Greg Abbott

Sept. 23 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed legislation banning transgender people from accessing restrooms and other facilities, including domestic violence shelters and prisons, that align with their gender identity.

Abbott, a Republican, signed the legislation Monday, sharing a video of it on X.

“This is just common sense,” he said, while holding up the signed document, showing it to the camera.

Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 after the Texas House passed it 86-45 on Aug. 28.

The bill, which takes effect Dec. 4, requires people to use facilities, such as bathrooms and restrooms, in government-owned buildings, including schools and universities, that align with their gender assigned at birth.

Other facilities affected include family violence shelters, prisons and jails.

Organizations that violate the law can face a $25,000 fine for a first offense and $125,000 for a second.

“Let’s hope more states follow suit,” state Rep. Angelia Orr, a sponsor of SB 8, said in a statement after Abbott announced her bill had been signed. “This is common sense policy to protect the women and girls of Texas!”

Texas passed the bill amid a larger conservative push to pass legislation affecting the rights and healthcare of LGBTQ Americans, though specifically targeting transgender Americans.

The Lone Star State GOP lawmakers have been trying to pass a so-called bathroom ban since 2017, but were unable to get it through the House until this summer.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas was swift in rebuking Abbott fpr signing S.B. 8 into law, saying it will encourage gender policing by those who seek to attack transgender people, or simply those who don’t adhere to stereotypical gender roles.

“This law puts anyone at risk who doesn’t seem masculine or feminine enough to a random stranger, including the cisgender girls and women this bill purports to protect,” Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist on LGBTQIA+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.

“This bill is bad for trans and intersex people, bad for cisgender people, bad for business, bad for public health and safety and bad for Texas,” they added. “Transgender people have always been here and always will be.”

According to Every Texan, a nonprofit that researches equitable policy solutions, there are an estimated 122,700 transgender people in Texas, including nearly 30,000 youth.

The Movement Advancement Project states there are 19 states with some form of bathroom ban, including two states that make it a criminal offense.

Sept. 10 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Wednesday banning sales of hemp-based THC products to people under the age of 21 amid an ongoing push for state lawmakers to establish THC regulations.

Abbott called the order “safety for kids, freedom for adults,” in a post on X.

The order directs the Department of State Health Services and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to ban sales of hemp-based THC products to those under 21 years old and requires retailers to verify age with a government-issued ID. Retailers that don’t follow this law will lose their retailer’s license.

Additionally, the DSHS must review existing regulations on hemp-based THC products, including labeling requirements. The DSHS, TABC and the Department of Public Safety must also partner with local law enforcement to increase enforcement of the new law.

Though the Texas Senate — backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — approved of a more sweeping ban on the sale of THC products in any form, lawmakers failed to agree on a final law to regulate the products. Abbott vetoed the full ban, seeking a less restrictive law.

“Texas will not wait when it comes to protecting children and families,” Abbott said in a statement announcing his executive order. “While these products would still benefit from the kind of comprehensive regulation set by the Texas Legislature for substances like alcohol and tobacco, my executive order makes sure that kids are kept safe and parents have peace of mind now, and that consumers know the products they purchase are tested and labeled responsibly.”

Abbott also directed the DSHS, TABC and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to study a framework for wider THC regulations based on Texas House Bill 309 filed in August. The legislation, submitted by Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican, seeks to create a Texas Hemp Council to regulate products derived from hemp, including food items and beverages.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed legislation for a new congressional map in the state in an attempt to add five GOP seats in the U.S. House for the 2026 midterm elections.

The border-changing in the Lone Star state has triggered efforts in other states to redraw their maps, including Democrat-dominant California, the largest state ahead of Texas.

Early Saturday, the Texas Senate sent the legislation to the governor for the new redistricting maps, three days after the state’s House passed the bill. For several days, the House couldn’t reach a quorum because Democrats fled the state, including to California and New York. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to arrest them.

“Today, I signed the One Big Beautiful Map into law,” Abbott said in a video on X. “This map ensures fairer representation in Congress. Texas will be more RED in Congress.”

Holding the document with his signature, he said: “Texas is now more read in the United States Congress.”

The state currently has 38 congressional districts, 25 of which are controlled by Republicans.

In the U.S. House, Republicans currently hold a 219-212 advantage with vacancies from the deaths of three Democrats and one GOP member who resigned.

Congressional maps are traditionally redrawn every decade after data is released from the U.S. Census, which is next scheduled to take place in 2030.

President Donald Trump had asked Abbott to redraw the borders, which required a 30-day special legislative session. When Trump was first president, Democrats took control of the House in 2018. This led to blocking some of his legislative policies and two impeachments.

“I promised we would get this done, and delivered on that promise,” Abbott said in the statement after the Senate approval, calling the legislation “a bill that ensures our maps reflect Texans’ voting preferences.”

He had vowed to call additional special sessions if the quorum still was elusive.

State Sen. Phil King, a Republican, said while the maps will create more competitive districts, he expects Republicans will win the seats.

He said with House Bill 4 that “I believe, should elect more Republicans to the U.S. Congress, but I’m here to tell you, there are no guarantees.”

The redistricted maps are facing a court test. A three-judge panel in a U.S. District court in El Paso set a preliminary injunction hearing for Oct. 1-10.

“This isn’t over — we’ll see these clowns in court,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said. “We aren’t done fighting against these racially discriminatory maps, and fully expect the letter of the law to prevail over these sycophantic Republican politicians who think the rules don’t apply to them.”

Democrats say the new borders are racially discriminatory, including in metro areas of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

“Members, it breaks my heart to see how this illegal and rigged mid-decade redistricting scheme is dividing our state and our country,” Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat, said. “This is Texas, it’s not Washington D.C. The impulses of outside politicians and their billionaire backers shouldn’t dictate what we do in this chamber, in this House.”

Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican who wrote the bill, said four of the five new districts were “majority-minority Hispanic” but now trending Republican.

And in California, the new map could add five seats for Democrats, who hold a 43-9 edge. But unlike in Texas, voters in November must approve the change. California’s borders are drawn by a nonpartisan group and new legislation left it up to a referendum.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the so-called “Election Rigging Response Act” on Aug. 21.

“The People of California will be able to cast their vote for a Congressional map. Direct democracy that gives us a fighting chance to STOP Donald Trump’s election rigging,” Newsom said on X after the legislation was approved. “Time to fight fire with fire.”

Other states with a Democratic majority, including Illinois, New York, Maryland and Oregon, are considering changing the borders.

On the flip side, legislatures in Ohio, Indiana and Florida may redraw congressional borders before the 2026 midterm elections.

And late Friday, Missouri’s Gov. Mike Kehoe announced a special legislative session to draw a new voting map for his state will begin next Wednesday. Trump had been requesting the move in that state, too.

These states traditionally redo their borders at the start of each decade but in Ohio, under state law, a new congressional map must be approved by November 30. The previous map lacked bipartisan support.

On Tuesday, Utah Judge Dianna Gibson threw out the state’s congressional map, forcing Republicans to defend the current lines or draw a new one. Republicans overruled a ballot measure passed by voters to outlaw gerrymandering.

Republican legislatures control 28 of the 50 states with 18 by Democrats and four chambers divided politically.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — The NAACP is suing Texas over its new congressional maps, calling them racially gerrymandered in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The nation’s largest civil rights organization filed the motion Tuesday seeking a preliminary injunction against the new maps in ongoing litigation in a 2021 case it filed against Texas over its previously drawn maps, which it said “intentionally diluted the votes of Black Texans and other Texans of color.”

“The State of Texas is only 40% White but White voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.

“It’s quite obvious that Texas’ effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that in, and of itself, is unconstitutional.”

The NAACP, along with civil rights groups and the Justice Department, under the previous Biden administration, sued Texas in December 2021, alleging Texas’ then newly drawn congressional maps to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.

Based on new census data, Texas had gained 4 million people, 95% of whom were people of color, gaining the state two new congressional House seats. The NAACP argues the new maps based on the new information were gerrymandered as the new seats, despite the demographic shift, were draw to favor Anglo-majority districts.

In March — amid litigation and after President Donald Trump won re-election and returned to the White House — the Justice Department dismissed its claims in the case, the trial for which ended on June 11.

Less than a month afterward, the Justice Department sent Texas a letter arguing that four Democrat-held congressional seats were racially gerrymandered, instructing Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to redraw them.

Those redrawn maps are expected to give Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which were recently passed by both the Texas state House and Senate.

Democrats have been furious with this change, accusing the Trump administration of attempting a power grab to increase the Republicans’ odds of maintaining control of the congressional branch following next year’s midterm elections.

The NAACP, represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, argued in the Tuesday court document that Texas “overtly targeted districts where multiple minority groups together constituted a majority of the voters.”

“Dismantling Congressional districts because of their racial composition is intentional discrimination,” the civil rights group said in the motion.

The civil rights group is asking the court for a permanent injunction against the state from enforcing the alleged gerrymandered maps.

“We now see how far extremist leaders are willing to go to push African Americans back toward a time when we were denied full personhood and equal rights,” NAACP Texas President Gary Bledsoe said in a statement.

“We call on Texans of every background to recognize the dangers of this moment. Our democracy depends on ensuring that every person is counted fully, valued equally and represented fairly.”

Aug. 23 (UPI) — The Texas State Senate has now passed a bill approving new congressional redistricting maps, aimed at giving Republicans more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The One Big Beautiful Map has passed the Senate and is on its way to my desk, where it will be swiftly signed into law,” Gov Greg Abbott, R-Texas, said in a statement Saturday morning after Bill HB4 was passed in an overnight session.

Texas state House Republicans passed an identical bill Wednesday, despite continued vocal pushback from Democrats who call the move supported by President Donald Trump a power grab. Several times the House failed to reach a quorum because Democrats fled to other states.

“I promised we would get this done, and delivered on that promise,” Abbott said in the statement, calling the legislation “a bill that ensures our maps reflect Texans’ voting preferences.”

The new maps are expected to give the state an extra five Republican seats in the U.S. House in time for the 2026 mid-term elections. The Republicans currently hold a 219-212 advantage with vacancies from the deaths of three Democrats and one GOP member who resigned.

Currently, Texas has 38 congressional districts, 25 of which are controlled by Republicans.

Lawmakers have said they will challenge the move in court.

Congressional maps are traditionally redrawn every decade in conjunction with a new U.S. Census, which is next scheduled to take place in 2030.

Democrats have fought to keep Texas from passing the legislation to bring in new maps. A contingent of state lawmakers left Texas in an attempt to block the bills from passing by making the governing bodies unable to reach quorum, drawing the ire of Abbott and Trump.

“This is not democracy, this is disgraceful,” Democratic State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt said on X after the bill was passed during the overnight legislative session.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading a push from Democrats to counteract the Texas move.

Newsom has said his state will respond by redrawing its own congressional maps that would create more seats in the House for Democrats.

“Republicans are determined to rig every rule they can, to break laws, in order to seize power. As Democrats, we have a responsibility to fight back and fight back hard, and that’s what I love about what California is doing,” Newsom said on X earlier in the week.

This week, the California state Assembly and Senate introduced three bills that would allow it to consider holding a special election needed to pass a constitutional amendment. That amendment would allow it to replace existing congregational maps through 2030.

Aug. 20 (UPI) — Texas state House Republicans are about to pass their redistricting bill Wednesday as the session reconvenes at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

Texas Republicans will pass the bill, encouraged by President Donald Trump, which will likely give the state an extra five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, after weeks of protests from Democrats in the state House.

Because of their minority in the House, Democrats have no way to block passage of the redistricting bills. They have vowed to fight in the courts to prevent the new maps from being used.

In the first special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, Democrats fled the state for two weeks so that the House wouldn’t have a quorum. Once the session timed out and Abbott called a new special session, Democrats returned to the state and a new battle ensued.

Once Democrats came back to the capitol in Austin, they were not allowed to leave the chamber without a “permission slip,” a police escort and 24-hour surveillance to ensure they don’t leave the state again.

One lawmaker, Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, spent Monday night in the capitol building, refusing to sign the paper. She said she plans to stay until Wednesday’s session. Since then, several other Democrats tore up their waivers and joined her.

“This is a civil discussion and disagreement, and in order to win, the other side is willing to use force — to use the arms of a state to get what they want. Good guys don’t do that,” Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Rep. Gene Wu, told CNN.

Wu and Rep. Vince Perez, D-El Paso, who signed the waivers, stayed with Collier through Monday night.

Wednesday’s session is expected to last all day and possibly into the evening, as there must be time to consider the map, consider amendments and have several votes.

“It’s going to be a long day,” Rep Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, told the New York Times.

The new state map introduced last month has been revised. It would still add the five seats but also strengthen already-Republican districts by adding Republican voters to those districts. The state’s current districts, passed four years ago, are already being challenged in court, and a ruling is expected this fall.

“Please pass this map ASAP,” Trump posted on social media Monday. “Thank you, Texas!”

Republicans have 25 of the state’s 38 seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already begun the process of redistricting the state to counteract Texas’ efforts. Other Republican- and Democrat-led states have vowed to get in on the process.

Aug. 15 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a second special session of the state’s House of Representatives Friday after gaveling out the first 30-day session, hamstrung by Democrats who left the state to prevent redistricting.

Texas state House Democrats fled the state to prevent the state’s Republicans from initiating congressional redistricting efforts.

Congressional redistricting generally happens every decade following the publication of U.S. Census Bureau data. Texas has taken the unusual step to redraw its maps at the urging of President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections next year. The maps are expected to produce five more GOP districts in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Republicans hold a narrow 219 to 212 majority.

Critics and Democrats accuse the Republicans of conducting a power grab in an attempt to rig control over the congressional branch, and have backed their Texas colleagues.

“Delinquent House Democrats ran away from their responsibility to pass crucial legislation to benefit the lives of Texans,” Abbott said in a statement. “Numerous other bills to cut property taxes, support human trafficking survivors, eliminate the STAAR test, establish commonsense THC regulations, and many others have all been brought to a halt because Democrats refuse to show up for work. We will not back down from this fight. That’s why I am calling them back today to finish the job. I will continue to use all necessary tools to ensure Texas delivers results for Texans.”

House Speaker Dustin Burrows couldn’t gather enough House members for a quorum and didn’t do any official business Friday.

Burrows signed new civil warrants on the Democrats as soon as the new special session began. The warrants allow the Texas Department of Public Safety to search for them and bring them to the Capitol if they are found in the state.

“Those who have refused to make quorum, I’m sure you’re missing home,” Burrows said. “Do not think you have permission to return to Texas and enjoy a peaceful weekend before finally showing up to work.”

He instructed all House members to return Monday, saying he has been told to expect the absent members will be back at the Capitol.

The state house caucus responded on X to Abbott’s claim that Democrats were holding up flood funding.

“BREAKING: After we issued our conditions to return home yesterday, Texas Republicans have given in and ended their corrupt special session. @GregAbbott_TX can release flood funding at ANY MOMENT. Call his office and tell him to stop the delays: (512) 463-1782.”

Democrats said Thursday that they’d return home for the second session and allow the vote to happen, saying they would “take this fight to the courts.”

“It’s been six weeks since the flood, six weeks where working families have waited for relief while Gov. Abbott sits on billions in disaster funds, choosing to hold our state hostage for his racist, corrupt redistricting scheme,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu, D-Houston, said in a prepared statement this week. “Texans are suffering while Greg Abbott chases Donald Trump’s agenda and billionaire donors, ignoring the emergencies facing our neighborhoods.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week that his state will redistrict in response, handing back five seats to Democrats. The most populous state in the nation, California has 43 Democratic members of the house and nine Republican members.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Illinois rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton‘s request to enforce arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.

Paxton has filed a slew of lawsuits since state Democrats left Texas.

The Democrats went to Democratic strongholds, including Illinois, and Texas state House Speaker Dustin Burrows issued civil arrest warrants to force their return to Texas. On Aug. 7, Paxton and Burrows filed a lawsuit seeking Illinois to enforce the return of the Democratic lawmakers.

In his ruling Wednesday, Illinois Judge Scott Larson rejected the Texans’ request, stating it is outside his court’s jurisdiction to compel the Democrats’ return.

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to remove 10 Democratic districts from Texas if California makes good on its threat to remove five Republican districts from its maps, the latest salvo in the deepening fight between the two states over the Lone Star State’s redistricting efforts.

“If California tries to gerrymander five more districts; listen, Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state,” the Republican governor told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview Monday.

“We can play that game more than they can, because they have fewer Republican districts in their state.”

The threat comes as Texas state Democrats have fled their home state to Democratic strongholds such as Illinois and other states to prevent Republicans from passing controversial redistricting maps that give the GOP five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Critics have accused Abbott and Texas Republicans of conducting a power grab, seeking to redraw districts now as opposed to at the end of the decade, when it is traditionally done, in order to try to give President Donald Trump and the Republican Party an additional five seats in the House ahead of next year’s midterms.

Texas Democrats fled the state earlier this month in opposition, denying their Republican colleagues a quorum, meaning the minimum number of lawmakers necessary to pass legislation.

The GOP’s redistricting efforts in Texas have angered Democrats throughout the country, with Gov. Gavin Newsom responding that he will redraw California’s maps to produce five more Democratic seats in the House to neutralize Abbott’s move.

Texas has 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the House of Representatives. California has nine GOP legislators and 43 Democrats.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — Texas Democrat elected officials who fled the state to prevent redistricting face Gov. Greg Abbot’s deadline Friday to return to the state.

The Texas House of Representatives will reconvene at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, and there would need to be at least 12 Democrats to have a quorum.

In a call with reporters, Texas Democratic Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, said he believed the majority of his colleagues are still committed to staying out of state until the end of session.

Texas Republicans seek to redraw the state’s maps to add five Republican House seats, an effort Democrats are blocking by fleeing the state to deny the Texas House the two-thirds quorum necessary.

Critics of the new maps said Republicans are seeking to increase Republican seats in the House through racial gerrymandering that reduces the voting power of people of color in the state.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’ll go to court to try to remove the Democrats from office if they refuse to return. Gov. Greg Abbott, R, has sued the Democratic leader of the state House, Gene Wu, D-Houston, to have him removed.

Wu responded on CNN: “This is not my seat, and it’s sure as hell not Gov. Abbott’s seat. This seat belongs to the people of the state of Texas, and I’ve taken multiple oaths to defend them and protect them at any cost. … I have an obligation to stop [the redistricting] using every legal means necessary.”

Wu is required to respond Friday to the lawsuit before the Republican-dominated state Supreme Court.

The redistricting fight is going nationwide, with Republicans targeting Republican-heavy states with redistricting at the urging of President Donald Trump, who is concerned about the 2026 midterm elections.

Thursday, JD Vance visited Indianapolis to discuss redistricting in Indiana with Gov. Mike Braun. Republicans are also eyeing Ohio, where a state law requires the maps to be redrawn, and Missouri, for more seats. Democratic governors in California, Illinois, New York and other states are threatening to retaliate with their own redistricting.

Abbott said Friday if the Democrats don’t return to Texas soon, his party might draw a map that is even more GOP-friendly.

“If they don’t start showing up, I may start expanding,” Abbott said on the “Ruthless” podcast, a Fox News-owned conservative show. “We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side.”

Aug. 4 (UPI) — Texas Democrats have fled the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing state House maps that not only advantage the GOP by five seats but that critics say target the voting power of people of color.

The local Democrats traveled to Illinois and other Democratic-led states to prevent a Republican quorum — meaning the minimum number of congressional members needed for a vote — from being reached to advance the controversial maps on Monday when the House reconvenes at 3 p.m. local time.

The Republicans hold a nearly 60% majority in the Texas House with 88 representatives to the Democrats’ 62.

With Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker behind him, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu told reporters at a press conference that they were armed with the moral responsibility to leave the state.

“We’re not here to have fun. We’re not here because it is easy, and we did not make the decision to come here today lightly,” he said. “But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is the absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas.”

The Republicans released their proposed Texas congressional map late last month that, if adopted, would add five new Republican congressional seats. The bill, House Bill 4, has since been hastily moved through the state’s Congress, with the redistricting committee passing it to the House floor on Saturday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has rebuked the GOP maps as “designed to dilute the voting power of communities of color.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Saturday warned the Democrats against breaking quorum, issuing a letter stating by not being present when the House reconvenes for the special session, they could be removed from office and face felony charges, on allegations of them accepting funds to assist in their violation of legislative duties. Abbott did not provide proof to support the allegations.

“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” he said in the letter. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also took to X to say that the Democrats “should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately.

“We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,” he said.

During the Sunday press conference, Wu lambasted Abbott for using the people of Texas as hostages “in a political game” as the Republicans were seeking to pass the congressional maps before filing a promised bill to aid those suffering from last month’s flooding that killed more than 135 people.

“Instead, they spent their entire time playing dirty political games that only help themselves,” he said. “And what is even worse — their attempts to do this, their attempts to disenfranchise Texans, the tool their using is a racist, gerrymandered map, a map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hardworking communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices.”

The Democratic National Committee has voiced support for the Texas Democrats, issuing a statement saying it was “time to fight back” against Republicans, including President Donald Trump who “have tried to get away with rigging the system, breaking the rules and scheming to hold onto power.”

“For weeks, we’ve been warning that if Republicans in Texas want a showdown — if they want to delay flood relief to cravenly protect Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown — then we’d give them that showdown,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said.

“Republicans thought they could just rig the maps and change the rules without the American people taking notice. They were dead wrong.”

July 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Friday toured areas devastated by flash flooding in central Texas that has killed more than 100, including at least 36 children, on the Fourth of July.

The president and first lady arrived in Kerr County, Texas, shortly after 12:20 p.m. CDT to meet with people and families in Kerr County, where the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet and killed at least 121, including several children who had been staying at a Christian summer camp, Camp Mystic.

“This is a tough one,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion in Kerrville, Texas. “We were just making a little tour of the area. It’s hard to believe the devastation.”

He called the Guadalupe a “little narrow river that becomes a monster” when torrential rains pummeled the area during the early morning hours on Independence Day.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “We just gave our warmest condolences, but how do you give condolences?”

The president praised the first responders and community members who risked their lives to save others during the tragedy.

The first lady also met with victims’ families and offered her “deepest sympathy to all of the parents who lost beautiful young souls.”

“We are grieving with you,” Melania Trump said. “Our nation is grieving with you.”

The president and first lady were joined by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of Texas, during Friday’s visit.

Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Texas earlier this week. He told NBC’s Meet the Press on Thursday that the flood was a “once-in-every-200-year” event and said he supported the installation of a dedicated alarm system to warn of future floods.

“After having seen this horrible event, I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form,” he said.

According to Abbott, search and rescue operations still continue with some sources saying more than 170 people are still missing, including many children.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday that “We remain laser focused in our work with Governor Abbott and local Texas leaders to support those impacted by the tragic flooding.”

July 4 (UPI) — Deadly flooding continues in Kerr County, Texas, as local and state officials rally first responders to save lives and urge residents to shelter in place.

Flooding along the Guadalupe River and its tributaries has caused at least six deaths in Kerr County, and a flash flood emergency is in effect until 2 p.m. CDT from Hunt through Kerrville and Center Point and into parts of Kendall County, WOAI reported.

“The state of Texas is urging all available resources to respond to the devastating flooding around the Kerr County area,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Friday in a post on X.

“That includes water rescue teams, sheltering centers, the National Guard [and] the Texas Department of Public Safety,” Abbott said. “The immediate priority is saving lives.”

The Kerr County Sheriff’s Office confirmed fatalities but won’t release additional information until the next of kin are notified.

“The entire county is an extremely active scene,” the sheriff’s office posted Friday morning on social media.

“Residents are encouraged to shelter in place and not attempt travel,” the KCSO post says. “Those near creeks, streams and the Guadalupe River should immediately move to higher ground.”

First responders have done dozens of swift-water rescues and continue to do so at the flooding continues, county chief executive Rob Kelly told media.

Kerrville Police and Fire crews are evacuating residents as the flooding continues during what the National Weather Service has called a “very dangerous and life-threatening flood event,” WOAI reported.

The river is predicted to rise to nearly 32 feet in Kerrville and nearly 31 feet in Comfort and cause significant damage by 2 p.m., and more than 2,600 properties are without power.

Heavy rainfall and storms started on Thursday and continued through the overnight hours and well into Friday morning.

Local rainfall is expected to mostly end during the afternoon hours in Kerr County, which is located about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio and 125 miles west of Austin.

June 12 (UPI) — A federal judge on Thursday might rule on whether or not the Trump administration lawfully deployed National Guard and Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles.

U.S. District Court for Northern California Judge Charles Breyer is hearing arguments for and against the federal government deploying troops to quell violence amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Los Angeles.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday sought the federal court’s intervention to stop the deployments and remove the troops from Los Angeles.

Breyer denied Newsom’s motion for a temporary restraining order and scheduled Thursday’s hearing regarding the governor’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the troop deployments.

More than 4,000 National Guardsmen and about 700 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles to prevent violence while protecting federal buildings and ICE agents as they enforce unpopular and controversial federal immigration laws.

Newsom did not call up the National Guard and said the Trump administration did not ask him to do so.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday announced an ongoing curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. PDT in a downtown area that is bordered by interstates 5, 10 and 110.

The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday arrested 71 people for failure to disperse, seven for violating the curfew, two for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon and one for resisting arrest.

Also on Thursday, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was removed from a late-morning news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Padilla interrupted the news conference and demanded that Noem answer questions, but event security removed him.

Noem said Padilla’s interruption was “inappropriate” and said she would speak with him after concluding the news conference.

Meanwhile, protests continue with several scheduled in California and 28 in total in locales across the nation, NBC News reported.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday announced he called up 5,000 National Guardsmen and deployed 2,000 Texas Public Safety troopers to maintain peace and arrest those engaged in criminal acts as anti-ICE protests are expected to continue at least through the weekend.

“Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law,” Abbott said in a news release.

“Don’t mess with Texas — and don’t mess with Texas law enforcement,” he added.