Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byMeredith McKelvey
A 16-year-old boy and his older siblings, both in their early 20s, were detained with more than 40 others during a law enforcement raid at a party in Hays County. According to a press statement, the raid was the result of a federal investigation into a Venezuelan gang that has become a target of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
The siblings’ mother told Reporting Texas that the authorities are wrong.
“I want the public to know that my children are not linked to any gang, as the government is saying,” the mother said.
The siblings remain detained at an undisclosed location.
byShunya Carroll
Maria Maria hit each choreographed step like an athlete. Her routine elevated classic New York voguing to a gymnast’s floor routine. The four to the floor pop medley was almost drowned out by the crowd’s cheering.
This wasn’t a national stadium tour. It was Draggieland.
The biggest drag show in College Station prevailed Thursday over Texas A&M University’s attempt to ban drag performances on campus.
byMeredith McKelvey
As protests erupted in state capitals around the country Wednesday, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Austin to voice their anger at the Trump administration.
Enraged by President Donald Trump’s far-reaching actions during the first two weeks of his second term, protesters waved signs and chanted in unison at the Texas Capitol and on the streets of downtown Austin. While protesters had varied reasons for demonstrating against the Trump administration, they shared a common fear: the demise of democratic institutions in the United States.
“At some point, you can only step on people’s necks for so long,” said Benny de la Vega, an American who immigrated from the Philippines in 1985 and said he is seeing similarities to the dictatorship he fled. “At some point, everyone will have a common, shared understanding that their rights are being taken away. When we lose representation, then things need to change.”
byMadeline de Figueiredo
Thomas Greenwell wakes up each morning and gets ready twice — he goes through the motions of brushing teeth twice, doing hair twice and getting dressed twice — once for himself and once for his client, Edgar. But Greenwell doesn’t know how much longer he will be able to afford to take care of Edgar as a community-based care provider under Medicaid. “The attendant care wages are not sustainable at all,” he says. The Legislature will revisit attendant wages in this spring’s legislative session as caregivers and advocacy groups push for more competitive and livable wages.