Politics

(WASHINGTON) — For the second time since May, Texas House Democrats will break quorum in protest against state Republicans’ push to revise the election and voting laws in the Lone Star State.

The much-speculated move was officially announced by Democrats Monday afternoon, a day before the Texas House was slated to be back in session to continue working through the items set by Gov. Greg Abbott for the ongoing, 30-day special session agenda.

“Today, Texas House Democrats stand united in our decision to break quorum and refuse to let the Republican-led legislature force through dangerous legislation that would trample on Texans’ freedom to vote,” a joint statement from several high-profile Texas House Democrats read.

The group of lawmakers — including Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner, Mexican American Legislative Caucus Chair Rafael Anchía, Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chair Nicole Collier, Legislative Study Group Caucus Chair Garnet Coleman and Dean Senfronia Thompson — also announced plans to head to Washington as they break quorum.

“We are now taking the fight to our nation’s Capitol. We are living on borrowed time in Texas. We need Congress to act now to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect Texans — and all Americans — from the Trump Republicans’ nationwide war on democracy,” the group said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris, praised the Democrats’ efforts to break quorum and head to Washington to push Congress to pass election reform.

“I applaud the effort of the Texas legislators who are standing in the way of a blatant attempt to suppress the vote,” she said.

After spending the day in Michigan, the vice president told reporters that her conversations were meant to “remind voters — to remind people that their voice is important and that they are at risk of having legislative bodies impede the right to vote, if we don’t stand up and understand what’s happening, see it for what it is and obviously, be more engaged.”

The move is being met with strong opposition from across the aisle, and it remains unclear what the state’s executive branch will do next. In a statement following the Democrats’ announcement, the Republican governor blasted the legislators, accusing them of engaging in “partisan political games.”

“Texas Democrats’ decision to break a quorum of the Texas Legislature and abandon the Texas State Capitol inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve. As they fly across the country on cushy private planes, they leave undone issues that can help their districts and our state,” Abbott said in a statement.

One of the issues that remains on the agenda is reinstating government funding, which Abbott vetoed in response to House Democrats last quorum break in May. The issue is already emerging as a focal point for House Republicans, with the Texas House Speaker chiding Democrats over the decision to break quorum.

“These actions put at risk state funding that will deny thousands of hard-working staff members and families a paycheck, health benefits and retirement investment so that legislators who broke quorum can flee to Washington, D.C. on private jets,” Phelan said in a statement.

According to House rules, at least two-thirds of the chamber’s 150 members must be present to conduct business. The rules also outline that if there are absent lawmakers “for whom no sufficient excuse is made,” a vote can be held just among the members in attendance for those absent lawmakers to “be sent for and arrested, wherever they may be found.”

For now, Democrats, like Texas Rep. Gene Wu, who represents southwest Houston and is among those heading to the nation’s capital, indicate the potential risk is worth it.

“This is the only tool that Republicans have left Democrats and we intend on it,” Wu said.

ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Deputy Political Director Averi Harper contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell and her legal team clashed repeatedly with a federal judge Monday during a hearing to determine if sanctions are warranted against her and other attorneys who filed a lawsuit in Michigan based on false claims of election fraud in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the City of Detroit have requested that Federal Judge Linda V. Parker sanction Powell, attorney Lin Wood, and other members of the legal team that were involved in the efforts to have Michigan’s presidential election returns decertified due to unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularities.

Monday’s nearly six-hour hearing, at which Powell appeared virtually, quickly spiraled into chaos as attorneys from both sides shouted accusations at each other about the merits of the lawsuit at hand, which sought to block certification of the election and was subsequently denied.

David Fink, a lawyer for the city of Detroit, called the lawsuit “an embarrassment to the legal profession.”

“It was sloppy, it was unreadable, it was mocked in the public … it never should have been filed,” Fink said. “These lawyers should be punished for their behavior.”

Powell, who served on then-President Donald Trump’s legal team before being removed for pushing outlandish conspiracy theories, vigorously defended the lawsuit and the diligence that went into producing it, saying she “would file these same complaints again.”

Her statements came three months after she filed a motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, arguing that “no reasonable person” should have believed her election theories were “truly statements of fact.”

The City of Detroit is also seeking to have the attorneys prohibited from practicing law in the district and wants the various attorneys’ local state bar associations to undertake their own investigation — a process that recently led to attorney Rudy Giuliani’s temporary ban from practicing law in New York.

The effort, if successful, would mark the first financial penalty against those who sought to challenge the 2020 election in court based on false claims of election fraud or other election misconduct. In all, Trump and his supporters filed over 50 lawsuits across the country.

Judge Parker poured over one of those suits during the hearing, peppering Powell and her team with dozens of questions in an effort to determine if sanctions are warranted. The judge expressed skepticism about the legal basis for Powell’s suit, the various claims of fraud, and the evidence submitted to support them.

“The court is concerned these affidavits were submitted in bad faith,” Parker said of the suit, which was filed in in November and was dismissed by a judge after it was found to be riddled with factual errors and inaccuracies.

A number of the affidavits submitted to support allegations of fraud were debunked by local election officials, and questions were raised about credentials of a number of the expert witnesses used in the suit. The lawsuit’s anonymous military intelligence expert, for example, was reportedly a Dallas-based IT consultant who never even worked in military intelligence, according to a Washington Post report.

“How can any of you as officers of the court present this type of affidavit?” Parker asked at one point about a separate affidavit. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an affidavit with more leaps. This is pure speculation.”

“We did a ton of due diligence,” said Howard Kleinhendler, a lawyer on the Powell team. “We did not submit falsehoods,” said Julia Haller, another attorney on the team.

Several attorneys, however, attempted to distance themselves from the suit. Wood, a staunch supporter of the president who filed multiple suits in the wake of the 2020 election, said he had “nothing to do” with the suit at issue in the hearing.

“My name was placed on there, but I had no involvement whatsoever,” he told the judge, claiming that he had offered general assistance to Powell but was not involved in this suit.

Another attorney said the team had spent no more than five hours total on the suit.

Parker did not issue a decision, or give an expected timeline for one.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — As part of his effort to get out in front of a politically sensitive issue, President Joe Biden on Monday convened a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland, law enforcement leaders and elected officials to discuss rising crime rates across the country.

Glancing at Garland at the top of the meeting, Biden opened his remarks by acknowledging that he’s been trying to solve this problem for many years.

“We’ve been at this a long time, a long time. Seems like most of my career I’ve been dealing with this issue. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, we know there are some things that work. And the first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes,” Biden said.

“It includes cracking down on holding rogue gun dealers accountable for violating the federal law. It includes the Justice Department creating five new strike forces to crack down on illegal gun trafficking,” Biden said, without directly acknowledging more meaningful gun control is impossible without getting Senate Republicans to go along.

While Biden said he’d be asking the experts he assembled what else they believe should be done on the federal level to address rising crime rates, he did not directly address Congress or put any pressure on lawmakers to act on a national level.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed the meeting at an earlier press briefing and said the group will discuss Biden’s “comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence and violent crime.”

Biden’s plan, unveiled last month, targets law-breaking gun dealers, provides federal resources to police departments for gun-crime enforcement and allows communities to repurpose millions of dollars of federal coronavirus relief funding for programs proven to prevent gun violence.

“During the meeting, the president will discuss his crime reduction strategy — strategy which gives cities and states historic funding through the American Rescue Plan, and a range of tools they can use to improve public safety in their communities including support for community violence intervention programs, summer employment opportunities and other proven methods to reduce crime,” Psaki said.

“I’ll underscore his commitment to ensuring their state and law and local law enforcement have the resources and support they need to hire more police officers and invest in effective and accountable community policing,” Psaki said.

Notably, Biden has not taken the same stance as some progressives who’ve called to “defund the police,” a position that gained traction last year during what many deemed to be a racial reckoning in the country.

Still, Republicans have attacked Biden for being “soft on crime.”

Psaki said Biden is stressing partnerships with local leaders on the effort. Attendees at the White House included Washington Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who just won New York’s City Democratic mayoral primary. Unlike other progressive candidates, Adams did not run on a “defund the police” agenda but instead cited “public safety” as his top priority for the city and Democrats in general.

“This president is making it clear,” Adams said following the meeting, “he’s going to redefine the ecosystem of public safety, and that includes identifying the role of police, schools, families, resources, employment.”

“Why did it take so long before we heard the gunshots that families were listening and hearing every night? Other communities are waking up the alarm clock, communities of Black, brown and poor people are waking up to gunshots and this president says this is not the America we’re going to live in,” he continued.

Police chiefs, including David Brown, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, along with a community-based violence intervention expert, also attended the White House meeting.

Psaki said the group would talk about what the federal government is doing to stem the flow of guns used in crimes, “including the administration’s zero-tolerance policy for dealers who willfully sell guns illegally, the Department of Justice’s gun trafficking strike forces, as well as previous steps the White House has announced like cracking down on ghost guns, which are increasingly used in violent crimes.”

Biden’s session comes as the country faces a rise in violent crime, particularly in those involving firearms.

According to a study released earlier this year by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, homicides spiked by 30% in 2020 compared to the year before.

And in the first three months of 2021, the number of homicides increased by 24% compared to the same period in 2020 and by 49% compared to the start of 2019, the researchers said.

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The top U.S. military general leading the withdrawal in Afghanistan stepped down during a ceremony in Kabul Monday, a sign that America’s longest war is nearing its end.

Gen. Austin Scott Miller has commanded U.S. Forces−Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission since the summer of 2018. At Monday’s ceremony, Miller handed his responsibilities off to Gen. Frank McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

“I need to let you know that command of this coalition has been the highlight of my military career,” Miller told a small audience at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul.

“The countries that have served here, many have lost service members, civilians; our Afghan partners have lost service members, they’ve lost civilians,” Miller said. “And as we’ve spoken about it previously, on this very ground with this group over time, our job is now just not to forget.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanked Miller for his leadership in Afghanistan in a Monday afternoon tweet.

“I want to thank Gen. Miller for three years of exceptional leadership in Afghanistan. That we have been able to secure our interests in Afghanistan, as well as those of our allies and Afghan partners, stands as testament to his operational acumen and strategic vision,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s also worth noting that we have conducted our retrograde safely and orderly, and the transfer in command from Gen. Miller to Gen. McKenzie does not signify the end of our drawdown process, only the next milestone. We remain on track to meet @POTUS’ end of August goal.”

A Pentagon spokesperson said Miller left Afghanistan following the ceremony and was traveling back to the United States.

As the U.S. military finishes its withdrawal from the country, an emboldened Taliban has ramped up attacks and gained ground.

“I’m one of the U.S. military officers who’s had the opportunity to speak with the Taliban,” Miller told the audience in Kabul. “I said, it’s important that the military sides set the conditions for a peaceful and political settlement in Afghanistan, we can all see the violence that’s taking place across the country, but we know that with that violence, that what is very difficult to achieve is a political settlement. So again, what I tell the Taliban is they’re responsible too.”

McKenzie, who traveled to Kabul to attend the handover ceremony, said that while Miller’s departure is a milestone in the U.S. withdrawal, it also signifies “our renewed commitment to our Afghan partners.”

“The most important thing that continues is our support to the people of Afghanistan and to its armed forces,” McKenzie told the audience, which included Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, chief of Afghanistan’s National Council for Reconciliation, and other Afghan officials.

“We are confident in you. We are confident you have what it takes to protect your country,” McKenzie said. “Our support will be different than what it was in the past, but we know how much you love your country, and we know the sacrifices that you have made in the past and that you’re going to be willing to make in the future to do that. You can count on our support in the dangerous and difficult days ahead. We will be with you.”

McKenzie will maintain the ability to launch counter-terrorism operations from bases and ships outside of Afghanistan as needed, but a major post-war concern is maintaining the U.S. diplomatic mission

To that end, a detachment of about 650 U.S. troops will remain in the country indefinitely to protect the U.S. embassy as well as the airport in Kabul, which is critical to keep the mission running.

The embassy announced Sunday that it had resumed in-person interviews for immigrant visas, including those Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan translators, guides and other contractors who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic missions.

Interviews are a key part of the visa application process, but they had been halted for a month because of a significant COVID-19 outbreak throughout Afghanistan, including the U.S. embassy there.

There are approximately 18,000 Afghans seeking SIVs: 9,000 who haven’t finished their application and 9,000 who are waiting for the U.S. government to move their case forward, according to a State Department spokesperson.

This resumption does not yet extend to everyone. For now, the embassy is only rescheduling applicants who had their interviews postponed and appointment capacity remains limited, the embassy said Sunday.

In the meantime, the U.S. will relocate a group of SIV applicants and their families out of the country to safe locations to await their cases being processed, President Joe Biden confirmed last week. While he said those relocations will begin before the end of this month, it’s still unclear how many applicants that will involve, where they will go and when.

Despite pressure from lawmakers and activists, the Biden administration has emphasized SIVs as the way to help Afghans whose lives are at risk, instead of evacuations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assigned 50 more staffers in Washington to help process paperwork and work through the enormous backlog.

But even with all that, critics said time is running out for the Afghans who risked theirs and their families’ safety by working for the U.S., as American forces draw down and the Taliban gain control of more districts.

ABC News’ Aleem Agha contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Monday released a statement in solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who protested over the weekend about shortages and rising prices for food and medicine amid the coronavirus pandemic in what’s being called an unprecedented rejection of the island nation’s government.

Cuba’s communist leadership has already denounced the protests as a “systemic provocation” by Cuban dissidents and the U.S. government, encouraged its supporters to counter protests, and sent its armed forces into the streets, risking clashes with demonstrators.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement Monday.

“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he said.

Sunday’s protests, in several cities across the island, are some of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Cuba’s recent history, and Biden had been called on to show support for the protests.

While he helped the Obama administration’s efforts to ease tensions with Cuba and reopen trade and travel, Biden has kept most of former President Donald Trump’s sanctions and restrictions in place on America’s close neighbor and longtime adversary.

The administration says it is still reviewing its Cuba policy, earning the ire of progressives in the Democratic Party, but with these nearly unprecedented demonstrations, it may have to move more quickly than it hoped.

So far, the administration has voiced support for the Cuban people’s right to peacefully assemble and condemned any violence. Prior to Biden’s statement, acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Julie Chung and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan weighed in with that sentiment.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged public grievances over blackouts and food and medicine shortages during a televised address Monday, but he blamed the island nation’s problems on the long-standing U.S. embargo and accused American “imperialists” of stoking tensions on social media.

“Yesterday, Cuba lived the most heroic day. Thousands of patriotic people defend the Revolution,” he said on state television, referring to pro-government demonstrations in Havana later on Sunday.

“We do not want to hurt our beloved people,” added Díaz-Canel, who assumed the presidency in 2019 and became the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party this April, officially taking over for Raúl Castro.

Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla had even sharper words Monday, firing back at Sullivan and Chung’s statements of support for protests by saying the White House has “no political or moral authority to speak about Cuba.”

“His government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to promote subversion in our country & implements a genocidal blockade, which is the main cause of economic scarcities,” he tweeted, referring directly to Sullivan’s statement.

Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in decades, with its economy contracting by double-digits last year. But along with the economic crisis, the country is dealing with another deadly surge of COVID-19.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Monday released a statement in solidarity with the thousands of Cubans who protested over the weekend about shortages and rising prices for food and medicine amid the coronavirus pandemic in what’s being called an unprecedented rejection of the nation’s government.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement.

“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” he said.

Sunday’s protest was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Cuba in recent history and Biden has been called on to show support for the protests.

One of the first responses from the U.S. government came overnight from Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who tweeted out support for the Cuban people’s right for peaceful assembly but condemned any violence — a sentiment echoed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla threw cold water on the U.S. statements on Monday, saying the White House has “no political or moral authority to speak about Cuba.”

“His government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to promote subversion in our country & implements a genocidal blockade, which is the main cause of economic scarcities,” he tweeted, referring directly to Sullivan’s statement.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a televised address earlier Monday, acknowledged public grievances relating to blackouts, food and medicine shortages, but defended the regime’s leadership and, instead, blamed many of the island’s problems on the U.S. embargo.

Díaz-Canel also accused the “imperialists” — a term commonly used to refer to the U.S. — of interfering by stoking tensions on social media, allegedly urging the public to go out onto the streets.

Along with experiencing an economic crisis, the country is dealing with another deadly surge of COVID-19.

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(New York) — Eric Adams, the moderate Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, said Sunday that members of his party should see from his victory that “we can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic.”

“Cities are hurting all across America and New York personifies that pain — the inequalities, the gun violence, the lack of really looking after everyday blue-collar workers, I like to say,” Adams told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “And we have failed for so many years. And we’ve allowed the fallout of the Trump administration to have an overreach in philosophy and not on-the-ground, real issues that are facing everyday New Yorkers.”

“So is it — is it fair to call you an anti-woke Democrat?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No, I — I’ve — some of us never went to sleep. That’s the problem,” Adams responded.

“A 35-year record of fighting for reform, for public safety, a person who was arrested by police, assaulted by police, but also lost a child of a friend to gang — to gang violence. And so I never went to sleep,” he continued. “And people who have finally realized that there are issues out here believe that they can carve the entire Democratic agenda.”

Adams won the city’s Democratic primary for mayor by a narrow margin. He will face Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, in the general election, but Adams is widely considered the favorite to replace outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio.

As a former police captain, combating the rise in violent crime while balancing racial justice has been a focal point of Adams’ campaign.

“You didn’t back away from stop and frisk — took some heat for that during the campaign. How do you balance preventing crime and police reform?” Stephanopoulos asked Adams.

“It’s possible they go together, you can have public safety and reform, I know it,” Adams replied.

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(WASHINGTON) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that he and his administration are “working hard” to overcome vaccine hesitancy as cases of the delta variant surge across his state.

“We’re working very hard to go to that population (ages 30-54) … and overcoming the hesitancy,” he told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“We want all the help,” he added. “We want to have our churches involved, we want to have our communities, organizations.”

Missouri and neighboring Arkansas lead the nation with the highest weekly case rates per capita, which translates into more than 100 per 100,000 residents. New COVID-19 hospital admissions also rose 30% over the same two-week span, and front-line workers have said patients are becoming sicker more quickly.

Top health officials have been warning for weeks that unvaccinated people have a high risk of contracting the delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India and has since spread to more than 100 countries, including all 50 U.S. states. The variant is now dominant in the U.S. and is more transmissible than the original form of the virus, according to the CDC.

As of Sunday, 48.2% of American adults have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

ABC News’ Lauren King contributed to this report.

This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Sebastian Francisco Perez, a 38-year-old undocumented farmworker from Guatemala, was working at a tree farm in Oregon on June 26 when he died during the record-breaking heat wave that swept across the region.

“He had dreams of starting a family with his wife, Maria, who is in Guatemala right now. … He was only here for two months without papers, trying to save up money to start fertility treatments,” said Reyna Lopez, the executive director of PCUN, a farmworker union based in Oregon.

As temperatures reached 115 degrees in the Pacific Northwest in late June, a spotlight has again shined on the brutal and, at times, life-threatening conditions some farmworkers in America face.

Perez’s death has added urgency to a push for undocumented farmworkers to gain legal immigration status, which advocates say is needed for them to fight for basic worker protections.

Agricultural workers were 35 times more likely to die of heat-related illnesses compared to workers of other industries from 2000 to 2010, according to research published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Oftentimes, farmworkers who do not have proper documentation suppress concerns about hazardous working conditions, including extreme heat, due to fears of deportation or job loss, said Roxana Chicas, an assistant professor at Emory University School of Nursing, who spoke with reporters on a call last week to highlight the concerning conditions faced by farmworkers.

Leticia, an undocumented farmworker in Washington and a mother of four whose last name was not disclosed for security reasons, told reporters on the call Thursday that even in 115 degrees, she was not not given shade or access to water.

“I fear not making it home to my husband and children,” she said.

On Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown directed Oregon Occupational Safety and Health to create emergency rules requiring employers to provide shade, breaks and cool water for workers during high temperatures. And in Washington, a new law passed in May allowed state farmworkers to receive overtime pay and make complaints against their employers without retaliation.

However, there are no federal emergency heat standards protecting farmworkers from extreme weather conditions.

“We need our federal government to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Lopez said of protecting workers while also giving them a path to legal status. “We need strong standards to protect the workers that feed America.”

According to a report published by political organization FWD.us, about 73% of agricultural workers are immigrants and about half of them are undocumented.

Farmworker advocates in the last few weeks have doubled down on their push for Congress to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021, which would give farmworkers a path to earn legal status if they continue to work in agriculture. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act states that most immigrant farmworkers hold an H-2A visa, which is temporary and dependent on an employer’s sponsorship.

The bill has passed the House with bipartisan support and is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee pending a hearing.

If passed and signed by the president, the law would provide stability and bargaining power to immigrant farmworkers who are vulnerable to abuse, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who authored the bill.

“It’s not everything that everyone wanted, but it’s something we could all support,” she added, referring to nearly universal support from Democrats as well as from some Republicans, including Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

Even with some support from the other side of the aisle, Democrats are considering trying to include some immigration provisions in an expected budget reconciliation bill later this year. That route could allow them to try to pass such policies without needing any GOP votes.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would grant those who performed agricultural labor for at least 180 days within two years certified agricultural worker status. One way a farmworker can then apply for a green card is to prove they have worked a total of 10 years in agriculture, including four years in certified agricultural worker status.

“When you’re undocumented, it really limits your ability to speak up and I want everyone to know the truth to what happens and that’s we’re too afraid to speak up in the workplace,” said Leticia. “Giving farmworkers a path to citizenship will give them the ability to speak up about injustices they face.”

The act would require farms to maintain a heat-illness prevention plan that includes worker training, access to water, shade, regular breaks and protocols for emergency response.

President Joe Biden has supported the legislation and mentioned it on Friday during a naturalization ceremony for new citizens, saying he thought there needed to be “a pathway [toward citizenship] for farmworkers who are here putting food on our tables but are not citizens.”

ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Texas legislature began an overtime special session this week to address a slate of priority issues outlined by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, including a renewed effort to address “election integrity.” On Saturday, both chambers will hold overlapping hearings with testimony regarding new bills from the House and Senate that seek to overhaul the state’s voting and election practices.

Previously, legislation addressing the Republican-backed issue failed to meet a critical deadline in May when House Democrats staged a walkout to break quorum and prevented a final vote on the sweeping election bill, Senate Bill 7. Going into the 30-day special session, Democrats did not rule out the possibility of another walkout to block new restrictions on voting.

During a press conference Thursday, Texas state Rep. Armando Walle said “every option is on the table” for Democrats to mobilize against the GOP-backed special session agenda, which includes a host of items that echo emerging national culture wars. Walle added that his fellow party members are “going to use every parliamentary means to stop these bills,” but did not follow up with examples of any potential actions.

Democrats are also decrying the Republican policy push of “election integrity” as a political maneuver that creates a solution when they say there is no existing problem.

Seventeen states had enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to the vote, as of June 21, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

During an interview with conservative radio host Rick Roberts following the beginning of the special session on Thursday, Abbott defended the agenda item as a crucial part of a functioning government.

“Without having integrity in our elections, none of the other stuff in the democratic process really matters,” Abbott said.

The language included in each of the new bills — House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1 — is likely to change as the proposals advance through the legislative process, but the objectives laid out in both pieces of legislation largely echo the contentious restrictions first introduced in S.B. 7.

“H.B. 3 is just like S.B. 7 — it’s based on a lie. It’s based on a lie that there’s rampant fraud in our elections, and on the ‘big lie’ that Donald Trump actually won the last election. All across the country, you see Republicans clamoring to pass these anti-voter bills, so they can curry favor with Donald Trump and his supporters,” state Rep. Chris Turner, who also chairs the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said Thursday.

Like their predecessors, both H.B. 3 and S.B. 1 include several elements that voting rights activists oppose. Among them are provisions that appear to be aimed at practices utilized by Democrat-leaning Harris County during the 2020 election. Both bills ban 24-hour voting availability, which offered greater ballot access to Houston-area shift workers when implemented in the fall. Each of the proposals also aims to end drive-thru voting, another popular voting method in the diverse county.

According to S.B. 1, “a polling place may not be located in a tent or similar temporary moveable structure or in a facility primarily designed for motor vehicles.” Meanwhile, H.B. 3 states that polling places “shall be located inside a building. No voter may cast a vote from inside a motor vehicle,” unless the voter has physical disabilities that warrant special accommodations.

Another contentious carryover element from S.B. 7 included in the new legislative proposals is granting expanded access to partisan poll watchers. Voting rights advocates previously blasted the concept and said the provisions could allow poll watchers to intimidate voters, especially those who are people of color.

Although the current language in S.B. 1 and H.B. 3 continues to grant poll watchers the ability to move freely around polling places, there appears to be an attempt by the bills’ authors to provide some oversight to their behavior.

“Before accepting a watcher, the officer presented with a watcher’s certificate of appointment shall require the watcher to take the following oath, administered by the officer: ‘I swear (or affirm) that I will not disrupt the voting process or harass voters in the discharge of my duties,'” S.B. 1 says.

The bill goes on to outline a provision that allows watchers to file complaints if they believe they were “unlawfully prevented or obstructed from the performance of the watcher’s duties.”

Meanwhile, H.B. 3 includes language Democrats backed in May that allows election officials to “call a law enforcement officer to request that a poll watcher be removed if the poll watcher commits a breach of the peace or a violation of law.”

Notably, neither version of the new bills include restrictions on Sunday voting hours, which voting activists previously saw as an attack on “Souls to the Polls” events in Black communities. The bills also do not include language from S.B. 7 that lowered the threshold of proof required to challenge and potentially overturn election results.

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