Pregnant migrant girls are being
sent to a South Texas shelter where
both the region and the facility
lack the necessary care.
The decision from the Trump
administration was made against
objections from officials inside
the administration.
That story is a collaborative effort
between the Texas newsroom and the
California newsroom, and we're gonna
have more from their reporting
coming up on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, a new housing project in East
Austin is combining affordable rent
with support from musicians as
they try to do their part to allow
artists to afford to live in the
city, what they've got going on, and
how this could lay out a path for
future projects.
And new class times for students and
staff in the Georgetown School
District. The bell is about to
ring. Do not be late, because
Austin Signal is coming up next.
Howdy out there.
Thank you for tuning in.
This is Austin Signal,
and we are coming to you from
listener-powered public radio,
KUT News.
I'm your host, Jerry Keconnell.
It is Wednesday, February 11th.
We're glad to be part of your
day.
Our top story, the Trump
administration is sending pregnant
migrant girls to a shelter in
deep south Texas.
The shelter is flagged as
medically inadequate.
And advocates for the children
inside are worried that they're
being concentrated here in Texas
because of the state's abortion ban.
This story is a collaboration
between the Texas newsroom and the
California newsroom.
Mo's Bouchelle has been covering
immigration for the Texas Newsroom.
He reported on this story and he's
with us today on Austin Signal.
Welcome, Mo's.
Always a pleasure, Jerry.
So this is a collaborative story
between the Texas New Room and the
California news room.
Tell us a little bit about how this
story came together.
How did you hear about this?
Yeah, so I was working with a
reporter for the California
Newsroom, a guy named Mark
Bettencourt, who's actually based
in D.C., who started
hearing from people within
the Trump administration,
within the Office of Refugee
Resettlement, that there was
concern there over
this new policy of concentrating
pregnant unaccompanied minors
at one particular
shelter in South Texas.
Now, obviously, we are in Texas here
in Austin.
Uh... The uh... Did the policy shift
is coming out of dc and
so it seemed to make sense to kind
of work together to try to try to
get to the bottom was happening here
and you actually made a visit down
to south texas yeah i went i went
down to the real grand valley uh...
Uh... Talk to a bunch of folks down
there and visited uh...
San benito texAS where this
particular shelters located
This shelter is at the heart of your
story. Can you tell us about the
policy that's sending pregnant
minors to this shelter?
Absolutely so uh...
What started last summer was a
directive went out in the office of
refugee resettlement is the agency
responsible for the care of
uh... Uh... Kids uh...
In you know immigrant kids in the in
its in its custody uh...
The policy went out to concentrate
all pregnant minors
in this one particular place
uh... It's uh...
Shelter run by uh...
For-profit company called urban
strategies in San Benito, Texas.
And this is a policy that
breaks with long-standing practice
at the Office of Refugee
Resettlement. What was that old
policy? So traditionally,
the idea has been if you have a
pregnant girl in US custody,
she will be sent to whatever place
might best accommodate
her, a part of the country
and a center that has
the capacity to deal with
potentially high-risk pregnancies,
which if you are a minor and
you're pregnant, then you are by
definition high risk.
In this case, the directive
went out to say, no, actually we
want all of the detainees
who fit this description, all
pregnant girls sent to this one
particular place.
That was a break from long standing
practice.
And why San Benito, I mean it's
this tiny town in the border,
in the valley of Texas,
why San benito of all places?
So a lot of the people that
we've heard from within ORR
and people outside, I should
say as well, state with
great confidence that this has to do
with access to abortion.
In the first Trump term, there was
an ongoing effort to deprive
detained girls access to abortions
while they were in U.S.
Custody.
And in this case, they believe
that by sending these girls
to Texas, which has some of the
strictest abortion restrictions
in the country of almost complete
ban, you will eventually
kind of deprive
them of access to abortion by
having them here.
Now, this will require other changes
in rules at the federal level, but
they see this as a step in that
direction.
Did these immigrant children who are
in custody of federal officials, did
they have any kind of protections
prior to this policy
change?
Yeah, I mentioned in the first Trump
term, there was an effort to stop
them from getting abortions
and that was litigated
in 2017.
There was a lawsuit that led to
it's kind of a long story, but
essentially led to a what
you might call an agreement that
then was translated into policy
under the Biden administration.
The policy was no,
if there is a minor in custody
that wants wants an
abortion, she she has the
right to that access no matter where
she's kept in the country.
Currently, it appears the Trump
administration is changing those
rules. Once those rules are changed,
and you are detained
in Texas, many
people fear that will restrict
or end their access
to abortion.
The article is over at KUT.org.
It has a couple of photos of the
shelter.
One thing I wanted to ask Moe is
that as you've been covering
immigration for the Texas newsroom
for the last few months, you have
been working or trying to get
information from federal officials
more often. I feel like that is
something that's happening across
our newsroom.
How difficult was it to build
sources to be able to report out a
story like this?
Uh... We had a lot of trouble
talking to people you know multiple
emails and gotten went on answered
uh... Eventually we did get some
uh... Kind of boilerplate uh...
Answers uh... In email from from
federal agencies.
I went down in person to
this shelter just to kind
of knock on the door after getting
no reply to our emails for a
long time.
And that also, maybe not
surprisingly, didn't yield great
results.
But we do have all the replies we
got in our story online,
what we did receive from them.
We quote them in their responses and
we quote our named sources
within the government who often
who in many cases might
contradict what the official
responses might be is
there anything else that I haven't
asked you about that you I mean I
know it's hard to just jump into a
really well yeah I mean the only
Oh, yeah, I mean, the only the only so
so another part of this is just the
fact that there's a lot of concern
we have heard within our and then
also experts we talked to outside
of the agency, that this
is not in the best interest of
these kids in many cases,
you know, if you had your choice of
anywhere in the country to send
pregnant minors, who
are again, medically vulnerable by
definition, why choose
a part of the country that Struggles
with some- Some healthcare access
issues already right you know you
could send them to a city in texas
that has better access to
specialized care or you can send
them. To any other part of the
country that has a better access two
specialized care so you
know the the deep concern on
the part of many people is that
whatever is happening is on its
face.
Bad for these kids that is not in
their best interest when it comes to
health and safety.
We've been speaking with Moe's
Bouchelle. He has been covering
immigration for the Texas newsroom.
His latest story was co-reported
with Mark Betancourt of the
California newsroom, you can read
their story at kut.org and
we're gonna have a link in our show
notes for today.
Moe, thanks for talking with us.
Thank you, Jerry.
As school districts across the state
continue working to find creative
ways to save some money, one
district north of Austin is
considering doing so by rearranging
its school day.
KUT's Kaylee Hunt reports a
new bell schedule for Georgetown ISD
is the district's attempt at cutting
down on transportation costs.
Georgetown ISD's newly adopted
Bell schedule includes earlier
start times for the district's
elementary and high schools.
Middle schools will also start
later.
The district superintendent, Devin
Patteville, says the idea is
to make enough of a gap between
start times so the same bus can
serve all three school levels.
So by spreading out with
about 45 to 50 minutes between
each level of schooling, we're able
to reduce bus routes, which saves
us close to a million dollars.
Right now, the district runs on a
schedule that has 60 minutes between
elementary and high school start
times.
High school and middle school start
time are only 20 minutes apart.
That means most bus routes are only
able to service two schools,
either an elementary and a high
school, or an elementary and a
middle school.
And that's expensive, says Clint
Pruitt, Georgetown ISD's Executive
Director of Support Services.
He recently spoke at
a meeting of the district's board of
trustees.
Each route equates to
between $70,000 to $80,000,
so you can see the potential savings
are considerable if we're
able to implement a balanced
three-tier system.
Superintendent Padaville says the
new bell schedule and the resulting
savings means the district will
be in a better position to offer
teacher and staff raises next year.
So we're carrying a balanced budget
into 2026, 27,
but that doesn't allow us to
increase teacher pay.
In order to increase teachers pay,
I have to lead the district in
essentially eliminating more
expenses or
going with the deficit budget.
There's no more new revenue.
Pataville also recently announced
a delay in opening two new
schools until 2027.
Elementary school number 12 and
middle school number 5 were supposed
to open this August.
But Patavilles says the district is
seeing slower than anticipated
enrollment growth.
Right now, the cost of opening the
schools outweighs the benefits.
When we look at student
enrollment, it's pretty
much tapering off in central Texas
because of the state of economy and
homeowner interest rates.
Everything's staying real stable.
David de Matthews is a professor
in the Department of Educational
Leadership and Policy at UT
Austin.
In his role, he helps train district
administrators like Pataville.
He says
In a lot of districts across the
state, people are looking everywhere
to tighten their belts
because there's just not enough
money.
DiMathias says saving a million
dollars might not seem like a big
deal when you consider the overall
budget of a school district like
Georgetown ISD.
Last year, its budget was just over
$260 million.
But he says every bit counts.
$1 million is equal to 10
or more teachers' salaries.
I'm Kaylee Hunt in Georgetown.
And this is Austin
Signal. We are listener-powered
public radio.
We're gonna take a break, but after
the break, we're gonna talk a little
Texas music history, a little Austin
music history.
And then we're going to talk about
an affordable housing, a project
that is being set up to keep
those musicians here in Austin,
hopefully for the foreseeable
future.
We've got more about those stories
coming up after this break.
This is Austin signal.
This is Austin Signal,
welcome back.
Well, many decades and many moons
ago, a set of historic
recordings were created right here
in Austin, caught on tape by
a 21-year-old kid.
Here's Jason Mellard from the Center
for Texas Music History at Texas
State University to tell us
a little bit about it.
In our listening to the five soul
souls of Houston, Texas, we are
singing in Austin, Texas on
February the 12th for the
Library of Congress in
Washington.
This week in Texas music history, a
Houston gospel group stirs things up
in Depression-era Austin.
On February 12th, 1936,
the Soul Stirrers made their first
recordings.
The influential gospel group didn't
do so with a record company.
Rather, it was 21-year-old
folklorist Alan Lomax, who first
captured their music for the Library
of Congress.
The Houston-based group was in
Austin for the weekend, and Lomx
took time off his studies at the
University of Texas to set up the
session. Lomax participated in
thousands of such sessions in his
career. And he described the four
songs of these initial soul stirrers
recordings as the most incredible
polyrhythmic music you've ever
heard.
Though Lomax was ostensibly
recording them as an example of folk
culture for posterity, he surely
recognized their popular potential.
When singer R.H.
Harris of Trinity, Texas joined the
group in 1937, their style
gelled, and their move to Chicago
positioned the soul stirrers to
influence the next generation of
gospel performance and even duop.
The commercial success grew in the
1940s, but it would be another
addition to the group that took them
to the next level.
You gave me water, you gave me w-
When singer Harris left the
Soul-Stirrers in 1950, a 20-year-old
Sam Cooke took his place.
Their biggest hit to date came the
following year, Jesus Gave Me Water,
and Sam Cook's smooth, lilting style
and harmony with the Soul Stirrers
set the standard for 50s gospel.
So much so that the larger
commercial gains and creative
freedom of secular music beckoned
CooKE. In a move controversial with
some of their gospel fans, CooKe
left the soul stirrers in 1957
and crossed over into pop and R&B.
The genius of you send me,
bring it on home to me.
And of course, a change is gonna
come on the horizon.
And all of it traces back to an
Austin weekend where a Houston
gospel group crossed paths with a UT
student and the Library of Congress.
You can hear music from the Lone
Star State 24-7 on the
Texas Music Experience at tmx.fm.
He gave that woman
water, gave a livin'
a lovin' lastin' water, and
was not in bread.
Well, on that woman he had
pity, she ran back
to the...
Rising rents are not just an issue
for one set of industry workers here
in the City of Austin, but for the
live music capital of the world,
getting musicians housed in Austin
remains an ongoing issue.
However, a small East Austin
nonprofit has stepped in to
help out.
For more about that, we are talking
with Chad Switecki.
He wrote the story for KUT's
Artbeat, and he's joining us now on
Austin Signal. Chad, thanks for
being with us.
Thank you.
So tell us a little bit more about
this non-
So Blacklands CDC is
an organization that's been active
in the Blacklands area of East
Austin for decades now.
And they're all about housing
preservation and creating affordable
housing for that community, that
area, which we all know is being
gentrified practically out of
existence. So they're doing as much
as they can to create new
housing opportunities for folks.
And what we're talking about here is
they've got a tiny project
that's gonna be called Arts Village
that is going to
eventually provide 10 Small
homes, not apartments, but
standalone small homes of
about 500 square feet
or less, specifically for musicians
and priced at an affordable rate
because as we all know,
there's not a lot of money in music
and living in this city
becomes more expensive by the
millisecond and so they are
trying to step in and just see what
can we create here that would maybe
provide a tiny solution
for some of these folks.
You talked with one musician who's
been a fixture around town, Thor
Harris, and he talked about the cost
of living here obviously, but the
cost losing what makes Austin
Austin, right?
The musicians, the people who have
been able to afford to live here and
work here. What else did he have to
say about this project?
Well, you touched on a great point,
because culture grows slowly and
disappears quickly, right?
Under bad circumstances.
And so his point is, you
know, no shade thrown at San
Francisco or New York, but it is
tough to exist there in those cities
as an artist, as a musician.
And for decades, both those cities
were known as
meccas for creativity and
music.
And Austin, much the same way.
And we're, you now, in the process
of losing that. I don't think we're
at risk. We are in the process.
Of losing that.
His message or statement
that he made to me was,
we don't want to become the next
Manhattan or the next San Francisco.
And so there's the
possibility that you can have a
great little curative community
that can be started by all these
folks living in close proximity.
As I understand it,
these homes are going to be kind of
oriented toward a common area so
you're going to have
you know, like jam sessions of sorts
possibly kind of out in the open.
That's a really great, cool
idea. The Blackland CDC is
actually gonna be creating a
tiny stage behind
their own building.
That's gonna be part of this
eventually.
That's separate effort, but
related.
And so, you know there's just on
top of the good vibe is just from
housing. You could also have just
a really cool interaction
of creatives and people who, you
now. Thankfully, they don't have to
worry about losing their
homes and having
to scrape together every nickel
possible. They can be a little more
freewheeling, I guess you might say,
and embrace their
creativity rather than having to
function like a
business person, like a creative
entrepreneur, which has its
benefits, but also some of these
people aren't wired that way, and we
should embrace that and allow
for them to live good
and decent lives.
You mentioned that this is
a tiny project what is happening
here at 10 homes is the
stated goal but this isn't meant to
be kind of a cure-all right it's
supposed to maybe lay out a plan for
a way that to
possibly move forward.
So one of the individuals I spoke
with in my story is
higher up at the nonprofit housing
opportunities for musicians and
entertainers and they said
that this is a good
potential pilot program
that you know just again it
is happening on its own but
it kind of happened very quickly and
is still happening.
They're still in the fundraising
phase but it's something that I
think everyone kind of sees
a lot of potential in and you know
not that it's going to be modeled
exactly but
what do they say uh
success has many fathers and and
failures and orphan and if this
thing is successful then we could
hopefully be seeing more of
them sprouting up in other parts of
the City.
Yeah, you mentioned a little bit
about, we're gonna have a link to
your story in our show notes for
today and at kut.org
slash signal. In the story, you can
see one of the homes already that
has been built, but you
mentioned there that they are still
at the fundraising process.
What stage is this?
Process in.
They've secured about a $200,000
grant from the St. David's
Foundation that I think is more just
geared toward architecture,
planning, design, and that sort of
thing. And then the estimated cost
is going to be about $2 million,
which for ten homes in Austin,
frankly, that's quite modest.
And when I was talking to Thor, he
was very much of the mind that
we want to get different builders in
there or different designers.
Maybe you can get the folks from
Icon Homes to 3D Printo Home, but he
wants them all be.
Kind of different, kind of a little
funky and have their own character,
just again, so it doesn't feel
prefabbed or anything like that.
And so currently in the fundraising
stage to get the
two million dollars that it's
estimated this thing could cost.
So it's a thing that when
you hear everyone
in Austin liking to
beat their chest about us being
live music capital and as much
money as we've got flying around in
the city all the time on the tech
side. You would certainly hope that
two million dollars wouldn't be that
difficult to scrape together.
We talked to somebody earlier on
Austin Signal this week about an
affordable housing complex in Travis
Heights in the Travis Heights
neighborhood. And we talked about
how sometimes the pushback
to those kinds of projects is the
neighborhood that it's going to be
placed in.
For this kinds of project, I wonder,
is there any community interest for
support?
These sorts of ventures?
You know, given that it's being led
by Blackland CDC and
they have such a good
track record in that community,
and again, you know, talk about
Thor, he's been a musician and a
member of that board for 40 years.
So I think there's enough equity and
enough trust built, I
mean, and, again, they're going to
orient these homes so that you're
not going to have people getting
blasted out by music in
the surrounding neighborhood.
So I think I think they're going to
be very Intentional
and thoughtful around this kind of
thing. So, I mean, you never know
until the rubber actually hits the
road But it seems like you got the
right people leading the charge
on this to
Get the buy-in and get the trust and
get Acceptance of doing
something a little bit different,
but that has some really good
intentions behind it
All right, we have been speaking
with Chad Switecki.
We're gonna have a link to his story
at kut.org slash
signal. And in today's podcast
show notes, Chad, thanks for
chatting with us.
My pleasure, thanks, Jerry.
And before we get out of here today,
you may wanna take advantage of this
early spring-like weather and spend
some time out at Barton Springs
Pool, because it's about to close
for about three weeks.
Austin Parks and Recreation says the
closure will start the week of
February 23rd, that's the week
after next, and continue until
March 13th.
The reason for the closure is
removal of old creek flow bypass
infrastructure that is at risk of
collapse and that would threaten the
habitat of the endangered Barton
Springs salamander and that
we don't want and that is
it for us here today on
Austin Signal.
We have more from today's show at
kut.org slash signal and
in today's podcast show notes.
Thank you to Rayna Sevilla
and Kristen Cabrera for making
today's show happen.
And thank you to you for spending
part of your day here with us.
We will be back tomorrow.
Talk to you then.