North Texas Has The 4th Largest Population Of Unauthorized Immigrants In U.S., Survey Finds

Five stories that have North Texas talking: D-FW has a high concentration of unauthorized immigrants; Texas women could clean up at the Grammys; a case to make tacos the official state food; and more.

Dallas-Fort Worth has the fourth largest population of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, according to an analysis published Thursday by Pew Research Center. The report shows that the country’s unauthorized immigrant population is highly concentrated — 11.1 million people live in 20 major metro areas. Three of those metros with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations include Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. North Texas is home to 475,000 unauthorized immigrants.

Dallas County Tuesday passed a “symbolic resolution” welcoming unauthorized immigrants in the city. The “Welcoming Communities” resolution, which isn’t legally binding, calls for local law enforcement to "end nonessential collaborations" with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In response, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to "bring the hammer down" on Dallas County if it makes itself a "sanctuary city," a loose term for cities that don't fully cooperate with ICE. [Pew Research Center, KERA News]

• Apartment rents in North Texas continue to rise for several reasons. Rent in Dallas-Fort Worth is outpacing many cities across the country but still remaining slightly below the national average. Steve Brown covers news and trends in real estate for The Dallas Morning News. He credits three big things behind the ever-increasing cost to rent an apartment in the metro: cost of construction, cost of land and the sheer quality of new developments being built. “Ten years ago, 15 years ago, no one would have even considered the kind of features they have in there: the fancy workout rooms, the lounges, the party rooms...” Listen to the KERA interview. [KERA News]

• Grammy prediction: Two Texas women should win big. For her record “Lemonade,” Beyoncéis making Houston proud with nine nominations, including Album and Song of the Year. While GuideLive thinks Adele will win for her third full-length album, “25,” they explain “Lemonade” should claim the coveted prize. “It's important to note, though, that had the album not been the modern masterwork it is, the conversation around the record would've died quickly.” And Arlington native Maren Morris is up for Best New Artist and Best Country Album for her debut, “Hero,” plus two others. Here’s the list of all the Grammy nominees. [GuideLive]

• Chili con carne is the official designated food of Texas, but there’s a case to make it the taco. The man making the case knows a little something about tacos; in fact, Mando Rayo wrote a book on it, “The Tacos of Texas” with Jared Neece. He tells Texas Standard: “Whether you grew up here in Texas or you got here as soon as you could, you’re eating tacos. People here eat tacos five days a week. Tacos were here before Texas was Texas.” Rayo says tacos are more than a new trendy food — they have hundreds of years of history and culture packed in each bite. Hear his case to make the taco the state food of Texas. [Texas Standard]

• “We do unfortunately pick and choose what gets included in history curriculums.”  Kizuwanda Grant from Dallas’ Paul Quinn College tells The Big Screen team she didn’t know about the three black female mathematicians portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film, “Hidden Figures.” She says she doesn’t think the stories of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — brilliant women who worked at NASA in the 1960s — were mentioned in historical accounts of Project Mercury and other space missions because of the time and place in which they made history. The Big Screen is taking a look into each film nominated for Best Picture until The Academy Awards on Feb. 26. [Art&Seek]