(The Center Square) – More than 451,000 criminal noncitizens have been arrested and booked into local Texas jails over the past 14 years, according to an updated report published by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Among them are 322,000 who are confirmed to be in the U.S. illegally, according to available U.S. Department of Homeland Security data.

The data covers June 1, 2011, through Feb. 28, 2025, and represents DPS and local law enforcement agencies that participate in DHS’ Secure Communities program. The program enables DHS to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of illegal foreign nationals who pose a danger to public safety as an alternative to them being released into local communities.

The data only pertains to Texas state offenses. It excludes criminal records from other states, federal criminal charges and data pertaining to foreign nationals who are legally in the country who committed a state crime.

Among the 322,000 confirmed illegal foreign nationals, law enforcement officials charged them with more than 564,000 combined criminal offenses, according to the data. They include arrests for 1,043 homicide charges; 73,025 assault charges; 10,096 burglary charges; 65,896 drug charges; 1,371 kidnapping charges; 28,601 theft charges; 44,080 obstructing police charges; 3,214 robbery charges; 7,177 sexual assault charges; 8,189 sexual offense charges; and 7,024 weapon charges.

The charges resulted in 208,000 convictions, including 533 for homicide; 26,670 for assault; 5,147 for burglary; 27,093 for drugs; 391 for kidnapping; 10,740 for theft; 17,084 for obstructing police; 1,834 for robbery; 3,508 for sexual assault; 3,733 for sexual offense; and 2,263 for weapons.

The data relates to foreign nationals who are in the U.S. illegally; not all arrested are in the DHS database at the time of their arrest, resulting in an inability to verify their citizenship. An individual’s lawful status is determined by matching fingerprints to a DHS database. If the arrestee’s fingerprints aren’t yet in the DHS database at the time of their Texas arrest, DHS isn’t able to biometrically verify their status, DPS explains.

Foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. and avoid detection, referred to as gotaways, and are later arrested by local or state law enforcement for a state offense may not be in the DHS database. Those who aren’t in the database aren’t included in the data, DPS explains.

In addition to the Secure Communities program, DHS adjudicates the immigration status of foreign nationals incarcerated in the Texas prison system. From 2011 through Feb. 28, 2025, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) provided DPS with information on more than 33,000 illegal foreign nationals identified by DHS while incarcerated. Among them, 11,001 weren’t identified through the Secure Communities program at the time of their arrest. “DPS does not know the current incarceration status of the individuals identified while they were incarcerated nor when their noncitizen status was initially determined,” the report explains.

Of the 11,001 TDCJ identified, they were incarcerated for a combined more than 11,016 criminal offenses, including charges for homicide (151); assault (1,437); burglary (600); drugs (1,933); kidnapping (65); theft (544); obstructing police (1,041); robbery (423); sexual assault (946); sexual offenses (440); and weapons (278).

According to DPS criminal history, the criminal charges resulted in more than 6,000 convictions including for homicide (117); assault (836); burglary (380); drugs (1,062); kidnapping (35); theft (290); obstructing police (457); robbery (313); sexual assault (693); sexual offense (316); and weapons (113).

The totals are up from more than 443,000 criminal noncitizens arrested, including 314,000 confirmed illegally in the country as of Sept. 30, 2024, The Center Square reported.

Among these are the nearly 50,000 arrests reported by local law enforcement in 2023, The Center Square reported.

The arrest and charges data don’t “necessarily align with the size of the population of illegal noncitizens identified while in prison,” the report explains. “A more accurate assessment can be seen when examining this population’s entire Texas criminal history and not just for offenses committed during this time period.”

The reports were updated using data as of March 1, 2025.

(The Center Square) — Updated federal data shows California gained 76% fewer jobs in 2024 than initially estimated, gaining only 60,000 jobs, instead of the earlier announced 250,000 jobs. 

A 2024 state-funded report found that California private sector employment went into a downturn in 2022, with jobs growth only coming from the public sector and related employment. If this trend has continued, the state’s 0.3% jobs growth could have entirely come from taxpayer-financed government and government-adjacent hiring.

“The corrected data show that the state added just 60,000 jobs between September 2023 and September 2024. The monthly jobs report, which the administration and the Legislature relied on to gauge the economy during that period, showed the labor market growing steadily, appearing to add more than 250,000 jobs over that period,” wrote the state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office. “Actual job growth for the year was 0.3 percent, compared to the 1.5 percent growth initially reported via the preliminary survey.”

The state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office reported that between September 2022 and April 2024, the private sector lost 154,000 jobs, while the public and publicly-supported sector, which includes the healthcare sector — which is majority-funded by taxes via Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act premium subsidies — gained 361,000 jobs.

The governor has proposed withdrawing $7 billion from reserves this year, while increasing spending to $322 billion. Amid stock market volatility and uncertainty about federal funding, it’s unclear how much the state may have to cut from its projected revenue.

(The Center Square) – Lawmakers, school advocates and teachers’ unions are taking swift action after President Donald Trump’s executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, one of his most controversial moves yet.

Opponents of Trump’s action responded with promises of legal retaliation. But supportive lawmakers may beat them to the chase, with U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., each planning to introduce legislation to completely eliminate the department.

“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said. “Since the Department can only be shut down with Congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”

Rounds said he is already discussing legislation with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “that would return education decisions to states and local school districts while maintaining important programs like special education and Title I.”

Trump already shrunk the department’s workforce to half its size last week. His executive order Thursday directs McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely,” as far as legally possible.

For now, that means the department will still continue critical functions like enforcing Title IX and civil rights laws, funding special education and disability programs, and overseeing student loans and Pell grants, Trump said. On Friday, Trump said the Small Business Administration would take over the nation’s student loans.

But the ultimate goal is to redistribute these programs among other federal departments and agencies, which would require congressional approval.

School choice organizations are praising Trump’s plan to eventually eliminate the Education Department as a necessary development that will save taxpayers’ money and return power to states, local governments, and parents. 

“These are the first steps towards reforming an American education system that should have always been a state and local proposition,” Parents Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry said. “We are looking forward to continuing our mission to empower parents and students in educational environments that are once again value-neutral, and devoid of radical ideologies”

Supporters also point to how the department has spent $3 trillion taxpayer dollars since its creation by congressional legislation in 1979. Meanwhile, U.S. students rank 28 out of 37 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and standardized test scores have remained flat for decades.

ACE Scholarships, which provides aid to lower-income K-12 students, said in a statement that the Department of Education’s efforts have been “a wasteful distraction” and that the president’s “new approach” to education “puts children first by increasing choice and empowering parents instead of Washington bureaucrats.”

But public school advocacy organizations and teachers unions are already preparing lawsuits against what they say is an unconstitutional move.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, had a simple message for Trump after the executive order: “See you in court.”

The New York-based United Federation of Teachers stated that “we are working with our partners to file lawsuits to stop this executive overreach.”

Democracy Forward, a legal services nonprofit, is also planning to join the fight.

“We will be filing litigation against this action and will use every legal tool to ensure that the rights of students, teachers, and families are fully protected,” President and CEO Skye Perryman stated. “Since Inauguration Day, the Trump-Vance administration has been taken to court more than 100 times, and we will do it again this time.”

Trump opponents argue that dismantling the department will cause property taxes to spike nationwide, strain public school resources and could cause struggling schools to close, expanding class sizes in the remaining schools.

“Beyond the obvious issue that the Education Department can’t be eliminated without an act of Congress, Trump’s order is yet another wild and illicit power grab,” Co-President of Public Citizen Lisa Gilbert said. “Attempting to destroy the cabinet agencies tasked with promoting and improving education isn’t just irresponsible, it is immoral, and will hurt the very fabric of our nation, as we keep generations of students from achieving their full potential.”

The Education department provides roughly 10% of funding for public education, with the vast majority of funding coming from state and local taxes.

The majority of Americans also appear opposed to ending the department, with a Marist poll in early March showing 63% of U.S. residents either oppose or strongly oppose getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education, while 37% of residents either strongly support or support abolishing the department.