How Special Shall The Session Be?

The 82nd Session of the Texas Legislature came to an end, you may have heard. After Texas Senator Wendy Davis of Fort Worth brought the proceedings to a standstill as she filibustered SB 1811, a fiscal matters bill which would have allowed public schools to lose $4 billion, no other compromises on the bill were had, thus forcing a call for a Special Session. In this post, we look at two issues which directly affect the future of Hispanic Texans that will and/or may be called up during the up-to-30-day special session.

Democrats in the Texas Senate were able to push back on HB 12, the bill that would ban non-existent sanctuary cities, but the inevitable Special Session has left the issue open to be added to the call of the session. Although not included in Gov. Rick Perry's call, thus far, conservative Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and others are calling for the divisive bill to be added to the call. In fact, State Rep. Burt Solomons has already filed it.

State Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, filed House Bill 9, a bill that would prohibit local entities from enacting policies that prohibits law enforcement from inquiring into the immigration status of a person lawfully detained or arrested.

Thus far, Governor Perry has included school finance, a Medicaid measure and Congressional redistricting in the call. The latter came after Republicans introduced a Congressional map that already has some Democrats questioning its viability.

State Rep. Marc Veasey stated that the map violates the Voting Rights Act.

"This map is the very definition of an unfair and illegal congressional plan, one that was constructed behind closed doors with reckless disregard for the testimony of Texans who asked for a plan that adheres to the Voting Rights Act and preserves communities of interest," Rep. Veasey explained."

The Seliger-Solomons Plan is a slap in the face of minority voters responsible for 90% of Texas growth in the last decade." 

An initial review of the proposed plan clearly indicates that it is retrogressive and creates only 10 effective minority opportunity districts out of 36 compared to the 11 effective districts in the current 32 member plan. 

Veasey had submitted his own map last week, and the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force gave the Legislature a grade of "F" for failing to create a Congressional map that would have taken into consideration Hispanic population growth, as was announced at a press conference which Somos Tejanos covered last Friday.

The Republican Congressional redistricting map, known as the Solomons-Seliger map, is sure to undergo Department of Justice scrutiny, and already there are legal challenges from a group of Congress members who represent predominantly Hispanic districts.

Rep. Gene Green of Houston said he and three Democratic colleagues from Texas who represent large Hispanic populations - Reps. Charlie Gonzalez, of San Antonio, Silvestre Reyes, of El Paso, and Lloyd Doggett, of Austin - have sued in federal and state courts in Austin seeking creation of two congressional districts in Harris County with more than 60 percent Hispanic population.

 

Green said the Democrats' plan would create a second predominantly Hispanic district in Harris County in addition to the one he now represents.

The Democratic Congressional delegation of Texas also stood united when they released this statement:

"While nearly 90 percent of Texas's growth over the last decade was due to population growth among Hispanics, African-American, and Asians, state Republicans allocate no additional seats where these Texans have the ability to influence the outcome of an election.  These efforts by Republicans are nothing more than a concerted attempt to deny every Texan the power of one person one vote over the next decade.  This is retrogression, plain and simple.  This deliberate attempt to silence the voices of such a large segment of our population is contrary to our American ideals, and should be resoundingly rejected by all Texans.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), who would take the lead in much of the legal wrangling over redistricting, also blasted the map.

"The Solomons-Seliger map does not increase the number of Latino-opportunity congressional districts despite the fact that 65 percent of the state's growth over the past decade was comprised of Latinos," said Nina Perales, MALDEF's vice president for litigation. "Instead, the map gerrymanders more than 9 million Latinos in Texas to make sure that we have no more electoral opportunity than we did in 1991."

Proponents of the map will respond with the same argument as redistrictings past:  That Texas is a Republican state and deserves more Republican seats. The Voting Rights Act, though, was created to outlaw discriminatory voting practices, including gerrymandering. Given the shape of the districts in the Solomons-Seliger map, it would seem that every effort has been made to disenfranchise Hispanic Texan voters by diluting their voting strength in favor of protecting Republican incumbents. 

Over 45 years after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, Hispanic Texans and other historically disenfranchised groups, must utilize the courts to determine their political destiny, and that is unfortunate.

Somos Tejanos will be following developments at the Texas Capitol during the Special Session, keeping you informed, and perhaps, calling on you to act.