Contact: 

Robert Elder, Communications Director 
512-374-2764, relder@trla.org 

Hannah Allison, Director of Events and Special Development 
(512) 374-2704, hallison@trla.org 

Laredo Justice Reform Conversation to Highlight Immigration, Colonias, and Border Wall

Dec. 1, 2020

The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid series Finding the Way Forward moves to Laredo, the border city at the center of debates over immigration, border security, and funding improvements to the largely rural, low-income communities known as colonias.

The Webb County conversation is on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. via Zoom Webinar. Attendees can purchase tickets in advance at www.trla.org/finding-the-way-forward. 

The conversation features Jose “Chito” Vela III, an attorney in the Austin firm of Walker Gates Vela PLLC, Laredo attorney Carlos Evaristo Flores, and Raul Reyes, the Webb County Treasurer.

Jessica Cisneros will moderate. The Laredo native is an immigration and human rights attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Laredo.

Flores is the lead attorney in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order to build a border wall, construction of which has continued after President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Flores is also a commercial oil and gas litigator in South Texas.

Vela, a Laredo native, focuses on criminal defense and immigration law. He is a former general counsel to a Texas state representative and served as a planning commissioner for the city of Austin.

Reyes has been Webb County Treasurer since January 2019 and previously served 14 years as the mayor of El Cenizo, a low-income community in Webb County.

Working with Webb County to secure local, state, and federal funding, Reyes helped bring to the community significant infrastructure improvements including paved streets, water and sewage connections, and public lighting on county roads.

Previous conversations in the Finding the Way Forward series took place on Sept. 30 in Travis County, Oct. 14 in Bexar County, Oct. 28 for Victoria, Nueces, and other coastal counties, and Nov. 18 in El Paso County.

The final conversation in the series takes place Dec. 9 in the Rio Grande Valley. Tickets are $25 each.

Ticket sales support TRLA’s ability to address the significant increase in the need for legal services across Southwest Texas.

Complimentary access is available to the press. Contact Hannah Allison at hallison@trla.org for a virtual press pass. 

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid provides free legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney in 68 southwestern counties, including the entire Texas-Mexico border. TRLA attorneys specialize in more than 45 areas of the law, including disaster assistance, family, employment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant, housing, education, immigration, farmworker, and civil rights. Our hotline is open from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday – Friday: (956) 996-8752.