Democratic state lawmakers returned to Texas on Monday, ending a two-week walkout that broke quorum in the state Legislature and temporarily blocked Republicans from ramming through a new, gerrymandered congressional map for Texas at the behest of President Trump. Republican leaders had threatened to arrest or remove from office over 50 Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas earlier this month for Illinois and other states. On Monday, Texas’s Republican Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows said Democratic lawmakers would only be allowed to leave the House chambers if they agreed to be released into the custody of Texas law enforcement. Democratic state Representative Nicole Collier of Fort Worth was forced to sleep on the floor of Texas’s state Capitol overnight after she refused the order, rather than accepting around-the-clock monitoring by state troopers.

Rep. Nicole Collier: “These officers have been assigned to our Democratic state representatives only to ensure that they get back to the Capitol to pass the racist maps and all the other legislation that they want that can harm and disenfranchise marginalized communities.”