News Roundup: Ken Paxton Says He Agrees With The President’s Goal Of Ending Birthright Citizenship

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelOctober 31, 2018 7:08 am

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

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is backing President Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to people who are not citizens. Paxton spoke on Fox News Channel Tuesday.

Our immigration policy is a mess,” Paxton said. “Congress has failed to address it. I hope this is something that I think most Americans find unacceptable, that you create an incentive to cross the border and have a baby and suddenly they’re a citizen.”


Another Texas Republican, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, has also long supported ending birthright citizenship. Both Paxton and Cruz are running for reelection and both are facing Democratic opponents.

Justin Nelson, who is running against Paxton, and Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Cruz, both oppose ending birthright citizenship.


Early voting runs through Friday…Election Day is November 6.




More than 5,000 American troops are being deployed to the U.S. – Mexico border this week ahead of the midterm elections. The Trump administration is sending active duty military in response to a caravan of Central American migrants seeking refuge in the United States. 

Some people who live along the border say sending in troops is not the best use of resources. Monica Weisberg-Stewart, chair of the Immigration and Border Security Committee with the Texas Border Coalition, says these kinds of actions get frustrating for people living on the border.  

“We go to Washington, we testify,” Weisberg-Stewart says. “We go to Austin, we testify. We actually explain the realities of the border. But the truth of this whole problem is actually the inaction of Congress in Washington not passing the laws to truly secure our country. And what I mean by that is without true immigration reform we will never have border security.”

Wiseberg-Stewart adds that if ports of entry end up being inaccessible for trade, Americans will pay the price. 

“These type things that are happening right now if they shut the ports of entry down, the United States will lose billions of dollars in goods and trade of what we do on a daily basis,” she says. “So to make it really simple for an individual to understand, that avocado that you might be paying a dollar for plan on paying 10, 15, 20 dollars for because those goods are not coming over here.”

The Texas Tribune reports that if the military buildup slows down trade, Texas is the state that would take the hardest hit. 




A new report says the quality of childcare and parents’ access to it in Texas are inadequate.

Shay Everitt is with Children at Risk, which released the report.

She told Houston Public Media the quality of pre-k and daycare has a long-term impact on children, even more so than other support programs in high school.

“By then you are putting a band-aid on an open wound… you are trying to triage something that needs stitches with a band-aid,” Everitt says. “Really you could prevent that whole problem from beginning from the get-go if you have this early childhood education.”

The report says only 18 percent of eligible childcare facilities in Texas have received state certification for exceeding the minimum requirements for having a license.