Texas again grew jobs at a faster annual rate than the national job growth rate over the year in October. It also set a new record high for the greatest number employed in the civilian labor force and a new record high for total Texans working, including the self-employed, according to new data from the Texas Workforce Commission.

Over the year, from October 2023 to October 2024, Texas added 274,600 jobs. Its annual nonfarm growth rate was 2%, outpacing the national growth rate by 0.6%.

In October, Texas reached a new record high recording the largest labor force in state history of 15,497,100, after adding 47,300 workers over the month. This marks the 10th consecutive month of growth for Texas’ civilian labor force, the TWC said. Over the year, Texas’ civilian labor force added 360,800 workers, according to TWC data.

Texas also reached a new high for Texans working, including the self-employed, of 14,858,700.

“Texas grows jobs at a faster annual rate than the U.S. because Texas moves at the speed of business,” Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Meeting the changing needs of Texas entrepreneurs and businesses is paramount to ensure ongoing job growth across industries. That is why the state of Texas invests in workforce development and career training to prepare our young and growing labor force for high-demand, good-paying jobs. With more than four million Texans participating every year in those skills training programs and Texas removing regulatory roadblocks that burden small businesses and job growth, we will build a bigger, better Texas for all.”

The Financial Activities industry reported the largest over-the-month increase in October, adding 6,200 jobs. It grew by 3.1% over the year, outperforming the national growth rate by 2.8%. Not far behind was the Leisure and Hospitality industry, which added 4,900 jobs over the month, followed by Information, adding 1,900 jobs and Manufacturing industry adding 1,900 jobs.

Texas’ seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment dropped slightly to 14,276,300 after reporting 10,600 fewer jobs over the month, according to the data.

Since Gov. Abbott’s been in office, Texas has added more than 2.4 million jobs.

The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Texas was 4.1%, higher than the national rate of 3.9%.

Of Texas’ Metropolitan Statistical Area not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates, Beaumont-Port Arthur reported the highest of 5.8%, followed by McAllen-Edinburg-Mission’s 5.5%, and Brownsville-Harlingen’s 5.1%.

Midland reported the lowest of 2.8%, followed by Amarillo’s 3.1%, and College Station-Bryan’s 3.1%.

“Texas has experienced remarkable workforce growth, with over 360,000 people joining the civilian labor force in the past year,” TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Alberto Treviño III said. “TWC offers a wide variety of training programs and resources to help Texans gain new skills and achieve their career goals in our robust Texas economy.”

The TWC offers free in-person and online learning programs and resources through local Workforce Solutions offices, which can be found here.

The final New York Times/Siena College poll was released Friday, showing Trump and Harris in a dead tie nationally at 48%. The tie could signal good news for Trump, who was actually trailing Harris by 2 points in the same poll earlier this month.

On top of that, Democrats can and have won the national vote without winning the Electoral College.

“Trump Leads Among Men, White Voters, Midwest and South,” Siena College said in its release. “Harris Leads Among Women, Non-white Voters, Northeast and West.”

In the seven closest swing states, the races all remain basically within the margin of error, although Trump does hold a very narrow lead in all seven states, according to Real Clear Politics’ aggregation of recent polling.

Formerly competitive swing states like Florida and Ohio have gone for Trump by wide margins while Minnesota, New Mexico, and Colorado are in Harris’ camp in the latest polling.

FiveThirtyEight, another poll aggregator and analyzer, found Trump either tied or slightly ahead in the seven closest states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Joe Rogan, who hosts the most popular podcast in America, released a taped interview with Trump. The 3-hour-long interview provided an unusually long conversation with Trump in a time when candidates are often protected by aides from invasive questioning.

Rogan has expressed mixed political opinions in the past. Rogan’s podcast is most popular among men, a demographic Harris is struggling to court.

Harris participated in a CNN Town Hall this week, where she attacked Trump on a range of issues including not joining her on CNN for a second debate.

Trump reportedly wanted a debate on Fox News.

Harris herself though faced pushback from CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the Town Hall and critics afterward for refusing to directly answer questions.

Longtime Democratic strategist and key staffer in the Obama administration David Axelrod critiqued Harris for her “word salad” answers.

“When she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to word salad city and she did that on a couple of answers,” Axelrod said on the CNN panel following the town hall. “One of them was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question: would you be stronger on Israel than Trump, and there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking.”

Harris previously took fire for her lack of media interviews. Now, she is taking fire for her answers. Several media reports have indicated Democrats are worried that Harris has slipped from her momentum weeks ago.

“There is no joy left in the Democrat Party in the final week of the campaign,” Republican strategist Nate Brand told The Center Square. “Desperation has set in for Kamala and the left. At this point in the race, the winning team is normally the one having the most fun. From McDonald’s to Madison Square Garden, clearly Trump is having a good time. Bodes well for Republicans on Election Day.”

Prior to the last budget funding showdown in March, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in January that “any bill that does not secure the border is not acceptable.”

He also identified 64 examples of ways he says the Biden-Harris administration “worked to systematically undermine America’s border security.”

In February, House Republicans impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas arguing he was derelict in his duty and violated the public trust by creating a border crisis. One month later, the majority of Republicans who voted to impeach him, passed a spending bill that funded programs he created they maintain are illegal.

While Americans complain about escalating crime caused by illegal border crossers who’ve inundated their communities, Congress funded the programs that brought them there – and are keeping them there – including DHS’ Shelter and Services Program grants funneling billions to primarily Democratic states, counties, cities as well as nonprofits.

Likewise, the U.S. Senate’s “strongest border security bill in history” the White House, Senate and House Democrats keep touting, co-authored by U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-OK, allocated “an additional $1.4 billion in SSP funds, and provide additional needed tools and resources to respond to historic global migration,” DHS says – to fund caring for illegal border crossers released into the US.

DHS recently announced the latest round of SSP funding of $380 million—a drop in the bucket to overall spending authorized by Congress. This round “augments the $259.13 million in SSP grants that DHS distributed in April 2024 … which was authorized by Congress to support communities that are providing services to migrants,” DHS says.

The April DHS grant money was distributed after Congress in March passed a $1.2 trillion spending package to avoid a so-called government shutdown, despite Johnson’s and others’ claims, about requiring border security as a condition for passing it.

More than $780 million worth of SSP and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program – Humanitarian Awards grants were awarded in fiscal 2023 “which went to organizations and cities across the country,” DHS says. That’s after DHS awarded $640.9 million in fiscal 2024 “to enable non-federal entities to off-set allowable costs incurred for services associated with noncitizen migrant arrivals in their communities,” also authorized by Congress.

Here are examples of fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 grant recipients and the amounts they received.

The SSP grants are awarded in phases. One round in fiscal 2024, totaling $40.8 million, was awarded to:

• City/County of Denver, $5.9 million;
• District of Columbia, $2.7 million;
• City of Chicago, $3.8 million;
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nearly $4.9 million;
• NYC Office of Management and Budget, $20.4 million;
• City of Philadelphia over $3 million.
• That’s after $275 million was awarded to 55 recipients in the attached spreadsheet. Top recipients in one round of funding include:
• New York City’s Office of Management and Budget, $38.8 million;
• Pima County, Ariz., $21.8 million;
• Catholic Charities, Diocese of San Diego of $19.5 million;
• Maricopa County, $11.6 million, among others.

Democratic-led cities also received large payouts in one round of funding:

• Atlanta, $10.8 million;
• Chicago, $9.6 million;
• Denver, $5.8 million.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts also cashed in, receiving nearly $7 million; the District of Columbia received $8.7 million; Illinois, $9.6 million, all in one round of funding.

Democratic controlled El Paso County has long received federal money to coordinate transporting illegal foreign nationals north to New York City, Chicago and Denver, The Center Square reported; Austin and San Antonio followed suit flying north “guests coming from the border,” to “proactively manage the flow of people” out of their cities.

These grants exclude others awarded through numerous other federal agencies, including FEMA, U.S. Health and Human Services and others.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-FL, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY, and several House Freedom Caucus members argue Congress has a constitutional requirement to stop funding the border crisis. DeSantis, a Freedom Caucus member when he served in Congress, has asked, “How many congressmen rail against Biden’s transgressions yet still vote to fund them?”

Massie said in January that “in March, when funding expires, we can put a rider in the next bill that says none of the money hereby appropriated can be used to countermand border security measures of the states.”

This didn’t happen. The majority of Republicans voted to keep spending taxpayer money on these programs. By July, a U.S. House Judiciary Committee report highlighted examples of how Congress was still funding the border crisis.

Detainers are issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as “immigration holds,” to apprehend and detain often violent individuals wanted for a crime in another country, arrested or convicted of one in the U.S., or placed in removal proceedings by a federal immigration judge.

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has long called for abolishing ICE, defunding ICE detention facilities, and defunding ICE agent positions. President Donald Trump has said he will expand ICE funding and implement a massive deportation strategy if elected.

TRAC’s report compares the latest detainer-by-detainer ICE records it received, which show that detainers climbed under the Biden-Harris administration since February 2023. The report fails to explain that the increase occurred after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Texas and Louisiana, which sued to block a deportation directive issued by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In 2021, he instructed ICE agents to stop arresting most illegal foreign nationals and only prioritize violent criminals. The Biden-Harris administration also reduced funding for ICE detention facilities and staff. After the ruling, ICE resumed identifying the most violent offenders for removal, DHS announced, prompting the numbers to climb.

ICE officials “have regularly issued more than 10,000 [detainers] each month,” the report states. From fiscal 2021 through the first quarter of fiscal 2024, the administration issued just under 300,000 detainers that were sent to 4,305 local law enforcement agencies.

Those in California received the most with more than 7,800. The report fails to mention that California’s sanctuary state law prohibits local law enforcement officials from cooperating with ICE agents, including ignoring detainer requests. California sheriffs argue this has increased crime that’s devasting communities and California has become “an open territory for the cartel to do whatever it wants.”

The next greatest number of detainers issued was in Texas, with the most in the country in Houston of more than 10,000. The report fails to mention that the Democratic leaders of Houston and Harris County have implemented sanctuary policies discouraging cooperation with ICE.

Phoenix, Arizona, received the third largest number of ICE detainers of more than 6,600, according to the report.

By contrast, under the Trump administration, 50% more ICE detainers were issued from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2020, according to the data. Detainers were issued to roughly the same number of local law enforcement agencies. The report fails to explain that this number is relatively constant because the detainers are issued in major metropolitan areas, like Houston and Los Angeles, where large county jails and ICE offices are located.

Under the Trump administration, the most detainers were issued in Los Angeles of 20,318, followed by 19,289 in Houston and 17,294 in Phoenix. Twelve cities nationwide received 5,000 or more detainers; 25 received 3,000 or more under the Trump administration, according to the data.

The report also includes interactive maps to allow users to click on regions of the country to identify where ICE issued detainers under each administration. They can also access information about counties, states, local law enforcement agencies and the criminal foreign nationals for which detainers were issued.

The report notes that many detention facilities are located closer to the U.S.-Mexico border. Facilities in Edinburgh and Dilley, Texas, for example, hold the fourth and sixth largest number of criminal foreign nationals, respectively. Dilley is where a large state prison is located and Edinburgh is located near some of the largest U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facilities in the country in the Rio Grande Valley. They are also located where Texas law enforcement officers are actively participating in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, who regularly cooperate with ICE.

The majority of cities where double the number of detainers were issued under Trump compared to Biden are located in Texas, followed by California. The most were issued in Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, Edinburg, Santa Ana, Calif., Lawrenceville, Ga., Miami, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Big Spring, Texas, Taft, Calif., Austin, Queens, Phillipsburg, Penn., Brooklyn, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Huntsville, San Francisco, Raleigh, Ventura, Calif., Dublin, Calif., Conroe, Texas, and Van Nuys, Calif.

Twenty-five towns also received more detainers under the Biden administration than Trump, according to the data. The report fails to explain that the top cities listed are located in Texas is because Abbott expanded state facilities there through OLS. They are located in Dilley, Del Rio, and El Paso, where The Center Square has visited. They are also located in other regions like Odessa and Forth Worth, whose sheriffs and local law enforcement are participating in OLS.

More than 100 Texas sheriffs, and hundreds of leaders of 55 Texas counties that declared an invasion, have expressed support for OLS. They’ve also urged the Biden-Harris administration to close the border and deport criminals they argue are wreaking havoc on their communities.

[…]

— Read More: headlineusa.com

At a recent U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on victim perspectives, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said, “when it comes to open borders and the impact of illegal immigration in California, I have a front row seat to the havoc those can wreak.”

Boudreaux is among many sheriffs in the state who don’t support Harris for president, he’s said after their image was used in one of her campaign ads.

He then described cases in the Central Valley related to the border crisis. The region is known as the agricultural heart of California and referred to as the “major breadbasket of the world” because they produce so much food, he said. The region has also had a long history with illegal immigration because an estimated 80% of agricultural workers are in the country illegally, he said. With illegal immigration comes crime, and that has stretched thin law enforcement resources, he said.

“When it comes to our open border, the Central Valley is at the foot of the mountain staring down an avalanche. We are confronting a barrage of violent criminals, events, and drugs flow from the border into our community. The free flow of illicit and deadly drugs, principally fentanyl, have turned the corridors of Highway 99 and Interstate 5 into two highways of death that unleash unspeakable carnage.”

He described how deputies and canines have been killed by criminal illegal foreign nationals who’ve been deported multiple times after committing multiple crimes in other states. He also described multiple agency operations in several counties targeting drug trafficking operations that uncovered how Tulare County has become a hub for the Sinaloa Cartel. Cartel member suspects they interviewed told them that under the Biden-Harris administration “it is easier now in the last three years than in the history of the drug organization to move illegal drugs across the border into the United States.”

He also described arrests of illegal foreign nationals operating out of Washington state who were allegedly transporting fentanyl for the Mexican cartel “all over the southern border up to Washington.” Arrested and detained on multiple charges, they were let out of jail the next day and never to be found.

“Their release was a slap in the face to the criminal justice system and a direct repercussion of failed immigration policies and an open border,” he said. California’s sanctuary law, SB54, prohibits law enforcement from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE). As a result, “there are no ramifications for their actions. California has basically become an open territory for the cartel to do whatever it wants.”

Mexican cartels “are infiltrating our communities, unleashing incredible violence and taking the lives of innocent people,” he continued, describing an execution style murder of a family, including a 16-year-old mother and her 10-month-old baby, The Center Square reported on last year.

Biden-Harris policies have “caused a major crisis in California and in America. We are seeing murders, marijuana grows, drug and human trafficking, financial scams, agricultural crimes, robberies and so much more. The rest of the world is taking advantage of the current policies concerning our border, recognizing the administration has removed the foundation of legal immigration. Allowing an unsecured border has encouraged the world to violate immigration laws resulting,” he said. The result is that local law enforcement is overwhelmed and soon won’t be able “to keep and maintain peace in our communities.”

At another Judiciary Committee hearing on California perspectives, Riverside County Undersheriff Don Sharp said his county “has felt the devastating effect of a weak border sanctioned by this administration.”

Sharp, who spent over 10 years in narcotics enforcement, said “the catastrophic impact cartels have on our communities is, and has always been, abundantly apparent. Our communities are facing an unbelievable flow of fentanyl, and fentanyl laced drugs; emergency response personnel are responding to dozens of overdoses and overdose fatalities daily.”

“The flood of deadly fentanyl to our streets is overwhelming and only made possible by complete border security failures under the current administration,” he said. Because Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed processing illegal foreign nationals into the country instead of patrolling for bad actors in the field, “the border is wide open.” This results in “larger drug and human smuggling loads. The risk of detection and loss of illicit contraband becomes less, and the shrinking risk is easily worth the reward for cartels and criminals.”

By contrast, when border security is strong and robust, he said, they see “smaller loads and more fearful cartels, as they should be when breaking our laws and harming society.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s narcotic investigation unit alone seized a record 359 pounds of fentanyl and over 2.3 million fentanyl pills in 2023, he said, enough to kill the entire county’s population. This excludes the amount of fentanyl other agencies have seized.

“This is a staggering statistic of poison seized. What did we miss? We know we missed plenty. We wish the current administration understood what the full effect of their actions has created.”

He blamed both California politicians and the administration for skyrocketing border crime. “I am sick of battling the deeply flawed changes being made by them,” he said. “Our state and nation matter and our citizens are afraid of the consequences of an open border. The unknown number of terrorists and bad actors entering unchecked is eye opening and terrifying. It puts our county and communities in jeopardy.”