Marco Julian Gonzalez, 21, a dual-degree, double-honors student at the University of Texas at Austin, speaks with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Capitol Hill about the Texas Dream during a McCombs School of Business program organized by The Washington Campus on May 14, 2026.
Marco Julian Gonzalez
Texas Dream Act
Regarding “Appeals court rejects effort to defend Texas law offering in-state tuition for undocumented students,” (July 10): Our president called our friends criminals. That’s why my Latino-founded fraternity and Latina-founded sister sorority were in federal court: to defend the promise Texas made them. Our University of Texas at Austin chapters signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief because the Texas Dream Act is worth a damn. Now, in a narrow 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has disrupted our friends’ dreams and futures.
Texas made that promise in 2001, before my Sigma Lambda Beta brothers, my Sigma Lambda Gamma sisters and I were born. If an undocumented student attended a Texas high school, sought legal status and earned admission to college, they could pay in-state tuition. It was a promise that merit matters. For many, the Texas Dream Act made college affordable.
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But in 2025, that promise was challenged when our president signed an executive order called “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens.” It treated our friends as though they were criminals and led the Department of Justice to challenge the state law behind that promise. Texans sought to intervene to defend the Texas Dream Act and the 57,000 students who relied on it. In 2026, the Fifth Circuit rejected their appeal, 2-1.
That didn’t change who they are. We’re students, and these are our friends. If our president met them, heard their stories and knew their love for America, I believe he’d love them as we do. Texas made a promise. That promise is still worth a damn.
Julian Gonzalez, Dickinson
Walkout
Regarding “Hundreds of protesters demand officials investigate fatal ICE shooting,” (July 8): Last week, I saw Texas State Rep. Gene Wu, my representative, at a press conference about the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
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He’s fast to run to the cameras, but I remember when he ran away from work when debates got heated. As chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, Wu led his colleagues in a walkout last summer. They abandoned the Capitol to break quorum and derail a special session on congressional redistricting. This was a dereliction of duty, denying constituents their representation and delaying important legislative business.
True Texans confront challenges, engage in open debate and respect the will of the people through fair elections and our legislative process. Wu and his fellow quorum-breakers instead chose to leave Texas, turning their backs on the hardworking families of southwest Houston and the rest of Texas. This choreographed walkout sent a clear message to Texans that our voices and needs rank below Wu’s partisan obstruction, promoting a national party profile and political self-interest.
Wu’s melodramatic“leadership” was a coordinated effort that prematurely ended the session, triggered arrest warrants, attempted extraditions and Supreme Court petitions. Even upon the return of Democrats under pressure, the damage was done. Important priorities were delayed, taxpayer resources wasted and public trust eroded. Texans demand accountability, not excuses for leaving Austin.
While the Texas Supreme Court rejected an effort to remove Wu and other Democrats for their dereliction of duty, the House can still expel Wu by a two-thirds vote.
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Texans should be able to expect a government that works for them.
Compliance
Regarding “I know law enforcement. The Houston ICE shooting doesn’t add up.” (July 15): The ICE-related so-called problems are so very easily solved. Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would be alive today with a simple “Comply, don’t die.” The rhetoric from the woke leftists may as well be responsible for the unnecessary ICE-related deaths. People here illegally have a fighting chance with legal proceedings versus death. I say again, “Comply, don’t die.”
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Raymond Martin, Mont Belvieu