Several new facilities have already opened this summer, and the federal government has requested up to 15,500 beds at two Texas military bases.
Chris Essig
Chris Essig is the data visuals editor at The Texas Tribune. Based in Austin, he leads a team of developers who build charts, maintain public databases and analyze data to help reporters hold elected officials accountable. Chris has been a newsroom developer for 10 years and has worked in several local newsrooms. As a native of the Midwest, Chris received his journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University and spent six years in Iowa working at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids and at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in Waterloo.
Posted in
Families Divided
What happens when immigrant families cross the border outside a port of entry
How exactly are families being separated at the border? Here’s where parents and children go after they’re apprehended.
Posted inCourts, Demographics, Politics, State Government
Puzzling shapes: Travel across this gerrymandered Texas district
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a Texas redistricting case that has flagged two congressional districts and nine Texas House districts. Here’s a closer look at one of the districts in question: U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s curiously shaped 35th Congressional District.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
How a fluke win diminished the political clout of Hispanic voters in this Texas congressional district
Two congressional districts are part of a Texas redistricting case the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Tuesday. Here’s a detailed look at what’s at issue in one of them: the 27th Congressional District.
Posted in
Lock the Vote
How a fluke win diminished the political clout of Hispanic voters in this Texas congressional district
Last year, federal judges ruled that when Texas lawmakers redrew the 27th Congressional District in 2011, they did so in a way that diminished the political clout of Hispanic voters. As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in a redistricting case that includes CD-27, take a closer look at what’s at issue in the district.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Ahead of 2020 census, Texans are becoming even harder to count
Local officials, demographers and advocates are worried the census could be particularly tough to carry out in Texas in 2020. They are bracing for challenges both practical and political that could make the state, which is already hard to count, even tougher to enumerate.
Posted inPolitics
Here’s who’s running for Texas House Speaker and who may soon join the race
The Texas House is in the midst of a months-long scramble for control. Here’s an updated look at who is running to lead the chamber after Speaker Joe Straus steps down in January as well as who may soon throw their hats in the ring.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2019
Here’s a look at who’s interested in replacing Straus as House speaker
Despite all the focus on November, many in Texas politics are keeping a close eye on January. That’s when the 150-member Texas House will pick its new House speaker.
Posted in
Dangerous Deliveries
Dangerous deliveries: Are Texas lawmakers doing enough to reduce maternal deaths?
After a months-long investigation, the Tribune found that the state’s data on maternal mortality is a moving target, that the number of women dying during or after pregnancy is still rising and that the state has missed opportunities to improve women’s health programs.
Posted inCongress, Demographics
Puzzling shapes: Travel across one gerrymandered Texas congressional district
Revisit our animated tour of Texas Congressional District 35, which wiggles its way from Austin to San Antonio, swallowing specific neighborhoods while avoiding — or splitting — others, all in the name of partisan political advantage.