Republicans in the Texas House forced returning Democrats to sign what the Democrats called “permission slips,” agreeing to around-the-clock surveillance.

Texas Democrats are back in Austin after they broke quorum two weeks ago in protest of the state's redistricting plan. State Representative Nicole Collier refused to leave the House chambers on Monday.

"It's imperative at this moment to use every tool that we have to fight back," Isaiah Martin, a candidate running in Texas's 18th congressional district.

Rep. Nicole Collier is one of dozens of Democrats who fled Texas earlier this month to block a vote on a Trump-backed redistricting plan.

Democrats have proposed a new congressional map for California that could offset Republican efforts to redistrict in Texas, giving the party a chance at five new Democratic House seats in the Golden State.

Lawmakers in Texas are pushing to vote on new election maps that could give the Republican Party five more seats in the U.S. House. The GOP argues the maps are fair, while Democrats walked out of the Capitol.

Democratic lawmakers in Texas returned to the state on Monday, ending a two-week walkout that broke quorum and temporarily blocked Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps at the behest of U.S.