Immigrant Advocates Happy Over Dallas County’s New ‘Welcoming Communities’ Resolution

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelFebruary 8, 2017 12:51 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Dallas County Commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday that welcomes immigrants to the county, including those who are undocumented.

It’s not a legally binding resolution, but it calls for law enforcement to end nonessential work with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The Welcoming Communities” resolution passed four-to-one – and that vote pleased immigrant advocates.

Imam Omar Suleiman is the co-director of Faith Forward Dallas.  

“We reaffirm what Dallas means to us, and what America means to all of us – that this is a welcoming county,” he says. “That our words should be words of inclusivity, that our fates stand for welcoming the stranger, for treating every human being with honor and dignity. And that in that spirit, our legislation and our policies should be shaped.”

The lone dissenting voice was Republican Mike Cantrell, who worries the state might pull funding from local governments deemed sanctuary jurisdictions.




Also, in Dallas, a homeless Sudanese Refugee was recently found dead inside an art installation.

Mohammad “Turkey” Adam died while sleeping in the Trans.lation White Cubes outdoor gallery in Dallas’ Vickery Meadow neighborhood.

He died Jan. 15 – though the story is getting more attention now.

D Magazine reports Adam had been evicted from his nearby apartment when he couldn’t keep up with expenses.

A vigil is being held for Adam this Saturday.




Houston gets a lot of flak for bad traffic.

Houston Public Media’s Eddie Robinson has more on how researchers plan to understand its impact.

“Texas Southern University will be taking part in a federal research project on how to alleviate traffic congestion. TSU Transportation Studies Professor Lei Yu says they’ll focus on what’s happening here in Houston as well as the Gulf Coast megaregion.

“We have to understand that megaregion is not a concept about population – it’s a concept about connection of economies,” Yu says. “So we have to value and then measure the size of economic activities.”

Robinson says TSU is one of 18 schools around the country to be designated as a Beyond Traffic Innovation Center by the U.S. Department of Transportation.




Wednesday, a coalition of Texas organizations launched a campaign in support of reproductive rights. The campaign is called “Trust, Respect, Access.”

Lucy Stein is with Progress Texas – one of the coalition partners.

“The legislation we’re endorsing includes policies like access to birth control, comprehensive sex education, respect for the doctor-patient relationship, abortion access, and economic justice issues like equal pay and paid family leave,” she says.

Stein notes that nearly 20 anti-abortion bills have already been filed during this legislative session.