Know Your Rights: This week, much national news centered on deportation plans. Immigrant support groups like La Unión del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, are conducting “Know Your Rights” campaigns, The Texas Tribune reports, warning undocumented citizens that they should make plans now in case they or their neighbors are deported. “Who’s going to pick up the kids from school?” Joaquín García of LUPE recently asked during a meeting with immigrants. “Payments on the house, car payments, house bills, the property title – all of that has to be in your plan.”
Deportation Camps in the Works: Concentration camps across the USA? It seems they’re on the way. Donald Trump is talking to private prison companies in an effort to dramatically expand immigrant detention centers, NBC News reports, with the goal of doubling the numbers that ICE is able to hold. And don’t forget the family detentions! Trump also wants to reinstate the practice of detaining children along with their parents, something Joe Biden put a stop to after he took office in 2021.
Great Recession 2.0: We mentioned this just the other week – deportations of immigrants on the scale at which Trump fantasizes would surely wreck the Texas economy, particularly the construction industry, most of which is made up of undocumented workers. Now, a report released by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee has found that deporting 8 million immigrants (Trump wants to deport 11 million) would reduce GDP by 7.4% and reduce employment by 7% over four years, likely causing an economic impact on par with the Great Recession.
Absenteeism, Be Gone: Some good news locally, this week – Austin ISD is beginning to make progress in reducing its chronic absenteeism rate, according to reporting by KUT’s Becky Fogel. Chronic absenteeism, defined as a student missing 10% or more of class days during a school year, doubled nationwide during the pandemic. Chronic absenteeism in the district was 26% this year, a touch lower than the national average, but AISD has invested resources in lowering the rate and the effort seems to be working. According to Carla De La Rosa, director of student attendance, the rate at this year’s winter break is 15% lower than at a similar point last year.
Dell Med Students Show Up: Students at UT’s Dell Medical School are providing free health care to people living at the Esperanza Community for unhoused Austinites in Southeast Austin, KUT’s Olivia Aldridge reports. The clinic is just a short walk for the dozens of people living at Esperanza and is a place where patients can undergo routine visits and get prescriptions refilled. It’s also a way for students to gain additional experience while in school.
Local Movie Magic: Two of the most iconic movies filmed in Austin are set to be preserved in the National Film Registry, a part of the Library of Congress, according to NPR. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – which Variety recently named the best horror movie of all time – was shot all around Central Texas. Spy Kids, Robert Rodriguez’s family-friendly spy romp, will also be added to the registry. The 2001 film was shot in various parts of Austin.
Burrows v. Cook: A struggle that could help determine whether the state adopts school vouchers, among other proposals, has broken out among Texas Republicans. Staunch Republican Reps. David Cook and Dustin Burrows are both claiming to have the 76 votes necessary to become the next speaker of the House. However, much of Burrows’ support comes from – my god, could it be true? – Democrats, who may be looking for a greater voice than they would likely have under Cook. The Texas Tribune reports that most of Burrows’ Republican supporters have, for years, been attacked by the rightmost wing of the party, which Cook represents.
Execution Saga Continues: Reps. Joe Moody, a Democrat, and Jeff Leach, a Republican, have once again subpoenaed death row inmate Robert Roberson to provide testimony about his case to the Texas House, The Texas Tribune reports. The testimony is scheduled for noon on Dec. 20. The pair originally subpoenaed Roberson to appear before them on Oct. 17, the same day Roberson was to have been executed, to highlight what they call the “junk science” that led to his conviction in 2003 for the death of his daughter. Roberson never appeared before the lawmakers then, but the subpoena stopped his execution. The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that Texas prison officials must honor it.
Land Without a Real Plan: The city of Austin bought about 60 acres of land for tens of millions of dollars between 2020 and 2022, but most of it is still sitting vacant, KUT reports. The land grab was done to give the city full control over land throughout the city that they could use to build affordable housing to help address Austin’s housing crisis. City housing staff do not currently have a timeline for when development on the land will occur, but they hope to produce one next year.
12th Street Building, Preserved: The Eisenbeiser building, a 100-year-old wooden structure along 12th Street that has served as a grocery, saloon, and barbershop over the years, was granted historic status by City Council last week and will not be demolished. Dallas-based Eureka Holdings, which has bought a large array of properties along 11th and 12th streets in the last decade, had asked permission to tear it down. The Austin Monitor reports that Council’s vote is a rare victory for preservationists, who collected 1,600 signatures for a petition requesting the building’s preservation.
Hotel Taxes for Homelessness: City Council has joined Austin’s tourism industry with its efforts to help people experiencing homelessness. Per reporting in the Austin Monitor, Council changed city rules last week to create the Austin Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID), which will levy a new 2% tax on hotels with 100 or more rooms starting in April 2025. The city expects the new fee to generate $7 million per year to provide housing and other services for homeless residents.
Keeping the Marshalling Yard Going: The emergency homeless shelter known as the Marshalling Yard located in Southeast Austin will continue operating thanks to $6.75 million in budget transfers City Council approved Dec. 12, KUT reports. The facility can provide shelter to 300 people, who have access to meals and case management services. Council members noted that continued shelter operation, which was made possible due to expiring American Rescue Plan Act funds, was not sustainable and a permanent solution was needed.
Sweet Methane, Baby: Earlier this year, a new federal climate rule was finalized. It requires oil and gas operators to significantly reduce the methane released in oil fields, and states will soon submit plans to the Environmental Protection Agency detailing how they’ll do so. Donald Trump reversed a methane reduction rule during his first term, but The Texas Tribune reports that rolling back the new rule would take years, and there’s support for reducing emissions in the industry.
Bad Groundwater: In Texas’ annual report on groundwater protection, Texas agencies reported 252 new cases of groundwater contamination during 2023, Inside Climate News reports. Nearly every county in Texas is affected, and Texas relies on groundwater from aquifers for more than half of its water supply. Yikes!
Musk’s Meetings with Foreign Leaders: Austin’s favorite South African is in the news almost as much as Trump, and for many of the same reasons. The New York Times reports that Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, are the subjects of at least three federal reviews studying whether they failed to comply with necessary federal reporting rules meant to safeguard state secrets. Among other things, Musk may not have provided details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to the report.
China Loses UT Money: The University of Texas won’t divest from companies creating munitions for Israel but it does plan to divest from China. Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order recently which directs the University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Co. to stop investing in companies owned by “a foreign adversary government.” “We welcome this directive from the governor,” UT System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife said on Dec. 11. “We agree with him.” Changes to UT’s investments are to occur by Jan. 1.
Not Ready for War: Speaking of China, is the U.S. prepared for war with adversaries should it come to that? This week The Atlantic explored that question, positing that the U.S. failed to produce weapons fast enough for Ukraine, and that, despite our history of military domination, the U.S. military “confronts a deep, institutional deficiency.” The piece asserts, “The U.S. today could not replicate the achievement of World War II. It could not build trucks and tanks and ships and airplanes in such volume.”
Quote of the Week
“To be sure, it’s a highly successful downtown, but we need to focus on it and prepare it for the next decade.”
– Kirk Watson, in a newsletter describing need for development in Downtown Austin
This article appears in December 20 • 2024.