EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Hispanics accounted for nearly half of Texas’ population growth in the decade ending 2020 and 2 out of 5 state residents now identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. census.

But in the five years that followed the number of Hispanics representing Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives only went from seven to eight, and the state’s mid-decade congressional redistricting threatens to dilute their political representation, activists say.

That’s why two of the most powerful Latino organizations in the country this week are gathered inside a federal courthouse in El Paso where plaintiffs are challenging newly drawn congressional district maps by the Texas Legislature they say are discriminatory.

“What we are talking about on the eighth floor

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