Hidalgo County backs immigration relief programs

MGN Online


Posted: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 10:00 pm
BY LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO STAFF WRITER

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Commissioners in a show of support for many of its own residents voted and passed a resolution Tuesday morning supporting President Obama’s immigration relief programs.

Members of local immigrant advocacy organizations in the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network were on hand Tuesday morning inside the Commissioners’ Courtroom as the commissioners voted in support of the president’s immigration relief programs.

The programs — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, more commonly known as DACA and DAPA, respectively — would allow eligible immigrants protection from deportation and provide an avenue to work authorization.


Hidalgo County joined Cameron County, which had its own vote earlier in the month, as the second county to officially support the relief programs proposed by President Obama.


Hidalgo County also joins a growing list of Valley cities to approve similar resolutions including Edinburg, Alton, San Juan and Weslaco. McAllen had a similar resolution on its agenda Monday night, but it was tabled to a later date.

Martha Sanchez, La Union del Pueblo Entero’s community organizing coordinator, addressed the commissioners briefly after the resolution passed.

“Thank you so much for listening to the cry of the people, who are in the dark and unavailable to be recognized,’ Sanchez said. “We thank you one more time for supporting this issue.”


The symbolic show of support from South Texas counties comes a month after LUPE and other immigration advocacy groups garnered letters of support from more than 300 businesses locally that agreed that DACA and DAPA would benefit the local, state and country’s economy for the better.


“When people are able to work freely in this country they contribute more fully to the economy. When people are shielded from deportation they add more to the county,” Sanchez said. “This (vote) is really symbolic, it says that DACA and DAPA are good for the economy of the state of Texas and specifically for the county of Hidalgo.”


The momentum of support falls less than a month from a protest scheduled in Austin in front of the Governor’s Mansion on the anniversary of Obama’s announcement of DAPA on Nov. 20, 2014.


Sanchez said LUPE members plan to attend the protest against Gov. Abbott along with other organizations in the RGV Equal Voice Network on the anniversary of Obama’s announcement to show that counties in South Texas support the relief programs.


“We’ll be gathering with a lot of other organizations outside the mansion and taking this message to the governor that these counties believe that DAPA is good,” Sanchez said. “That’s contrary to what (Abbott) is saying — he’s saying that these relief programs will be bad for the economy, and we know with the experience of DACA, that it’s going to be good for all of us, and that’s the message that we want to take to him.”


In mid February U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen granted the request of Texas and 25 other states to block implementation of Obama’s immigration relief programs that would have allowed about 5 million immigrants in the country illegally to apply for work authorization and extended stays.


As part of the protest members of the Workers Defense Project, a group committed to advocating for immigrant workers, will launch a three-day pilgrimage from the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, to the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, according to a news release from the advocacy group.


More than 5,000 people are expected to rally at the Governor’s mansion on Nov. 21.


Despite Hanen’s order Sanchez said many of the people locally affected by the injunction have maintained their optimism in the face of continued hardship for themselves and their families.


“In spite of all the negative sentiment in Texas, we continue to be organized, the people continue to be engaged and continue to fight for what is right, which is that DAPA is good for Texas,” Sanchez said. “We continue to fight for it, we’ve kept the momentum going for a year and that speaks well for our communities, that we haven’t given up, that we still continue to have hope and that we are continuing to struggle and we’ll continue to fight because this is the right thing to do for Texas.”

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