Waymo expansion sparks safety concerns in Texas cities

0:00A recent change to Texas law now requires local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. How's that been working out? More today on the Texas Standard. Texas Standard is a production of KUT Austin, K-E-R-A North Texas, Houston Public Media, and Texas Public Radio in San Antonio, with support from CASA, court-appointed special advocates, making a difference for children in foster care. Now matter where you are, Texas Standard time on the 13th day of March, 2026.

1:04I'm David Brown. Hope your Friday's off to a good start. Don't know if you've heard about this story, but it's been making some waves some investigative reporting from the Houston Chronicle raising questions about how closely local police officers are working with immigration and customs enforcement agents. According to the Chronicle data from 2025 shows that Houston police called federal authorities 154 times last year, 1,000 percent jumped from previous years. By way of illustration, the story recounts how one man was pulled over by local police last summer for driving with expired registration. After a license look up, there was an unspecified immigration violation. ICE was called and the police drove the suspect to the station to be taken into ICE custody. Legal experts told the Chronicle that local police don't have the authority to detain people at traffic stops and report them to ICE for administrative warrants and may be putting their departments in legal jeopardy if they do.

2:06In fact, in many liberal cities like Austin, there are policies restricting police cooperation with ICE. But a new Texas law actually requires local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. How's that going? Mosbushel of KUT in Austin reports. City council members opened up a recent public forum here with a line they repeat often. In Austin, undocumented immigrants should be able to call the police without fear of being deported. Here's Chitovela Austin Mayor Pro Tem. We are committed and making sure that we are keeping our immigrant community as safe as we possibly can and so forth. But in Texas, there are few options when it comes to stopping police from reporting people to ICE. In one recent case, a mother and her young daughter were deported after the mom called local police to report a disturbance. Stopping that kind of thing was what this meeting with Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis

3:08was about. I said, let me go ahead and turn it over to Chief Davis. Thank you for being here. This is amazing to see this show out. In Texas, state police are empowered to arrest suspected unauthorized immigrants. Many counties partner with ICE to get grants and funding. Those agreements will become mandatory for all counties by the end of the year. And Davis said Texas cities cannot prevent local officers from calling ICE if they see fit. The role of law that I have to follow is the chief of police here in the state of Texas. But what we can do, what we can't do is create. It was a tense evening. On one side, local officials explaining that breaking state law could lead to cuts to funding or them getting removed from office. On the other side, many in the audience calling for resistance no matter the cost. Robert Salter is a criminal defense lawyer who was one of the most vocal that night. There is nothing that prevents this police chief, these city council members from refusing

4:08to cooperate with the state. He did public debates like this have also erupted in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Democratic cities in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida are also seeing locals push back against red state laws that mandate ICE police partnerships. Kristen Eder is director of the Texas Immigration Law Council. She says far more people are detained in states that have these policies. It's not. Visible, it doesn't present the same ways it does in Minneapolis or Chicago or Los Angeles. And so most people, again, would have no idea that this is happening every day all around us in a very quiet way, quiet, that is until people start shouting at that public meeting in Austin police chief Lisa Davis announced plans to change city policy officers can still contact ICE, but the new rules will give police higher ups a say in whether they can hold people until ICE arrives to arrest them.

5:11And I can tell you the priority is not waiting for ICE to respond on a civil detainer. Officials think it's a way to thread the needle between local priorities and state law. But after the event, immigrant advocate Cutman Zouietta said it won't help people who fear deportation feel any better about calling the police for help. To gain confidence, you have to earn it and nothing they're doing is giving us confidence. She said, I'm Mosbushel in Austin. Up to now, hailing away Mo in Texas has been pretty much an Austin thing, but that's changing fast. Drivers in places like Dallas, Houston and San Antonio may want to be on the lookout for Waymo's driverless taxis. And when I say be on the lookout, that might be advice worth taking literally given that these robot taxis have been racking up headlines recently over safety issues.

6:13Our tech expert Omar Guyaga has been reporting on this for CNET. Omar always good to talk with you. Oh, thanks for having me, David. Appreciate it. What do we know about Austin ISD's complaint against Waymo? What's this about? Yeah, there has been a national transportation safety board investigation into these incidents, one of which happened on January 12th around Old Torf Street in 35 in South Austin. And this is Waymo vehicles that are not stopping for school buses. And if this were just one incident, you might be able to chalk it up to a glitch, but this has happened 24 times that have been reported by Austin ISD. And this is incidents of Waymo's just not stopping for school buses with flashing lights. Arms extended, obviously in Texas, it is illegal to do that. And it sounds as if, and in the one incident that the NTSB is citing, there was some human error involved because a remote human that was in control of the Waymo approved that move.

7:16So that's troubling also that there was actually a human involved and still did that. It sounds as if it may be imitating other drivers because in some of these incidents, there were other drivers who were doing that and the Waymo kind of followed. But yeah, that is a huge problem and they're getting a lot of criticism for this. And Waymo says that it's been investigating this as well as the NTSB investigating this. Yeah, I want to talk more about Waymo's reaction, but there's a newer controversy also in Austin. This one caught on viral video. Tell us more about it. Yeah, there was a mass shooting in Austin, Texas that I'm sure we've discussed on the show. And a viral video that was taken by someone in Austin who was on the scene showed a Waymo vehicle that was trying to make a U-turn outside of the venue where the shooting took place. As EMS was trying to get to the scene, they were blocking the path of the EMS. And trying to make this slow U-turn and unsuccessfully. So that video went viral, got a lot of attention, and now the Austin City. The latest development is at the Austin City Council is now inviting Waymo to come explain

8:20itself and tell them how this happened. Waymo has declined to comment on this day. They have not spoken yet about the Austin shooting incident and the Waymo that was outside. Now, I was just seeing something, maybe within the past 24 hours, maybe I'm misremembering, but something about a Waymo recorded stopping in a dangerous position or potentially dangerous position between a lowered railway crossing gate and train tracks. Have you seen this? I have not seen that one, but we've seen lots of incidents and viral videos of just Waymo's where the software just can't decide what to do. So it kind of stalls out. It just sits there when it doesn't know how to proceed. I think the thinking is that it's less dangerous for us to just pause and stop in the middle of traffic than to move forward without a clear direction or knowing what it's doing. So we've seen lots of incidents of that of Waymo's just stopping in the middle of traffic or in the middle of the street because they are lost or don't know what to do next. You mentioned a couple of points here. Waymo is trying to answer these sort of

9:23piecemeal. What is Waymo saying about the way it's what might be behind some of these things? Because Waymo's have been a part of the Austin landscape now for quite some time. Yeah, I mean, they have been the one that they've responded to the most was an incident that happened in San Francisco last year. This was in December. There was a widespread power outage and because of that power outage, a lot of Waymo's were out of commission. They just stopped and installed in the middle of, like I said, in the middle of road. So Waymo actually answered in front of the San Francisco city officials and what they told them was that they are updating the Robotaxi software to better handle those type of incidents to make more decisive driving decisions when those things happen. So they've responded to the San Francisco incident. They have not yet responded to either of the things happening in Austin yet. But as you were explaining the city wants Waymo to what come forward and do something similar here? In the case of the shooting incident, the U-turn stall out, yes, they were asking Waymo to come

10:25speak before the city council, and this just happened within the last day or two. So Waymo has not yet responded to that or said if they're going to do that. Hard to imagine that there won't be broader questions brought up. I'm curious about how this criticism has affected the company more broadly. Are you sensing that the company is retrenching a bit, stepping back, slowing expansion? It doesn't seem like it. I mean, as all this was happening, they announced four new cities, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and in Florida, Orlando. And they still have plans to expand in other cities, including I believe Charlotte, Nashville, Denver, Las Vegas. They're looking to expand internationally to London and Tokyo. So I don't think it's slowing their role at all. But I do think there are a lot of questions about, how are they going to update this software? What are they going to do about these types of incidents? And they're not the only ones on the road. We've got Tesla in Austin doing its robot version of robot taxis. There are other autonomous driver services so that they're not the only ones. And each of these has its own unique software and way of doing things. So even if you regulate one

11:28of them and say you guys got to update your software, there's other ones on the road with from different companies. Omar Guyaga is our go-to tech expert. We're going to link to his latest reporting for CNET on this issue at TexasStandard.org. Omar, thanks so much. I sure appreciate it, David. Stay safe, other. Well, let's bring break season in Texas and those headed to the airport for travel may encounter longer than usual security lines. And ongoing partial government shutdown has left about 050,000 transportation security administration officers nationwide working without pace since mid-February. That's when Congress let funding for the Department of Homeland Security expire because of a disagreement over immigration enforcement tactics. And as you likely know, Homeland Security oversees the TSA. Last weekend, there were hours long lines at Houston's hobby airport and this morning the security line at Austin Bergstrom stretched well outside the airport building. While the shutdown goes on, officials at some airports are advising passengers to arrive,

12:29three to four hours before their flights. This is a story we're going to continue to track here at the TexasStandard, coming up on 19 minutes past the hour. And a Euler of UT's energy institute is on deck. He's been crisscrossing the state covering the energy transition. Next stop, West Texas. He'll take us along for the ride as the standard continues. Support for TexasStandard comes from half-price books, a Texas-bred new-and-news bookstore, proudly supporting public media and its role in informing our communities. Store locations, staff picks, and more at hpb.com. Support for TexasStandard comes from Texas Casa. For a child and foster care, small moments today can have a big impact tomorrow. More on how lending time and support can help make a difference at becomeacasa.org. It's the TexasStandard. I'm David Brown. When you think of the energy industry in West Texas,

13:33it's hard not to immediately think of oil and gas. I mean, even the global oil market sets its prices based on something the industry calls West Texas Intermediate Crude. But if you're out that way, head to North from Midland into the Panhandle and the Great Plains of Texas. And what you'll discover there is that these days, more and more often, it's not fossil fuels folks are talking about when it comes to energy production in town. That's what Andy Euler of the University of Texas Energy Institute found, driving out West for his latest episode of The Phases and Stages Podcast. Years ago, one of the best known musical songs of the Great Plains of Texas, the late great Joe Ely, spoke wistfully about his relationship with a place he once called home. Every time I started new record, I'd always come back to the flatlands. It was like a starting place for me for some reason because I guess because of the emptiness and it made me want to fill it up. But when Ely was talking about filling up that emptiness, I like to think that he had something

14:34more romantic in mind than solar farms and data centers. Circles and cycles, scenes that we've all seen for. Let me tell you some more. Once I got to Lubbock, it was about an hour drive on Highway 27 north to my final destination, a little place called Cress. That's where Spanish energy company Repsol built a nearly one million panel solar farm a couple of years ago. Lamin Wilkes grew up in Fort Worth and is now director of asset management for Repsol renewables north America. But why Cress? Because the the amount of land that we need to build these sites is several thousand acres. And that's not always going to be available in it's not available in heavily populated areas. So you're going to be in the smaller, the smaller areas, smaller cities, you know towns.

15:36At some 637 megawatts, the Fry solar plant has more power capacity than the town has residents. At last count, the official population here, 592. I asked Mayor Johnny what he thought of this massive solar farm coming to town. Even though it's built on private land, surely there's been some economic bonus as a result. We get nothing out of it. We have nothing to do with it. We have no say over it. All we can hope is it's done the right way and support the decisions of those that made the decision to have those farms. The developer of the Fry solar farm applied for and received a state tax incentive called the Texas Economic Development Act chapter 313. It was passed in 2001. Rick Perry was governor and according to the state controller, chapter 313 was, quote, designed to attract new businesses by offering them a 10-year limitation

16:38on their appraised property value for a portion of the school district property tax. In exchange for the value limitation, the business agrees to build or install new property and create jobs in the school district. The taxes don't come to the city, so you get nothing out of it. Those taxes go to the school districts. He says Cress ISD got close to half a million dollar lump sum when the agreement was first signed and it's unclear how those funds were used. Chapter 313 actually expired in 2022, but a lot of firms stocked up on those benefits when they knew the incentive was coming to a close. Rep souls first tax year on record was 2024. Mayor Johnny says the solar farms property value will be capped at $20 million until those 10 years run out. He says he wishes the city could get some of those direct cash benefits, but he understands that it's not in the cards. And he says nobody in town really talks about it. Good or bad? One thing about a small town, people gets concerned to share their opinion

17:40because they don't know what side the fence somebody's on one way or the other. I'm very blunt. If somebody asks me opinion, I give it. I'm scared to death what it's going to do to the land in the end. Lemon Wilkes at Repsol points to what's called agrovoltaics. The dual use of land for both agriculture and power generation. We run sheep on there to keep the vegetation moat down, basically moat the grass, but that's one thing that we're trying to do is let the land serve multiple uses. And I did see some billboards promoting those sheep and their ability to keep the grass trimmed. So there is something of a cottage industry that's come out of fry solar for at least a few families, but that's definitely not the prevailing mission of the operation. Now the ranchers who sold or leased the land got some nice mailbox money out of the deal, and Repsol did give the city some cash for the volunteer fire department, but Mayor Johnny just wishes his town saw more direct benefits from this land use.

18:45Beyond maybe a new football or baseball stadium. The funny thing about this part of Texas though is how attitudes about things like renewables are shaped. I think people here are practical before they are political. Andy Wilkinson grew up out here and he's a writer, performer and painter. He teaches a class at Texas Tech University called creative process. You'll have a few that have the bumper stickers on both right and left, but when it comes to doing something with their money, they look at it and say, you know, does it make sense to grow non-GMO corn? And if it makes sense, I'm going to do it. And I don't care if somebody knows I'm politically on the left when I grow this sort of stuff. And in the energy space, if there's power to be produced and money to be made doing it, Mike Slattery at TCU says folks in this part of Texas are probably out for it. The energy identity, obviously, of West Texas runs incredibly deep. And I think understanding and acknowledging that is really important to understanding why Wyndon's solar have landed the way

19:50they have in West Texas. So the infrastructure mindset, private capital, big land, energy independence, energy security, all of those kind of underlying economics for ONG hold true for renewables. The problem is for a lot of small town West Texas, the underlying economics doesn't really work for folks. And Andy Wilkinson says that can breed a bit of resentment. The only animosity here is us versus them. That means us versus Austin us versus DFW us versus San Antonio or Houston. There's always been an attitude here that, you know, you should leave us alone because we're different than you. And you're taking our stuff and selling it elsewhere. Why don't we get the value of it? The direct benefits of massive infrastructure projects like Fry Solar Farm in Cress don't make it into every household. So as more infrastructure gets built and even more electricity demand

20:50emerges, it behooves city officials, state policy makers, and perhaps most of all industry, to figure out a way to allow communities to truly benefit from being turned into ground zero for power generation in the state. In the High Plains of Texas, I'm Andy Euler for the Texas Standard. If you want to hear more about what's happening in West Texas, we'll have a link to an extended version of this at TexasStandard.org. Today's segment's the latest from the phases and stages podcast series produced by the Energy Institute at UT Austin. You can check out more episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or energy.utexas.edu. Just search phases and stages. In April phases and stages marks a year of reporting on energy from across the state. Pretty soon we'll have a chance to talk with a reporter Andy Euler about lessons he's picked up on the road, Chris Crossing the State. If you have any questions about Texas and energy we'd love to include it in our conversation, we send them in at our website, TexasStandard.org. Just click on the letter button up at the top of the

21:51page. No matter where you are coming up on 29 minutes past the hour, Texas Standard Time, Texas News Roundup, that's just around the corner. It's not just about the brisket or the ribs or the sausage or even the sides. It's the culture and people who are passionate about it. Where there's smoke, there's Daniel Vaughn, Texas monthly barbecue editor. Join us next Thursday on the Texas Standard. Support for where their smoke comes from HEB. From the Texas Newsroom, I'm Alexandra Hart, Texas's poise to break a record this year for the largest turnover in its congressional delegation in a single cycle, either because of voluntary retirements or re-election losses. Used in public media's Andrew Schneider reports, that will hurt Texas's ability to address its needs in Washington. At least a dozen Texas members of the U.S. House won't be returning to Washington next January. That means a big loss of power in an

22:55institution where seniority matters. Craig Voldin teaches public policy and politics at the University of Virginia. Across the board, having a large turnover is not beneficial. From the point of view of getting things done in Congress in the near future. One of the most significant hits to Texas Cloud and Congress will come from the retirement of Lubbock Congressman Jody Arrington, who chairs the powerful House Budget Committee. And one additional Houston member of Congress won't be returning next year, with Congressman Christian Menophe and Al Green in the May primary run off against each other. I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston. State firefighters say they have responded to requests for help on 17 wildfires in the past week. Some of the larger fires are in the panhandle where high winds and a persistent drought have created a dangerous situation. The yellow fire north of Amarillo is currently the largest active fire, burning more than 14,000 acres. Dallas education and city leaders say the upcoming record school bond election could be transformative for the district.

24:00KERA's Bill Zebel reports. The 6.2 billion dollar bond election would fund more than two dozen brand new schools and eliminate all of the district's hundreds of portable classrooms. Former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawling says the package would continue funding the progress the district's been making. Now this world is moving fast and we know if you're not getting better faster than the next guy you're getting worse. Dallas has got to come to the polls and say this is the easiest vote we've ever made. Early voting starts April 20th for the May 2nd election on Bill Zebel in Dallas. A female from the most endangered sea turtle species in the world was rescued off the coast of Galveston last weekend. A bystander called the sea turtle hotline after finding the Kimps Ridley sea turtle washed ashore covered in barnacles algae and sediment. Christopher Marshall is the director for the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research. We're crossing our fingers that things work out for this turtle. It's it's a mature female Kimps Ridley sea turtle. So she's quite valuable.

25:01The turtle is now being treated at the sea turtle hospital in Galveston with hopes she can make a full recovery and be released back into the ocean. I'm Alexandra Hart from the Texas newsroom. You're listening to statewide news from public radio stations across Texas. This coverage is only possible because of support from listeners like you. You can help sustain and grow Texas news coverage by donating to your local public radio station today. 33 minutes past the hour Texas standard time I'm David Brown calling all would be astronauts or perhaps those more committed to terra firma. NASA's hiring new talent to rebuild its core competencies and meet the agency's aggressive moon deadlines. But this push to staff up comes just two months after thousands of civil servants receive their final paycheck from last year's buyouts here to tell us more Andrea linefelder who covers space for the Houston Chronicle. Andrea welcome. Thanks for having me. So there's an all call for folks to check out opportunities at NASA

26:04and you know how many people NASA's hoping to hire compared with how many people left a few months back. NASA won't give me any specific numbers. It's it's more about finding the gaps that they have in their workforce. I'm kind of curious as to why they wouldn't just go back and call up the folks who had been let go in the past. Do they have any explanation for that? When I asked if people who took the buyouts would be eligible to apply they said that they'd look for people with a broad background of experience including those who previously worked in the government which made me believe that if you took the buyout last year you could apply. But you know I think the well part of it was because it was told they had to reduce the workforce but also try and get some new skill sets in there. I spoke of one guy who said the way it was handled was not very good and it was a turbulent year for those who did take the buyout but it could give a chance to have some people from the private sector get into NASA and kind of cross pollinate a little bit. Very interesting. What sort of jobs are they hiring for? Well NASA has two hiring initiatives

27:07underway right now. The first is really bringing some of his contractors in as government employees or civil servants and and this is the idea behind this is to bring some of the core competencies and skills at outsourced back in house. The second initiative is this NASA Force which is part of the US Tech Force with the US Office of Personnel Management. NASA Force is really aimed at trying to get people from the private sector to come in just for a two year term and elevate the workforce at NASA. Let's talk a little bit more about NASA's goals for the moon because we know that that's key to what NASA is doing right now very much in focus and maybe there are some other projects driving this growth. What do you know about that? Yeah so NASA is preparing to send four astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission around the moon so this will be a 10 day journey that circles the moon but it does not land on it. They were planning to land astronauts on Artemis 3 but that was recently changed. The new administrator wants to use Artemis 3 to test hardware and

28:09low earth orbits such as the landers and the spacesuits that are being developed by commercial companies and then Artemis 4 will land on the moon. The new administrator Jared Isaacman he wants to launch more often because it's been more than three years since the first time this rocket launched and that's a long time to let your like muscle memory atrophy right. You need to do it more often if you're ever going to be truly good at anything. So he wants to launch rockets more often so those are his goals with that and that's what's kind of coming out through these two different hiring initiatives. This is a little I don't know it's a little off the beaten path when it comes to talk about NASA and hiring but you know historically speaking there's been a lot of enthusiasm in Houston about NASA and what it sort of represents culturally they call it space city for a reason you know they're the ass grows and all of that. Do you get a sense that people are jazzed about the prospect of hiring at NASA? Is this is this sort of making waves? Is this having any sort of reverberation in the city from what you can tell? You know I'm not really sure

29:13because the circles I run in are all very heavy NASA so they already kind of work there or are a few of jobs there so I'm not really sure this is having a verborious outside. I think I have seen that some people are interested in space force I'm sorry NASA force excuse me but the big problem with NASA force is that you're going to be trying to attract people from the private sector to the government sector with government pay and so you know that might not be especially lucrative unless you are like I've always wanted to work in NASA or Jared Isaacman is trying to frame it like come do a duty to your country for a few years and go back to the private sector and so that's also an interesting way to look at it but it's probably not going to pay as well. What do you see as the big picture take away from all of this? I mean this came after a lot of disruption in NASA. Yeah so last year you know there was this big push to shrink the federal government and NASA lost a lot of people to that somewhere ready retire you know they got generous farewell. Others they took the buyouts because they were afraid of being laid off through reductions and forces and so

30:13there was a little bit of a mix it was very turbulent year. This year what I'm seeing is yeah this this new hiring push kind of acknowledges that last year's layoffs or buyouts or what have you they were not suited to NASA's long-term goals right you you can't reduce your staff and then try and get to the moon before China that's just really difficult to do and so there's acknowledgement there but also I think a lot of people are energized under Jared Isaacman you know he started in the role in December and he's he's been moving fast he's bringing these new ideas everyone likes the goal of getting to the moon faster and it's having more launches so there's this there's a lot of optimism right now in the direction NASA's going but there's also you know acknowledgement that last year's buyouts probably weren't best for the future of the agency. Andrea Linefelder covered the space industry for the Houston Chronicle we're going to link to her reporting at TexasStandard.org Andrea thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Support for Texas Standard comes from Texas Mutual Insurance Company a workers compensation provider committed to handling claims

31:16to help injured workers get back to work more at texasmutual.com slash mutual care. Hi it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air. Hey take a break from the 24 hour news cycle with us and listen to long form interviews with your favorite authors actors, filmmakers, comedians and musicians the people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times. So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. It's a Texas Standard. I'm Angela Cocherica. This border city where I live El Paso is often misunderstood by the rest of the country. It's portrayed as a no man's land and wide open border rather than a vibrant region with a rich history of trade, migration and more. New York Times reporter Jasmine Uyau captures the complex history in her new book El Paso by families and 100 years of blood, migration, race and memory. One of the throughlines of the book is the 2019 hate crime

32:22that marked El Paso when a gunman targeted people here because of who we are and where we live, the border. Jasmine Uyau joins us now to talk about her book. Jasmine is so great to have you here on the Texas Standard. Thank you for having me. Well let's start with what inspired you to write this book and why now? Yeah so I was born and raised in El Paso one away for college but in 2019 as the reference this self-proclaimed white supremacist drove until El Paso from the Dallas area and opened fire at a Walmart to cry in what he called the Hispanic invasion of Texas. And this massacre happened three minutes away from where I went to high school or just high school and it affected people that I knew and loved and had grown up with my best friend's own father had been at the store that day. And so as at the time it was a national political reporter for the Boston Globe and at the same time we were watching El Paso become this backdrop to

33:23he's really intense battles over immigration and already the images from my hometown had been drawing right we were seeing images of children getting separated at the border and migrants being shackled at the Santa Fe bridge and so as I was there covering this horrific crime I was thinking about how I wanted to tell a different story about the place where I'm from a much deeper story and really understand this violence not as a rupture in our history but part of this much larger legacy right a continuation of the past that hasn't really given El Paso its New Orleans Mexican and Mexican American workers it's due in our society. Yeah very complex history and the five families how did you choose the characters and why why these families? I wanted to capture the the multiracial multi-ethnic flavor of the region I was looking for families who are very emblematic of not only that migratory experience right the this ebb and flow of blue

34:25collar workers and intellectuals and activists that had been coming and going through El Paso since the Mexican revolution but also captured the diversity of the region that we don't often see that even many from Therizo's don't don't often see you know like I said I was born and raised in El Paso but there were so many things you know so many things about El Paso that I didn't know and including its rich Chinese Mexican history so I was I was really digging for that I had been covering immigration for more than a decade at that point in some form or another and so some of the families I had met through that reporting and others kind of found me. So what can the rest of the country learn from El Paso and the border residents that call this region home especially at a time of the country is so divided? Over the past year immigration reporters have been at the front lines of the harshest immigration crackdown we've seen since World War II right we've been watching masked officers apprehend people at workplaces at courthouses outside of their homes we've been seeing you know these these raids that are sweeping up not only undocumented immigrants but people

35:30with all kinds of legal residency and even US citizens born and raised in the United States but you know detained are apprehended because they have been because they speak English differently or because they look a certain way or their skin is a different color and so I think to understand where we are today we really have to understand El Paso's history the foundations from the rhetoric the treatment this this machinery all of it was built brick by brick decade by decade in El Paso and so that history of violence at the border is that play here but then there's also the flip side the resistance to that and what I call that La Conciencia Colectiva right this ethic that has existed in El Paso for a very long time of people coming together for the collective good and neighbors pushing back against these notions of race. Yeah the collective consciousness and so talk about the period it's the 100 years that the book covers historically as you tell this

36:33story. Yes yes so I found five families I really wanted it to center around the lives of five families and how immigration has shaped their experiences and and how they in turn have shaped El Paso and the nation right and so I felt like I had to go all the way back to the to the beginning and that's why it spans a hundred years I wanted to tell this deeper story and so I had to go all the way back to the beginning and I think the Mexican Revolution was a critical time to start that story because that is when you first begin to see these large numbers of Mexicans coming across and you first begin to hear very very similar to what we're hearing today right that these are dangerous criminals that they are gun runners and some of them were running guns back into Mexico from the United States to help you know rebel rebel factions of the revolution that we're fighting but many of the people who were also getting labeled were these intellectuals who were retiring these these bold ideas you know these bold progressive ideas at the time that we're still

37:37debating today such as you know workers rights fair treatment of Mexican workers in the United States fair wages and and they were organizing with workers as far as the Midwest and so that was also cast as as as dangerous at the time yeah very very fascinating chapters and I think people learn a lot now one review said you paint the city as a microcosm for all that is good and bad about the United States how so well I was writing this book I was also a national political reporter for the globe and then I moved on to cover politics for the times so I was really this book got rid in all across the country right because I was carrying books in my my backpack and my suitcases I was trying to read during down times at the airport I was writing in posse shops and hotel rooms and at the same time I was going out to events I was trailing candidates I was interviewing voters in in all different states but you know voters in all in all different states and I and with each with each cycle immigration was just becoming a more and more urgent issue

38:41and we were hearing candidates from one party in particular paint this really dystopian picture of the border and and and and saying every city is a border city every every state is now a border state but when they would talk about that you know when they would talk about that they were only talking about heels of of migration and and and conflating immigration with crime and so I wanted to explore that idea I am from a border city I am from Alpasso what what is that what does that really mean like that because that's definitely not the border I grew up with or the Alpasso I grew up with I grew up moving back and forth between Mexico and the United States going over to Huarez for birthday parties and dentist appointments many of my friends team over every day across the border every day to go to school with me and I wanted to capture that that that that counter image right like that it's not so scary that things don't have to be so black and white there's a lot of gray at the border there's a lot of complexity well finally in the little time we have what what do

39:42you hope readers will take away from the book I hope people will take away that there's a lot of lessons here for for Americans and and that it deserves to be at the center not the margins of our history immigration has become this issue that now many people understand is really at the center or at the crux of of this threat to democracy right because when when when fear the other when Americans fear the other it's often the ground for that erosion of civil liberty civil liberties and that is what we're seeing across the country so alpasso offers lessons on how that's happened before and we'll be here again but it also shows that there has been a pushback to that type of thinking jasmine will y'all as new book alpasso five families and 100 years of blood migration race and memory is available now jasmine thank you so much for the book and for joining us here on the standard thank you for having me

40:53this is john petri with the typewriter rodeo and we are a group of friends who type poems on the spot on whatever topics people want age for listener maxine yes sure there are the times of hot flashes and wondering where those wrinkles came from overnight but there is also the firm footing of knowing who you are where you have been and where you want to go next there is the strength that comes from being a mother from being in touch with your inner divinity oh how you thought you knew so much in youth and those lines they are not wrinkles they are verses in a poem they are pages in a story that is just getting to the very best part this is john petri and you're on texas standard time

42:01you can send us your ideas for typewriter rodeo poems at texasstandard.org and now it's time for a look back at the week that was in texas politics joining us jasper shareer politics editor at the texas tribune jasper welcome back thanks for having me very interesting notes from the tribune reporting this week looking at how at least a dozen of texas is 38 seats in the us house gonna change hands say more about this why is this something that we need to keep an eye on yeah there were so this is a number that was solidified with Dan Crenshaw and Tony Gonzalez going down in their primaries you know on top of a number of retirements that of folks voluntarily leaving the delegation main reason this matters is power in congress rests pretty much entirely on seniority you know how long you've been there it determines you know the type of committee assignments you get so nearly a third of the delegation at least changing hands just means lots more political

43:05neophytes coming in on capital hill representing texas and you could see the clout of the delegation definitely being diminished well speaking of newcomers on the national scene we have that democratic nominee for senate uh james taleriko he's been facing some backlash from a comment he made back in twenty twenty one god is non binary what is the context of that comment yeah this is sort of the the regular ebb and flow of politics is you know once the a member of either party becomes the nominee then you know quickly they sort of flip the switch there they've been trying to get their parties approval and then suddenly they're facing attacks from the other side of the aisle that's what's happening with taleriko here and he says basically his his comment about god is non binary was intended to be provocative but his point was basically that that god is beyond gender that and he was making a point about supporting trans kids so you know it'll be interesting

44:05to see how taleriko navigates attacks like this over the next several months yeah republicans definitely trying to make some hay over it uh want to turn our focus to a story we reported it was in the texas tribune as well dilland bedur of inside climate news really sounding an alarm bell about water availability in corpus christie governor abit weighs in uh apparently after hearing the report and saying that the state might have to quote micromanage and run the city is that a real thing yeah i mean it he didn't he didn't add much clarity beyond just threatening a general takeover but i think you know his point was that this isn't just a um situation of of happenstance or bad luck for the city he was making the case that you know basically there the yes the region has seen this big industrial boom that is um you know stuck up a lot of water usage but the state has also been giving the city money to try to address the problem and

45:07the allegation is that this is a crisis brought on by delay not taking action to bring water solution so abit we'll see if he actually follows through on that threat but looks like some sort of state takeover action could be coming well it links to all these stories in more texas standard dot o r g jas per share politics editor for the texas tribune jasper have a great weekend you two david thanks so much and you are listening to the texas standard seen on our screens and social media feeds war in the middle east can feel far away but for many texas it isn't distant at all i'm well done bar with the texas standard as us airstrikes on aron continue part of a widening middle east conflict being carried out alongside israel we ask texas how they're processing the moment especially those with ties to the region hi my name is nilafar i'm an aronian american living in houston for folks like nilafar

46:12watching events unfold from half a world away the emotions can be complicated fear for loved ones mixed with uncertainty about what the future might hold for aron itself i mean first of all i also want to say that of course uh those of us who have alien friends there are terrified it's nothing compared to the terror of actually living there while the bombing of iran is going on nilafar also points out that aronian voices especially those inside the country aren't often heard clearly in the global conversation about what's happening and among aronians living abroad there's no single unified perspective in fact she says the reaction is often deeply complicated the aronian diaspora very divided and it's hard to understand what people in the country actually want it was overall pretty clear that a lot of iranians actually believe of course in iran did want some kind of intervention to happen but that is a measure of their desperation does not mean that you know we as a whole want this to go on and on and as the conflict

47:19continues frustration is also growing over the way the campaign against aron is unfolding and over the government's leading it the u.s and israel i could not think of two worse administrations to carry this out like two administrations more careless of human life there's also the weight of history for many aronians this moment doesn't feel isolated it's part of a long and painful cycle of conflict stretching back decades for iranians who are over about forty six years of age this is the third war they've had to live through the first was the iran iraq war where the u.s helped iraq the second was last year is a twelve day war and of course this still even in a moment defined by fear and uncertainty nila far is still holding on to a fragile sense of hope about what might come next for those of us who are you praying for this and our bleak hope is that the administrations fear of high

48:22gas prices in an election year will win out and we're still holding on to hope the sum outence into a transition of a democratic iran hope bleak yes but hope nonetheless if you have family ties to aron israel or anywhere else in the region or if this conflict is weighing heavily on you here in texas we'd like to hear from you you can share your thoughts at texasstandard.org slash talk i'm well done bar and this is the talk of texas we're glad music means we're out of time for today's big broad cast but the news continues twenty four seven texasstandard.org on behalf of the entire texasstandard team i'm david brown wishing you a wonderful weekend philanthropic support for texas standard comes from casey and scotto hair the winkler family foundation lindop son and greg world rich adrian kelem and the george huntington family with your company or organization might to be a sponsor as well contact your local station

49:25for opportunities within your community or statewide sponsorships visit texas public media network dot com if you want to know what's going on in the world then you need to know what's going on in texas every weekday on the texasstandard we bring you stories from across the state that affect what's going on elsewhere as part of the npr network and independent coalition of public media podcasters you can find us wherever you get your podcasts i'm michael marks talk to you tomorrow