Good morning,

This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, August 28, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Biden-Harris ‘Parole In Place’ Scheme Temporarily Blocked by Federal Court

• A White House program seeking to provide a pathway to citizenship for more than one million people in the country illegally has been placed on hold by a federal court thanks to a legal challenge from Attorney General Ken Paxton. As Will Biagini reports, 200,000 of those illegal aliens are currently in Texas.
   
• The program has been characterized by Paxton as a "brazenly unlawful" attempt to circumvent federal law.
     
• A court order has frozen the program for two weeks. Known as "parole-in-place," the program would permit foreign nationals in the United States for ten or more years and married to U.S. citizens to remain inside the country. Typically, someone in the country illegally must return to their home country while awaiting visa approval.

UT System Prohibits Political Statements From its Universities

• Institutions in the University of Texas System are now prohibited from adopting political or social positions relating to “issues of the day.” Valerie Muñoz has the details.
      
• The policy adopted by the UT Board of Regents follows instances where other institutions of higher education, like Harvard, were criticized for their official statements on the Israel-Hamas war. 
     
• This prohibition only applies to “official university statements, functions, ceremonies, and publications.” Statements by students, faculty, and staff will be unaffected by it.

Lubbock County Commissioners Block Property Tax Hike

• Backed by local residents declaring they are taxed enough, two Lubbock County commissioners blocked a proposed property tax increase by skipping a tax rate hearing scheduled for this week. Erin Anderson has the story.
      
• Commissioners Jordan Rackler and Jason Corley intentionally missed this week's meeting of the commissioners, so a quorum would not be present to approve the tax hike. State law requires a quorum of four commissioners to approve a tax levy.
      
• Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish and the other two commissioners—Terence Covar and Gilbert Flores—supported raising the property tax burden. Parrish has described taxpayers as "crazy kooks," resulting in protestors showing up for the meeting wearing red shirts proclaiming themselves "Crazy Kooks against tax increases."
      
• I definitely need one of those shirts!
    
• Without a quorum vote by the end of September, the county tax rate will be set at the No New Revenue rate, which raises the same amount of revenue from the properties taxed the previous year. Any rate above the NNR is a tax increase.

Dallas Council Members Face Lawsuits Over Proposed Charter Amendments

• As the November election nears, Dallas City Council members are facing numerous lawsuits over proposed city charter amendments that are reportedly meant to undermine citizen-led reforms. Emily Mederios reports the citizen-led petition campaign was centered around public safety and city transparency.
     
• To blunt the effect of those citizen-led efforts, council members filed competing amendments by redefining key language and responsibilities in the city charter. 
     
• Charter amendment organizers are suing Dallas in state and federal court, asserting that the council has engaged in activities that will "mislead and disenfranchise the voters."

Quote-Unquote

"Why should we have any doubt about the Texas grid? We're Texas. We're sitting on an ocean of God's blessings that we can use for economic prosperity and productivity."

– U.S. Rep. Chip Roy​

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