Wichita Falls nonprofit aims to rename highway for late Hispanic leader
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Wichita Falls nonprofit is working to rename the Southbound US Highway 82 flyover after Ray Gonzalez Jr.
The Mexican American Veterans Association is in the process of honoring the ground-breaking leader.
The nonprofit has support from former Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom and Mayor Tim Short.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hear from the group on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the MPEC. If approved, the recommendation will head to city councilors.
Gonzalez passed away in July 2021.
The Old High and MSU graduate served in the Army in Vietnam.
He was the first Hispanic to be elected to the Wichita County Commissioners Court. Serving from 2009 to 2016. He also served on the city council and became the first-ever Hispanic mayor pro-tem.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Miami Herald
25 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Miami commissioners cautious with answers on whether they'll vote for ICE agreement
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Commissioner Joe Carollo declined to say whether he plans to vote in favor of the agreement but said he has been monitoring the protests against ICE in Los Angeles, where Trump deployed the National Guard. Asked where he stands on the 287(g) agreement, Carollo said he's 'certainly looking carefully' at Los Angeles, which he said has 'frankly been a factor in the way that I'm gonna be going at this.' Commissioner Damian Pardo said in a statement that 'as a life long advocate for a legal path for US citizenship and a supporter of TPS, I am not in favor of 287(g).' 'Regardless of how well this plan may be implemented by local enforcement agencies, and in addition to the human rights considerations, I am very concerned with the hostile climate these policies create for immigrants,' Pardo said. He added that the city's economy is boosted by the 'inflow of business from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.' 'Our city has benefited enormously from our attraction as a destination to the international community,' Pardo added. 'I would argue that attraction is the 'Magic' in the Magic city. Let's keep it that way.' Both Carollo and Pardo said the item would likely be deferred. READ MORE: What the end of CHNV parole program means for a half-million migrants, many in Florida The City Commission was scheduled to take its vote on June 12, which will be the first commission meeting for newly elected District 4 Commissioner Ralph Rosado. According to voting map data, over 90% of voting-age citizens in District 4 are Hispanic, meaning Rosado's district has the largest concentration of Hispanics in the city's five voting districts. Speaking at his election night watch party last week, the freshman commissioner said he hadn't decided yet how he will vote on the 287(g) agreement. 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Ron DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier have argued that under the state's sanctuary law, they are mandated to do so. Uthmeier threatened to punish Fort Myers City Council members earlier this year when they declined to enroll in the program. Still, most Miami-Dade cities, including Miami Beach and Miami Gardens, have yet to join the program, according to ICE's database for participating agencies. Entering the 287(g) agreement could have a major impact in Miami, where about 58% of residents are foreign born and over 70% are Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With just under a half-million people, Miami is the largest city in Miami-Dade County and the second largest in Florida. Miami would join a list of other Miami-Dade cities that have entered 287(g) agreements in recent months, including Hialeah, Sweetwater, Coral Gables, West Miami, Sunny Isles Beach and Miami Springs. If it happens this week, the City Commission vote would land at a time of increased uncertainty for non-citizens, with the Trump administration implementing a series of immigration policies in recent weeks that have targeted communities with large populations in South Florida. In addition to Monday's travel ban, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late last month in favor of a Trump administration plan that ended the humanitarian parole program known as CHNV, which allowed people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to legally enter the United States. The decision affects more than 500,000 migrants who were granted temporary legal status.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
National Guard troops to join ICE agents on LA immigration raids: sources
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Demographics of Los Angeles show its a fertile ground for anti-ICE protests
Why has Los Angeles, of all U.S. cities, erupted in mass protests against immigration raids? The answer may lie in this region's racial, ethnic and demographic makeup. Los Angeles County sprawls over more than 4,000 square miles of Southern California, and includes the city of Los Angeles, as well as Beverly Hill, Burbank, Compton, Glendale, Hollywood, Long Beach, Malibu, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Torrance and several other communities. It's home to nearly 10 million people and accounts for about 27% of California's population. A third of L.A. County's 10 million residents are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census. The city of Los Angeles, in the heart of L.A. County, is home to nearly 3.9 million people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. More than 35% of them were born outside the United States. Just over half of L.A.'s foreign-born residents are naturalized citizens, and more than 56% of Los Angeles residents speak a language other than English at home ‒ predominantly Spanish. More than 1.8 million of Los Angeles residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and close to half a million are Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. More than 1.15 million people say they are "some other race," and just over half a million identify with two or more races. The demographics of the Los Angeles area "play a big role" in how the region functions, said Dr. Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and director of the university's Equity Research Institute. Nearly half of L.A. County's workforce is foreign-born, he said, and about 60% of children have at least one immigrant parent, with nearly one out of five county residents either being undocumented or living with an undocumented family member, "so about 1/5th of the people here are experiencing this, whether directly or indirectly," Pastor said. Los Angelenos' average age is just over 37 years old, with the biggest portion of its "population pyramid" (a visual representation comparing the numbers of people in certain age cohorts) falling in the 25-29, 30-34 and 35-39 ranges. According to a 2020 study by University of Southern California Dornsife, there are about 900,000 undocumented immigrants in the city of Los Angeles, most of whom had been in the U.S. for 10 years or more. "So these people are deeply settled here," Pastor said. "They're part of the communities here, working in businesses, belonging to faith institutions." Many Angeleno families live in "mixed status" households, the study added, in which some members are citizens and some are not. The study also noted that, in 2020, "120,000 youth in L.A. County will become eligible to vote for the first time. Of that group, 60% have at least one immigrant parent." Many of the U.S.'s more recent immigrants, especially those who arrived between 2020 and 2023, went to places with lower costs of living than Southern California, like Florida and Texas, Pastor noted. "This matters because we are basically fertile ground for the Trump Administration to launch its spectacle of enforcement," Pastor said. The administration has said it's targeting criminals, but Los Angelenos are skeptical, he added: "It's more likely in L.A. to be removing a father who showed up to work or a mother who picked up her kids at school. Hard-core criminals are hard to find; pulling people from a day labor site is much easier." "To the extent that residents with documentation (i.e., naturalized citizens and lawful residents) feel sympathy with undocumented persons who may be targeted by ICE, that could play a role in the current protests," said Tim Bruckner a professor of public health and co-director at the University of California Irvine's Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy. Bruckner noted that past research has shown there is "a 'chilling' effect that targeted enforcement (such as ICE raids) has on persons who were not themselves targeted, but who felt a connection to the populations targeted," an effect that "extends beyond simply family or friends who know the persons targeted." Other factors might also be at play, he added, including education and income levels, not just in terms of where immigration enforcement is targeted but also the reaction to it. Undocumented people are less likely to have a bachelor's degree, and thus are more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs, and the district where the raids have taken place is believed to be home to a large share of the city's immigrants, "which might have led to further enforcement of areas in Downtown (Los Angeles)." In the 2024 election, Los Angeles County voters went overwhelmingly for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris (California's former attorney general) over Trump, with Harris winning nearly 65% of the vote to Trump's almost 32%. In addition, Democrat Adam Schiff, an incumbent, defeated Republican Steve Garvey (a former Los Angeles Dodger) for one of the state's U.S. Senate seat. There are nearly 6 million registered voters in Los Angeles County. Of those, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a 3 to 1 margin: just over 3 million to slightly under 1 million (there are 148,078 registered Independents and 22,483 Green Party voters). Both California's governor, Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are Democrats. Those political demographics also play a role, Pastor said. "Aside from immigrant-bashing, California-bashing has also become a GOP sport," he said. "And it's pretty widespread here that people do not like ICE." Los Angelenos have also become accustomed to, and supportive of, their immigrant neighbors, whose ties to the community run deep and wide, he said. "Even people who aren't too far left value having a Korean taco truck, getting their lawns mowed and houses built," Pastor said. "There are a number of people who worry about their kids going to school to find their friends are suddenly gone, or have family members who are gone." Ultimately, he said, the ramifications for Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, still reeling from devastating wildfires earlier this year, could be dire. "One-third of our residential construction labor is undocumented immigrants," Pastor said. "If we're going to rebuild from the fires, (deporting immigrants) is not a strategy for relief." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA demographics show its a fertile ground for anti-ICE protests
