Dozens of migrants were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year. A sheriff investigating the flights claims it was more than just a political stunt; he believes it was a crime.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A surge of migrants at the U.S./Mexico border has choked the country’s immigration system. Over the last year, about 2 million migrants have been apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. Another 1,500 — seeking asylum — are allowed in every day. Shelters are overflowing, resources are stretched thin and lawmakers seem incapable of fixing it. There is no shortage of dysfunction or drama. But one episode on the border last year caught the attention of law enforcement. You may recall the story of the 50 migrants who were unexpectedly dropped off on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The migrants all had permission to be in the United States, pending asylum hearings, and were in Texas, but it was Florida officials who arranged the flights north. Tonight, you will hear about the investigation into those flights and why one sheriff says it was more than just a cruel political stunt, he says it was a crime.
In the early hours of September 14th, 2022, 50 migrants lined up on the tarmac of a military airfield in San Antonio, Texas and boarded two private jets. The flight manifest shows each plane carried 25 migrants. Six others who’d helped arrange the flights were also on board. Hours later, the migrants landed here, more than 2 thousand miles away, on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Jackie Stallings: These people were exhausted and did not know what was going on. They just were terrified.
Sharyn Alfonsi: They really didn’t know they were on an island or anything?
Jackie Stallings: They had no idea they were going– coming to a small island.
Jackie Stallings and her husband Larkin own a dive bar on the Vineyard called The Ritz. They were among the first to be called in to help. Jackie speaks spanish.
Jackie Stallings: I immediately said, you know, “Welcome,” and “How are you? Are you okay? What do you need?” They start telling me, like, their resumes. “I can do this. I can do this.” They all wanted to work.
Sharyn Alfonsi walks with Jackie and Larkin Stallings
60 Minutes
Jackie says the migrants seemed shell-shocked. Some were sick. Help soon poured in from every corner of the island along with a flood of reporters after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took credit for the flights as part of his newly minted $12 million migrant relocation program.
Governor DeSantis (at a Sept. 2022 news conference): “They were hungry, homeless, they had no opportunity at all. State of Florida, it was volunteer, offered transport to sanctuary jurisdictions.”
But the Florida governor’s office didn’t tell anyone on the Vineyard about the plan. Islanders did not think it was an oversight.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I think there was this idea that by dropping these migrants off in Martha’s Vineyard, they were gonna stick it to rich, white people, liberal elitists.
Larkin Stallings: No. That’s hilarious because he missed it by two weeks. He did. They were all gone.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Who was left?
Larkin Stallings: And what’s left is working class folks, the teachers and the doctors and the tavern owners. What he did is he got a bunch of hardworkin’ folks to come together and solve a problem.
The story caught the attention of Sheriff Javier Salazar in San Antonio. He’s the highest-ranking uniformed law enforcement officer in Bexar County, Texas, about 140 miles north of the border with Mexico.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What was your reaction when you heard that they were taken from your county?
Sheriff Javier Salazar: I mean, I was shocked. Like, why– why Bexar County? You’re– you’re the Florida governor, you know? Why are you messing with people in Bexar County that are here legally at that point, by the way, you– know? They’re not “undocumented,” anymore. They’ve been documented. They’re here legally.
Salazar, a Democrat, spent 23 years with the San Antonio Police Department before he was elected sheriff in 2016. He asked his organized crimes unit to investigate. After eight months they uncovered what Sheriff Salazar calls a “covert criminal operation” carried out by individuals who were contracted by the Florida governor’s office.
Sheriff Javier Salazar: When you move people from point A to point B under conditions of deception, then that qualifies as unlawful restraint.
Sheriff Javier Salazar
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: I think when you hear, “Unlawful restraint,” you think gun to the head. They didn’t have a gun to their head.
Sheriff Javier Salazar: No, they didn’t. They didn’t have a gun to their head. This was not done by inducement. It was done by deception.
The deception, Salazar says, began here, outside the migrant resource center in San Antonio.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So explain how this all went down.
Sheriff Javier Salazar: From what we’re able to tell at this point, basically it looks like they drove around the area, looking for people that may look like the target audience that they’re after. And then made the approach.
The targets he’s talking about are migrants, like Daniel Cauro. The 30-year-old from Venezuela made the months-long journey through Central America, with his sister Deici and two cousins. They surrendered at the U.S. border in early September, requested asylum and were lawfully permitted to enter the U.S. Days later, they were outside the resource center, tired and hungry, when Daniel says, two women in a white SUC offered help. One spoke spanish.
Daniel (translation): She was saying, “We want to send you to a state where there are not so many migrants, and you’re going to have a lot of help, because you’re going to have housing and all that.”
Sharyn Alfonsi: Is “Massachusetts” ever mentioned as a possibility?
Daniel and Deici: (translation): No, no.
Deici (translation): She never said “Massachusetts.”
Daniel Cauro and Deici
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did the woman in the SUV give you her name?
Daniel (translation): Yes, she said her name was Perla.
Perla, is Perla Huerta…who the migrants identified as the woman in this photo. According to the Pentagon, Huerta, is a former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent. Dozens of texts obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability reveal that Huerta was in Texas looking for migrants to fill the planes. Her progress was reported back to key members of the Florida governor’s office.
In mid-August of 2022, Huerta texts then Florida Public Safety Czar Larry Keefe as she searched for migrants in Texas: “Just got back. Churches were empty…”
On September 5th, Keefe sends this progress note to James Uthmeier, then chief of staff for Gov. DeSantis: “I’m back out here. conditions are quite favorable.” Uthmeier replies: “Very good. You have my full support. Call anytime.”
Six days later, Keefe, the public safety czar, informs Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff, that the two planes could be filled to capacity: “we are at 50…” A delighted Perla Huerta put it this way: “yahtzee!! we’re full.”
For days, the migrants were housed and fed at this $59-a-night hotel near the San Antonio airfield. The afternoon before they left, Daniel says Perla gave them a $10 McDonald’s gift card, he still carries his.
Daniel (translation): She said here’s a card, but I need you to sign this sheet. And we said OK. We were hungry. So we signed it.
Deici (translation): And she said, “you have to sign to be able to get the card.”
This is what they signed – a consent to transport form. The migrants say the abbreviations for Texas and Massachusetts were filled in by someone else. Nowhere on the form does it say Martha’s Vineyard. The next morning, the 50 migrants boarded the private jets. Daniel and Deici were excited, it was the first time either of them had been on a plane. Flight data shows the jets took off at 8 a.m., stopped in Crestview, Florida, and again in the Carolinas to refuel. They landed on Martha’s Vineyard around 3 p.m. The migrants were escorted onto waiting buses and then dropped off by the side of the road. According to public records, the operation cost Florida more than $600 thousand — about $12 thousand a migrant.
Sheriff Javier Salazar: Look, if– if you’re gonna take somebody and– and– and fly ’em hundreds of miles away, do it under full disclosure. “Hey. We’re gonna– you’re gonna get on this– this plane. We’re gonna take you from point A to point B. And I don’t know what’s gonna happen. There’s nothing there set up for you when you get there, so you’re on your own. You in or not?” I– I would think some of those people may still say, “You know what? Yeah. I’ll roll the dice.” From what I understand, that’s not what occurred here. They preyed upon people to get them onto those– that plane. They exploited them, took advantage of the situation that they were in, a very desperate situation, and then took ’em there under false pretenses.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And when you say, false pretenses, you’re saying they lied to ’em?
Sheriff Javier Salazar: Absolutely, they lied to them. They told them they were gonna get jobs there, and housing there, and, you know, just everything– all– “The answer to your prayers is– is on this plane and will take you to the promised land. You know, the streets are paved with gold.”
Rachel Self, a criminal defense and immigration lawyer, worked with the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard.
60 Minutes
Rachel Self: Nobody, absolutely nobody, knew they were going to the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Rachel Self is a criminal defense and immigration lawyer who happens to live on the Island of Chappaquiddick, just off the eastern end of the Vineyard. Self, who speaks Spanish says the migrants who’d all followed the laws to enter the country, were now most worried about missing their mandatory immigration check-ins, which were scheduled all over the country.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And what happens if you miss that check-in?
Rachel Self: If you miss that check-in, there’s a potential that you could be placed into proceedings and deported in absentia.
One migrant left the group for the mainland. Self arranged later check-in dates for the other 49.
Rachel Self: And at that point, It was just, “We’ve been pro– we’ve been told this, told this, told this, you know, ‘We’re ‘gonna give you jobs,’” “Are you my lawyer that I’m gonna get,” you know, “Where’s the house that I’m gonna be living in?”
As proof of the promises, most were clutching paperwork they say was handed to them 15 minutes before they landed on the Vineyard.
Rachel Self: It says, “Massachusetts refugee benefits, Massachusetts welcomes you.” And this is not even a flag for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The governor’s office said that packet included a map of Martha’s Vineyard so it was obvious where they were going.
Rachel Self: It was not obvious where they were going. They didn’t get that map until 15 minutes before the plane landed. I don’t know about you, but I’m not aware of being able to change my mind mid-flight.
The pamphlet also advertised benefits and services, cash and housing assistance, employment programs, job placement and English classes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So they didn’t have access to any of that?
Rachel Self: None of that.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I mean, it says it’s refugees. They’re not technically refugees.
Rachel Self: They’re not, no. They’re– they’re parolees seeking asylum. None of these benefits apply to them and whoever perpetrated this scheme didn’t realize that.
Rachel Self says if immigration officials determine the 49 migrants were victimized, they could receive justice in the form of something called a U visa.
Rachel Self: And in order to qualify for a U visa, you need two things. You need to have a certification from a law enforcement official that you were a victim of a crime. And you then need to show that you suffered as a result of the crime.
So, she flew to Texas with a stack of U visa certifications for Sheriff Javier Salazar to sign. After careful review, he did.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So if the intention of this stunt was to look tough on migrants, what did it actually do?
Rachel Self: Ironically, it provided them a completely independent available path to legalize their status here.
Only Daniel, Deici and their cousins remain on the vineyard, working odd jobs to pay the bills. The other 45 settled on the mainland. They’ve all begun the years-long wait for their asylum cases and U visas to be processed.
Rachel Self: It’s Congress’s failure to act that has caused this to become such a major broken issue in this nation. If people — We used to parole people in the country and grant them work authorization in the same stamp. But now it takes years to get work authorization. So it creates this vacuum for labor abuses to thrive, housing abuses to thrive, human trafficking to thrive.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The governor’s office has said that these migrants were abandoned, they were homeless, they were hungry and they gave them a chance to go to, quote, “greener pastures.”
Sharyn Alfonsi and Sheriff Javier Salazar
60 Minutes
Sheriff Javier Salazar: Oh, my gosh. “Give me your tired, your hungry,” right? He’s– he’s certainly saying all the right things to make himself sound like a Boy Scout in this situation. But, again, you’re a school-yard bully who took advantage of people that you thought were people of no consequence. And now, you’re getting called on your crap.
No one in the Florida governor’s office has been charged with any crimes related to the flights. They declined to speak to 60 Minutes about the operation. In June, Sheriff Salazar recommended felony and misdemeanor criminal charges against two suspects he would not name but described as the female recruiters involved in the operation. The sheriff’s recommendation is under review by the Bexar County district attorney.
Sheriff Javier Salazar: So you can’t see it from here, but about eight blocks over my left shoulder is the Alamo, where word is that there was a line drawn in the sand with a sword. And somebody said, “Not one more damn inch.” Me presenting this case to the district attorney’s office was me saying just that. Not one more damn inch.
Produced by Michael Karzis. Associate producers, Katie Kerbstat and Jacobson Kit Ramgopal. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Matthew Lev.
A woman awaiting trial in the killing of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson tried to run from officers escorting her to a doctor appointment Wednesday, authorities said.
Two corrections officers had taken Kaitlin Armstrong to the appointment and were escorting her back to a patrol vehicle “when she ran,” Travis County Sheriff spokeswoman Kristen Dark said.
Armstrong ran more than a block into a neighborhood, but she could be seen by deputies the entire time before she was caught, Dark said.
Photo of Kaitlin Armstrong.
U.S. Marshals
Dark would not disclose whether Armstrong was wearing shackles on her arms or legs, or what medical treatment prompted the appointment outside of the jail clinic.
The corrections officers did not draw their firearms, but more details on how she was apprehended would not be disclosed, Dark said. Armstrong and the two officers were taken to a hospital for a brief examination after the incident, and Armstrong was later returned to jail.
Armstrong’s attorney, Rick Cofer, did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Wilson, a 25-year-old competitive gravel and mountain bike racer from Vermont, was in Austin for a race she was among the favorites to win in May 2022 when she was found shot to death.
At the time, U.S. Marshals said police found Wilson bleeding and unconscious from multiple gunshot wounds. They performed CPR on her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Armstrong, 34, fled the country after her initial interviews with investigators, prompting a 43-day manhunt that ended with her arrest at a beachside hostel in Costa Rica. The U.S. Marshals and an anonymous donor was offered $20,000 in reward money for information leading to her arrest.
Armstrong was charged with murder. She faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted. Armstrong has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities have said Armstrong tried to change her appearance and used several aliases as she moved around Costa Rica while attempting to establish herself up as a yoga instructor in that country.
A witness told Inside Edition that Armstrong had left behind a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery, adding that it appeared that something happened to her face.
“[She had] a bandage on her nose and she had blood in her nostrils,” Zachary Paulsen told the outlet.
Police have said Wilson had previously dated Armstrong’s boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, who they say has cooperated with investigators and is not a suspect.
Dark said she didn’t know if Armstrong would face additional charges for the attempted escape.
Billionaire Elon Musk delved into German politics on Friday by sharing a post that denounced the country’s handling of migrants and giving kudos to the nation’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany.
Video clips on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, appear to show German non-government organizations rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean and bringing them to Italy. Musk responded to a video of the rescues, posted by an account called “RadioGenoa,” asking, “Is the German public aware of this?”
Germany’s Foreign Office wasted no time in responding to Musk’s comment. “Yes. And it’s called saving lives,” wrote the office’s account on X.
“So you’re actually proud of it. Interesting,” Musk replied, before expressing doubt that the German public supports migrant rescue. The video had “invasion vibes,” he added, invoking a characterization of immigration that has long existed in white nationalist circles.
The source of the controversy—and Musk’s latest foray into international politics—is a German plan to finance charities aiding migrants crossing the Mediterranean, which its foreign ministry has called a “legal, humanitarian and moral duty.” It is unclear whether the clip Musk responded to is of a charity financed by the German government.
The plan drew criticism from Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, leader of the country’s post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, whose tenure has been marked by anti-migrant rhetoric and policy. Early last week, Meloni wrote to German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz to express her “astonishment” that the German government was funding nonprofit rescue operations. Musk met with Meloni in Rome in June during a tour of Europe.
This year, more than 2,500 people have died or gone missing during the perilous cross from northern Africa to southern Europe, a steep rise from last year. Over 200,000 people have applied for asylum in Germany so far this year, an increase of 77 percent from 2022.
Musk’s comments came a day after he visited the Texas border to meet with local politicians and law enforcement at Eagle Pass, which has seen a sharp increase in unauthorized border crossings.
“The (USA) border needs to be secured. This is not a partisan issue – even the elected Democrat Party leaders of New York are saying this is a severe crisis,” Musk wrote on Wednesday, referencing New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who said recently that the migrant crisis “will destroy” the city.
Musk’s Tesla operates factories in both Germany and Texas.
A $10,000 bill from 1934 sold for a record $480,000 at an auction in Texas auction — while a $20 coin minted in 1899 also set a record when it sold for nearly the same amount as the banknote, according to the auction.
A $10,000 bill from 1934 broke an auction house’s all-time record last week, when it sold for $480,000.
Heritage Auctions
Headquartered in Dallas, Heritage Auctions sells a wide range of collectibles, including coins, currency, art, sports memorabilia, wine and historical items. The massive bids taken last week happened during a multi-day auction with multiple bidding events that took place throughout the second and third weeks of September in Texas’ capital city.
Interest in the 1934 $10,000 banknote did not come as a “huge surprise” to Heritage Auctions, the company . Dustin Johnston, the vice president of currency at Heritage Auctions, said in another statement that “large-denomination notes always have drawn the interst of collectors of all levels.”
Johnston added that, in terms of value and rank by the Paper Money Guaranty (PMG), the $10,000 banknote “trails only the $100,000 gold certificate issued in 1934, and of the 18 examples graded by PMG, this example is tied for the highest-graded.”
The1899 Twenty sold for $468,000.
Heritage Auctions
Meanwhile, the $20 coin also garnered a huge amount of interest. The 1899 “double eagle” coin sold for $468,000, shattering the previous record set in 2008, when a similar coin sold for $218,000, Heritage Auctions said. In total, the auctioned coins at last week’s Long Beach Expo broke multiple records and brought in more than $8.2 million, while the currency bid’s overall profits climbed past $7.3 million.
“It takes an extraordinary coin to rise to the top of an auction with such consistent high quality, and this 1899 double eagle is that kind of coin,” said Todd Imhof, the executive vice president at Heritage Auctions, in a statement.
“It is such an exceptional rarity — the recorded original mintage was just 84 proofs— and over time, that total is dwindled, to somewhere around 30,” the statement continued. “Of the survivors, this example carries the highest grade, and that includes the one that is in the Smithsonian Institution. The winning bidder acquired an exceptional trophy-level coin that immediately becomes a collection centerpiece.”
Pink, who received a bizarre gift from a fan during a show last summer, was interrupted again this week by an audience member’s antics.
The singer was in the middle of her show Monday when a man at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, began yelling about circumcision while holding up a message on his phone calling it “cruel and harmful.”
Pink, not one to suffer fools, told him to cut it out.
“Oh wow, you’re making a whole point right now, aren’t you?” Pink told the protester, as seen in viral TikTok footage. “Do you feel good about yourself? Are you gonna be alright? You spent all this money to come here and do that? Come on, dude.”
Pink joked that she might “have to buy a Birkin bag with that ticket money” before asking security to escort him out.
“He came here tonight to talk about circumcision,” she continued. “Get out, why don’t you get that outta here?”
“There’s something seriously wrong with a lot of you out there,” she wrote in a blurred-out follow-up post. “Going off about my baby’s penis? About circumcision??? Are you for real? As any normal mother at the beach, I didn’t even notice he took off his swim diaper.”
Pink has expressed special distaste for people who tell others what to do with their bodies. She slammed then-President George W. Bush and his anti-gay marriage policy in 2006’s “Dear Mr. President,” and told People in 2018 that she doesn’t “like labels” because both genders “can do anything.”
Mexico has made an agreement with the United States to deport migrants from its border cities to their home countries and take several actions to deter migrants as part of a new effort to combat the recent surge in border crossings.
Mexican officials met with US Customs and Border Protection officials on Friday in Ciudad Juárez,, Mexico, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, following the recent spike in illegal crossings into the US, which temporarily closed an international bridge and paused Mexico’s main cargo train system.
As part of the agreement, Mexico agreed to “depressurize” its northern cities, which border the El Paso, San Diego and Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor has declared a state of emergency. They will also implement more than a dozen actions to prevent migrants from risking their lives by using the railway system to reach the US-Mexico border, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.
The US Department of Defense is ramping up resources at the US-Mexico border, sending at least 800 new active-duty personnel to the border, where 2,500 National Guard members are already servicing, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Wednesday night in a call with reporters.
The move comes as migrant crossings along the border are rising, surpassing 8,600 over a 24-hour period this week, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. It is up from around 3,500 daily border arrests after the expiration in May of Title 42 triggered new consequences for those who cross the border illegally. There were more than 8,000 apprehensions on Monday.
The busiest sectors are Del Rio, El Paso, Lower Rio Grande Valley and Tucson; each facing more than 1,000 encounters over the last 24 hours, according to the official. Eagle Pass is in the Del Rio sector.
Friday’s meeting was attended by Customs and Border Protection’s Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, the governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, members of Mexico’s national defense and national guard and representatives of Ferromex, a Mexican railroad operator, according to the institute.
Mexican officials vowed to carry out a series of 15 actions as part of the agreement, some in coordination with Customs and Border Protection and Ferromex, which includes deporting migrants to their home countries by land and air.
The country said it will carry out negotiations with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to confirm receipt of their citizens deported from the US-Mexico border. It will also allow US border patrol agents to expel migrants through the Ciudad Juárez international bridge, which connects to El Paso.
Other terms of the agreement include submitting a daily report of the number of migrants on the train system to Customs and Border Protection’s El Paso sector, establishing checkpoints along the Ferromex rail route and conducting interventions on railways and highways, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.
The institute said Mexico had deported more than 788,000 migrants to their home countries from January 1 to September.
The agreed-upon actions by Mexican officials raise questions about the country doing work typically designated for the US – from the south of the border – to manage the influx of migrants in recent weeks, which have has strained federal resources and overwhelmed already-crowded facilities, CNN previously reported.
Many who leave their homes for the United States face long and dangerous treks in hopes of finding better, safer lives. Some may flee violence, while others may immigrate for economic opportunities or to reunite with family, experts say. Deteriorating conditions in Latin America exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic also have contributed to the influx of migrants into the US.
It is likely the number of border crossings will continue to increase, as more Mexican nationals are making plans to come to the US, Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told CNN.
US government data show more Mexican families coming to the border, likely to seek asylum, Ruiz said. In July 2022, for example, Customs and Border Protection figures indicate 4,000 Mexican family encounters at the border. A year later, the number had more than quadrupled, reaching nearly 22,000.
“These are the three levers that are in play right now. … And regardless of what the Biden administration does today or tomorrow,” he says, “the people that are on the way already are going to continue, unless something else happens in the region.”
The family of Darryl George, a Black high school student in Texas, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Saturday against Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton over George’s ongoing suspension by his school district for his hairstyle.
George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31 at the Houston-area school. School officials say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code.
In this photo provided by Darresha George, her son Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, sits for a photo showing his locs, at the family’s home.
Darresha George via AP
George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.
The lawsuit accuses Abbott and Paxton of failing to enforce the CROWN Act, a new state law outlawing racial discrimination based on hairstyles. Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the law, which took effect Sept. 1.
How can there be racial discrimination based on hairstyles?
The lawsuit alleges Abbott and Paxton, in their official duties, have failed to protect Darryl George’s constitutional rights against discrimination and against violations of his freedom of speech and expression. Darryl George “should be permitted to wear his hair in the manner in which he wears it … because the so-called neutral grooming policy has no close association with learning or safety and when applied, disproportionately impacts Black males,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in Houston federal court by Darryl George’s mother, is the latest legal action taken related to the suspension.
On Tuesday, Darresha George and her attorney filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging Darryl George is being harassed and mistreated by school district officials over his hair and that his in-school suspension is in violation of the CROWN Act.
They allege that during his suspension, Darryl George is forced to sit for eight hours on a stool and that he’s being denied the hot free lunch he’s qualified to receive. The agency is investigating the complaint.
Darresha George said she was recently hospitalized after a series of panic and anxiety attacks brought on from stress related to her son’s suspension.
On Wednesday, the school district filed its own lawsuit in state court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act.
Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole has said he believes the dress code is legal and that it teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefiting everyone.
The school district said it would not enhance the current punishment against Darryl George while it waits for a ruling on its lawsuit.
What is the CROWN Act?
The CROWN Act, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots. Texas is one of 24 states that have enacted a version of the act.
Darryl George’s school previously clashed with two other Black male students over the dress code.
Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their dreadlocks in 2020. The two students’ families sued the school district in May 2020, and a federal judge later ruled the district’s hair policy was discriminatory. Their case, which garnered national attention and remains pending, helped spur Texas lawmakers to approve the state’s CROWN Act law. Both students initially withdrew from the school, with Bradford returning after the judge’s ruling.
HOUSTON (AP) — The family of a Black high school student in Texas on Saturday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general over his ongoing suspension by his school district for his hairstyle.
Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31 at the Houston-area school. School officials say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code.
George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.
The lawsuit accuses Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton of failing to enforce the CROWN Act, a new state law outlawing racial discrimination based on hairstyles. Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the law, which took effect Sept. 1.
The lawsuit alleges Abbott and Paxton, in their official duties, have failed to protect Darryl George’s constitutional rights against discrimination and against violations of his freedom of speech and expression. Darryl George “should be permitted to wear his hair in the manner in which he wears it … because the so-called neutral grooming policy has no close association with learning or safety and when applied, disproportionately impacts Black males,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in Houston federal court by Darryl George’s mother, is the latest legal action taken related to the suspension.
On Tuesday, Darresha George and her attorney filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging Darryl George is being harassed and mistreated by school district officials over his hair and that his in-school suspension is in violation of the CROWN Act.
They allege that during his suspension, Darryl George is forced to sit for eight hours on a stool and that he’s being denied the hot free lunch he’s qualified to receive. The agency is investigating the complaint.
Darresha George said she was recently hospitalized after a series of panic and anxiety attacks brought on from stress related to her son’s suspension.
Migrant crossings at the southern border have nearly doubled from a few months ago. CBS News national correspondent Manuel Bojorquez has more from El Paso.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Three bodies have been pulled from the Rio Grande along the Texas-Mexico border this week, including that of a 3-year-old boy, as state and border patrol officials erect dangerous obstacles to prevent migrant crossings that have reportedly neared record levels this month.
The youngest victim was pulled from the water near Eagle Pass on Wednesday by a Texas tactical marine unit. They’d received a report that the boy had been swept away in the current while attempting to cross with family around 3:30 p.m., the Texas Department of Public Safety said. The boy was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The recovery of the child’s body took place just north of a controversial floating marine barrier that immigrant advocates and both Mexican and U.S. officials say dangerously diverts migrants into parts of the river that are deeper and more treacherous.
DPS spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez, in a statement posted online, said the child’s death was “another senseless tragedy” stemming from what Olivarez called the federal government’s failure to discourage unlawful border crossings.
A second death was reported on Thursday morning. Just before 9 a.m., a body was found submerged a few hundred yards north of the barrier’s buoys, DPS said.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin described the victim as a middle-aged man, sharing video of the body’s recovery on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. DPS referred further questions to the Maverick County Sheriff’s Office, which did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment Friday.
Migrants walk in the Rio Grande along a wall of concertina wire as they try to cross into the U.S. from Mexico on Friday in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A third death was reported Friday morning. The victim was described only as a male.
Video posted online by Julio Rosas, a writer for the media outlet Townhall, shows a man’s body floating among the buoys in the river. Eagle Pass fire chief Manuel Mello told HuffPost that the body floated into the buoys, and that they did not cause the man to drown. A mother and a 10-year-old boy died in the river a few weeks earlier, Mello said.
The bodies of multiple men, women and children have been pulled from the river, including several that have been found caught by the buoys.
Mexican officials have formally complained to the U.S. government about the buoys and have asked for their removal, arguing that they create safety risks, contravene treaties regarding the use of the river, and violate Mexico’s sovereignty. Migrant advocates have similarly expressed concerns about drowning risks.
A string of buoys installed in the Rio Grande have sparked controversy and tension between the United States and Mexico. Claims of human rights violations have reached Congress.
Brandon Bell via Getty Images
A U.S. judge recently ordered Texas to remove the buoys after the Biden administration sued the state over their use. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) immediately appealed the order, however, and a U.S. Appeals Court granted the state an emergency stay pending further judgment.
It’s not clear whether the buoys have directly increased the number of drowning deaths, as some have feared.
Regardless, Ricky Garza, border policy counsel for the Southern Border Communities Coalition in Texas, argues that these anti-migration tactics are intentionally dangerous and violate basic human rights.
“I think at a really basic level, nobody deserves to be killed by the state for migrating.”
“Every law enforcement agency is obligated to respect the basic human rights of migrants. That is just something that is part of our international obligations, it’s part of international treaties,” he told HuffPost. “I think at a really basic level, nobody deserves to be killed by the state for migrating.”
The southwest border has seen a surge of crossings in recent years, in part due to instability in countries like Venezuela that have authoritarian governments.
The number of migrants apprehended by U.S. immigration agents along the Texas border soared to near-record levels this month, CBS News reported Thursday, citing unpublished federal figures. Border Patrol agents reportedly apprehended an average of 6,900 migrants daily during the first 20 days of September, a 60% increase from the daily average seen in July.
A migrant who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico is pulled under concertina wire along the Rio Grande on Thursday in Eagle Pass.
Abbott has responded to the surge by busing more than 40,000 migrants to Democratic-run cities and installing miles of razor wire and floating marine barriers.
Rather than installing physical dangers, Garza argues that limits on the daily number of migrants allowed at border checkpoints should be expanded so people can have a safe means of entry.
“Broadly, the U.S.’ international obligations say that anyone has the right to seek asylum if they are fleeing persecution, and that is not what’s being allowed to happen, because there is this metering that’s going on,” Garza said.
“That’s why you see people crossing between the ports in really dangerous situations that are really being made worse by our enforcement forces ― with razor wire, with barbed wire, with all of these troops along the river,” he said. “People should be afforded a safe option.”
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced Friday that he is switching parties and will serve as a Republican-affiliated mayor of the blue-leaning city.
While the Dallas mayoral office is nonpartisan, Johnson previously served as a Democrat in the Texas legislature. He slammed his former party in an op-ed for Wall Street Journal published Friday, blaming Democratic policies for “exacerbated crime and homelessness.”
“The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism,” Johnson wrote. “Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles (as opposed to the inconsistent, poll-driven commitment of many Democrats) that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.”
He added: “In other words, American cities need Republicans—and Republicans need American cities.”
Johnson’s announcement makes him the only Republican among the mayors of the 10 most populous cities in the US.
The Texas Democratic Party issued a scathing statement Friday, accusing Johnson of being dishonest with Dallas voters.
“[T]he voters of Dallas deserved to know where he stood before he ran for reelection as Mayor,” the chair and vice-chair of the party said. “He wasn’t honest with his constituents, and knew he would lose to a Democrat if he flipped before the election.”
“This feeble excuse for democratic representation will fit right in with Republicans — and we are grateful that he can no longer tarnish the brand and values of the Texas Democratic Party,” they added.
On the other hand, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed Johnson’s new party affiliation.
“Texas is getting more Red every day,” Abbott said in a post on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. “He’s pro law enforcement & won’t tolerate leftist agendas.”
In Greg Abbott’s Texas, there are a lot of things people can’t do. They can’t get an abortion after six weeks, even in cases of incest and rape. They can’t walk around town without worrying that someone will be carrying a gun without a background check, license, or training. They can’t remove a top official from office despite that top official allegedly abusing his position to help a friend*. They can’t expect that at least one of their senators won’t flee to Cancún during a state of emergency. And, according to recent events, they can’t teach middle school students about the Holocaust using an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary—or, they can, but they’ll be fired for it.
Yes, a teacher in Texas’s Hamshire-Fannett school district lost her job earlier this month for the apparent crime of incorporating Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation into an eighth-grade curriculum. The graphic novel—which has been called a “masterpiece” by Hadassah magazine and a “superb offering” by School Library Journal—was nevertheless deemed “inappropriate” by school officials. In an email to parents, the school district wrote: “It was brought to the administration’s attention tonight that 8th grade students were reading content that was not appropriate. The reading of that content will cease immediately. Your student’s teacher will communicate her apologies to you and your students soon, as she has expressed those apologies to us.”
Parents were also reportedly told that a sub had taken over the class and that the district “is currently in the process of posting the position to secure a high-quality, full-time teacher as quickly as possible.” According to KFDM, students were shown a section of the novel where Frank—who would be around the same age as they are—wrote about male and female body parts. While Frank’s original diary included references to sexuality, some reprints excluded them.
Despite claims by school officials that the adaptation had not been approved, KFDM notes that the book “was on a reading list sent to parents at the start of the school year,” so the district’s suggestion that the teacher “went rogue” seems…not true at all in the, y’know, actual sense of the word. A source close to the teacher told KFDM that the school’s principal had approved a syllabus that included the book. “There is an active investigation,” Mike Canizales, a spokesperson for the Hamshire-Fannett ISD, told the outlet.
If all of this sounds absurd to you, rest assured you’re not the only one! Speaking to The Guardian,Clay Robison, a spokesperson with the Texas State Teachers Association, said, “No teacher should be fired for teaching the diary of Anne Frank to middle school students. Teachers are dedicated to teaching the truth, the whole truth.” (To be clear, the work that got the teacher fired is not the original diary of Anne Frank but a graphic adaptation that, again, has received widespread praise and won numerous awards and honors, including Best Jewish Children’s Book of 2018.) Clay added to The Guardian that recent attempts to restrict what can and cannot be taught in the classroom represent are “a political attack on truth. It’s not a woke agenda. It’s not a liberal agenda. It’s a truth agenda.”
Last year, a Tennessee school board banned the Pulitzer Prize–winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus because it includes eight curse words like “damn” and contains (illustrated) “nakedness.” In April, PEN America reported that 1,477 books had been banned during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year—up 28% from the previous six months. Not surprisingly, Republican-controlled states have largely led the book-banning initiative, with Texas school districts recording the most removals during the period in question, followed by Florida and Missouri.
*Ken Paxton was acquitted in his impeachment trial and remains the subject of a federal investigation.
Already-crowded migrant facilities from California to Texas are being overwhelmed as thousands of migrants are coming to the U.S.-Mexico border every day. More than 2,000 migrants streamed through the border Sunday night near Eagle Pass, Texas, prompting the mayor to issue an emergency declaration. Manuel Bojorquez has more on the crisis.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A school district in Texas has fired a teacher who assigned eighth-grade students a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary.
The Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District’s communication coordinator, Mike Canizales, told KFDM-TV in Beaumont, Texas, that an unnamed teacher allowed students to read a version of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in class that was “not approved” by the district.
The school district, which is in Jefferson County, east of Houston, confirmed to HuffPost that it had hired a substitute teacher while it searches for a full-time replacement.
“As you may be aware, following concerns regarding curricular selections in your student’s reading class, a substitute teacher has been facilitating the class since Wednesday, September 13, 2023,” read an email sent to parents on Friday, which Canizales provided to HuffPost. “The District is currently in the process of posting the position to secure a high-quality, full-time teacher as quickly as possible. During this period of transition, our administrators and curriculum team will provide heightened support and monitoring in the reading class to ensure continuity in instruction.”
Anne Frank was a Jewish teenager who documented her thoughts and struggles during the Holocaust as she and her family hid in a secret annex in a house in Amsterdam. Her original diary, published in 1947, has been lauded by many educators, writers and scholars as essential reading.
“Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” was written by Ari Folman, whose parents survived the Holocaust, and it was illustrated by David Polonsky. It details an experience in which Anne Frank walked through a park that displayed nude female statues and a conversation in which she asked a friend that they each show each other their breasts, The Associated Press reported in April. It also includes a section where she discusses both male and female genitalia, according to the Post.
The New York Times Book Review wrote that the illustrated book is “so engaging and effective that it’s easy to imagine it replacing the [original diary] in classrooms and among younger readers.” Its target audience is listed on Amazon as students from eighth through 12th grade.
The school district claims the book was unapproved, but KDFM reported that the book was on an approved list that had been sent to parents at the start of the school year. An investigation is underway, the district’s communication coordinator told KDFM.
Anne Frank Fonds, based in Basel, Switzerland, the organization that published the graphic novel, condemned book banning in an email to HuffPost.
“The graphic adaptation of the diary is based on the text of a 12-year-old girl in the 1940s. Since its first publication, the diary has repeatedly come under fire from ideological groups,” the foundation wrote. “The girl, who never knew freedom in today’s sense, stood up for it in her texts and dreamed of it.”
“The Anne Frank Fonds Basel observes with increasing concern that, in addition to bans on the text in dictatorships, idéologie-soaked bans on books of world literature are now also increasingly being implemented in the free world, threatening the achievements of enlightenment,” the publisher said.
The district’s firing falls in line with the conservative-led nationwide push to ban books that mention race, sex education and gender identity. Texas has been at the forefront of this book-banning effort and has had the most attempts to ban books in schools when compared to other states, according to a 2022 report by the American Library Association.
Books like Frank’s diary or “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” by Art Spiegelman, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, have been the target of conservatives in the last several years. Parents who have complained about Holocaust literature and the school boards that have banned them have often cited foul language or nudity in such works. But historians and librarians see it as a larger attack on teaching students the truth about racial injustice and antisemitism.
In 2021, a Texas lawmaker made a list of approximately 850 books and distributed it to school districts around the state, demanding to know whether schools had any of the listed books on its shelves. Last May, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that bans books with “sexually explicit” material. Educators and other critics have said the law is vague.
In an era when conservatives are seeking to discredit teachers, reading a book is no longer a routine part of an educator’s day but can now become a punishable offense.
In the last year alone, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia was terminated after reading “My Shadow Is Purple” by Scott Stuart, a children’s book that deals with gender identity, to her students. In South Carolina, students complained after a high school teacher included Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” in an Advanced Placement Language Arts class because the Republican-controlled state legislature had banned classroom discussions on systemic racism. And in Louisiana, a school librarian was threatened online after speaking out against censorship.
Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General and staunch Donald Trump ally, was found not guilty by the Texas Senate on 16 impeachment charges Saturday, bringing to a close a tense trial that exposed a growing rift within the Texas GOP.
The ultimate vote on bribery and abuse of office charges wasn’t close: the most Republican votes any article solicited in favor of conviction was two. Not a single article got a majority vote. (A two-thirds margin was required to convict.) The near-unanimous GOP support for Paxton contrasted sharply with May’s vote in the Texas House, when 70% of Republicans voted in favor of impeachment.
Royce West, a Democrat from Dallas, toldThe Texas Tribune that there was more Republican support for impeachment than implied by the final tally, but that several GOP senators changed their votes after it became clear that the articles didn’t have two-thirds support.
The impeachment articles centered around accusations that Paxton abused his office to help a Texas real estate investor and Paxton campaign donor who was facing many legal issues of his own.
Paxton didn’t hold back after the vote. “The sham impeachment coordinated by the Biden Administration with liberal House Speaker Dade Phelan and his kangaroo court has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupted the work of the Office of Attorney General, and left a dark and permanent stain on the Texas House,” he said in a statement. “The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt.”
Paxton, who has been a legal thorn in the president’s side on issues like abortion, immigration, and transgender rights, addressed the Joe Biden administration directly: “Buckle up, because your lawless policies will not go unchallenged,” he said. The attorney general will immediately return to office, ending a four-month suspension triggered by the May House vote.
Texas Lieutenant General Dan Patrick, a formerly staunch Paxton ally, was forced to preside impartially over the trial. But immediately after the vote ended, he excoriated his colleagues and called for a “full audit” of the case. “Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on this impeachment,” he argued. Phelan, the House Speaker, quickly shot back. Patrick was “confessing his bias and placing his contempt for the people’s House on full display,” Phelan said.
The trial quickly de-escalated a growing inter-party war between the Texas GOP’s more moderate old guard and hard-right faction. Saturday’s vote was undoubtedly a victory for the latter. “Ken Paxton was the flashpoint, and clearly the conservative wing of the party won,” Nick Maddux, a Republican consultant and Paxton’s chief political adviser, toldThe New York Times.
Before and during the trial, Texas’s MAGA Republicans put significant pressure on the party to rally behind Paxton. That included threats to primary sitting Senators who indicated support for impeachment.
Paxton quickly received congratulations from the former president on Saturday. In a Truth Social post, Trump, who faces scores of legal issues – including 91 criminal charges – called the impeachment trial an instance of “political persecution.” “We should choose our elected officials by VOTING, not by weaponizing government,” he wrote.
Austin, Texas —Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted Saturday in the GOP-controlled state Senate on all 16 articles of impeachment, which included counts of bribery, dereliction of duty and disregard of official duties.
Paxton, who has been suspended since May, when he was impeached by the Texas House, will likely be reinstated as attorney general.
Although more than 60 Republicans in the Texas House crossed party lines in May to impeach Paxton, his hold on the state Senate remained solid and only two Republicans voted to remove him from office on any of the counts. Paxton is a former state senator and his wife, Angela Paxton, is currently a state senator. She was barred from voting in the proceedings, but since she attended the trial, the state still needed 21 of the 31 senators to vote to convict.
Paxton had denied all wrongdoing. He did not attend the trial except for the first day, when he pleaded not guilty.
Paxton is a close ally of former President Donald Trump, and the former president posted ahead of the last day in support of Paxton, calling it a “shameful impeachment.”
This is a breaking story. It will be updated.
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free account or log in for more features.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told the 30 state senators who are acting as jurors that they could leave only to go home at night and were not to speak to anyone about the trial or watch any news coverage. If a verdict is not reached by Sunday evening, he said he would consider sequestering the senators.
The articles of impeachment include bribery and abuse of public trust. Paxton, who attended the trial on the first day and the last day, pleaded not guilty last week. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Republicans hold a 19-12 advantage in the Texas Senate, and the state requires a two-thirds majority, or 21 votes, to convict Paxton on any of the charges. State Sen. Angela Paxton, the attorney general’s wife, has been barred from voting or participating in deliberations, but she still counts toward the number of senators necessary to convict — meaning the state still needs 21 votes.
Paxton’s defense sought to dismiss the impeachment vote as a political “witch hunt” and partisan fight within the GOP against Paxton, a close ally of former President Donald Trump.
House impeachment manager Jeff Leach, who represents Paxton’s home base in Collin County, Texas, countered that Paxton had been a “dear friend and political mentor,” but “the people of Texas deserve answers.”
Only two Texas statewide officials have ever been removed from office after a conviction, Gov. James Ferguson, in 1917, and District Judge O.P. Carrillo, in 1975. If Paxton is convicted, the Senate will likely also hold a separate vote to determine if Paxton should be barred from holding office.
Read breakdowns of each day’s testimoy and more at CBS News Texas.
What are the charges against Paxton?
In May, the Texas state House voted overwhelmingly to impeach Paxton on a 121-23 vote. The Senate decided to hear arguments on 16 of the articles of impeachment.
The accusations stem from Paxton’s involvement with Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who has been indicted in a separate case.
Several aides in Paxton’s office came forward in 2020, alleging that Paxton influenced employees to get involved in legal disputes that would benefit Paul and his business. In return, they said Paul provided extensive favors for Paxton, including providing home renovations and employing a woman with whom Paxton was allegedly having an affair.
Paxton’s defense sought to prove his impeachment was just an attempt to settle a score by political opponents in the state House and his own former aides. In his closing argument, his lawyer, Tony Buzbee, accused the Bush family — in particular, George P. Bush, who primaried Paxton in 2022 — of manufacturing the impeachment allegations.
“The Bush era ends today in the state of Texas,” Buzbee said. “They can go back to Maine.”
After the whistleblowers came forward, some resigned, but others were fired. Those who were fired filed a lawsuit in November 2020 alleging that they had suffered retaliation. On Feb. 10, Paxton announced the attorney general’s office had settled the lawsuit for $3.3 million. On Feb. 21, Paxton put a line item in the budget for the $3.3 million to settle the lawsuit with taxpayer money.
That request led the state House to open an investigation into Paxton. On May 23, the House General Investigating Committee went public about its probe into the proposed whistleblower settlement. According to the committee, the settlement would prevent a trial and the details from becoming public.
On Thursday, the defense called the attorney general’s director of human resources, Henry De La Garza, who testified that the whistleblowers were not fired for retaliation but rather for “egregious” policy violations.
What happened at Paxton’s impeachment trial?
The trial featured dramatic testimony from former top Paxton aides. All conservative Republicans, they testified that they were concerned about Paxton’s relationship with Paul. Paxton’s former top lieutenant, Jeff Mateer, testified that part of his job was to “protect the attorney general,” but he “failed.”
Paxton publicly called the whistleblowers “rogue employees.” His lawyers questioned why the whistleblowers went to the FBI, rather than to Paxton, with their concerns.
Witnesses said that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as Texas promoted a policy of opening up, Paxton allegedly rewrote the state’s policy to exclude foreclosure sales — a policy that appeared to benefit Paul. Former deputy first assistant Ryan Bangert testified that Paxton’s insistence was “bizarre,” and he was “acting like a man with a gun to his head.”
“I believed, based on my experience over the previous nine months, that the attorney general had abandoned his obligation to work on behalf of the interests of the people of Texas to serve the interests of one person — Nate Paul,” Bangert said.
Former Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel Ryan Vassar, meanwhile, testified that Paxton pressured him and Bangert to provide legal opinions that would have prevented foreclosure on some of Paul’s property amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
What does this have to do with Paxton’s alleged affair?
Paxton’s defense tried to separate the affair allegations from the articles of impeachment. His alleged affair was not among the counts in the articles of impeachment.
On Friday, defense attorney Tony Buzbee said “we know why they mentioned Laura Olson,” the woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair. “They want to shame him.”
“If this impeachment is about marital impropriety, then line up,” Buzbee said, implying others in the Legislature have had affairs.
Mateer, the former top aide to Paxton, testified that the alleged affair is “relevant” to the allegations because it “answered one of the questions I kept struggling with.”
“Why would General Paxton jeopardize all this great work that we’ve been doing in the Office of the Attorney General,” Mateer continued. “Why would he be engaged in these activities on behalf of one person…?”
Paul allegedly hired the woman with whom Paxton had an affair, and Paxton allegedly paid for an apartment in Austin for her.
Paxton’s former chief of staff, Katherine “Missy” Cary, testified in the trial’s second week about the impact of Paxton’s alleged affair on his office.
“The ethics advice in 2018 was when you try to keep things secret when you are a statewide elected official who is running for office, it can be ethically, legally and morally challenging — and it was beginning to bleed over to people in the office,” Cary said.
Cary said in 2018, there were complaints in the office from security and travel details about their hours and non-state business, such as the alleged affair. She also recounted that Angela Paxton used to call the office regularly to ask about her husband’s schedule or his whereabouts, which led to complaints from the office staff members that they were “uncomfortable.”
And she recalled that during lunch one day, she ran into Paxton, who was with the woman with whom he allegedly had an affair and introduced her as his realtor. She testified that in the summer of 2018, she confronted Paxton, who confirmed the affair. She said he was “contrite” and “listened to what I had to say very carefully” about the “ethical implications” of having an affair.
“There’s ethical risks, there’s political risks, there’s legal risks … these things can open one up to bribery and misuse of office, misuse of state time,” she said.
Cary told senators that at one point in 2018, she believed he had ended the affair, but she learned in 2019 that it was still going on. Cary testified that she spoke to him again about the alleged affair, but Paxton was “frantically upset” and said he “still loved” the woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair.
“Imagine if we impeached everyone here in Austin that had had an affair — we’d be impeaching for the next 100 years,” Buzbee said. Cary declined to respond. “Just because someone had an affair doesn’t mean that they’re a ‘criminal,’ does it?”
What are the criminal charges against Paxton, and is that case affected by the impeachment?
Paxton was indicted in 2015 by a Collin County, Texas, grand jury on two first-degree felony charges of securities fraud and a third-degree felony charge of failure to register. He has pleaded not guilty, and he has successfully delayed a trial in the case while he’s in office.
The impeachment case is completely separate from those allegations, and Paxton still faces a trial on those charges.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled Wednesday in their favor, arguing the policy had not been subject to public notice and comment periods that are required by the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
Hanen’s decision prohibits the government from approving new applications, but allows the program, first created by the Obama administration in 2012, to continue as the appeals process sorts itself out.
The Supreme Court is likely to hear the case in the near future, which will be the third time DACA’s fate has been weighed by the high court.
Hanen ruled DACA illegal in 2021, and the Biden administration responded by attempting to revise the policy and subject it to the public comments as part of the process that Hanen ruled necessary.
But the judge ruled the updated version was still illegal, saying it’s up to Congress to determine what the solution was for the “Dreamers” entering the country.
The states involved in bringing the lawsuit are Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.
Hanen said previously these states had a right to sue, as they have been financially harmed by the DACA program through millions of dollars incurred in health care, education and other costs to support the influx of immigrants.
