Victor Ortega 
Photo courtesy: Vicente Gonzalez
Update Nov. 24 (9:49 a.m.): Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice ordered an administrative pause to the ruling of the El Paso lower court, temporarily stopping the U.S. House map block.
ORIGINAL STORY:
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Federal judges in El Paso blocked the implementation of the redistricting U.S. House map for Texas this Tuesday, passed during the 2025 Texas legislature special session.
KVAQ-TV spoke with Vicente Gonzalez, District 34 Democratic Rep. and vocal opponent of the redrawn map since it was first proposed, and he shared his thoughts on this developing story.
“I’m glad the court ruled the way it did. That shows that justice still prevails in many institutions around the country,” Gonzalez said. “[The GOP] knew that next elections were going to be tough and that they were going to be underwater.” … “In anticipation of that, what they did was try to cheat and change the maps.”
According to the ruling, US Federal judges came to a majority decision and stated the people behind the bill “purposefully manipulated the districts’ racial numbers to make the map more palatable.”
Gonzalez added he authored H.R. 5879 to prevent redistricting from taking place more than once a decade, so that redraws “can’t be instigated by race. The way these maps have been.”
Alvaro Corral, a UTRGV assistant political science professor, said congressional maps are redrawn every 10 years.
Corral explained the Trump administration sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott asking for a mid-decade redraw of Texas’ congressional map, to which Abbott complied by calling for a special legislature session in the summer.
“[The Department of Justice] accused [Texas] of engaging in racial gerrymander, which is typically viewed by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional,” Corral said.
President Donald Trump labeled the situation on social media as a “fight for a great cause,” thanking republicans in their efforts for changing the map.
In a news release, Ken Paxton, attorney general, said he plans to appeal the court’s decision with the Supreme Court.
“The Big Beautiful Map was entirely legal and passed for partisan purposes to better represent the political affiliations of Texas,” the news release reads.
KVAQ-TV reached out to Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz but did not hear back from her team.
