Daily Dispatch 6/13/25: Texas Braces For Mass Protests Amid Greg Abbott's Militaristic "Surge", And More

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Over 5,000 Texas National Guard troops and 2,000 Texas DPS officers, including special agents and Texas Rangers, have been deployed across the state by Governor Greg Abbott in advance of Saturday's "No Kings" rallies: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/11/greg-abbott-texas-national-guard-immigration-raid-protests/

...Austin Mayor Kirk Watson decries that Governor Abbott would choose to unnecessarily "militarize the streets of the capitol city of the state of Texas": https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/12/abbott-to-surge-dps-troopers-national-guard-soldiers-across-texas/84170911007/

...D/FW will see rallies and protests in Dallas, Frisco, McKinney, Denton, Arlington, Fort Worth, Flower Mound and more:  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/06/12/more-than-5000-texas-national-guard-2000-dps-troopers-deployed-ahead-of-protests/

...The Houston area will also see several No Kings events on Saturday, including Conroe, Katy, Sugar Land, League City, Kingwood and more: https://www.khou.com/article/newhttps://www.khou.com/article/news/local/lulac-activist-weekend-protest-gov-abbott-national-guard-dps-rangers-no-kings/285-d7817d8b-96af-4014-a7fb-ce12126e84cfs/local/lulac-activist-weekend-protest-gov-abbott-national-guard-dps-rangers-no-kings/285-d7817d8b-96af-4014-a7fb-ce12126e84cf

...Houston Mayor John Whitmire dismisses a letter from Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt worrying about planned riots, calling it "just not relevant to our city and our society": https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2025/06/11/523752/mayor-whitmire-rebuffs-republican-congressmans-letter-claiming-riots-are-planned-in-houston/

...San Antonio's tendency towards peaceful civic gatherings is emphasized in an op-ed as National Guard troops move in: https://www.expressnews.com/columnist/elaine-ayala/article/ayala-san-antonio-ice-protests-texas-guardsmen-20373889.php

...Why support independent media? CBS News, covering building ICE-related unrest in Texas, includes a soundbite from yesterday's Kristi Noem press conference - but omits the part where California Senator Alex Padilla is assaulted by Noem's security officers: ⁠https://www.cbsnews.com/video/growing-protests-against-ice-operations-in-texas-and-other-states/⁠

...On the very same day, the U.S. House voted to claw back $1.1 billion in public media funding, overriding a united Democrated delegation who remain down three votes due to vacancies, including the former seat of Houston's Sylvester Turner: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/12/g-s1-72223/public-media-funding-up-in-the-air-as-house-prepares-to-vote-on-claw-backs

...U.S. Congressman Vicente Gonzales of south Texas is one of the 74 Democrats taking heat for voting in favor of a House resolution expressing gratitude for ICE's recent work: https://www.axios.com/2025/06/10/dems-splinter-on-ice-hill-leaders

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