As a constituent advocate for U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, Katie Marschner has seen it all. Veterans needing their benefits. A prison inmate whose belongings were lost in transit. Travelers scrambling for last-minute passport renewals. People desperate for their delayed IRS tax refund or Social Security check to arrive so they can pay their rent.

All urgent, apolitical matters.

On Tuesday morning at Casar's office in East Austin, it was a woman who was still learning English, authorized to be in the U.S., anxious for updates on when her husband might be approved to join her and their child in America.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” Marschner told the woman, knowing that immigration cases can take years, and it’s anyone’s guess what the coming weeks will bring.

By Wednesday, state lawmakers h

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