Today's episode of the Trip Cast is brought to you by Ambassador Tony Garza and the Texas Tribune Speakers Bureau. Welcome to this week's episode of the Trip Cast. I am James Vadragan. With me, as always is intrepid Women's health reporter Eleanor klebanoff Ari.
I'm good.
How are you you like that intro?
Huh, I'm very intrepid, everyone says it.
And our guest this week is Alejandra Serrano, who has been writing a fair amount about our subject of the week, immigration.
Alejandra, how are you good? Here are you go? Thank you for having me? Great, We're very excited. Before we get started, let's check in. How are we doing, folks?
Have we recovered from the super Bowl and from the Kansas City Chiefs playing an absolute egg in the Super Bowl preventing our guy Travis Kelce from proposing to Taylor Swift in the most man move that could possibly be done in front.
Of thousands of people just trying to watch sports.
Okay, as we've established not a sports podcast, we don't know that much about sports, but I will say we're going to lean into this.
You come to us for the.
Sports and while we have you here, we will back into some Texas politics.
I will say.
Personally, a little known fact about me is that I lived in Philadelphia until I was eleven years old. So I am a.
A halfway Eagles fan.
I tend to root for the Eagles when when given the chance, and then I moved to Atlanta.
So I am also a halfway Falcons fan who, when given the chance to choose which of those teams to root for in a Super Bowl, the Eagles are shown or doing a better showing than the.
Falcons, they were going to say, I'm rooting for the Birds.
I'm rooting for the Birds.
Yeah. So I had a great time watching the Super Bowl. I thought it was I like to see one team really kick the hell out of the other.
It's more fun that way.
One hundred Do you have thoughts on the Super Bowl? I thought it was boring.
Wow yeah wow.
After the third quarter I was checked out me too.
I was just reading reviews of the Kendrick Lamar halftime show, which people went crazy for.
Like, I'm both yeah, very divisive, I do think to doesn't extent is everything just very divisive?
Now, maybe those pants weren't I kind of like the people generally, like I.
Thought, in general, I like, yeah, you left in the third quarter.
So did President Trump. He left a little correct.
And actually funny that you bring that up, because not to inject politics into this podcast.
The only thing we know how to do.
But President Trump.
Was there and I read in the AP that this is the first time that a sitting president was in attendance at the Super Bowl.
I just thought that was interesting because we've had big sports fans. Uh.
You know, President Bush used to own a baseball team, and right, that does surprise. President Obama was a big basketball guy. He used to fill out the March Madness bracket all the time.
You think it's like a security thing.
Yeah, I think that.
Yeah, I'd say that, Yeah, I'd say it might be. That makes sense, I really I would think there's like nothing more American than going to watch the Super Bowl as the president. Like the president should be like you have to go watch the last game of the World Series, Like you have to be the person who like the Knights, you know, like in in the UK when they have like the f A Cup, like Prince William goes and hands them the trophy.
You're I know a lot about the Royals.
I don't know that much about football, but I do know a lot about the Royals.
Sports expert, kind of a sports expert.
But I think we should make the president do that. Like you give the World Series trophy unless it's one of the Canadian teams. You give the NFL, you know, the trophy, the Stanley Cup. How many trophies can I name you? I think you cheated and limits, Yeah, the Stanley Cup, the World Series, the Super Bowl?
What their sports are there?
The MLS Cup, the Los Angeles Galaxy six time.
Champion, and the basketball what do they call that?
Uh? I don't know. The NBA trophy, NBA trophy?
Oh my god, guys, sorry we extended.
Yes, sorry, Alejandro, thank you for joining us on this.
The things we do know about.
Okay, let's get to the real topic at hand. It's a big one this week, and it's immigration. President Trump promised to do mass deportations starting on day one. He promised to continue building the wall. He promised to give the death penalty to any migrant who killed an American citizen. All these big, big promises, big big, sometimes controversial items,
and he's hit the ground running. I mean, it's only been a couple of weeks that he's been in office, and it seems like from watching your team, trying to follow this news, it's very hard.
It's like drinking from fire hydrant.
So, Alejandro, so far, what are you seeing from the Trump administration's immigration plan? It certainly looks like it's been a blitz. To continue our football references, but do we see any coherent plan here or is it just as a Texas football fan would say, all gas, no breaks.
Yeah, I think it's it's definitely been a blitz. I mean Trump has done a lot. You know, he ended use of an app asylum seeking migrants would use to schedule an appointment at CBP one right, Yeah, with immigration officials. He's removed temporary protections some people had. He's also delegated more authority to state officials in some cases. But I think the overall plan is not yet clear, and it
kind of seems like still a lot's unfolding. But it certainly has been a flurry of things that have already impacted people.
It's interesting, like the really tangible things like so quickly, like the app went down, right, like, you.
Know, so that was pretty soon after inauguration.
So there's like these tangible things as well as these like large policy changes that take a while to see the impact.
Of right and has anticipated. I mean, some of the stuff's being litigated. Like one of the hallmark promises was ending birthright citizenship, and a lot of people were like, well, you can't just get rid of the fourteenth Amendment. And now it's become a legal battle in which a judge has so far said, you know you can't.
H And on the CBP one front, I mean on the app, you and your colleague Uria Artia wrote a story about some of the migrants who are waiting around right and just trying to get their asylum claims to go, and they were waiting and their meetings were suddenly canceled. Right, So it's an immediate impact of the new administration coming in and having an immigration crackdown.
Yeah, can I ask you to put you to the test really quickly and briefly catch us up on birthright citizenship, Like what it is, why it's controversial.
Yeah, it's the Well, the fourteenth Amendment pretty much grants this, as I understand it.
I haven't been covering this a.
Lot version and I'm sure we'll get emails.
If you know, the long and short of it is, if you have a child in this country, they are an American citizen and has been this way for a long time, and Trump wanted to end this, but it is encoded by the Constitution fourteenth Amendment, so a president doesn't have the authority to just override the Constitution need a congressional amendment, which is kind of now, I guess where the battle is turning, and it's unclear what's next.
And it's one of the obviously one of the amendments that got passed after the Civil War, and it enfranchises people. It gives them personhood, it gives them citizenship because previously, of course, enslaved people did not have any of those rights. So this goes far back, a long way, more than a century. So we're talking to about radical changes to
the constitution, Alejandro. Numerous state officials, including Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick Lan, Commissioner Don Buckingham, they've said that they are hoping to offer the federal government help, and we've seen the National Guard be deployed as well state troopers. We've seen land Commissioner Buckingham offered to provide the federal government some land for detention and mass deportations, the state
working with the feds, Like, what's that partnership? Looking like they've obviously been they've cooperated together in the past, right, but how is this different?
Yeah, I mean, I think one way to clearly look at it is the last four years a lot of state officials felt like they were in opposition with the federal government and Texas had conflicts with the feral government when it came to immigration enforcement. And now it's the opposite and they have a willing partner. So Texas kind of going out of its way and being like, hey, we want to help. So what does that look like
on the ground. While the governors directed state agencies to cooperate with federal officials, he signed an agreement with the Trump administration to give National Guard troops immigration arrest authority. And those are kind of some of the bigger things, and you have tinier things like that are not clear yet. For instance, you brought up the Land Commissioner offering land. We don't know yet that elase has been signed, but
we know the administration said it wants the land. So it presents all these other questions of what does that partnership look like. But the biggest thing here is like now it's like two allies working toward the same goal instead.
Of in opposition of each other.
If that makes sense.
Yeah, And will that you know, one of the things that we were talking about in some of our budget talks is will that lead to savings on the immigration front, because theoretically with the federal partner, now maybe the state can pull back. But what are you learning about whether the state can take some of those billions of dollars that it's invested and leave it to the federal government and maybe turn that those billions of dollars towards something else in the budget.
Yeah, well, I mean that's a great question and point, and it's kind of unclear right now. And if anything, kind of the what the signals we're getting out of all these components right what state officials are doing. The legislature, which is just starting in earnest its budget negotiations, is that Texas is going to double down on border security and kind of further cement this role it has in
border security. The legislature is considering six point five billion dollars of funding toward security, and when you think about eleven billion that we spend the last four years as a state. You know, six point five is kind of a step more. It's it's not more than has been appropriated, but it's also not less. So it's kind of saying something. But also as a state, we have to remember that we've done things that have also advanced this cementation.
That's a word.
And I think the kind of like the hallmark thing recently is Senate Bill four, which would give state police the authority to arrest people suspected of being undocumented. And it's still being litigated, but you know, when we think about Texas's role and immigration enforcement, all these things have to be considered. And I'm sorry, I forgot what you asked.
There's no evidence.
I think there's like a version of events or maybe even like a thing some people like you might think, like okay, like now Texas has this partner in the White House, like they can be like you know, for years they've been saying, like to the Biden administration, like do more. Now we can presume President Trump is going to do more, and like you think, Texas one version of events is Texas says like great, we can sit back on our Laurels, we can let you do. You know,
we're going to work on this other issue. And I think that is a foolish to think that that's how that was going to go. Right, Texas is going to go. Now we have a partner, let's go like turbo charged. And I think to a certain extent, that's.
What we're seeing right.
Otherwise, Yeah, I don't know that it was foolish or not. I mean, I guess it's not for me to say. But what we do know is, you know, immediately after the election, the governor and lieutenant governor separately floated this idea that the state might scale back. The lieutenant governor even mentioned like specific things that other that border security
money could be allocated for instead. So there was like this kind of this like kind of like trial balloon floated that was like, oh, but we also must consider that in Texas, at least, like especially among Republican voters, according to polling, there's like an endless appetite for border security spending. So now we're seeing doubling down. So yeah, for a minute, for a hot minute, it was like, all right, we might cut back.
Yeah.
Now now it's like no.
Well there's yeah, there's no doubt that politically it's good to say I'm spending so much money, But just policy wise, is it wise for the state to be spending that much money when there is a federal government that is theoretically doing these things already. And another thing to point out is that the governor has been going to d C having meetings with President Trump, having meetings with the
congressional delegation about getting these eleven billion dollars back. That's something that's been floated in the past before and obviously has not worked. But it seems like maybe there's an appetite now to get clost some of that money back. So that'll be interesting to see how it plays out, because I can't imagine that the other states will be too happy that Texas is getting eleven billion dollars or some of that money.
Right, it's a little bit of a I mean, it's like a weird you're set up a little bit of a weird system, right of like you know, if we you know, in Texas's mind, right like we're doing your job for you on sort of on layaway and just give us the mone me back later.
Is like you're setting.
Yourself up for some potential issues, but obviously, you know, being I'm sure the state would be thrilled to get eleven billion dollars.
Well, it depends the state.
I think some states would probably support a reimbursement, such as the governors who supported Operation Loans Start, right.
They just might get in line for money too, That's.
What I'm saying.
Like Florida sent people North Dakota, South Dakota cent people, so it's like they want they probably want reimbursements, right.
I just would like to say, like if relevant, like I would put myself in, I would like eleven billion dollars if we're offering it.
I don't know for what.
I've never spent eleven billion dollars, but you know that'd be my preference.
Okay, Eleanor.
We've talked about this before, but the FEDS are now following the blueprint that Texas has laid out on immigration enforcement, on the immigration crackdown, and I want you to talk a bit about how Texas sort of did that in courts, through the legal system, and because this is like something that Texas has been doing for years now, for years now, and you know, Governor Abbitt has talked about how the FEDS are now taking basically his model and taking up
to the big leagues. So can you shed some light on sort of what that looks like.
Yeah, I know this is something all Hundre and I've talked about a lot, so feel fit to chime in as well. But I do think you know, Texas, on not just immigration, but on a number of issues, has sort of made this broader playbook, right of like do something that you know they say it couldn't be done,
Texas does it. We fight it through the courts and like increasingly commonly, like the court side with Texas, you know in some cases because of their you know, novel legal theories holding up in some cases because you know, they are able to get this in front of judges that you know, friendly judges to sort of see their
their argument. The Fifth Circuit obviously very conservative and a lot of cases stall out there or you know, go to the Supreme Court, which also obviously has a conservative majority.
So Texas has.
Done that on a number of things that you know, then sort of become you know, legally more like more sound than they were when Texas first passed the law, first tried something immigration. We definitely have seen that you know, because.
When when they first present things, it's it sounds like, oh, that's crazy that.
Right now you're like, I mean, I think there's a lot of stuff, I mean on immigration, on abortion, on other stuff where Texas is like pushing the envelope where like even we as reporters are like, oh, like do we even need to write about that? Like it's just like you know, conservative grandstanding, and then it passes, and then it goes to court and then sometimes it holds up.
A lot of stuff does not end up holding up in.
Court, we should say, But on immigration in particular, you know SP four I think is an example of this, Like that has you know, a you know sort of using setting up a legal theory that had not really been tested before that legal experts feel like if it was upheld in court, it's not just about you know, is Texas's law sound or not. It's about like who has It's these like macro questions if who has the authority to enforce immigration law, who has the authority to govern the border, and sort.
Of like what makes us a United States of America? Like these big questions.
So Texas has definitely laid out the playbook for like let's try stuff and let the courts tell us no. And we're certainly seeing that. I think the Trump administration, we should say, the Trump adminstration is going to is already doing a lot of stuff that Texas has laid out and tried. Just because the federal government is doing it does not automatically mean it's legal either, Right, Like, the Trump administration will face legal pushback. Yeah, that will go through the courts as.
Well on things like executive orders on birthright citizenship, which we've already seen being challenged.
Right, So it's going to be a similar playbook in that which is like nothing is you know, immediate, but it still can slowly shift things.
Yeah, And just to clarify that to s before the most recent from twenty twenty three, not s before the Sanctuary City's bill, which has also had some pretty novel ideas on.
How to enforce immigration all one hundred. I want to go back to you.
We discussed this proly previously on the show with our DC reporter Matthew Troy. But there's a debate even among congressional Texas Republicans about how to go forward with the immigration enforcement that the president wants. Should it be more targeted towards people who have committed violent crimes, or is it just a sort of catch all anybody who crosses an immigration enforcement person that they're they're going to get
picked up and deported. What are you seeing in the first couple of weeks of this Trump administration on that question.
Yeah, anecdotally, we're seeing that it's it's mostly everyone, like any if you are undocumented in this country, it appears this the administration's posture is you are fair game for deportation.
And this was kind of expected. Some people are surprised because they've heard statements such as, you know, Trump and some of his advisors say that they were going to prioritize the most heinous criminals, people who've murdered, people who've raped, people who have been released on bond and then committed other crimes like they the administry, Trump and his advisors
focus often on these people. But what if I think people either missed or didn't pay as much attention to, is that the same people, including Trump and his advisors, would criminalize everyone by saying, well, if you're in the country illegally, you've broken a crime, so you are a fair game.
And which is what we're seeing now, and that is.
I think it's fair to say that it is the administration's posture, the wife.
And the press secretary of exactly.
Yeah. Yeah, So it's kind of we've seen like kind of like a this criminalization but be like the acting on it and being like, you know, well, if you're a documented we're going to try to deport you. And we've seen this anecdotally in Texas. My colleagues and I have reported on that some but also bigger picture, we've seen some reporting through leaks other publications that people who have no criminal history are being deported.
I was like our colleague Oriel wrote a story in Premel Paso where he interviewed he was like at a rally against some of this, and he interviewed someone who was like, I voted for Trump and now I'm very worried he might deport I believe it was like his his father, a who's undocumented, and I think there was this sense of like, you know, well, my father is just you know, working, and he's not hasn't you know, committed some heinous crime, Like I don't think, you know,
Trump would start by going after him. And as we're seeing now like the way that plays out is is really surprising.
A lot of people.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's important. I imagine we're going to get into this, but it's also important to remember the impact on humans, right Like we're talking like this spreads fear, This raises a lot of concerns, questions.
That's actually our next topic.
But before that, we're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors, Mexico more than just a neighbor. For a timely cross border insight, turned to former US Ambassador Antonio Garza. Learn more at Tony Garza dot com. Deliver a Texas sized insight at your next event with the Texas Tribune Speakers Bureau. Our reporters and editors are ready to bring your event to life with context and analysis only they can deliver. Book us at Texastribune dot org.
Slash Speakers, Alejandro, Let's talk a bit about the impact on the endocumented community, which you rightfully brought up. Texas has the second largest population of undocumented people in the country behind California, largely because of our size. They power a lot of the industries here, construction and farming, service industry, food production. What can you say about the impact on those communities from this immigration crackdown, because I know you've reported on some of this.
Yeah, it's huge, and it's wide. You know, we're talking about a very diverse population. It's estimated to be one point six million people who are undocumented in Texas, and you know the state has thirty million people, and that's an estimate, right based off people we can count. So yeah, they are essential workers. They work restaurants, they pick produce, but they're also small business owners, their parents, they're members of communities up and down the state. So that's kind
of why the impact is diverse. But I mean what we've been reporting on hearing is folks are concerned, lives are already have been changed, even if people aren't being deported. You know, some some folks are going straight to work and back home, and you know, maybe like mom, if she's in American goes grocery shopping, like you know, sometimes parents aren't selling kids to school, sometimes they're not going
to doctor's appointments. So I think what we're seeing is this change kind of unfold and it's still, like I said at the beginning, the plan is still unclear, so I don't know where it goes from here. But we do know that people have fear, people have concerns, they're worried about their loved ones, they're altering their lives and so on.
And you wrote this very interesting story about an undocumented man in Lubbock who's pulled over for a traffic violation. He ended up being referred to federal immigration authorities on that traffic stop.
Tell us more about that and what it says about the.
Overall state of play for immigration enforcement, because I think you mentioned you mentioned sort of mixed status families, and this I think was a mic status family as well.
If you can tell us a little bit more.
Yeah, So the story was about a name Husse Albero's that's his first name, and he's married to an American citizen and they have three children who were all Americans, and they went out to buy a baby formula last month and there was some sort of issue with their vehicle's tag. So a cop pulls them over and the wife, her name is Ashley, explains, Hey, my husband's undocumented. He doesn't have a license, but I don't know how to drive,
which is why he was driving. Hears the car's insurance and his passport and according to Ashley, who was very kind to speak with me, the officer was really kind, goes back to his vehicle and calls ICE, so and I shows up and takes Jose and begins removal proceedings. So now, I mean that's the short version of the story. You could read the whole report text tribute dot org. But you know, now this family's life has been upended.
He's in removal proceedings, they have hearings, they have a court date in August, and the government's going to try to deport him. And this man has been in the
country for several years. And I think to your question about what it says, you know, we interviewed experts about this, and it kind of gets at the everyone's fair game idea, which is like, if an administration sets directives for ICE agents, you know, like prioritize these people or these people they focus on that, it's like, all right, those are our efforts. But here we have one officer at his discretion calling ICE and ICE being like, we're going to do this,
and now they're deporting this person. So I think that's what it tells us that there is kind of like a sort of randomness to the enforcement that it could be anyone.
Right, and that has a deep impact on people in the undocumented community because, like you said, they were just going about doing a daily chore, a daily necessity kind
of and they were getting baby formulas in. Yeah, so that sort of definitely complicates their lives, which is, to be fair, exactly what the administration wants to do and what immigration hardliners want to be happening, Like they want their lives to be complicated so that they either don't come or are eventually caught by federal immigration.
And we should say, like the Trump administration has rolled back some there were some protections or sort of guidelines on where ICE agents would wouldn't go, right, Like they wouldn't go into health care facilities, they wouldn't go into churches, right, schools, schools, Yes, schools, that's the other one, Yes, schools, churches, health care facilities.
And that has now been rolled back. And so I think there's sort of a sense of like, you know, anyone anywhere is at potential at risk, which right as seen as a deterrent, but for the people that are already here, like it's also like those people who have to go to work or those you know.
Right, and this person was I think in some immigration proceedings did you mention that other?
Yeah, they were trying to get a green card, so as you know, which is a long, arduous, expensive process.
They had a lawyer, so you know the way that their lawyer looks at it, and she also spoke to me for the story is in a lot of ways, like according to the sis them, however you read it is like he kind of went about it the right way after being here, which is he met someone, they fell in love, they had kids, they got married, and they were going through the proceedings and now they are presented with a sort of existential question of well, you know,
should he be deported? What are we going to do as a family.
Yeah, And I think that's the sort of thinking that a lot of people in the immigrant community are thinking, like how many risks can I take? Because, like I said, they were just doing a daily necessity. Which will be interesting and potentially complicating that even more is what our
state officials want to do. At the state level, We've seen Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick push a priority bill that would require cities and counties to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement Elmaric, Can you just chime in here a little bit about what that kind of legislation, which inevitably is going to be controversial at the legislature, Democrats will strongly push back against that, what that kind of bill would do to a session that so far everybody seems like
they're behavior and they're.
All friendly, they're all good.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think any bill that is controversial, and we should say, like a bill like that is controversial in two fronts, right, immigration, but also this question of like local control and preemption and how much can the state tell these big cities what to do and how to run their their their governments basically is just potentially something that can like grind the whole thing to
a halt. And I think, you know, anytime you I think, as we talked about last week, right, Dan Patrick forty priorities, certainly feels like he has the enough control over the Senate to like push through what he wants. But anytime you're throwing something controversial in the mix, you are potentially it takes time. It takes like floor fights, it takes horse trading, its negotiations to the conference committees, like you're just dragging it out in a session where I mean,
obviously Governor Abbott has says he supports this measure. But Governor Abbott Republican leadership the House certainly seems to have blinders on and saying like, we have one thing to do this session, like pass vouchers, stay focused, use our capital on that, and now we maybe are going to throw this in the mix, right, And.
I mean, the thing about Governor Abbott's uh, I guess position on this is that he did throw out support for this, but it's not an emergency item, it's not a priority item. So I think that sort of tells you something. I think he probably thinks he can get done. But like you said, the blind Now, sure are the goals he laid out seven of them that are mostly in line with what Speaker Borroughs has said he wants
to get done. And so if you got to focus on these seven, do you really want to be taking up a big fight over here over something that's definitely gonna split Democrats and Republicans and potentially even some Republicans.
Right, It's like a yeah, it's like just like do not pass go do not collect two hundred dollars pass vouchers, and like shot of about the rest of it seems to be some vibes that were getting even while govern abs throwing his support behind some other measures.
Aljandro, just taking it back one step, can you sort of just give us a just context about like how the numbers are in terms of migrant crossings compared to when President Biden was in office or the first Trump administration, Like how necessary are some of these enforcement measures that we're seeing.
Well, I think those are two questions. The border's quiet. I think a quiet border got even quieter since Trump took office, and it started getting quiet kind of last year really from record number of illegal crossings in December twenty twenty three, Biden implemented a couple orders that really kind of helped reduce that. According to his advisors when they were in office, they took credit, but also a big part of his Mexico's enforcement in some countries in
Central America. But essentially what we're seeing is low numbers, Fewer people than in recent years are trying to cross the border. Now, the second question you ask, is this necessary? Well, I mean, I think that's an opinion and the current president, President Trump, it is of the opinion that it is he's declared an invasion, he still thinks like the hundreds of crossings that we're seeing now is enough to merit his actions. Will that be challenged, that ever means to be seen.
Yeah, And important to note Mexico's participation in this, because they certainly had a lot of tough enforcement on their southern border and now they've got enforcement on their northern border. Mexican President Claudia Schinbaum has sent I think ten thousand National Guard troops of her own national Guard up there in this sort of trade over stopping terroiffts, so they're
playing a role as well. But it seems like a lot of it is also just politics of like he made these campaign promises and he wants to deliver on them.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think the other thing we should I mean is like all of this is happening so fast in the beginning of the administration sort of as promised. I think that's what we expected, and there will it takes some time for like the impact to be seen, obviously in terms of border crossings, in terms of deportations, but also in terms of like you know, there was a lot of outrage during the last Trump administration about you know, family separation and sort of the way these policies were
being implemented. It took a little while for like them to be fully implemented and people to become aware of them and there to be sort of more pushback against them. And so I think, you know, we've seen protests already at the capital about immigration. I think we've seen protests and cities across the state, across the country about President
Trump' immigration policies. But I also think that I think we can expect pretty significant political pushback on this, depending on like how this all plays out.
Yeah, maybe if people start realizing.
I don't know, like the situation that you wrote about where it's a mixed at this family, there's a person who's an American citizen but their partner is not. You know, people have family members and have good friends that are undocumented and they I mean, if they're friends, they may not know it. If they are family, they definitely know it. And if something happens to those people, there is potential for that backlash. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Yeah, And like if you you know the price of food or eggs goes up because we don't have people work. You know, It's like, right, some of that takes a while to develop. But I do think you know, President Trump's like very focused energy on this issue means like a lot is changing really fast, and how the impact of all of those changes sort of may take a little bit longer to see.
Yeah, that's also I think that's also like a big question that means to be seen that my colleagues and I haven't covered as much, but I've read other coverage. It's like, well, what does that resistance look like? Because definitely in Texas, so we haven't seen any mayors or county judges you know, really pick a fight, be like we're not in this. And part part of that might be fear. I mean Trump ordered feral prosecutors to investigate
such local officials who get in the way. So I think that that's also a big question as we look ahead.
Okay, cool, I think that's a good place to stop.
But one can I say one more thing before we go.
Sure, we would.
Be remiss if we did not wish a happy birthday to our Texas Tribune trip cast co host James dash Bargun.
And you want to sing?
You told that's what we wanted to sing. Actually, yes, yes, no, Happy birthday.
Okay, thank you James.
We're gonna end the conversation here, but one of reminder of listeners. If you have bringing questions for us that you want us to discuss about the latest in Texas politics, please send them to trip cast at Texastribune dot org and we will try to get them on a segment of the show. Again, that's trip Cast at Texastribune dot org. We hope to hear from you. That's all the time we have for this week's episode of the trip Cast.
Don't forget to like and subscribe to our feed and to leave feed back on the podcast app of your choice to help other listeners find us, and please recommend the show to a friend. Thank you to our sponsors, former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza, and the Texas Tribune Speakers Bureau. Our producers are Rob Avila and Chris Phoboda. Our theme music is composed by Rob. Join us again next week