Texas Senator: Farmworker Housing Licensed by State is ‘Unconscionable’
‘There was no room to walk or cook, but you had to stay because there was no place else to go,’ one migrant farmworker said.
Since 1954

Gus Bova is a senior staff writer and assistant editor at the Texas Observer. He covers labor, politics, and other major Texas stories. He has written extensively on topics ranging from the border wall to homelessness. Before coming to the Observer, he worked at a shelter for recently arrived immigrants and asylum-seekers. He studied Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas.
‘There was no room to walk or cook, but you had to stay because there was no place else to go,’ one migrant farmworker said.
Ankle monitors are preferable to putting immigrant families behind bars. But the devices interfere with daily life and work — and they aren’t always used as an alternative to detention.
The crowd danced hard and carried signs reading "Trans rights are human rights," "Feminism for now, feminism forever" and "I don't care about your front; I got your back."
Up to 70 people have been detained by federal immigration officers in Austin in four days, according to a local organizer.
In 2015, federal authorities never followed up on 62 percent of immigration detainers issued to local jails. Overall, only 15 percent of detainers led to deportations.
Popular resistance swells as Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans push anti-immigrant legislation.
For decades, residential shelters have operated as humane alternatives to immigrant detention. Could they work on a larger scale?
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Many long-time Austinites, including the former police chief, said it was the largest rally they’d ever seen in the capital city.
Hundreds of students gathered at UT-Austin to inaugurate resistance to the Trump administration.