(EL PASO, Texas) — The White House announced today that the administration will provide Deferred Action for some undocumented youth.
The Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance congratulates the undocumented youth whose leadership and bold action forced this announcement. DREAMers have been occupying Obama campaign offices for weeks demanding action. And today, the White House had no choice but to respond. Continue reading
June 15, 2012
WASHINGTON— Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced that effective immediately, certain young people who were brought to the United States as young children, do not present a risk to national security or public safety, and meet several key criteria will be considered for relief from removal from the country or from entering into removal proceedings. Those who demonstrate that they meet the criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and will be eligible to apply for work authorization. Continue reading
LUPE members hold sign with message to CBP Chief Patrol Hinojosa: “Prioritize Life and stop immigration enforcement during and after a hurricane evacuation!”
Community groups gathered Friday, the first day of hurricane season, outside of Border Patrol Sector Headquarters. They demanded that the federal government make a clear, official statement that local Border Patrol will not conduct immigration enforcement during and following hurricane evacuations. The groups emphasized that it is time to put an end to fear and uncertainty regarding immigration enforcement actions during a hurricane evacuation. Despite continued urging by community members, local Border Patrol officials maintain that they will continue the interception of drug smuggling and apprehension of undocumented immigrants before, during, and after a hurricane hits the area.
“If officials don’t make a clear statement ahead of time, people will not know if they can pass freely and quickly through the checkpoints. Border Patrol’s current policy could be putting people at risk of injury or death,” explained Krystal Gomez, Advocacy and Policy Counsel of ACLU Texas. Rosendo Hinojosa, chief of Border Patrol for the RGV sector, told reporters last year that Border Patrol would continue to enforce immigration laws during a hurricane evacuation, despite the dangers to human life. Continue reading
LUPE GOTV captains celebrate end of primaries civic engagement campaign.
Statement by RGV Equal Voice Network
Since the 2008 presidential campaign, the members of the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network have been actively encouraging the civic participation of their constituents from across the Valley.
This participation is not limited to voting or encouraging communities to turn out the vote. Rather, the members of the RGV-EV Network seek to have the residents of Valley play an active role in the decisions that would impact the lives of our families. These decisions take place in Washington, DC, and in Austin, Texas, and we seek to have our representatives understand in a precise way the seriousness of the
challenges to our communities’ well-being.
Decisions that affect our communities are made on a local level as well, and for that reason, during this primary season, the Equal Voice Network membership sponsored a number of candidates’ forums.
During those encounters, we sought to inform candidates on the nature of the issues that our families have decided are most important to the political agenda. These issues included concerns about: immigration reform; decent, affordable housing; access to medical care for all residents of the Valley; well-paying, long lasting jobs; and equitable funding for our schools.
However, voting is a unique and privileged moment in our civic life, and the Network has collaborated in a number of ways to seek to encourage our families to vote. We have registered new voters, trained hundreds of volunteers in the non-partisan promotion of the vote, and taken to print and mass media to get out our message for this season—“Tu Voto es Tu Voz.”
We are particularly grateful to our volunteers, both the youth and the more mature. We look forward to the second part of this election season and will be encouraging the full participation of all citizens in this fall’s election.
What happened in Arizona has not stayed in Arizona.
After years of legal battles, lost revenue and communities living in fear, Arizona’s infamous “papers, please” law will be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday April 25, 2012.
And thousands across the U.S. are praying that the Supreme Court rules with wisdom and compassion as they decide the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB1070.
Texans stand in solidarity with families in Arizona and are holding vigils in El Paso, Brownsville, Dallas, San Juan and Austin. There are also vigils planned across the country, notably in Alabama, California, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, and in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Posted in Immigration Reform
LUPE and the Equal Voice Immigration Working Group invite you to a memorial service prayer set for tomorrow, Friday, April 13, at 10am at the site where nine immigrants died Tuesday night when the van they were in turned over during a Border Patrol pursuit.
Of the incident, the Houston Chronicle reports:
Nineteen people were crammed in the minivan that flipped as it fled from officials near Palmview in the Rio Grande Valley, the second deadly crash involving suspected smuggling this week.
On Monday, one person was killed and 17 were hospitalized in a similar rollover west of La Joya.
Even one death in the pursuit of a better life is unacceptable–nine is unbearable. If you are in the upper Valley area, please join us for a memorial service tomorrow morning at the site of the incident. The prayer will begin at 10am at the corner of Minnesota and Frontage Road in Palmview, TX.
Posted in Uncategorized
We're inviting youth to be a bigger part of this year's Cesar Chavez March by entering our Life and Legacy of Cesar Chavez - The Art of Social Justice Art and Essay Contest!
Calling all Youth! La Union del Pueblo Entero invites you to enter the Life and Legacy of Cesar E. Chavez – the Art of Social Justice Art and Essay Contest for a chance to win an art kit and journal! The contest will be part of our efforts to celebrate and promote the 50th Anniversary of the United Farm Workers and the life and legacy of UFW co-founder Cesar E. Chavez.
All youth ages 6-17 currently living in the Rio Grande Valley are eligible to enter. We will award 3 winners based on age in these age groups: 6-9, 10-13, 14-17.
Your artwork can be about the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, or it can be about ways we can continue Cesar’s legacy at home, at school, or in the community. We’re looking for drawings, essays, paintings, sculpture, collage, or whatever format helps you express yourself.
Read the complete contest guidelines on our website.
Why not teach about the life and legacy of Cesar and the UFW in your classroom and encourage your students to enter? Learn more about Cesar and the UFW by downloading this short bio and coloring book. And check out these great resources for educators on Cesar and the union.
Posted in Events
LUPE members from colonias throughout the Valley are raising their voice together in LUPE’s 2012 Cumbre de Colonias. Colonia residents will meet to prioritize the issues that LUPE will tackle in the next two years.
The member convention will take place this Saturday, February 25 at 9am, at LUPE’s San Juan office, located on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Business 83. In house meetings, classes and trainings throughout January and February, LUPE members met to prioritize their top issues, formulating resolutions that, once passed, will direct the work of the organization for coming years.
At Saturday’s convention, members will pass resolutions on issues ranging from streetlights in colonias, to support for ESL and citizenship classes. The issues of LUPE members are many and the resources of our organization are limited. The resolutions will allow us to prioritize the issues that we take on as an organization. The resolutions will reaffirm the organization’s commitment in certain areas and redirect our work in others.
The Rio Grande Valley has over 1,500 colonias, with close to 200,000 residents. Colonia residents are some of the most vulnerable members of our society. They face poverty, unsafe working conditions, poor housing, and are the targets of predatory development. They have a strong voice in creating solutions to their problems, and organizing with La Union del Pueblo Entero, colonia residents learn to use their voice for positive change.
In the last year, colonia residents have brought about major victories for their communities. After an 8 year campaign calling on county officials to bring public light to their colonias, LUPE members won a commitment for streetlights in 9 Hidalgo County colonias. Seven of these colonias received installation of lights this month.
Working with the Equal Voice Network, LUPE members won $186 million in federal disaster relief funding to benefit low income and colonia residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Dolly. Of this, $64 million is to be used on regional drainage projects.
The direction and participation of colonia residents has been paramount for the success of these campaigns. Saturday’s Cumbre de Colonias will point us in the direction of the victories sure to come in the next few years.
Posted in Uncategorized
$122 million is what’s at stake.
$122 million in federal hurricane disaster recovery funds are heading to the Valley. We want local low income residents to be hired for the projects receiving federal assistance.
For that reason we are calling on the Council of Governments to require that URS, #267 of the 500 biggest companies in America and the firm that our local representatives have hired to manage the funds, adopt the Equal Voice Network’s plan for Section 3 compliance.
The Equal Voice Network is calling on our representatives to stand up and support our plan. Our plan asks URS and the Council of Governments to:
• Ensure that 30% of all work done with the Hurricane money is by local, low income people.
• Ensure that local small businesses can compete and get contracts for the work
• Ensure that local, low income people get construction training that will be useful to the improvement of the Valley in the future.
• Ensure that the training and hiring is monitored and therefore successful.
Take action for local people and local businesses now!
In the near future, the Council of Governments will make a decision on this issue: whether to allow URS to award contracts to companies with no oversight or accountability to local residents, or to implement the Equal Voice Network’s section 3 plan and put local, low income people and local businesses to work.
We’re collecting signatures from all over the RGV to show the Council of Governments that we’re serious about creating local jobs. The more signatures, the better. We want to show our representatives that we are aware of the issue and are counting on them to support local people and local business. The sooner we collect signatures, the faster the Council of Governments will consider our petition and put local, low income residents to work.
We’ve convinced the CoG to take colonia residents into account before. Now let’s show them that when it comes to creating opportunities for local, low income people we mean business.
Click here to urge the Council of Governments to adopt this plan!
People for Peace and Justice’s Seventh Annual Peace and Justice Gathering will be happening Feb 4th in Weslaco. If you’re interested in creating a better world for everyone, this is the place to be.
This is the gathering of progressive minds in the RGV, where cross fertilization happens between movements for justice and liberty, where ideas spread, where networks are strengthened, and where community is shared. Make plans now to attend!
Keynote Speaker:
Justin Akers Chacón
Professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego, California. He has contributed to the book Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints and is the co-author of the book No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border with Mike Davis.
Also Featuring:
Peace Play Festival for Children and Youth
Led by Georgianna Duarte
Professor in Early Childhood Education at UTB
and
Workshops and Breakout Sessions
Labor Rights
The Death Penalty
U.S. Military Policy
And so much more!!!
Free Admission!! Free Lunch!! Free Workshops!!
This event is sponsored by People for Peace and Justice of the Rio Grande Valley, a coalition of persons and organizations opposed to violence, lies and greed that subvert democratic government and society. We try to model peace and tolerance within our association and in dealings with others. We come from diverse backgrounds– ages, races, ethnic groups, educational levels, religions and philosophies, political and sexual orientations. And we welcome opportunities to work with others who share our commitment to peace and justice.
Posted in Events, In the Community, Policy & organizing
Founded in 1989 by labor rights activist César Chávez, La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) is committed to building stronger, healthier communities where people have the power to effect social change through community organizing and civic engagement.
Please join our movement and consider making a donation today!
Want our blog updates in your email?
Subscribe to La Unión del Pueblo Entero by Email
Join the movement
Reform Immigration for America!