Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

At the conclusion of last night's contentious hearing on Texas Republicans' push to redraw our congressional maps - at the behest of Donald Trump and with no actual maps to show - Isaiah Martin, one of the Democratic candidates for Houston's District 18, was taken to the floor twice by Capitol security and arrested by DPS on multiple misdemeanor charges: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/tempers-flare-at-texas-redistricting-hearing-as-critics-slam-mid-cycle-map-effort

...Several prominent Democrats were present to testify against the redistricting scheme, noting that no Republicans showed up to defend it: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/us/politics/texas-redistricting.html

...Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe and LULAC Texas State Director Gabriel Rosales both testified at the first of seven planned public hearings: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/24/texas-redistricting-hearing-house-legislature-congress/

...Republicans called the meeting at 8:30, but Democrats continued listening to testimony from concerned Texans, some of whom had driven hours to be heard: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/public-hearing-coming-to-arlington-on-mid-decade-congressional-redistricting-in-texas/287-86144250-a764-42e4-b7b8-e6cbf9757206

Attorney General Ken Paxton and his soon-to-be ex-wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, are suspected of mortgage fraud as three of the homes they own are listed as their primary residence on mortgage documents: https://apnews.com/article/paxton-mortgages-trump-primary-residence-homestead-deduction-bd259b6bd122afcaf4f11eac5a3a152e

North Texas has seen a massive uptick in ICE arrests of suspected undocumented people with no criminal history: https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2025/07/23/dallas-ice-arrests-noncriminals

Progress Texas' financial reserves have dropped to about 3 months worth of funding. Help us avoid going on a permanent vacation this summer by becoming a sustaining member: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://progresstexas.org/join-pt-summer-vacation-membership-drive⁠⁠⁠⁠

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