In Houston, some worry their problems would be neglected after redistricting

HOUSTON — The neighborhood called “Denver Harbor,” is mostly small homes and small businesses. It’s a largely Latino area and people are worried about immigration and deportations.

“Everybody’s nervous,” said Rene Porras, a Vietnam combat veteran and small business owner. “I have a little local taqueria, Mexican bakery, and business is down for the last three or four weeks. I mean, really down. And I talked to my other friends that have businesses and the same thing. Where did the immigrants go?”

Rita Robles is a community activist in Denver Harbor, who underscored the problem.

“When they started saying that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was going to be in the area, we’ve spotted them in certain areas where they’re huddling together, before they go do a raid, and that has scared the hell out of the people here,” Robles said.

Mass deportations are just one part of President Trump’s agenda that the Republican majority in Congress has supported. But their majority is narrow and to help maintain it, Trump has called for Texas lawmakers to redraw the voting maps to help GOP candidates in the election next year. Trump says he wants redistricting in Texas that will create five more Republican-held seats.

Democrats in the Texas state house have left the state to try to block the chamber from having enough members to hold a vote on the maps. They’ve indicated they could return soon. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump ally, threatened to have them arrested or removed from office if they don’t return to the Legislature.

One reason Democrats say they could return is because Democratic leaders in California plan to ask voters for permission to counter Texas with redistricting there. And Republican-led states, including Missouri and Florida, are considering countering that. Usually states just redistrict early in the decade after the regular census count, a norm that Trump’s plan could disrupt.

This neighborhood could end up in a district that tilts Republican

The district is currently represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia. Under proposed maps in the Legislature, the Denver Harbor neighborhood would be sliced out of the district it’s now in and moved to one that includes suburbs and exurbs.

An analysis by the Texas Legislative Council, an agency that provides research for state lawmakers, shows that while the current district Denver Harbor is in now voted for Kamala Harris for president last year, voters who would be in the new district went for Donald Trump by a wide margin.

Porras says neighbors don’t want the redistricting. “Since Trump’s proposed this,” Porras said, “he’s so unpopular around here it’s incredible. Everything from cutting services and Medicaid, all the things he didn’t mention during the election, or said he’s not going to cut, that’s exactly what he’s doing.”

Robles worries about what the redrawn district will mean for the environmental health of the neighborhood, which sits just a few miles from the Houston Ship Channel.

“We have a very big problem with air pollution,” Robles said. “We already have a large number of people in our area that suffer from health problems, and then on top of that, you suffer from things like asthma, emphysema.”

Robles said people in Denver Harbor don’t make much money compared to the neighborhoods it would be joined with in the new district.

“They make six figures, you know, anywhere from $50,000, $60,000 and up to six figures,” Robles said of her prospective neighbors. “They don’t have these types of problems that we do.”

Why the GOP is seeking a new district

But Republicans note that, while Denver Harbor’s current district twists and turns across Houston and the surrounding county, its proposed new home is more compact. And it will still be majority Hispanic, even though Democratic leaders might not like how they vote.

“The way the new maps are drawn is really more indicative of how Harris County has changed demographically,” said Cindy Siegel, chair of the Harris County Republican Party.

Siegel argued that if Democrats are upset by the proposed new map, it’s because they realize that they’ve taken Hispanic voters for granted, and now they pay a price for it.

“They know that there has been a shift in the last election that the Hispanic community, more Hispanic voters, in fact, supported President Trump, voted for him,” Siegel said.

Texas House Majority Leader Tom Oliverson, a Republican who represents Cypress in northwest Harris County, told Houston Public Media that partisan gain was, in fact, the main reason for the redistricting plan.

“I think it’s well within our right to do so,” Oliverson said. “There are many, many states where redistricting for partisan performance has been a way of life for 20, 30 years, particularly in Democrat states.”

But partisan redistricting can overlap with racial gerrymandering, which is illegal. Michael O. Adams, a political science professor at Texas Southern University, said that the apparent Hispanic majority of the proposed district is deceptive and does not reflect its likely voting majority.

“I think what we’re seeing here, and what we’re witnessing in this redistricting proposal and the midterm cycle, is what I would call a master class in demographic manipulation,” Adams said.

Andrew Schneider is the senior reporter for politics and government at Houston Public Media.