joining us now is harris county -- the chief executive of harris county, the most populous county inking time. thank you. how important is business support for voting rights? how going to be in the end. as republicans and the legislature take aim at voting rates statewide. and seem to be taking aim specifically at things like your county. >> it's very important for all of us, to stand up against this. but the business community is uniquely positioned, to make a difference. this is not a transience quote unquote, political partisan issue. this is about are you willing to stand up, for and fight for american democracy. do you believe in american democracy. i think of martin luther king writing from jail, i think of the blood that has been spilled to protect that promise of america. to protect that light that we fight for around the world. and, when some folks are trying to turn democracy itself into a wedge issue, we need to stand up and make clear that voting rights, democracy, is something we already won and have been done with. the business community, more than anybody else, can sta

. >>> in 2020, harris county, texas broke all-time voter turnout. re people voted early this year than all of 2016. they set that record in large part because the county made a huge push to give access. they did a bunch of innovative stuff like offering 24-hour polling, drive-thru voting, 8% of those in the county used the drive-thru option. those things paid off big time. now republicans who control the texas state legislate your will make sure that doesn't happen again. aiming at big counties stopping at things put in place. yesterday, 175 business leaders from the houston area sent a letter saying why they oppose those bills. as you can see from the houston chronicle headline. one key group was missing, greater houston partnership, which is the chamber of commerce. >> there is a group sticking out like a soar thumb for failing to speak up at a time of enormous consequence. right now, voting rights are falling like dominos in state as cross the country from georgia to arizona to right here in texas and yet, the largest chamber of commerce in the ho

two bills targeting populous counties like harris with aim of stopping the things the county put in place houston area sent a letter to republican-led legislature saying why they oppose those bills, but as you can see from the houston chronicle headline there, one key group was missing, the largest chamber of commerce. >> there's a group sticking out like a sore thumb for failing to speak up at a time of enormous consequence, right now voting rights are falling like dominos in states across the country from georgia to arizona to right here in texas. and yet the largest chamber of commerce in the houston area is silent. >> that is the top elected official in harris county, texas, judge lena hidalgo today, singling out the chamber when so many other business leaders are standing up and saying they will not abide us. joining us now is the judge hidalgo of the most populous county in texas. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> how important is business support for voting rights going to be in the end? as republicans in the legislature really take aim at voting rights statewide and seem to

when you look at the times, joe biden lost texas by six percentage points but carried harris county by 13. so that was fueled by record turnout in your county, 70% of your residents happen to identify as hispanic, black, or asian. taking all that into account, is there any doubt in your mind that these dill bills to design depress voters this those places that are voting democrat? >> no, there's no doubt. it's very clear that these bills are trying to dilute the voting power of minorities, of urban areas in some ways, people with disabilities is the practical implication of some of these proposals. but really what it is, is this exercise in blindly following what has become sort of a populist call that there is voter suppression, and that policies must be passed, that there is voter fraud, and that policies must be passed to root it out. the folks who are championing these voter suppression bills right now in the house as we speak, i know, you know, they know that what they are doing is based on an insidious lie. and i hope, as this fight continues into the night and more and more corp

in harris county, you have commissioner rodney ellis that believes no one should be held preconviction tack to the people in harris county who are being shot, children are being buried, because we're not holding people pre-trial. and the last thing is: we have not been taking these criminals to court, putting them to trials, when it is taking three to five years to put people to a trial, and they're running free. and the results are what we're seeing: a tremendous increase in gun violence in this countr w starteaki up ag and manding ouelake action, we'll more bloodshed. >> dickerson: a year ago george floyd was killed, and you said, it makes me worry about the good police officers, and it makes me worried about the extended community. a year later, what is your state of worry in the country, and what's your view on police reforms that you've seen so far? >> what's significant? it is significant because the george floyd act, it seems that both sides are at a standstill. the inner city chiefs have put together some very thoughtful positions on this, and we're hoping that the members of c

in a few spotted areas in harris county, i found about 44 instances.he new laws are making it harder to remove these poll watchers if they misbehave. in texas they have to almost commit voter fraud or a felony to be removed. a lot of activists i spoke to say by setting this bar so high it's almost authorizing some of these partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters. >> that's interesting. amari, i spoke with your colleague state representative dan daily. he said he believes these bills are designed to make it harder for democrats to win elections. what do you think? >> i agree with my colleague. you have to remember that the state senator who introduced this bill in the senate, he's not just a state senator. he's the chairman of the republican party of the state of florida. the republican house member who introduced this bill, he's not just a state representative, he's the former chairman of the republican party in the state of florida. this bill is not about election integrity. it's about point shaving. what's very interesting, akin to some of the pr

you can be sure that us in harris county are not going to give up even if this passes, it's not gonna be the end of the fight. >> congressman over gluts talk about the for the people act, to some people have never had any trouble fighting this may be an obstruction but their number of things that the act will address three of them are directly about the things that you're seeing in texas strengthening mel voting systems, preventing an reasonable way times at the poll, protecting against deceptive practices. these are things that are meant to spread the ideas that everyone who is qualified to vote in this country should vote. we should think that is a good thing. and as b one, the for the people act would be the kind of thing that would mean that those federal rules and standards can be applied across the country. >> that is right. if you see as we connect the dots in these 47 states, we have more than 361 voter suppression bills either passed or pending, the attack on may multi racial democracy sends the voting rat -- trying to take us back to jim crow. and we need a act like that, it

republicans have been losing in harris county, dallas county, bexar county and the suburbs. the drop boxes, drive through voting, that is specifically targeting harris county. in the last election, democrats were five seats away from taking control of the texas house. they didn't. and so this is one of those moments where you have to understand what is going on. the blame is the feet of chief justice john roberts is laying for the voting rights act so people need to understand what is going on here and last point, ali, lame senators christian cinema and joe mansion need to wake the hell up and realize what is going on because their refusal to end the filler buste. show it to me in texas, georgia, mississippi, south carolina. republicans are running game all across the country and these two are sitting there behind d.c. saying no, let's keep bipartisanship. they will screw the nation because of their ridiculous actions. >> so there seems to be three approaches here. the one that joe biden is talking about, the two bills that are before the senate that can be passed to expand

harris county judge leyna hidalgo, beto o'rourke from texas. thank you both for joining us tonight. more to get to. a criminal investigation to help the 2020 campaign. up next, more on the republican refusal to investigate the attack on january 6 on congress. stay with us. it's the memorial day sale on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it's the most comfortable, dually-adjustable, foot-warming, temperature-balancing... proven quality night sleep we've ever made. and now, save $1,000 on the new sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, plus free premium delivery when you add a base. ends monday [sfx: kids laughing] [sfx: bikes passing] [sfx: fire truck siren] onstar, we see them. okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. thank you, onstar. ♪ my son, is he okay? your son's fine. thank you. there was something in the road... it's okay. you're safe now. >>> there is a police officer here just to support the sicknick family and officer dunn as well and u.s. capitol police. as someone who responded to january 6th, i'm here to educat

a lot of these in place in harris county, which saw a groundswell of new voters in the last election. it would skpnd partisan poll watchers and ease the judge's ability. it does a lot in a state where voting is already restricted, correct? >> correct. absolutely. the innovations that happened in harris county are innovations that expand the electorate and inspire people to go out and vote. there was a surge in students, folks who work late-night jobs able to take advantage of 24-hour voting. we fundamentally believe our democracy is healthiest when people are allowed to go to the polls. as you mentioned, texas is one of the states that has the most restrictive voting rights laws as it circumstance and what these new laws constituted was a complete overhaul of restrictions already in place. >> you call ed what happened in texas a victory. do you feel that national democrats including the president are doing everything they can now to keep these measures from becoming law? >> well, president biden just came out not too long ago and made a statement in support of our efforts to continue

i mean, here in harris county where i just left the position of the elected officials is that no oned be held, regardless of their criminal history and regardless of the crime they're committing and they are out one door in the other and shooting other people. unless the american people speak out it's going to be a long, hot, bloody summer and we can thank a lot of elected officials for that. >> i should note to folks if they are not aware you came from harris county in houston, err now in miami. enormous experience here, two different cities at this time. i speak to a lot of cops and this is anecdotally but i also speak to their chiefs and they often bring up officer morale. some of this is in the data. big jumps in retirements in a number of departments, but you also hear anecdotally about police policing differently in the current environment. i wonder if you have seen that yourself as you have led officers in two major cities. >> well, actually it's been three major cities, i was in austin for almost ten years, the capital of texas. >> i don't mean to sell you short. >> police of

we had a local elections here in harris county.rive-thru voting location, by far, was in a heavily-republican voting area. and as secretary hobbs's efforts show, to counter what's happening over there. you know, there is this recount that's a complete sham. over here, you are, again, seeing the -- the brute-force lengths to which these folks are going to pass the bills. doing it in the middle of the night. the next step, for example, all happens behind closed doors. it's -- there's nothing elegant about tearing down democracy. and it hurts both parties, absolutely. >> yeah. it hurts the country. it hurts everyone. katie, listen. i -- i -- when i read this, i couldn't believe it. but there are tons of conspiracies floating around the audit in arizona, including one ridiculous theory that claims thousands of ballots contain bamboo, and were flown in from somewhere in asia. the ceo of the company handling the audit touted a whole bunch of conspiracy theories on -- on twitter. are all of these challenges coming from fringe-political ex

harris county judge leyna hidalgo, beto o'rourke from texas. thank you both for joining us tonight. . more to get to. a criminal investigation to help the 2020 campaign. up next, more on the january 6th attack on congress. stay with us. 6th attack on congress stay with us in aurora. (doorbell) rock on. tonight i'll be eating lobster thermidor au gratin. really? sh-yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. make it two calzones! with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell yo

unharmed late saturday owning a tiger in houston is illegal, but they are allowed in neighboring harris county if registered under strict rules and regulations. india will now be under the close watch and care of a texas animal sanctuary. >> when they can't be in the wild, we as a sanctuary are happy to step up and take them. >> reporter: tonight neighbors breathing a sigh of relief after a bizarre sighting kathy park, nbc news >> bizarre to say the least. >>> after a tumultuous school year for most children, there is now a new concern for parents, that their kids might be held back a year because they didn't learn enough this past year. in some states, it's actually the law. rehema ellis has details. >> what is this word >> reporter: in a year of covid learning, sparkle johnson struggled with two full-time jobs >> it was probably one of the hardest things i've had to do. >> reporter: working overnight as a medical assistant and during the day, helping her three children and six others in a learning pod you think the children advanced? >> children absolutely did not learn anything. >> reporter

houston and he mentioned harris county is perhaps it might be the most _ harris county is perhaps itause they don't get those _ against that because they don't get those votes. | against that because they don't get those votes— against that because they don't get those votes-— against that because they don't get those votes. ., ., _, . ,, ., those votes. i want to come back to what jane said _ those votes. i want to come back to what jane said of _ those votes. i want to come back to what jane said of the _ those votes. i want to come back to what jane said of the top _ those votes. i want to come back to what jane said of the top there - those votes. i want to come back to what jane said of the top there and | what jane said of the top there and a lot of people who don't like this, the bottom line is, though, they're going to push it through. so they will get what they want.- will get what they want. well, that's not _ will get what they want. well, that's not certain, _ will get what they want. well, that's not certain, but - will get what they want. well, that's not certain, but i

unharmed late saturday owning a tiger in houston is illegal, but they are allowed in neighboring harris county if registered under strict rules and regulations. india will now be under the close watch and care of a texas animal sanctuary >> when they can't be in the wild, we as a sanctuary are happy to step up and take them >> reporter: neighbors breathing a sigh of relief after a bizarre sighting kathy park, nbc news >> bizarre all the way around. >>> still to come, remembering those who lost their lives in the atlanta spa shootings as shouses take to the streets to rally against hate >>> and in new miss universe is crowned after covid postponed the ceremony from the world's number 1 selling nerve care company. as we age, natural changes to our nerves occur which can lead to occasional discomfort. nervive contains b complex vitamins that nourish nerves, build nerve insulation and enhance nerve communication. and, alpha-lipoic acid, which relieves occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. live your life with less nerve discomfort with nervive nerve relief. - do you want anything? - no,

the sheriff in harris county, texas, firing 11 employees and suspending six others following the death a prisoner in february. the medical examiner saying jaquari simmons died from blunt force trauma to the fed in an altercation with staff in member. >>> history at the u.s. naval academy. vice president kamala harris become is the first woman in nearly 175 years to deliver the commencement address at annapolis. she focused on the challenges facing the nation and america's place in the world, telling graduates, "the world is interconnected, our world is interdependent, and our world is fragile." >>> tonight, are summer blockbusters about to make a comeback? about 70% of movie theaters have reopened in the u.s. two major movies opening this weekend," cruella" and "a quiet place part ii" already earning millions. theaters and studios hoping audiences will return, with millions of people getting vaccinated. some theaters still have covid restrictions in place, including wearing those masks. >>> when we come back, the emotional husband and wife reunion more than a year in the cal: our confi

record turnout. 70% identified as blacks and hispanics and overall biden lost the state but in harris countyn place like harris councilman. do -- county. do you this ink the bill was designed for that purpose? >> that's what our republican friends were operating under the big lie, following the trump's play book saying the election was stolen and looking for a problem with a solution that's not meaning s-- having a solutin for a problem that did not exist. there was no fraud if any found in the state of texas. interestingly enough, they targeted all of the counties a million plus which are the counties that are heavily populated by african-americans and hispanics and other minorities, then of course they were so disrespectful that they allowed a video camera in the original bill that would film poll workers trying to help the disabled or elderly. how insensitive is that? you could not have a flexible schedule for depositing those ballots. there is much more but all of this really is a nonsensical bill. let me say this in the contact of what texas image is, we have massacre voting rights toda

. >> places around harris county in houston saw more people to turn out to vote more than ever.ot just there, but across the state of texas. more people were able to exercise the right to vote by mail or hours during which they could go to the polls. the goal was to have as many americans as possible be able to vote. it restricts the hours that early voting can happy, and a whole slew of other things that you currently see on your screen. there is a bereave period of a waiting game, and the governor of texas is the only person that can call for that special session of the house and the senate to come back. he already said late last night that he is going to do that. i will send it right back to you. >> thank you, we will turn now to the wreath laying ceremony. [ silence ] >> let's bring in our colleague, courtney. walk us through what we're seeing here. >> sorry, stephanie if you're talking to me we had a plane go overhead and i could not hear what you said, but we're seeing the ceremony now at arlington ceremony. president biden will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown sold

it is viewed as part of a response that harris county sought to institute. it is home to houston here. one of the most pop populous counties. and so they tried to do many things. and so this bill would pre-vicinity any county from sending unsolicited applications.vicinity any count sending unsolicited applications. and there are new provisions added on to the bill, including new i.d. requirements for those who want to request mail-in ballots. and then also there is a new window for early voting on sundays that would be from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., that raised concerns that that is targeted undermining those get out the vote efforts after church services in the morning. >> and so is this all but done at this point? is this all but set in stone, is there anything that the democrats could do to stop it? >> they could raise points of order in the house to try to delay further consideration. and so it could get kicked to a special session where it would ultimately being passed. so it looks like that they could force it into is special session. but this is definite

make some gains in the rio grande valley in south texas, the most populated areas of our state, harris county, dallas county, et cetera, still overwhelmingly in those communities of color and hispanic community and certainly in the african-american community voted overwhelmingly for joe biden and kamala harris and that's why republicans are bringing these bills, because they know they're going to lose these elections here. >> texas state representative chris turner and christina ramirez, thank you both. have a good rest of your day. let's to the war inside the republican party after years fighting in the republican trenches, liz cheney is clinging to her post and other gop leaders and former president trump are publicly throwing their support behind her assumed replacement, elise stefanik. ali vitali is following this on capitol hill. you got republican lawmakers that are set to meet behind closed doors on wednesday where they're likely going to decide cheney's fate. how is this going to play out? >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, this is all likely to come to a head on wednesday. it's going to be a

would do things like eliminate 24-hour and drive-thru voting, which was used to much success in harris countytexas, one of the most diverse counties in the entire country. it also limits hours of early voting, in some cases in some counties that may may more access to early voting, but in the larger more diverse counties, and the key here it starts with early voting that may affect the souls to the polls and other organizations. one could make it a crime to send an absentee application if it's not requested. now, in speaking with a republican author of this bill, he tells me nothing to do with 2020, and everything to do with their desire to secure the ballot, but again there is no demonstrable fraud. even when asked about it, the governor has said they didn't find -- until both the house and the senate to pass this. the governor has indicated he will sign it. >> it's key that they haven't provided any evidence to support passing all of they restrictions. dianne gallagher, and arlette saenz, thank you so much, ladies. >>> let's bring in susan glasser, and ron brownstein. great to see you both.

that is seen as a target against harris county, the most populous county where houston is, one of thenited states. this would eliminate 24-hour voting, eliminate drive-thru voting, elements that are with used to help during pandemic voting but also saw record turnout. there would also be enhanced criminal penalties and it would eliminate some of the tactics voting rights used to get out the vote. again, we're still looking at this language. there are elements in this that were not in either the house or senate-passed versions, fd-7. so there will have to be additional votes taken on those. i spoke with the author of the bill who said, you know, this is not as bad as people claim it is. take a listen. >> one county chose to rewrite the law. they don't have that authority. as far as working folks go, you probably seen the numbers. look at working people voting, college age voting are shifting, many nontraditional voters, this makes the rules fair and equal for earn across the board. >> reporter: i want to be very clear voting rights groups and research on voting tendencies indicate if y

should we have one set of rules devised by harris county? insist on states like new york and his own home state of delaware to enact the kind of thing that they're playing with in one county here without any statutory positive authority to do so. so much of this -- there's some stuff that is not been talked about much before like requiring people who drive other people to the polls, if you do that for more than family members or more than a couple people, you have to provide some notification there. and the democrats have a right. the republicans in my opinion, particularly in the state house, mishandled this. they should have done it earlier in the session. they should have been better presenting what was going on. but for the president to say this is undemocratic, i want to see when delaware allows the practices that we're not allowing in texas. >> i want to give you a few moments to share your thoughts on med. this is a solemn day. an important day. >> it is. when i was at the white house, one of the highlights the seven years i was there

are in hidalgo, they arrested an active ms-13 gang member, and he had an active warrant out of harris county came across with a group of 70 migrants and was mixed in with those family units but, thankfully, they were able to catch him, find his warrant. he was from el salvador. if we can pull video from la joya, texas, this is the sort of thing that happens every day like clockwork. our fox drone crew out here early this morning witnessing multiple groups of migrants coming out of the brush where we're standing and presenting themselves to local border control here. most of them from those northern triangle countries, guatemala, honduras, el salvador. one family came from honduras, and it took them two weeks to get here. the end of a journey here, presenting themselves to border patrol. but it doesn't just happen in the daytime or early morning hours. take a look at this video from our fox crew a couple of days ago. in the dead of the night, the migrants will come across as well. this is shots of migrants crossing the rio grande on rafts. some of them with coyotes, with geese leading them --

this are elements that would limit those voting creative methods used in places like houston, in harris countyring the pandemic that saw their turnout go up by so much, like 24-hour and drive-thru voting. those are gone. it would also codify the hours of early voting f6:00 to 9:00, and on sundays has a change as well. people believe that targets the souls to the polls and the latino and african-american community here. >> texas has a long, ugly and racist history of voters suppression. this version of senate bill 7 fits squarely into that. it limits access to many of the pro-voter policies we sought utilized in the election those are the first things on the chopping block. we know they were disproportionately used by communities of color. this is a clear attack on voters of color in texas right now. >> reporter: look, there's a lot in this bill. there are still several steps left. both the chambers have to do an up/down approval vote, and the govern heart has indicated, he would sign it. but they plan to fight until the very last minute. >> arlette, what is president biden saying about this? h

ban drive-through voting and 24-hour voting which was used for the first time in 2020 in harris county, spoke in front of a baptist church in austin. one of the last-minute additions to the bill would be to allow early voting sundays only from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. democratic texas state congresswoman gonzalez vice chair of the elections committee said this. >> when this bill came to the floor we thought we were going to have a serious, real conversation. because this bill affects every single person in state of texas, including republicans. and we were told time and time again the secretary of state that elections were safe and secure. so this is just a witch hunt. aimed at people of color. we're going back centuries. >> leading off our discussion this hour, democratic state representative jessica gonzalez, whose district includes parts of dallas. thank you very much for joining us tonight after late night last night. when did you make this decision to walk out and deny a quorum? >> well, you know, these discussions began throughout the day, even a couple days before we knew this bil

patrol apprehended an active ms13 member with active warrant for sexual assault of a child out of harris countyain, just highlighting the security concerns. you never know who is coming in when the groups cross the border. we will send it back to you. arthel: thanks, bill. eric. eric: well, that was amazing, the video of them running across, wow, that was just vividly shows exactly the situation there. well, meanwhile across the country mask rules are easing in some places but you know some vaccinated americans are still becoming infected with coronavirus. so what should you do to protect yourself, we will have that next as fox news live continues. ♪ ♪ me♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yuuum yum yum yum yum yum yum yuuum ♪ ♪ yum ♪ ♪ yum yum (clap, clap) yum yum (clap) yum yum ♪ people were afraid i was contagious. i felt gross. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx. four years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an i

results, georgia and texas were very similar we fought off into 12 times over mailing ballots but harris countywanted to mail out in violation of state law, clearly it was not allowed by the state legislature. they didn't want signature verification we were told by a federal judge and state lawsuits, federal lawsuits and we won every single one, had we not one every single one of the lawsuits, i convinced that they would've gone out and we would've been just like georgia and signed consent degrees and say it's okay we will let the mailing ballots go out, were gonna allow no signature verification, all those things had an impact. trump one we were able to have a republican legislature, georgia completely turned. maria: argue same because of what you saw in mailing ballots like georgia, you're questioning the result is. >> i know what happened here they would stop challenge like they do those things in county mailing ballots until they get the right number of votes in trump loses and we lose a statehouse in the supreme court justice unit window been a legitimate, they would've followed state law.

will eliminate the ability to do 24 hour voting and drive through voting which is something that harris county piloted to help with the pandemic. they saw record turnout last year. there is also elements that empower partisan poll watchers and add criminal penalties if you obstruct that, but it does require them to take an oath saying that they will not disrupt voters or the voting process. now, look, there are criminal penalties that make it, for example, a crime to send unsolicited ballot applications. that's something we have seen across the country. it also makes, again, those partisan poll workers empowered, this is something that president joe biden hit on saying it reminded him of other state legislation that's restricting vo voting rights. the republican sponsors of the bill say this is about ballot security and ensuring uniformity. the clock is ticking, they have to get something done by midnight on sunday. boris, christi, the expectation is governor abbott if approved will sign this into law. >> dianne gallagher, thank you, we have breaking news we want to fill you in on right now. p

that was something that was done in harris county in the houston area.ose things that has come under fire from republican lawmakers here in this state. a short while ago, the texas house of representatives, basically along party lines, passed this bill. and democrats say that this is an effort to find out -- to root out phantom problems, that there is no problem with election law and election integrity here in the state. democrats firing back on the republicans, pushing for this measure here this afternoon. >> you have your vote. you have your majority. but guess what, i look forward to seeing you in federal court. what i know from my days of voting rights in this chamber, you may have the vote today, but we are all equal in federal court. and history's on our side. intent is on our side. please do not delete any emails. >> this bill, it may have my name on it. it may have some members of this committee, some members of this body, it may have senator hughes' name on it, but it doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to him. this bill belongs to texans. i

joining me is isabelle longoria who is the texas administrate for for harris county which encompassesll is needed to ensure and protect the full access to the ballot box while cracking down on the illegal activity undermining the elections there, and so what type of illegal activity was taking place? >> if you find it, let me know. the handful of the cases that come up in the november election or any election are chocked up to innocent mistake, and usually by election workers like not looking at the form correctly or not reading the lines, and little most of whom who are seniors from the neighborhood that do this as a little extra pocket cash and did it 20 or 30 years in the neighborhood. the bills are ridiculous and not based on the truth and how elections are run in texas. >> how much more difficult do you believe this new law is going to make it for people to vote? >> it's going to make it really hard for people to vote. there's a political sense that somehow the bills are meant to be a punishment for the innovations like drive-through voting, like 24 -hour voting an sending out ma

also ban county officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, that was done in harris countyeading up to the november election from houston is located. there's also question as to whether or not 24-hour voting locations would be allowed, drive-through ballot locations, whether or not that would be allowed, all of this making its way through the legislature. so it will be a contentious few days as lawmakers continue to battle over all of this. ana? >> georgia, florida, now texas, ed lavandera, thank you for the update. >>> all these voting restrictions being passed by republicans are meant to fix a problem that really doesn't exist. it's all part of the big lie. this false idea that there was massive voter fraud in the last election. there isn't. there wasn't. so why are republicans still going along with this? listen to senator lindsey graham. >> can we move forward without president trump? the answer is no. i've always liked liz cheney, but she's made a determination that the republican party can't grow with president trump. i've determined we can't grow without him. >> join

i'm very proud that he has tapped our sheriff in harris county and my home county, ed gonzalez, to bean extremely well experienced background in this matter. and i think once the permanent people are in place and some of the people from the last administration are out, i think they'll be focused to make sure that the border is secure and to make sure that our country is doing everything in other countries to deal with this issue. there is a root cause problem of this. >> carol avarado, thank you. we'll have you back with more time next time without a technical glitch. thanks for the time this morning. >>> portions of the trump era border wall construction abandoned. this after the department he defense canceled all contracts along the border. >> that's right. president trump diverted that money. now as some call for president biden to tear down parts of the wall, republicans are urging hum to complete it. here is our report we are a view from the border. fly straight east out of arizona and you'll pass miles of rolling border wall built during the president buescher are a. and then it

in harris county, home to houston, the formula would mean fewer polling places in 13 of the 24 districtscounty all currently represents by democrats. every district held by a republican would either see a gain in polling places or see no change. in most cases the districts that would lose polling places are represented by people of color. joining us now is democratic congressman joaquin castro of texas. he represents texas' 20th congressional district which includes san antonio. thank you very much for joining us tonight. let's begin just for a moment with this gun legislation that the texas governor is signing. it's now completely legal to be carrying without ever going through any paperwork whatsoever to get that gun. >> yeah, the governor and the republican legislature have made texas more dangerous. and it's really tragic, lawrence, because texas has been the site of so many mass shootings. you think about what happened at santa fe high school or sutherland springs, colleen in 1991, and instead of making the people of texas safer by doing things like background checks, a very simple

more than a half foot of rain around harris county, plus inches in some places.ou see that flash flooding. folks trying to get through the water. we sauls they's not the right thing to do. more rain on the way, houston area itself could pick up another 4 inches, saturated upon saturated. that tuesday trivia now sponsored by consumer cellular. >>> good morning, i'm abc7 news meteorologist mike nicco, increasing sunshine today but cooler breezes will keep temperatures down from yesterday's highs, mostly clear tonight for the full moon and the lunar eclipse and summer begins this weekend and it's going to feel like it. 50s along the coast today in san francisco, 60s around the bay and 70s inland, cooler tonight thanks to a >>> we'll be right back. if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, inflammation in your eye might be to blame. looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes! over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. ha! these drops probably won't touch me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation

it stops drive-through voting something that harris county used during the pandemic during the 2020 election. and it allows judges to more easily overturn an election by lowering the burden of proof. representative hakim jeffries was talked to about this today. lawmakers across the country are looking into it. here's what he had to say. >> the texas law is shameful and republicans clearly in texas and throughout the country want to make it harder to vote and easier to steal an election. that's the only way that i can interpret the voter suppression epidemic that we see working its way from one state, georgia, to arizona, to texas, and all across the country in so many different ways. >> now, the republican sponsors of this legislation say that this is about securing the ballot, thats in about uniformity amongst all the counties in the state and restoring confidence in elections, jim. of course that confidence was in great part shaken by the former president's big lie about the 2020 election. now, we mentioned, there is a midnight deadline here for the texas state house. i have spoken with de

officers hit joe kari simmons multiple times in the head while detained at the harris county jail.th was ruled a homicide. houston police is conducting a separate criminal investigation. three police officers in tacoma, washington pled not guilty to killing a black man in march of 2020. two officers are charged with secondary murder. an asian officer is accused of manslaughter. prosecutors say officers held him down until he suffocated. organizers in oklahoma have canceled monday's main event commemorating the tulsa race massacre of 1921. there are disputes over direct payments to survivors, as well as disagreements among the organizers. other events are still on, and president biden plans a visit next week. the investigation continues tonight in the railyard shooting that killed nine people in san jose, california. authorities say the gunman had piled weapons and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his house before setting it on fire. officials have also identified the victims. here's who they were. 36-year-old taptejdeep singhh spent his final moments protecting others. mily says he w

in 2020, places like harris county, which includes houston, they did innovative thing.s, drive-through voting, they did 24-hour voting. this legislation in austin would say you can't do that and shorten the hours that people can early vote. so they're taking away the tools to try and make voting easier and more convenient to folks who are legitimately registered to vote and doing it in team when the hispanic community in texas in 2021 was projected to become the plurality in this state. and there's no question, when joe biden lost the state only by 5.5 states that in the last few years this state has become bluer, more competitive in the big cities but also in the suburbs. they're scared of that. and they're trying to do anything they can to stave off defeat. >> thank you for spending time with us today. please send rosy and erica my best and thank you to them for allowing you to be with us. >>> new charges in the january 6 attack on our capitol. one of the alleged attackers using the fox news defense. former prosecutor jill wine banks on how that squares with the law.

are -- they actually arrested an active ms-13 gang member with an active criminal warrant out of harris county the houston area, for sexual assault of a young child it was a man in el salvador thankfully able to catch him in a group of 70 migrants even further south, down in brownsville same day on wednesday, border patrol had a mexican national with a 2006 conviction for murder, that 15 years behind bars here in the state and was deported apparently come back border patrol reporting since october, they have apprehended more than 1,100 criminal aliens right here in rio grand valley sector. back to you. arthel: very concerning there at the southern border in texas. thank you. eric. eric: tragedying apparent road rage shooting if in southern california. caused a six-year-old his life -- little aidan was killed when he was on his way to school on friday morning. little boy was shot in the back we're told by someone who was driving in another vehicle. this reportedly happened after there was a confrontation between aidan's mother and a driver who cut her off wheel they were driving on the freeway.

. >> the integrity of elections in 2020 were questioned right here in harris county.ublican governor greg abbott and republicans controlled the state legislature and state legislature say changes are needed to ensure election security. they are gearing up to pass new legislation that have signed into law will lead to sweeping changes for how texans can vote. it especially affects diverse urban counties and expanded voting options. >> we must pass laws to prevent election officials from jeopardizing the election process. reporter: democts and texas-based businesses including american airlines and dell technologies are opposing the bills. young activists in texas are trying to push back. one of them is a philia alonso from the organization texas rising. she drove six hours from her home to austin to speak out. >> it is telling them your voter participation was so good that you are getting punished for it. reporter: the legislation follows a record high early voter turnout in large metro areas like houston. that was after election officials added measures to make voting

also apprehended a mexican national, again in this sector, who had a conviction for murder in harris county in 2006. he was deported after 15 years in prison and decided evidently now is the time he wanted to try to cross back into the u.s. again. we'll send it back to you. >> bret: bill melugin in texas along the border. bill, thanks. up next, the pushback against the education department support for critical race theory. we will bring you that first with some other fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. fox 5 in new york as mayor bill de blasio says public schools will reopen with in person classes only in september. the mayor saying remote learning will not be an option for students and families. fox 35 in orlando as florida plans to stop providing $300 a week in additional federal unemployment benefits. state and business officials have argued the extra money is keeping people from returning to jobs. 24 states have now announced they will be eliminating those added benefits. and this is a live look at a south carolina. one of the big stories on fox 24 in charleston, 50-

have one drop box in a county of 5 million people like happened in texas last time and that's harris county. that would be like putting one drop box in the middle of my entire state. that's why this bill is so important to allow people to take back our democracy. that means getting rid of the secret money, it means making sure there's anti-corruption provisions in place and it of course means minimum national standards for voting. >> can i ask. i don't think you're going to love this question. after today with ted cruz. come on. go at it. >> okay. i'm going to take that as a challenge. i'm going to ask about ted cruz in a second. what the supreme court technically struck down -- what i am struck by is we are having a fight over something that was solved. it's important, you need a federal check because it's been abused in the past. is there a way of just restoring the preclearance formula? >> yes. >> in a way the court -- could we just do that in it seems like we're trying to reinvent the wheel? >> let's step back. john lewis voting rights act, right? that's a separate bill in judiciary. th

in 2020 places like harris county including houston, the biggest county in texas did innovative thingsad the use of drop boxes. they used a drive-through voting. they did 24 hours voting. this legislation in austin would say you can't do that. and it would shorten the hours that people can early vote. so they're taking away the tools to try to make voting easier and more convenient to folks who are legitimately registered to vote and they're doing it at a time when the hispanic community in texas in 2021 was projected to become the plurality in this state. there is no question when joe biden lost by 5.5 points in the last few years, this state has become bluer, more competitive in the big cities but also in the suburbs. they're scared of that. they're trying to do anything that they can to stave off defeat. >> all right. julian castro, thank you for spending time with us today. send rosie and erica my best and thank you for them allowing you to be with us. >>> new charges in the january 6th attack in the capitol. one of the alleged attackers using the fox news defense. former watergate

in texas specifically, targeting things that were done in places like harris county, where voters weree to drive through to cast their ballot or have 24 hours of early voting period to give as many people as possible the ability to cast their ballot. those are the specific things that are targeted then in this bill. because republicans want to see this rammed through, there's going to be pressure for abbott to call that special session as soon as possible. pressure is going both ways. democrats in texas putting up a fight and vowing to continue doing that. also, there's calls for democrats here in washington to push through a since stalled election reform bill that has been sitting in the senate because it does not have votes necessary to avoid a filibuster. what we heard and we will continue to hear from democrats is not just the need to pass that election reform bill, but also to do so by doing away with the filibuster and have democrats lead and govern as if they have the majority. right now in washington, they do, craig. >> ali vitalvitali on the hill. there has not been any eviden

that it seems to target the more diverse population centers, the more blue-leaning counties like harris countyre houston is, by eliminating their ability to use these more creative tactics. business leaders, roughly 50 organizations and businesses, including places like microsoft, hp and american airlines signed a letter encouraging lawmakers not to do any kind of legislation that could potentially harm the right to vote. >> yeah, we'll have to see if there is anyone listening on the other end of that. dianne gallagher live in austin, thank you so much. >>> i want to bring in ari berman, no relation, senior reporter for mother jones and author of "give us the ballot," the modern struggle for voting rights in america. ari, i think with every state there are two basic questions as they keep on looking at these laws. i'm going to ask the small question first and promise to ask the big question. in texas, the small, specific question is what specifically do these laws do and to whom? >> well, what these laws do is, first off, they criminalize making voting easier. it would actually be a state jail

know, there is an immediate impact which is to take away particularly some voting elements that harris county where houston is try to experiment with, that means drive-thru voting, late night voting. san antonio did some of this stuff as well where they were trying to give more options for people to vote and it worked. there were a lot of people who went to work, historic numbers voted in this presidential election, just blew us away by how much. some of those options now are going to be taken away and so those folks are going to have to find a different way to vote and as senator powell was talking about, they're making changes to balloting here where people who are 65 and older who are eligible to get an absentee ballot they are going to have new paperwork to fill out, they are going to have new things to look at to try to make sure they get those ballots. you can see that there are going to be people who just have new elements put in front of them in order to go vote and the more things you put in front of somebody to vote, just the more chances you have for people not getting there and ge