we're, we're all peaceful now.

It's not. Absolutely. Well, we're all staying huddling inside because of the cold. There is that. Absolutely. Well, all righty then. Let's get right into our stories for this week. It's been a busy news week so far.

And Holly, there was a new poll. that was released on Tuesday morning discussing some of the biggest Republican primary runoff races. Tell us what's going on there. That's right, Rob. That was the University of Houston's new poll. And it's going to be one in a series that they're doing on the Republican primary runoff elections. I believe they'll have some on the Democratic primary runoffs as well coming up soon. But this one, of course, dealt with that top line race, the race between Paxton.

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, and Senator John Cornyn over who will be the senator to represent the state of Texas along with Ted Cruz. This poll finds that Paxton has a slight lead of three points, but it also shows that there are still 7% of voters, believe it or not, who I guess have not been bombarded enough with all of the political advertising and campaign mailers that are going out, who are undecided. And among those who are undecided, about 24% think that Cornyn will be a stronger candidate against Democrat James Tala Rico in November, and about 9% think that Paxton will be the better option. As you look further at the breakdown in this poll, we also see that Middleton is leading, I'm sorry, state Senator Mayes Middleton is leading U.S. Representative Chip Roy in the race. for Attorney General. We don't yet know who the Democratic nominee will be in that race.

But Middleton is holding a little bit more of a lead. I think it was 9% in that case and 13% were unsure. The poll also took a look at that runoff election for Texas Railroad Commissioner where he had Jim Wright

leading over Boe French as the former Tarrant County Republican Party chairman, Jim Wright, of course, being the incumbent. But about 37% of the respondents were undecided or unsure in that particular poll. I talked to Professor Mark Jones, who is one of the co-directors of this poll. He's been in charge of polling in Texas for

years and years. And he said it was interesting to him that nine out of 10 of the undecided voters in the Texas Railroad Commission race had no idea who both French or Jim Wright even are, 15% of the respondents couldn't even remember who they voted for in the initial primary election on March 3rd in the Texas Attorney General's race. And he said, you know, to him that shows that most of the focus is on that top line Senate race. And people just really aren't even very aware of what's going on further down ballot, which is a bit of a challenge for some of these other candidates who are trying to reach voters and get

their message out. We also talked about the fact that that Senate race has been the most expensive in U.S. primary Senate race history, to put a big caveat on that. But that is taking up a lot of the donor money and taking up a lot of the oxygen in the room, if you will, when you're talking about the media coverage of these races. But we'll look forward to seeing what Mark produces in the next round of polling, which we anticipate coming out any day now. Well, thank you for that rundown, Holly. It's certainly a big one, as you said, with this U.S. Senate race, given the fact that not only was it super expensive on the Republican side, but James Tautlerico, the Texas state

representative running for U.S. Senate for the Democrats, raised a record-breaking $27 million in the first quarter of 2026. So it's going to be exciting. You know, we've seen figures within the state Republican Party like Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick trying to emphasize party unity, you know, and saying let's not burn all of our money right before the general election. Because the general election is still coming up. And Mary Elise, speaking of the November general election, the Democrats have highlighted a congressional race this week in South Texas by adding it to a competitive party program. Tell us about that. Yeah, so this is turning to one of the congressional races, and this is one happening in South Texas. Of course, South Texas is home to multiple congressional districts that are really coveted by both parties.

Both parties are eyeing them. But this week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the addition of CD-15 candidate Bobby Pulito to their what's called the Red to Blue program, as well as some other candidates. Bledo is, of course, a Latin singer, Latin Grammy winner. He is preparing to face off against incumbent congresswoman Monica Dela Cruz. She's held the seat since 2023, and she actually flipped that district in 2022. This is a South Texas territory like I mentioned in circles McAllen and then stretches a bit to the right side of San Antonio. But she flipped that district from blue to red in 2022. And so the area has really remained kind of this key district for Republicans to maintain.

And then also this electoral pursuit for Democratic strategists, which we see here happening, especially because its partisan makeup essentially remained untouched and impacted by the GOP favored redistricting that happened last summer. Although its borders did shift a little bit. But overall, its partisan reading remained at R-55 percent, according to the Texans. our Texas partisan index. So it has a very large Hispanic electorate. It is considered to have over 70% Hispanic electorate. And those are votes of President Donald Trump secured during the November general election in 2024. And Trump's victory among Latino voters in 2024 is among the reasons that these South Texas districts are really serving as an objective for both parties in the 2020. elections. That's why they've kind of both got their eyes on that there. So I noted in this story that there was an analysis put out several congressional districts by the Democratic Texas Majority Pack. And they published us just as Polito was considering

a run. So it wasn't official that he was running yet. But they described CD-15, the South Texas District, as, quote, the only possible red-to-blue-lip opportunity for Texas Democrats this cycle. They also argued that PLEO would do better than just your average first time candidate because it was named recognition being in the music industry. And before Monday, before they included PLEO into this program, the Red-D-Boo program only included candidates from other states did include Texas, like Arizona, Tennessee, Michigan, North Carolina were on there with different candidates that are running a race that the Democrats were considering, okay, these could be potential flips for us.

The chair of the D-Triple C, Susan Delbean, said in a press release, once they announced Polito's addition to this program that they call highly competitive, they said Bobby Polito is a candidate South Texans deserve someone with a deep understanding of a community that's ready to give a voice to the working families that Monica Dela Cruz has neglected. And so this program will provide candidates such as Polito, with additional resources to campaigning for bolstering their campaigns. These include different forms of guidance and staff resources, additional candidate trainings,

and then the most significant part is additional fundraising support for these candidates that are selected for the Red to Blue program. Polito said, he gave us a statement. He said that this red-to-blue nod from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says something real about what people across South Texas are building together. He said since September, we've been showing up everywhere and talking to everyone from living rooms in Edinburgh to backyards and far, from the Rio Grande Valley all the way up to Gonzalez. He said, folks here don't want a title. They want someone who's present and gets it.

This is something that Hannah has covered, but Polito and Gila Cruz have been engaged in a lot of different clashes going back and forth, especially through social media. including one that got a lot of attention over Kinceneras. De La Cruz at one point described Polito as a Kinzenera act in reference, of course, to his musical career. And then in response, Polito offered his musical surfaces to any such celebrations in the state. And then he's since published a lot of photos of him going to these different celebrations. So, yeah, they've had a lot of back and forth. That was just, that's one situation where they were. online kind of exchanging blows there. Another point of tension for the two was when there was

the McCallin family of five had entered the U.S. in 2023 under the Biden administration, and they were a bunch of Congress members were working to have them released. And Dela Cruz assisted with other members of Congress to have them released. but Palito was arguing you don't work fast enough and also the things that you voted for put this family in detention in the first place. But going back to CD-15 being highlighted by D-T-T-C, they had already put it on their website

under the 26 districts in play, and they had put CD-15 under what they call the defeat category. And then another district, CD-35, was one that they categorized as wanting to keep blue. This is where the brother of Congresswoman Dela Cruz, Carlos Dela Cruz, is running against state representative John Lujan and the Republican primary runoff, which is, of course, coming up, like we said. So there's some more details in this piece, but South Texas is just such an important area right

now for both parties. And this is kind of highlighted in the Democrats, adding Polito to its program, just kind of reemphasizing their intent to keep their attention on the South Texas district and their goal of flipping it. Well, thank you very much for that rundown, Mary Elise. As you said, South Texas is going to be a huge deal. It was a big deal in the last election when Trump was able to flip a lot of those areas that had been Democratic controlled for, in some cases, you know, over 100 years and seeing if they're able to keep that will be very, very interesting. So thank you very much. Hannah,

turning now to you. Tell us about the update in the case between the developers of the development formerly known as Epic City and the Texas Workforce Commission. Yes. So a Trots County judge has ruled in favor of community capital partners, which is the development company behind the East Pino Islamic Center or Epic. Their proposed residential development. So it had a lawsuit against the Texas Workforce Commission. And a judge ordered the Texas Workforce Commission to comply with the agreement that it had made with the developers of Epic, which is now known as the Meadow back in September of 2025. So the agreement was a conciliation agreement, which detailed that community capital partners would participate in

fair housing training and would submit periodic reports to the Texas Workforce Commission. They filed a lawsuit against the Texas Workforce Commission, which from now on I'll say the TWC, because if I keep saying that, I'm just going to move over my words. So they filed a lawsuit against the TWC this year, claiming that the state agency failed to uphold the agreement by not approving fair housing policies submitted by the company. So an injunction was issued by the Traverse County 201st District Court on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the judge dismissed the state's request to, dismiss the case, which allowed the lawsuit to proceed. So state officials responded immediately to the judge's decision. Governor Greg Abbott stated on X, Texas has already appealed and halted this flawed ruling. The meadow is also subject to other legal action by the state, and there are active investigations by state agencies in the federal government.

He added, this decision will never see the light of day. Attorney General Ken Pacton likewise announced Friday morning that his office stayed a temporary injunction that would have compelled the TWC to unlawfully approve fair housing documents for Epic City. So the announcement released by Paxton, stated that Paxton's appeal to the 15th Court of Appeals would relieve the TWC of acting inconsistently with its legal obligation and enforcement restraint. So a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was launched this year. The Texas Workforce Commission submitted a complaint to them earlier this year and it initiated its own investigation into the development for potential violations of the Fair Housing Act. So the investigations cite potential violations of setting conditions for sale based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. The president of community capital partners stated about the judge's recent decision. This ruling confirms what we have maintained from the beginning that community capital partners has been willing, ready, and committed to following Texas law at every step.

We've done nothing wrong in this decision reflects that. The Council on American Islamic Relations or CARE Texas also commented on the ruling stating, the course decision represents a significant victory against a coordinated, politically motivated campaign by Texas state officials, including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General, Paxton, who persistently attempted to use regulatory harassment to obstruct the multi-use con county development. So that just sums it up. Well, thank you very much, Hannah. Yeah, as you said with this whole thing, it's interesting also because care was designated by Abbott's. bit as a foreign terrorist organization last year. So their status in this whole thing has been, has been very interesting to see how, you know, some people continue to cite them as an authority.

Other people are now, of course, because of that designation, dismissing them out of hand. I think it's interesting that, you know, every couple years, there's a residential development in Texas that creates a storm of controversy. A little bit ago, it was Colony Ridge with the claim that they were seeking out illegal aliens and now with Epic City, the claim that they're making a Sharia law city in the middle of Texas. I feel like there's always some residential development that's getting some really bad press for themselves every so often. And this also reminds me, of course, of Meredith's recent piece on the Grand Prairie Water Park event that was originally advertised for the holiday of

Ed al-A-Hah, the Muslim holiday. It was advertised as being a Muslim-only event before people, this blazed across social media and it was the poster was changed to say a modest dress only event,

which I believe is now actually been confirmed to have been canceled. So that's, it's definitely the concerns over the supposed Islamization of Texas are, is making a lot of headlines right now. So thank you very much for that rundown.

Turning to you, Holly, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued public sanctions for judges in Hayes and Harris counties. What, tell us what happened there. That's right, Rob. And just to point out, we had an exclusive report in 2024 at the Texan News that was on one of these judges.

And this particular judge, Melissa Morris in Harris County is a felony criminal court judge, she was one of several judges who gave what we call unsatisfactory termination of probation to defendants who had pled guilty to sexual offenses with minor age children. And so it was a very serious concern. We had obtained those records from the district attorney's office at the time and ran this story. Well, just this week, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct posted or published what we call a warning for this judge, and it cited her granting those early terminations of probation to people who should have been on the sexual offenders registry for life in some cases. And the reason that some of the judges gave these early terminations, and in this case, Melissa Moore seems to have done so for this reason, And these suspects or defendants were being deported.

So they were in the country illegally. They had deportation orders. And so she just basically ended their criminal record in Harris County. The problem with that is, and I talked to the former district, Harris County District Attorney about this, Kim Oggs said, you know, now if these people come back into the country illegally and they're apprehended, technically, they don't have a warrant for their arrest. They don't have an indicator that they're supposed to be on that sex offender registry or that they may be wanted for violating the terms of their probation. So it was a big problem. Now, Melissa Morris had other issues as well. She appears to have forwarded an email chain regarding grand jury proceedings to defense counsel, which in fact can be a criminal offense. She was not charged with a criminal offense. I think it would have been pretty difficult to have her convicted on those charges, depending on who was presiding over that case or who was handling those charges. And especially since we did have a change in the DA's office in 2024 due to those elections.

But she did get discipline from the State Commission for that issue as well. We had also evidence that she sent some emails to prosecutors that accused them of disrespect and a lack of professionalism when they were challenging her on some of these issues. And the state commission said that it was actually Judge Morris, who was being unprofessional in the way she handled those communications. We also saw some warnings or an admonition, which is a lesser level of disciplinary action from that state commission for a Harris County Justice of the Peace. Now, and this one, he seems to have, and this gets complicated, it's down in the legal weeds, but he seems to have terminated receiverships in some public debt cases, not public debt, private debt cases. And he did that without notifying the parties or even holding a hearing. So that means that creditors who had payment arrangements with these defendants, for lack of a better term, basically weren't able to collect on those debts that they were owed. And despite the fact that there was a legal agreement in place.

So he was a discipline for that. And then we had a Hays County judge who seems to have used his official judges' social media accounts to promote private businesses, including a classic car show and a business for which his son worked. And so he was disciplined for that. And none of these judges or the JP in this case are removed from office. But Judge Melissa Morris is on the ballot this year. These things can be kind of a black mark on their record when they try to get voters to reelect them to office. So it's not without consequences, but again, all of these judges will remain on the bench in the state of Texas. Well, thank you for giving us the details on that, Holly.

Certainly very interesting to see, you know, I didn't know, for example, like the classic car show, it does sound pretty cool to me. So I don't know. I guess you promoted on your official government. government accounts. So, you know. That's fair. That's absolutely fair. Well, thank you very much for the details on that one, Holly. Hannah, turning to you now, two hemp rulings were issued on the same day. You could even call them joint rulings. Will the hemp community be left high and dry? Give us the details. You know what I want to recover. That was beautiful. And that was really good. Get all your hemp news here.

Rob Lauchess, the hemp pun extraordinaire. We'll get the news from Hannah Brewl, though. Which is an interesting for the name Brewer relating to drinks, but yet you seem to have covered the hemp beat quite a bit. The hemp beat. I love the hemp beat. The Texas Supreme Court reversed a lower court's injunction regarding the legality of hemp derived Delta 8 THC.

What is Delta 8, THC? you're asking yourself, that's what I ask myself. Delta 8, THC, is a nationally occurring psychoactive compound, found in trace amounts of cannabis plant. And the Texas Supreme Court stated that the lower court transgressed separation of powers in their decision. So the court's decision was more about the lower court's actions than the actual content itself.

The Supreme Court ruled that the state is permitted to treat manufactured Delta 8 hemp products as Schedule 1 controlled substances. which overturned an injunction that was previously secured by the hemp company hometown hero along with various other hemp companies. So Schedule I controlled substances are designated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, that's having high abuse potential and they are unprotected by medical classification in Texas. However, hemp manufacturers created artificial products containing a high concentration of manufactured Delta 8 THC, so they were still found in their products.

When the DHS contested and contested the sale of these products, the continued sale of these products, the hemp businesses sued, and then a trial court and an appeals court agreed to the injunctions, which blocked the DHS from enforcing the rule. So court justice Evan Young delivered the opinion that lower courts exceeded their authority in doing so. The same day that this was announced,

Travis County District Court Judge Daniela Desada Lytle granted an injunction in another recent hemp case. The last month, a judge in Travis County temporarily lifted hemp restrictions across the state, allowing smokeable hemp products to continue to be sold, even though new rules, which were implemented March 31st, had effectively banned most smokeable hemp products from the market. So Lytle's ruling stopped Texas health officials from enforcing the new rules while the lawsuit continues to play out. and it's expected that it will be reviewed in July. So hometown hero, which is one of the main hemp companies that sued the DSHS in that previous case, stated that it was a huge win for the industry, this Travis County judge's announcement, but that their team is examining next steps for the first case mentioned and looking to make an appeal.

Well, thank you very much, Hannah, for giving us the details on that one. I will spare you any additional hemp-related puns in our segue to our next story. But thank you for giving us the rundown on that. It's certainly interesting to see how hemp and THC is one of those persistent issues that continues to surface again and again, like with the whole issue last year about Abbott vetoing a total ban on hemp that had been passed by the legislature. So thank you very much. Mary Elise, the Supreme Court of the United States weighed in on a case this week dealing with chemical abortion pills. What happened there? Yeah, this was pretty significant news when it comes to abortion, especially because at least at the federal level, it has not been talked about very much.

It hasn't been very much going on. Of course, after the reversal ofrophy weighed a lot more going on at the state level, which we've seen in Texas. But actually, I have to say as I was writing this, we were initially writing about how the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that in-person dispensing requirements had to be reinstated for the chemical abortion pill meth-pristone. But then as we were writing it came down, Supreme Court United States paused that order, preventing, which prevented the online distribution of chemical abortion pills. And so the Supreme Court stepped in here after two distributors of Mithapristone requested that SCOTUS step in and halt the decision. So like I said, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said that in-person dispensing requirements needed to be reinstated for Mitha-Pristone. And that was responding to a case that had been brought forth by the state of Louisiana. and a little bit of context.

Mifapristone was approved by the FDA in 2000, and it's one of the two drugs that are used, two drug regimen and chemical abortions, the others, Missipristol. So Louisiana's suit in the fall of 2025 challenged the FDA for allowing chemical abortion pills to be mailed into their state, and they argue that the FDA's removal

of that in-person dispensing requirements in 2023, So the requirement that you had to, that you could only receive these in person versus it being, you know, mailed into the state. They were arguing that this increased the danger for women consuming the pills. They said it's dangerous because there's no medical supervision. You know, there's no follow up. There's no interaction with a health care provider. And then also that it enables abusers. There was one individual from Louisiana, Louisiana resident.

Rosalie, she joined this suit as a plaintiff, and she shared her story. She alleged that under immense pressure in fearing for her safety, she took chemical abortion drugs while pregnant, which had been ordered by her boyfriend through the mail. And this is a part of the case that the state was making is that this is dangerous because an abuser can take these pills, you know, slip it into a drink or just force the woman into taking the pills under coercion versus it being an interaction with a doctor. So starting in 2016 under the Obama administration, the FDA changed for what's called risk evaluation mitigation strategy parameters, so REMS, for attaining MIFAprisone.

So it increased the max gestational age of the fetus to 70 days and then reduce the number required in-person office visit to one, and then allow non-doctors to prescribe the drug, and then also eliminated reporting of non-fatal adverse events. And then another change came for Mithopristone in 2021 when the FDA announced that it would allow Mephipristone to be sent through the mail. And then in 2023, the FDA permanently removed the N-person requirement for dispensing the drug. So the case of this young woman, And then I mentioned earlier, she's represented by lines defending freedom. And so she argued that had those pre-20203 protocols been in place, she would have, quote, received the protection of a private in-person medical appointment.

And if she had been able to tell a doctor that she did not want an abortion, the drugs that took her baby's life would have never been provided. It says within the court documents, she grieves the loss of her child and enders lasting emotional trauma. So the Fifth Circuit's ruling, which, as I said, reinstated those in-person dispensing requirements for the pill is blocked now until the evening of Monday, May 11th. And that is because of this order by SCOTUS Justice Samuel Lido, which he issued on Monday. So he essentially rendered that the lower court's ruling is administratively stayed for one week. And so the stay of this Fifth Circuit, the pausing of this ruling, came after an emergency request was filed by two manufacturers of the chemical abortion drugs. Danko Laboratories and Gen Biopro. They argued that the decision on Friday from the Fifth Circuit was, quote, unprecedented.

And then they argued that it would cause mayhem for their businesses, selling Mifristone, as well as confusion surrounding medical decisions. involving the hipristone. Dango is similarly involved in a case in 2024 when SCOTUS ruled that the doctors and organizations behind the case, which included ADF, didn't have standing to sue the FDA for approval for its approval of, and then the subsequent regulations on the drug. So we have a comment in there from Gen Biopro. We can read a few more details about the case. But, of course, we'll be following this because this order is blocked until the evening of

Monday, May 11th. So we'll see what happens after this, but of course it's just significant to see SCOTUS step in here and be involved in an abortion case. Well, thank you for giving us the details on that one, Mary Elise. As you noted in your article, you know, the national GOP has been a bit more hands off on the issue of abortion ever since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And so it's interesting to see more developments at the national level coming through SCOTUS. So thank you for. yeah, giving us the rundown on that one. Holly, turning now to you, there is a new legal challenge to a Texas law that would have criminalized illegal immigration at the state level, but which,

from what I understand, has still not managed to reach the level where it can be enforced, despite being passed in 2023. Tell us more about that. That's right. Rob, just a few weeks ago, we reported that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed a long pending lawsuit that had held up implementation of Senate Bill 4 that was passed in the 2023 legislative session, or one of those sessions, one of those during that year, I think we had multiple special sessions, right? I don't know off the top of my head which one accomplished this piece of legislation. But basically what it did was it criminalized being an illegal alien. or illegal entry into the state of Texas and allowed local law enforcement to arrest individuals

merely for being here illegally. It allowed Texas judges or magistrates to order deportation of these individuals. But of course, it was met with legal action almost immediately. But since the Fifth Circuit dismissed that case, only because they said the parties did not have standing to bring the lawsuit. We had a new group filed a new suit on Monday, and they are again seeking an injunction to try to block implementation of this bill that is supposed to become active as of May 15th, so just a week away. The new lawsuit drew a rebuke from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who put out a statement noting that although usually you have the Texas lawmakers, craft legislation, sometimes with input from his staff and his office, he said he wrote this bill himself

and that he does believe it's constitutional. Now, the plaintiffs in these complaints are arguing that immigration is a federal issue and that the state of Texas doesn't actually have the authority to enforce immigration law. And of course, Texas, as we know, has been arguing that, well, the federal government has not been doing their job when it comes to border security and controlling immigration. So we're having to step up and take action in the state. And, you know, one of the stats that came out in the course of all of this was just regarding the number of individuals that were flooding across the border, especially in those years between 2021 and 23. I think it was $6 million that they estimated. And all of this, you know, was a cost of taxpayers and, you know, just some of the criminal elements and the services

for some of these immigrants. And, you know, now the border is much more under control under the Trump administration. But Dan Patrick warned that, you know, in the future, you could have someone else in the White House who has a different way of approaching whether or not they're going to enforce the border and keep that border close to those who are crossing without. permission from the U.S. government. And so he insists that this law needs to remain in place to protect Texas and the citizens of Texas from a future wave of immigrants who are unvetted and may come in and wreak some havoc in the state. So that is the latest on that fight. We'll keep watching. Interestingly enough, a filed in the same court in the Western District of Texas, this particular

judge already issued one injunction against this law. So they probably have a pretty good shot of getting another injunction. But then, of course, it will be back before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals before it's all said and done. Whether that happens before May 15th, I don't think so. Well, thank you very much, Holly. Yeah, it's always interesting seeing what stuff from the Biden administration made it through the state legislature, I remember, or even just the state government itself. Remember the whole controversy over Governor Greg Abbott ordering razor wire barriers to be placed in the Rio Grande. And there was this whole conflict with the Biden administration over that. And now it seems, of course, there is more harmony between the state government and the federal

government on border protection. But it'll be interesting, as you said, to see as things always have to work their way through the legal system before they can finally be implemented. But Absolutely. Hannah, turning back to you on an issue that also, again, affects the U.S. Mexico border. The U.S. Farm Bill was passed in the U.S. House last week. What does that mean for Texas? Yes. So, the U.S. announced or U.S. House announced the passage of the 2006 U.S. Farm Bill or the Farm Food and National Security Act, 2026. And its implications for Texas mostly have to do with the 1940s. U.S. Mexico Water Treaty. So the bill was advanced by the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, which includes U.S. reps Ronnie Jackson and Monica Dela Cruz. The bill has a wide scope and it deals with topics from the SNAP program benefits to pesticide liabilities.

And it deals with the 1944 Water Treaty as well. So the 1944 Water Treaty states that the U.S. is to provide Mexico with 1.5 million acre feet of water each year from the Colorado River, and in turn, Mexico will provide the U.S. with $3.35 million acre feet of water every five years from tributaries that feed the Rio Grande River. But since the 1990s, Mexico has not upheld its end of the agreement, and the consequences according to 2020-23 Texas A&M AgriLife report have showed millions and millions of dollars of loss due to Mexico's lack of giving it's due to the United States. So in their agorlife report, they show that economic loss and specialty and row crops alone

coming out to be close to $500 million. The Farm Bill also established an interagency working group to protect the economic interests of the U.S. agricultural producers that are impacted by Mexico's failure to deliver water under, to deliver water under the treaty. So it basically created an interagency group to deal with this problem. And it's also stated that the group will secure annual and predictable water deliveries. Dela Cruz called the bill's passage a massive wind through South Texas. This past December, Mexico agreed to release about 200,000 acre feet of that water in January,

but by March it still had not been released. Rep. Ronnie Jackson stated at the time when our farmers and ranchers are facing increased, production challenges. Moving this bill forward is a critical step to keeping U.S. agriculture competitive, resilient, and secure. Also, several GOP representatives from Texas recently sent a letter to the U.S. trade representative ambassador and the U.S. chief agricultural negotiator, urging them to utilize the upcoming United States-Mexico-Canada agreement renegotiations, which will happen this summer as an opportunity to push for Mexico's compliance the treaty. So back in 2020, the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement replaced NAFTA,

and in July the countries are scheduled for a joint review. It appears that bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and Mexico are already scheduled, and the topics expected to be discussed at the meeting include regional tariffs. But Texas lawmakers are also asking that this topic be brought up at the meeting as well. In December last year, President Trump's stated on truth social that he would impose a 5% tariff on Mexico if it did not immediately really slaughter to the U.S. We'll see how this conversation go. Well, thank you very much, Hannah. Yeah, this water issue is always interesting to see, of course, we've had a lot of water issues in Texas as of late with the state's burgeoning

population. There were those headlines a little bit ago about Corpus Christi might run out of water in a few months' time. Water, of course, as as, as, as, as, Texas population continues to grow and it shows no signs of stopping, water is just going to be a bigger and bigger issue. So thank you very much for giving us the rundown on that. Mary Lees, turning now to you, an illegal alien was recently indicted for assault in New York State. Explain the connection to Texas. Yeah, so this individual's illegal alien was originally being held in the Fort Bend County Jail. He was since extraded back to New York State, and he's been indicted for rape and assault of a stranger. So the Houston branch of ICE announced this just the other day. They referenced that they had lodged an immigration detainer on the illegal alien while he was being held in the Fort Bend County Jail. So he's originally from Honduras, Jose Ignacio Garcia.

He was arrested in Rosenberg as he was allegedly attempting. to flee to Mexico in early April. And this was following his alleged assault of a stranger in New York State, in New York State, excuse me. I said that Garcia allegedly beat a man until he was unconscious in New York and then proceeded to sexually assault the, quote, incapacitated individual. District attorney that was handling this case in New York described the incident a little bit differently said that it began when the intoxicated victim collapsed while in conversation outside

a restaurant with Garcia, and then Garcia allegedly dragged the victim behind a dumpster and assaulted him. I said that this individual has entered the United States four times or more, I said four times confirmed potentially more times. He was expelled three times in 2020 under President Donald Trump, and then his fourth re-entry is unreasoned. courted, they said. So he has been indicted for two counts of rape in the first degree, and then one count of assault in the second degree, and that was on April 27th. And he's facing up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted. The district attorney in New York said, just thank Texas law enforcement for their collaboration in the case, and then talked about,

you know, accountability for perpetrators of sexual violence is not a not just a legal obligation, but also a moral one. So also something recent that had been announced by ICE Houston was that they had done this operation where they had arrested hundreds of illegal aliens during a two-week operation. And they had a combined 751 criminal offenses among them. So it was 277 illegal aliens. and then 17 of those were alleged child predators, six murders, 15 gang members.

And so, of course, they're highlighting this and then this other operation with Garcia, just driving home the point that they're working to get rid of illegal aliens who are committing crimes here in the United States. So, yeah, just the latest update from Houston ICE here. Well, thank you, Mary Elise. certainly a very serious story. Yeah, we appreciate you doing your due diligence on that one. Thank you very much. Holly, turning now to you, a Texas judge has stricken down, struck down.

I'm not quite sure which would be the right one to say there. A federal treasury requirement over cash real estate transactions. Tell us more about that. Right. So this is a rule that was imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department's financial crimes enforcement network called Finsen for short. It would have required extensive reporting on most cash residential real estate transactions. And what happened is the Biden administration implemented this rule. It was implemented as a way to combat or identify money laundering efforts.

And what it did is it required these really extensive reports. And it would include names, address them, dates of birth, citizenship status, ID numbers, of all people involved, including minors if they were beneficiaries in any way of a trust or so forth. Payment details, just a lot of information. And you had a title company here in the state of Texas out of Tyler, Texas, called Flowers Title, they filed suit over. along with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is one of these nonprofit legal organizations that provides legal assistance to citizens who are trying to protect their constitutional rights and so forth.

So what they did is they went to court. Now, there's been legal challenges to this rule in several different jurisdictions, but this is the only one that's actually gotten an injunction. And the judge here in Texas, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, is Jeremy Kurnodal, I think. He issued nationwide injunction against implementation of the rule. It's pretty certain that the government will likely appeal to the Fifth Circuit. But again, this was a Biden-era rule, but it seems that the Trump administration is also willing to fight to keep the rule in place.

They seem to think it will be helpful. to them. But what this particular judge is saying is that under the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970, Congress never gave to the Treasury Department the authority to implement this role. It just says that they can regulate and they have this category of what they call suspicious transactions. And the judge said, well, you can't just say an entire category of transactions is suspicious. Congress has to be a little bit more specific about what they meant by that in order for a rule like this to be imposed. Of course, Congress could come back and add to that secrecy in banking act to make it a little more specific, but this judge doesn't

think that that is in this statute at this time. They never did get down to some of the more constitutional questions here. Plaintiffs were also wanting to argue that this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and there are some other conflicts between the different branches of government here, but the judge said, we're not even going to consider those. I think we have enough here just looking at the actual text of what Congress did pass and what the Treasury Department is trying to do here. But we did see a judge uphold the rule out of the state of Florida that has been appealed to the 11th Circuit Court.

So we could be seeing a situation where you have a circuit split, where you have, you know, one circuit doing one thing and another circuit saying something else. And that makes it a good candidate case to land before the Supreme Court. So we will continue to watch and see what happens based on what a. title insurance or title company did here in the state of texas well thank you very much holly i was not originally anticipating when we were getting ready to record to have two big i guess real estate related um stories this week but thank you for giving us the details on that one uh mary alice last but not certainly not least you have been reporting on the camp mystic situation this year, there has been an entire political saga over whether or not Camp Mystic,

where 28 people lost their lives during the July 4th weekend, flooding of last year. There has been an entire debacle over whether or not Camp Mystic would be allowed to be open and receive a license to operate for the summer of 2026. The Texas Senate and House leadership made waves this week in response to some Texas camps struggling due to new safety laws that were implemented last year. Tell us why. Yeah, like you said, we covered last week the hearings of Camp Mystic, where there was conversations surrounding whether they should be able to operate this summer. And ultimately, they ended up withdrawing the application for this summer, deciding that they were. would not continue to pursue that.

But this here has to do with other camps who are evidently struggling to meet all of the requirements under the laws that were passed in the wake of Camp Mystics tragedy for this summer to operate this summer. So we saw Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burroughs come out and indicate essentially that they would support Texas camps receiving licenses to operate this summer, even if they don't exactly meet the letter of the law on specifically the new fiber optic internet requirements, following also a lawsuit from several camps, and then just push back from several camps over the demands for them to meet.

So, you know, of course, after Camp Mystic happened, there was kind of a mad dashed by the legislature to respond with legislation to hopefully prevent such tragedy in future and come up with some different laws that would help protect camps moving forward. There are 19 camps that are now suing the Texas Department of State Health Services over the state's creation last year of some of these. camp safety laws, which at the time some lawmakers were worried were made as they were moving a little bit too quickly. But they called these camps called these new regulations completely unreasonable and unconstitutional. But they're specifically saying that the requirement that all youth camps provide and maintain an end-to-end fiber optic broadband internet connection for the camps is unreasonable and unconstitutional. And so in a joint statement on Tuesday, Patrick and Burroughs responded to those concerns,

and the concerns from other camps who were saying we're not going to be able to get a license for operation this summer because of the new safety requirements. And so they said that these reforms, and this is the statement from Patrick and Burroughs, these reforms establish a more rigorous approach to preparedness, including long-overdue requirements, such as comprehensive emergency planning and training

and redundant internet access. But then they said, we recognize that some camps have been unable to meet the redundant internet requirement because the law requires camps to install new fiber optic internet infrastructure. Then they said we also recognize that there may be means other than fiber to provide reliable redundant internet access, which would satisfy the purpose and the spirit of the law. One state representative who has been very vocal initially even when these laws were being passed and then now is state Representative West Verdell. He, of course, represents Kirk County. And, you know, he witnessed a lot of the

aftermath. I was there on the ground after this tragedy. He was raising, he raised issue with these camp safety regulations as they were being discussed in the house. And then he's continued to kind of rail against them. He said, if lawmakers had listened to, quote, common sense from the get-go, then these camps wouldn't be struggling now to meet requirements for licensure for this summer. On April 30th, Redell sent a formal request to Governor Greg Abbott asking that he would call another special session to address the camp safety legislation that was passed in the summer of 2025. He described that legislation is causing massive problems for camps across Texas. He said that the problems are not isolated. They represent systematic issues that require legislative correction.

and it was signed by a handful of Texas House representatives, one Democratic representative, Josie Garcia. So Burroughs and Patrick said that as the leadership of Texas Senate and the Texas House, they do support allowing camps to qualify for licensure through the Department of State Health Services to operate for the summer of 2026. if they have submitted a sufficient emergency action plan, meet all other safety requirements, and maintain a reliable communication system capable of operating during an emergency. And then they said the upcoming 90th legislative session will be an opportunity where we will discuss these laws and will make necessary changes and also try to even further strengthen camp safety standards. So we will see how this affects practically, how this affects camps that are seeking to get licenses to operate for the summer. Of course, the summer season is really quickly approaching. And I think that's why it's ramped up so much recently where these camps are raising even more concerned.

Like, hey, it's getting really close and we're concerned about being able to have a license for operation. So we'll continue to follow this story. Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise. Yeah, this summer camp issue has been an issue for a year now, and as we get closer to the summer, it will probably only remain in the news cycle. So thank you to everybody. Turning now to a little bit of tweery. Let's see what people have found interesting on Twitter this week. Holly, what about you?

Well, I think what I have actually started on Facebook, maybe, but we'll call it the social media section, and now it's sold over to Twitter. But apparently the Harris County Democratic Party put out a post and they were trying to accuse Governor Abbott of hypocrisy as surrounding this murder suspect who has reportedly fled to Italy to avoid trial in the murder of his wife who was pregnant at the time. And the murder took place, I think, in 2024. but he was given a $1 million bond at that time. And what the Harris County Democrats were saying is that the judge presiding over the case that gave him the bond is an Abbott appointee. So they're saying Governor Abbott appointed this guy. He released the suspect on this bond and now the guy is absconded and we're having trouble getting him back to the U.S. Well, there's just one little problem.

The bond was issued for the suspect in October 2024. And judge, let's see, I think his name is Peyton Peoples, was not appointed until January of 2025. So there's been a bit of a brouhaha about who's responsible here. It turns out it was a visiting judge who was just presiding over the case until a new judge could be sworn. in and appointed and sworn in to office there. Interestingly enough, too, the judge in that case actually probably would have had a hard time holding the suspect without bond because the voters had not yet passed Proposition 3, which we wrote about quite a lot. And that's the constitutional amendment that allows judges the discretion to deny bond completely in some of these cases

and Democrats, including the Harris County Democratic Party chair, opposed passage of that constitutional amendment. So, you know, it's just another one of those political season fights. And sometimes people get out over their skis when they want to make a political point. There you go. I do love any instance to use the word brouhaha. That's a good word. It is, it is. A rancorous brouhaha.

Good vocabulary. Curfuffle was a good one to you. That's also a good one. A ruckus. Could you describe the ruckus, sir? Along with our hemp-related puns. Absolutely. Well, speaking of people getting excited, Hannah, what is your theory?

Okay, this is all the loves of a tweetry, but I saw this video. It was on Twitter. X, excuse me. So sorry. It was on X. And it was video that, it was like a promo video for Galveston Beach. It was filmed by a drone. I don't know why I included that information.

But anyways, it reminded me of this debate I was having with people last year of, is Texas a beach state? Do you think that Texas is a beach state? And so I just wanted to read the room. interesting question. Okay. I grew up in Florida, so I have some fun strong. I grew up going to Galveston Beach.

So I have a couple of strong opinions about Galveston as well. It's nostalgic, but, you know, there are conventionally nicer beaches in other parts of the country, even though pleasure peer, of course, is a lot of fun. you know, Galveston is. Galveston is very nostalgic if you grew up in that area. Yeah. I like Puerto Rico. I think it's lovely. You know, if we're going to go, you know, head-to-head beaches, come on.

Destin is also very nice in Florida. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But if someone was like, what are the beach states in the U.S.? Texas, but just not, it wouldn't hit up there. Probably not. You could go, so you could have gone south to Boca Chica, but now Elon Musk is launching rockets out of there.

So, you know, it might be. Unless you're there for the sightseeing, then that might be, then that might be more exciting. But, you know. I'm always a new thing people say, oh, I'm going to surfing school in Galveston. I'm like, interesting. That's always fun.

Good luck. Mary Elise, for your tweetery here, I think you told us it's just called chonkers. Can you explain what you mean by that? This is definitely a lighthearted one. I was actually going to talk about what you put, Rob, but I ended up looking at the link, and I thought, okay, I'm not to choose some of you all.

So this is just a sea lion that's kind of taken over social media. I don't know if it has for y'all, but I think, you know, your algorithm is defined by how long you look at something. And so I have a lot of videos of chonkers on my X feed. But he's a sea lion that is just absolutely enormous. I'm trying to remember where he's located, but he weighs 2,000 pounds. And so he's been a big issue because they have a lot of different. I guess you'd call him docks where the sea lions are hanging out.

But then whenever he kind of jumps up, which is really surprising that he can. But he does. He jumps out of the water into the deck. He's been breaking a lot of decks. And then also the other sea lions just like scurry away. But he is absolutely enormous. and he's become just a, I guess he's just become kind of a tourist attraction almost. People are like searching for him and taking photos of him.

And of course he's been given the name of Chonkers, which just seems really fitting. I am looking at a picture of Chonkers now. You were not kidding. The cow. He is enormous. Wow. Like significantly bigger than the other sea lions of this picture. I wonder if that is this like a case.

of like gigantism? Because he's not just wider. He's like taller too. So here's a little tidbit about Holly's crazy life. I was once a tour guide at SeaWorld in Florida. And so we had to, you know, kind of

know about all the animals. The male sea lions get to be huge. And they're kind of mean. So we can go to the shows and everything and you see, oh, the funny, cute sea lions. Those are the younger ones when they get old.

Use them in the show and they can be aggressive. They bite. Oh, gosh. Oh, no. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I do like those videos of the baby steals, though. They are always, they're kind of like dogs, honestly, the way that they seem to come up to people. Yeah, they're great.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry for stealing your tweeterie, Mary Elise. But I didn't realize, but we had to talk about this ad. that was released by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who is running against the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass. This is one of the best uses of AI video generation I have seen, depicting the L.A. political class as decadent, pre-revolutionary French aristocrats

and Karen Bass as the Joker wearing the outfit of a judge, while Pratt himself is Batman, who is going to stop her. And when he shows up, not only does Marco Rubio show up to say some nice things about him, but the music playing in the background and my jaw dropped when this came on was, I got a feeling by the black guy. It's, yeah, I think I guess you should expect to see more AI videos like this in the future. but yeah you know oh and also commissioner gordon it was joe rogan um so you know points for creativity um i i'd never thought as a history fan the french revolution is very interesting but i had

never thought to combine it with batman so it sounds amazing i'm going to have to watch this absolutely it's a wild ride to watch it you will definitely if you're on twitter it will probably show up for you just because it's so crazy. But yeah. It's got to thank you to everybody. Oh, sorry. I was going to say it's got millions of views. It's become really, really popular.

I think because it's so outlandish partially. Yeah, I think it might be one of those cases where, like, you know, if you're trying to boost your name recognition, this is probably going to do it on social media. So thank you to everybody for sharing y'all's tweetery. I want to say thank you to holly. Mary Elise and Hannah for joining us on this week's weekly roundup podcast. And thank you to all of you for listening.

We couldn't do it without you. So if you like what we have to say, visit the texan.news and follow us and all of our reporters on social media to stay up to date on news you can trust. Join us again next Friday morning for the next episode of the Texans Weekly Roundup. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, visit us at the Texan. News.

Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the Texan. Tews. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.