State Senator José Rodríguez urges political involvement

Increasing voter participation and doing away with state budget cuts were emphasized Saturday at a town hall meeting with state Sen. José Rodríguez.

During the meeting, hosted at the La Fe Cultural and Technology Center, Rodríguez, D-El Paso, urged residents to become more involved with local and state politics.

Recently, the senator requested an investigation into contracts between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Abrams Learning and Information Systems, a private Washington, D.C.-area contractor for the state’s border security program.

In a letter to Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs, Rodríguez questioned the $20 million in payments for the system made by the state.

“The issues surrounding these contracts bring to light a serious public policy consideration of whether the state of Texas should have outsourced the bulk of the border security operations to a private company with negligible experience in international border operations,” Rodríguez wrote.

It is actions like these by the state and the implementation of some laws, which Rodríguez called discriminatory, that should spur the public into action.

“I really want to impress on you that El Paso has really low voting levels, and because of this, officials in Austin don’t worry about us,” Rodríguez said. “In Austin, the mentality some officials have is, ‘They don’t vote, so why should we devote our time to El Paso?’ They have the impression that El Pasoans don’t care.”

Low voter turnout is not a new story.

While voter apathy has been blamed for this, resident Oscar Chan said, another reason contributes to the low numbers.

“In the past, Hispanics have tried to make a difference by voting,” Chan said. “But it has always ended badly due to discrimination. It is this fear that has most people shying away.”

Rodríguez said he understood, but then pointed out how apathy and fear of discrimination have hurt the community badly through the $27 billion in state cuts.

“The vote and participating of the people in the legislative process affects the services and funds brought to the community,” he said. “Look at what the cuts did. Look what happened to our schools. Our teachers have larger classes. How do you expect your children to learn? Legislators weren’t interested in channeling money into the budget by legalizing casinos or anything else. Instead, they were focused on cuts.”

The only way to move the Hispanic community forward, Rodríguez stressed, is to become involved.

“In this next legislative session, we will enter with yet another deficit of $23 billion,” he said. “I think it’s time for us to consider what we can do. Just look at the laws they have tried to pass: one that would have permitted officers to ask for your papers, another that would allow educators to ask for your children’s paperwork. We need to find solutions, work together and develop laws that will benefit our community. Because if we don’t, we already know what the consequences will be.”

Alex Hinojosa may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6137.

Get informed

•For information on Texas state government visit TexasOnline.com or www.capitol.state.tx.us.

•To contact state Sen. José Rodríguez, call 351-3500 or email him at [email protected].

•For questions or concerns about voter registration, call the El Paso County Elections Department at 546-2154.