EL PASO, Texas (KTEP) - El Paso state lawmakers openly criticized a rare mid-decade redistricting of Congressional maps as the special legislative session of the Texas legislature began last week.
Joe Moody, a Democrat on the House Redistricting committee, told lawmakers to heed the opinion of the public during a hearing on Thursday.
"There is no obligation for us to do this at all," Moody said. "My hope is that whoever engages in drawing these maps, in the past it has been the chair, but whoever engages in drawing these maps and proposing this legislation also listens intently to the testimony we are going to gather of the next several weeks."
On Tuesday morning, the Senate will hold a virtual hearing for residents living in West Texas to share their opinions on redistricting efforts by the Texas legislature.
The hearing starts at 8 a.m. and will be held on Zoom. Residents can sign-up to share their opinions with the senate committee.
The deadline to sign-up for public comment is 8 p.m. Monday night. You can find the link here.
Mid-decade redistricting became a topic for the special session of the Texas legislature after President Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans in the state to create five new seats in Congress, favorable to the GOP.
The state has not shown a proposal of revisions to the state's congressional district map, which was drawn in 2021 after the completion of the 2020 census. Community groups and Democratic leaders have criticized a decision to collect public feedback before the release of proposed maps.
El Paso state Senator Cesar Blanco, in an opinion article with the El Paso Times, said the special session should be focused on providing Central Texans impacted by severe flooding with support and resources. Earlier this month, over 130 people died, including 37 children, in devastating floods in Kerr County and the surrounding areas.
"At a time when we should be laser-focused on helping flood survivors and protecting families from future disasters, Texas Republicans are choosing to play politics," Blanco wrote. "On the very first day of the special session, they made their priorities clear by rushing to gerrymander our communities."
Blanco, a Democrat, called the redistricting effort an "attack on our democracy and an attack on Latino other minority communities whose voices are too often the first to be silenced when those in power rig the rules."
Claudia Perez, a Democratic member of El Paso's state delegation said redistricting "was always the priority this session," citing a letter from the Trump administration's Department of Justice alleging four majority-minority congressional districts to be "unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered."
Ordaz said communities of color will be impacted by changes to congressional districts.
"This is shameless and undemocratic pandering to keep an unpopular and corrupt President in power," Ordaz said.
She said the maps drawn in 2021 are subject to an ongoing lawsuit by community organizations over allegations of discrimination against Latino and Black voters.
"This targeted discrimination meant fewer voices from our community fighting for our border, economy and people," she said.
Vince Perez, also an El Paso Democrat, said during the Thursday house committee meeting that Texas districts do not reflect the diverse population of Texas. He is not a member of the committee, but was able to ask questions and speak with Democratic U.S. Representatives Sylvia Garcia, Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar who spoke before the committee.
"To put in context, Hispanics, Blacks and Asians makeup 60 percent of Texas' population. But when you look at the 25 Republican colleagues you have, 90 percent of them are elected by an anglo majority electorate."
