{"id":30325,"date":"2025-11-01T02:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30325\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T02:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:04:07","slug":"texas-city-removes-defund-the-wall-mural-after-abbotts-threat-to-pull-road-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30325\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas city removes &#8216;Defund the Wall&#8217; mural after Abbott&#8217;s threat to pull road funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/118118621_174299657470821_8812533924556821790_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-7d0efd03=\"\"\/> article    <\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">LAREDO, Texas &#8211; Laredo is the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Texas<\/a> city to remove a political road sign after the state&#8217;s governor threatened to withhold federal and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/tx-politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">state funding<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The move follows public outcry over other road signs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/news\/texas-political-agendas-roads-funding-greg-abbott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">threatened by Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s order<\/a>, including LGBT+ Pride crosswalks in Texas&#8217; major metropolitan areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> \u2018Defund the Wall\u2019 mural removed  <\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The mural was painted on a street in front of the federal courthouse in Laredo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The removal was decided on by a vote prompted by Mayor Victor Trevi\u00f1o, the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texas-border-wall-mural-removal-trump-mexico-f2ba2873d60bf31ec46ca16966ea0630\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Associated Press reports<\/a>. He said in a meeting on Monday that the Texas Department of Transportation, which had been charged with enforcing the removals, alerted Trevi\u00f1o that the city risked losing $1.6 billion in funding for road projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;We\u2019re not going to devastate our community for what is considered one particular vantage point on our public roads, even if this speech may be popular or well received,&#8221; Trevi\u00f1o is quoted as saying by the AP.<\/p>\n<p> \u2018Political agendas\u2019 on roads <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">In his Oct. 8 directive, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/greg-abbott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Abbott<\/a> said non-standard signs and markings are unsafe misuses of tax dollars. Cities who refuse to comply with federal standards could now risk losing funding for road projects.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The release said any &#8220;non-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly support traffic control or safety&#8221; are unlawful and dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Examples of prohibited material include symbols, flags, or other markings conveying social, political, or ideological messages.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Abbott&#8217;s order came after a similar federal directive to states from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Duffy said street signs and markings are meant for safety, not political messaging.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Texas cities remove road markings <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Since then, major Texas cities have complied with Abbott, not wishing to risk TxDOT projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">A well-known rainbow crosswalk in Houston&#8217;s Montrose neighborhood was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/rainbow-crosswalk-removal-set-monday-montrose\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">set for removal<\/a> less than two weeks after Abbott&#8217;s order.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Austin was given 30 days by TxDOT to remove their markings, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/news\/austin-ordered-erase-rainbow-crosswalks-black-artists-matter-mural\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">rainbow crosswalks on Fourth Street<\/a> and Eleventh Street&#8217;s &#8216;&#8221;Black Artists Matter&#8221; mural.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Dallas still faces uncertainties with their road markings, including the notable rainbow crosswalks in Oak Lawn. A church in that community has fought back against the order by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/news\/oak-lawn-church-defies-governors-crosswalk-order-painting-pride-steps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">painting their front steps<\/a> the colors of the LGBT+ Pride Flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this article came from the Associated Press and previous FOX Texas Digital reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/politics\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politics<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/immigration\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Immigration<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article LAREDO, Texas &#8211; Laredo is the latest Texas city to remove a political road sign after the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1724,223,287,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-30325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-immigration","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}