Alejandra Martinez, The Texas Tribune

'A lot of fear going on': Texas immigrant community on edge during Trump’s first weeks

EL PASO — On a recent windy, cold afternoon in this border city, dozens of people gathered at a park for an immigrant rights demonstration to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Some held signs reading: “Immigrants Make America Great.”

Alan, a local police officer, and his wife came and held a Mexican flag. He said he joined the demonstration because he worries about his father, an undocumented immigrant who works at a farm in southern New Mexico.

Alan said he voted for Donald Trump because of worries about the economy and because he believes Trump is pro-police and would combat the public’s negative perception of law enforcement. He said he believed Trump’s promises to make everyday items affordable for middle-class families.

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But after two weeks of Trump in the White House, Alan — who declined to give his last name because he fears retaliation against his father — said he now regrets his vote. Partly because he was angered when Trump granted clemency to people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And, he added, “I just don’t agree with how he’s going about the mass deportations.”

In his first week in office, Trump issued nearly a dozen executive orders, many of them targeting the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The Trump administration gave federal officers a national quota to arrest at least 1,200 undocumented immigrants every day — double the highest daily average in the past 10 years.

The sudden appearance of immigration officers combing the streets of Texas cities, which set off a flurry of social media posts as people documented their presence, has put undocumented Texans, educators, religious leaders, and business owners, among others, on edge, bracing themselves for the worst.

"There’s definitely a lot of fear going on," said Ramiro Luna of Somos Tejas, a Dallas-based nonprofit focused on Latino civic engagement. "Our community feels threatened, and while we’re doing our best to provide information and peace of mind, it’s incredibly difficult. People are afraid to come to any gathering — even to get basic necessities.”

Undocumented and legal immigrants alike describe feeling anxious, angry, hopeless. Some say they’re changing their daily routines to reduce their chances of being swept up by immigration agents on the prowl.

Some classrooms once filled with the chatter of students now sit eerily quiet. Many undocumented parents, terrified of immigration raids, are keeping their children home. Some families, afraid of even the shortest drive, consolidate trips. Stepping outside feels risky.

Undocumented immigrants who have crossed the border without permission can be prosecuted for illegal entry, which is a misdemeanor. Immigrants who entered the U.S. legally but overstayed their visa have violated administrative immigration rules, which is not considered a crime. Federal courts have also ruled that living in the U.S. without legal status is not a crime.

Still, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. government now considers undocumented immigrants criminals — whether or not they have been convicted of a crime.

"I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that's exactly what they are,” she said.

Caitlin Patler, a public policy associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said Trump and other Republican leaders dehumanized immigrants during last year’s election cycle and constantly linked them to crime.

“Immigrants were scapegoated throughout the entire presidential campaign,” she said. “They're convinced they are part of the crime problem, even though all evidence points to the contrary.”

Deported in the Rio Grande Valley

Geovanna Galvan is reeling from what she said is the unfair deportation of her father — who was recently cited for impeding traffic by a police officer from Primera, a small town in Cameron County.

On Wednesday, Jaime Galvan Sanchez, 47, was driving a tractor on a road near the farm where he’s worked for more than 10 years when a police officer stopped him. Less than 24 hours later, he was deported to Mexico, Galvan said.

Galvan, 29, said the police officer asked her father if he had any proof of legal residence. When he said he didn't, the officer called federal immigration authorities.

Galvan Sanchez was able to call his daughter to tell her he was being detained by U.S. Border Patrol. She tracked his cellphone to a Border Patrol station in Harlingen and drove there with documents — utility bills, tax documents and property records — to prove he had lived in the U.S. for more than two decades, but she said officers didn’t allow her to see her father.

She was told her father would be allowed to call her, but she didn't hear from him until the next morning when he called from Reynosa, a Mexican border city across the Rio Grande from McAllen.

"They just treated him as if he was nothing," Galvan said.

She said immigration authorities deported him based on a misdemeanor theft conviction from 1991. But she is adamant that he couldn't have committed the crime because he would've been 14 at the time and he arrived in the U.S. from Mexico in his 20s.

"My dad is not that person," she said.

Her biggest worry is her 10-year-old brother, who suffers from epilepsy and hyperinsulinemia –– an excess of insulin in the blood –– and depends on their dad’s income to afford his medication.

"It's not fair they're separating families, especially when you have children or kids that need their parents,” she said. “My little brother needs my dad."

Both her father and mother are undocumented but prior to this week, she had never been worried that her family would be vulnerable to deportation because she believed authorities would only target people with criminal records.

"Now my little brother doesn't want to go to school because he thinks that when he comes home, my mom is not going to be there," she said.

Primera officials did not respond to the Tribune’s request for comment but issued a statement on Facebook stating that its police officers do not participate in deportation efforts.

On Friday, immigration authorities allowed Galvan Sanchez to re-enter the U.S. with an ankle monitor and a notice to appear before a judge in March, according to his attorney, Jaime Diez.

Anxiety in schools

The anxiety reaches deep into schools. Many parents have reached out to ImmSchools, a nonprofit organization that supports educators and immigrant students, for guidance, unsure how to comfort students or reassure parents that school is still safe.

Teachers, too, are struggling. At a recent virtual Know Your Rights session by the nonprofit about 150 parents and educators shared stories of how fear has upended their daily routines — students breaking down in tears, fearful that their parents will be deported while they sit in class.

The Trump administration also has said that immigration agents are allowed to enter public schools, health care facilities and places of worship to arrest undocumented immigrants. Previous administrations had prevented agents from entering those sites.

"A family mentioned that they are eight minutes away from school, but even those eight minutes from and to [school] felt like too much,” said Lorena Tule-Romain, co-founder of ImmSchools. “They were asking if there are online schools or can schools provide virtual zoom classes instead.”

For students, the emotional toll is immediate. Teachers have told the organization that some children are withdrawn, others refuse to participate in class and many are visibly anxious.

"How they show up in the classroom, their mental health, their confidence — it’s all affected by their immigration status," Tule-Romain said.

Brenda Gonzalez, the organization's Texas-based associate director, said teachers are reporting low attendance in classes. She said absences put students at risk of falling behind or even being held back because students have to complete a certain number of hours to be promoted to the next grade level.

Legal advice for immigrants

Dallas-based immigration attorney Daniel Stewart said permanent residents are rushing to apply for citizenship, while immigrants who have been given Temporary Protected Status, especially Venezuelans, are desperate for more permanent protections, fearing the next policy change could strip them of their legal status.

Temporary Protected Status is a program Congress created in 1990 that allows immigrants from countries struck by natural disasters or deemed too dangerous by the government to live and work in the U.S.

“There’s a lot of trepidation," Stewart said. “People are worried about what will happen to their pending cases and whether they’ll still be protected under new policies."

Stewart notes that Trump’s more aggressive executive orders and rhetoric are fueling uncertainty. For undocumented immigrants, he stresses the importance of staying out of legal trouble because even minor offenses could lead to detention and deportation.

“Unfortunately, many undocumented individuals have no path to protection. It’s tough," he said. "My advice is obey the law, stay informed, and seek legal counsel when needed."

Mexican government offers app for emergencies

At the Mexican Consulate in Dallas, the phone keeps ringing — worried voices asking urgent questions: What should I do if immigration officers stop me? Who do I call if I’m detained? Is it safe to go to work?

In response, the consulate has ramped up its efforts to support Mexican nationals living in the U.S., expanding legal services and launching new tools to ensure immigrants have access to help when they need it most.

Consul General Francisco de la Torre says he is trying to reassure the community that they are not alone.

“We stand with you, especially during these dark, challenging times,” he said.

One of the Mexican government’s efforts to help its citizens in the U.S. is the ConsulApp Contigo, a mobile application available on Android and iOS that lets users store family contact information, and if they are detained, a single press of a button alerts their relatives and the nearest Mexican consulate.

"It’s not a panic button,” de la Torre said, “but it ensures that your loved ones and the Mexican government know something is happening.”

The consulate has a network of more than 300 law firms across the U.S. to provide legal assistance, particularly in immigration, criminal, and family law cases. In Dallas-Fort Worth alone, hundreds of lawyers are available to offer guidance — no appointment necessary.

As fear spreads, so does misinformation, especially on social media, said de la Torre. Rumors of massive workplace raids have fueled panic, with some immigrants afraid to leave their homes.

De la Torre urges the community to rely on verified sources for information. He said they maintain regular communications with the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, which sits just across the freeway from the consulate.

“Our role is not to cut off dialogue — it’s to improve it,” he said. “Clear communication allows us to better protect the human rights of our community.”

The consulate provides a 24-hour emergency services for cases involving detention, deportation, repatriation, and rights violations. Mexican citizens in Texas can call 520-623-7874 for immediate assistance.

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Ken Paxton’s impeachment spawns uproar in his longtime base of power

When the Texas House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton in the waning days of a regular legislative session, some Texans were shocked that the 121 “yes” votes included every representative from Collin County, where voters and local leaders have long rallied behind the now-suspended official’s vocal brand of conservatism.

The booming, largely suburban county north of Dallas has been Paxton’s base of power as he climbed the state’s political ranks, from his first race for the Texas House to becoming the state’s top lawyer. And while changing demographics and some erosion in Republican voting power there have coincided with allegations and scandals that piled up for Paxton, Collin County has still swung for him election after election.

But a unanimous vote to impeach Paxton by the five Republican representatives from Collin County — Frederick Frazier of McKinney, Jeff Leach of Plano, Matt Shaheen of Plano, Justin Holland of Rockwall and Candy Noble of Lucas — exposed a statewide rift within the GOP that’s apparently also been playing out in Paxton’s backyard.

“It has been true that Paxton had the support of Collin County, but that support has been decreasing over the years, and when the crunch came, it was simply no longer there,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University who lives in Collin County.

A Texas attorney general has never been impeached. For years, though, a laundry list of accusations against Paxton has grown. He’s been under criminal indictment for the vast majority of his tenure in statewide office. The allegations detailed in 20 articles of impeachment accuse him of abusing the powers of his office and firing staff members who reported his alleged misconduct.

In a joint statement after the historic House impeachment vote, the Collin County legislative delegation noted Paxton’s established political credentials but also stood by their decision to impeach and suspend one of their own.

“This was an incredibly difficult vote as, for most of us, Ken has been a long time friend,” they said. “And without question, Ken has been an aggressive and effective warrior defending Texans against federal overreach. Because of that, this was a vote we wish we didn’t have to make and a vote we did not take lightly.”

Paxton, who lives in McKinney with his wife, Republican state Sen. Angela Paxton, couldn’t be reached for comment. The next step in his impeachment is a trial before the state Senate — with his wife as a potential juror. The Senate hasn’t set a date for those proceedings, but they will occur before Aug. 28, according to a resolution that senators recently adopted.

Ken Paxton has deep roots in Collin County, a largely affluent suburban area north of Dallas. A longtime Republican stronghold, the county has played a significant role in his rise to political power and the legal battles that have hung over his tenure as attorney general.

Abraham George, chair of the Collin County Republican Party, said that in Collin County, Ken Paxton is “considered one of us … family.”

He said the depth of Collin County’s support for Ken Paxton is partly due to his decades of heavy involvement in county and local politics. George said one example is Ken Paxton’s willingness to show up to campaign events and recruit volunteers to help local candidates with their campaigns.

The Paxtons are a “great example of being part of the community where they are accessible to everyone, anytime,” George said. “He’s not a stranger.”

He said Angela Paxton’s political motto — “listen, learn and lead” — is emblematic of how the couple has built a strong relationship with the county’s voters over years. The allegations against Ken Paxton include accusations that a political donor secured a job for a woman with whom the attorney general was having an extramarital affair.

Back home, the Paxtons have been devoted members of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, a well-known megachurch. They have also attended services at Grapevine’s First Baptist Church, which many prominent North Texas conservative leaders attend, and where Paxton has spoken about his Christian beliefs and how they guide his politics.

The former chair of the Collin County Democratic Party, Mike Rawlins, said the county GOP has helped to insulate Ken Paxton from the fallout of his various scandals.

“The Republican leadership in [Collin] County, from the county courthouse, the judges, the commissioners, state representatives, senators and district attorney, have been a close-knit, closed little fraternity,” he said. “They tend to watch out for each other.”

Jillson, the SMU professor, said as long as Ken Paxton has majority support within the Republican primary electorate, he will continue to win elections. But Jillson noted that the suspended attorney general has struggled to keep support as questions “swirled” around his political and business dealings.

“At some point, the questions about your style, your conduct, your ethical sense, accumulate and become perhaps a drag on your Republican Party and your state,” Jillson said. “And that’s where Ken Paxton is today, with other Republicans recalculating the costs and benefits of standing with him.”

Paxton’s origins in Collin County

Ken Paxton was born in North Dakota and moved a lot throughout his childhood because of his father’s military duties. He studied psychology and business at Baylor University and then law at the University of Virginia School of Law.

He met Angela Allen at Baylor, where she studied math. They got married in 1986 and had four children. Today Ken and Angela live in McKinney.

The Paxtons moved to Collin County after college, and he began working as in-house counsel and attorney for J.C. Penney and a corporate law firm. He launched his political career in 2002, when he won a Texas House seat. That same year, he opened his own law firm in McKinney.

In 2004, when Ken Paxton ran for reelection in the House, The Dallas Morning News called him a “consensus builder” advocating for issues like public education spending and light rail and transportation in the suburbs.

After nearly a decade in the House, Ken Paxton first picked up steam statewide when he ran for speaker of the House ahead of the 2011 legislative session, advocating for reduced property taxes, fighting “the federal government’s invasion on the rights of Texans” and health care "free from governmental intrusion and mandates” — issues that have resonated with his conservative base in Collin County.

Paxton ran against fellow Republicans Warren Chisum of Pampa and Joe Straus of San Antonio, who ultimately retained the speaker’s gavel for a second term. The race unfolded as the Tea Party movement gained popularity among Texas voters following Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential victory, and Paxton became a fierce advocate for the conservative political movement.

“Even though we lost this race, I am encouraged to say that we have not lost the fight, that our conservative message is important and that this is just the beginning,” Paxton said during a press conference when he dropped out of the speaker’s race before the final vote.

Paxton represented a single district that included McKinney, but like many GOP elected officials around the country, he talked as if he were on the national stage, hammering issues like securing the border, pro-life legislation and tax cuts.

“Ken has ran on many national issues that matter to Texans, like border security … law enforcement issues, to prosecute election integrity," said George, the Collin County GOP chair. “He’s ran on many of the issues that matter to people in our society.”

That strategy helped him lay the foundation that would one day make him a leader among conservatives across Texas, said Jillson, the SMU professor.

In 2012, Paxton ran unopposed in the primary election for a seat in the Texas Senate and easily beat Democrat Jack Ternan and Ed Kless of the Libertarian Party with 62% of the vote.

While serving in the Senate, he announced his run for attorney general in 2013, calling himself a “proven conservative” and promising a crowd at the Plano Event Center that he would continue the crusade against the federal government that former attorney general and now-Gov. Greg Abbott began. He defeated two prominent Republican leaders in the primary, Texas Railroad Commission Chair Barry Smitherman and state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas.

Before the 2014 general election, the Tribune obtained documents that showed Paxton had allegedly violated the Texas Securities Act by not registering with the State Securities Board while he was being paid to solicit clients for a North Texas financial services firm and for failing to disclose his financial interests and solicitor work in the firm in his financial statements.

Soon after, the Texas State Securities Board reprimanded Paxton and fined him $1,000.

That same year, The Dallas Morning News reported a long history of controversial business deals by Paxton, many with ties to the Collin County political scene. He was criticized by watchdogs and political opponents for allegedly crossing ethical lines in his private businesses and failing to disclose all of his dealings on personal financial statements that elected officials must file.

Despite his mounting legal troubles, Paxton beat Democrat Sam Houston with over 950,000 votes and was sworn in as attorney general in January 2015.

That summer, a Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on two counts of felony securities fraud related to private business deals in 2011. The indictment accused him of receiving 100,000 shares from Servergy Inc., a McKinney tech startup, without disclosing to the state that the company was paying him to promote its stock. Paxton has denied those allegations and criticized the prosecution as politically motivated.

The case has been pending for nearly eight years. There have been many twists and turns, including a still-unresolved dispute over how much to pay the special prosecutors handling the case. Another reason for the delay in a trial is a long-running dispute over where Paxton should be tried.

“As far as the jury goes, he’s wanted to be tried in his home county where people know him,” Jillson said. “I think that’s probably wise, but he should also be aware that the county has changed a lot since the days when he was coming up.”

Collin County is changing

Founded in 1846, shortly after Texas became a state, Collin County was named after Collin McKinney, one of the county’s first settlers and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. It was a tight-knit, faith-based agricultural community where people grew wheat, corn and later cotton.

Today, there’s little trace of cotton gins in the county — the last one, which was in Prosper, closed around 2010. And the county has exploded into a suburban powerhouse: The population hit more than 1 million in 2020 as Plano, Frisco and McKinney boomed while Toyota opened its North American headquarters there and insurance company Liberty Mutual moved into a towering high-rise office.

Since the 1970s, the county has voted Republican in the majority of presidential, state and local races.

But in recent years, the changing population has made Collin County a political battleground.

Since Paxton won his first election in Collin County, it’s been transformed through an influx of younger, more diverse residents, growing by more than 36% from 2000 to 2020, according to census data. The county’s Hispanic, Black and Asian populations have collectively grown from 15% in 2000 to 26% in 2020, while the white population has shrunk from 76% to 50% over the same period.

Paxton’s support has decreased in Collin County over his past three elections for attorney general. In 2014, he won with 66% of the county’s vote. In 2018, that decreased to about 53%, and in his last election in 2022, 52% of Collin County voters cast their ballots for him, according to secretary of state records.

In presidential races, GOP nominee Mitt Romney won the county with 65% of the vote in 2012. In 2016, 56% of voters casted their ballots for Donald Trump. Two years later, in one of the closest U.S. Senate races in Texas in decades, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz won the county with just 6% of the vote over Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

“It’s no surprise — it’s growing, it’s becoming more diverse, we have a highly educated population,” said Sharon Hirsch, a Democrat who lost a bid to unseat Shaheen, who represents Plano, by less than a thousand votes in 2020. “They’re focused on basic issues like great schools and safe communities and health care. They’re not focused on the fringe-right issues, and that’s where our representation is right now, and I think it’s fixin’ to change,” she said.

After Democrats began performing better in Collin County, spurring political talk that it was turning purple, Texas lawmakers redrew the political boundaries in 2021 to protect Republican incumbents as part of a statewide redistricting effort.

A year later, Collin County voters sent its first Democratic representative to the state House in decades. Mihaela Plesa, whose district covers parts of Plano, Allen and Frisco, said the diversifying county is creating a shift in politics that may explain the erosion in Paxton’s victory margins.

“Collin County may be less in support of Paxton and those conservative views,” Plesa said.

Plesa said May’s deadly shooting at an Allen shopping mall has shattered many residents’ sense of safety and she’s seen more people in her historically red county calling for gun reform.

After Paxton’s impeachment, his supporters rallied in front of the county courthouse holding signs that read “I stand with Paxton” and waving American flags.

Maria Garcia, president of the Hispanic Republican Club of North Texas, is a longtime Paxton supporter who has worked on his campaigns for attorney general.

Garcia said in an email that the allegations against him have not been proven in court and House members are “thwarting the will of the voters with a politically motivated impeachment. Conservative Latinos believe in democracy. And that is why they voted for AG Ken Paxton.”

“He stands for the truth,” she said.

Republican Mayor George Fuller of McKinney, whose citywide elections are nonpartisan, didn’t want to comment on Paxton’s impeachment but said local elections are a testament to how “out of touch” the Collin County Republican Party has become.

“The Collin GOP, as evidenced in every recent local and school election, has proven to be out of touch with mainstream voters and the majority of the party,” Fuller said. “My hope is that new leadership there will have the courage to lead outside the loud, extreme, minority voice and, rather, be a voice that better represents the community and its values.”

Raul Trey Lopez contributed to this story.

Disclosure: Baylor University and Southern Methodist University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Alejandra Martinez, The Texas Tribune

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