500 Valley Interfaith leaders packed the Pharr Development and Research Center to publicly launch a parish ID strategy for the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  Developed in collaboration with the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and three law enforcement agencies, parish-issued identification cards will show a picture of the cardholder, name, date of birth, address and how long the cardholder has been a member of their parish. 

Representatives from the police departments of Pharr, McAllen and Edinburg participated in the assembly, pledging to accept these cards as a form of valid identification in the event anyone needs to identify themselves to the police -- whether on a traffic stop or when filing a report.   

Edinburg Police Chief Cesar Torres said that he likes the idea of the ID card because "right now we have a lot of victims that are from across (the border). They don’t call the police department when they are victimized because they are afraid of being deported. If we recognize some type of ID, they’ll feel more comfortable and call us when crimes do occur.”

Said Fr. Kevin Collins of St. Eugene de Mazenod parish in Brownsville, “I’m very excited about this event tonight because we have a lot of people coming who hope to change their lives, to have less fear in their lives, and to live with more human dignity in their homes and their neighborhoods.” 

IDs Give Parishioners Way to Say, 'I Belong,' Regardless of Legal Status, National Catholic Reporter [pdf]

Diocese, Valley Interfaith Team Up to Offer a New Kind of ID, The Valley Catholic

Vally Nonprofit Announces ID Strategy in Parishes, KRGTV

Valley Interfaith Clarifies Parish ID Strategy, The Monitor

Valley Interfaith to Launch Local Parish ID Strategy, The Monitor [pdf]

Valley Interfaith leaders from South McAllen colonias -- specifically from Balboa, Hermosa and Idela -- organized a press conference calling on the City to allocate funding for neighborhoods most in need of flood assistance.  With over $50 million to be invested in flooding infrastructure over the next five years, Valley Interfaith says that neighborhoods on the Southside are getting shortchanged. 

Said Pastor Alejandro Flores of San Juan Diego Catholic Church, "I know McAllen is a large area, but we want the response to be proportionate to the need where ever it may be."  Flores says the city itself has admitted that the southwest was one of the hardest hit areas during the floods.

[Photo Credit: Joel Martinez, The Monitor]

Frustrated South McAllen Residents Plead for Relief from June Rains, The Monitor [pdf]

Hardest Hit Flood Areas Say Not Enough Projects Being Proposed, KVEO [pdf]

When Valley Interfaith leaders learned that the Edinburg Economic Development Corp. (EDC) was planning to slash funding for workforce development program VIDA, they immediately set up meetings with municipal elected officials to identify and ensure City funds to make up the gap. While they discovered that the Mayor and one councilmember was completely on board with the proposal, leaders soon learned that the other three commissioners (a new majority) were planning to slash funding.

One commissioner, despite professing to having his "heart touched by the testimony of the students" told leaders that he might consider an investment of $50K (as opposed to the $290K previously funded by the EDC). In response to Valley Interfaith's vocal rejection of his crumbs, he told leaders they were "going to have problems" if they did not change their attitude.

Read more

At an assembly with officials of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Valley Interfaith leaders argued that the failure to clean up a 33-acre benzene spill is behind the cancer and other illnesses impacting families living in the area. Leader Frank Pena alerted the assembly that while a legal settlement on the spill resulted in payouts, it did not result in needed environmental cleanup.

That same week, Valley Interfaith threw its political weight behind ballot Proposition 1 for the creation of a new hospital district to drawn down additional federal dollars expand and improve care for local residents.

Read more

Valley Interfaith is drawing a connection between stories of cancer-related deaths, three gas stations and a benzene plume moving through a neighborhood blocks from St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in McAllen. Leaders are in the midst of a research campaign with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Texas state legislators and County Commissioners to get to the bottom of the benzene plume. Discovery of the toxic gas plume emerged from a listening campaign about the concerns of Rio Grande Valley residents.