TEXAS LATINO REDISTRICTING TASK FORCE BLASTS LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CONGRESSIONAL MAP
New Map Provides No New Latino Opportunity Districts
SAN ANTONIO, TX – Today the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force strongly criticized a proposed congressional map released by the chairmen of the House and Senate redistricting committees.
The Solomons-Seliger map creates a Latino majority district between San Antonio and Austin but eviscerates existing Latino-majority Congressional District 20 (San Antonio) so that it is no longer a Latino opportunity district. The Solomons-Seliger map also drastically reconfigures the current Congressional District 27 to remove Nueces County, extend the district to Lavaca County, and re-assign the district number to 34. The Solomons-Seliger map also creates no Latino opportunity congressional district in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex.
"The Solomons-Seliger map does not increase the number of Latino opportunity congressional districts despite the fact that 65% of the State's growth over the past decade was comprised of Latinos," stated Nina Perales, Vice President for Litigation for MALDEF. "Instead, the map gerrymanders more than nine million Latinos in Texas to make sure that we have no more electoral opportunity than we did in 1991."
By contrast, the congressional redistricting proposals offered by the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force present two additional Latino-majority districts (one in the Dallas Fort Worth area and one in South Texas) and a majority-minority coalition district in Harris County.
The Task Force redistricting plans are available online as Congressional plans C122 and C123 at http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/.
The Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force members include Texas LULAC, MALDEF, GI Forum, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Domingo Garcia, The Mexican American Bar Association of Texas, former Mayor Pro Tem of Dallas, and La Fe Policy Research and Education Center.
Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the "law firm of the Latino community," MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights and political access. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org.
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