Texas Republicans Try To Limit Latino Voter Districts

Even though we knew it was coming, now that it’s here, it still stings. Republicans in Texas have taken their first stab at redistricting and — not so surprisingly — Latino voting districts are not their top priority. Although one plan has been suggested to add 2 new Latino voter district seats, seeing as how Latinos made up the majority of Texas’ growth during the past 10 years and all, other entities in Texas have filed suit against the Department of Commerce to prevent being left out of federal plans.

Now, in Texas, Republican lawmakers have gone out of their way to give Latino voters there as little power as possible. The Houston Chronicle reports on the plan proposed by Republican Rep. Burt Solomons of Carrollton:

Solomons, chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, said his plan would add one Latino-majority district.

But Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney for Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the chairman’s proposal actually subtracts one Latino district. MALDEF’s map, which was released on Thursday, would add five new Latino-majority seats in the state, he said.

Figueroa said Solomons’ map contradicts recently released Census figures that show Texas owes 65 percent of it total growth since 2000 to a boom in the Latino community.

If we don’t watch as this redistricting takes places, we will be paying the consequences for it for the next 10 years. The importance of the Census and the subsequent redistricting cannot be underestimated, which is why poor Latinos on the border are willing to sue the federal government to be counted. We’ll keep you in the loop here at News Taco.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD