News & Commentary

Step 1: Find out who represents you

Ten years ago, Willacy County officials made a catastrophic mistake. And they’re about to make it again.

Facebook is who I am. Really. Why do I have all the selfies? Well, I don’t have a partner, someone to always tell me, “You’re beautiful.” Selfies build up my self-esteem. I have yet to figure out my interaction with men. When they first meet me they love that I’m independent and can hold it down. They work really hard to get me. But once they have me they feel … what’s the word?...emasculated.

Fred Korematsu would have turned 98 today. The victim of another wrongheaded and un-American executive order that betrayed our nation’s ideals, Korematsu was locked up in an internment camp in Topaz, Utah simply for being of Japanese descent.

Dear Representative Biedermann,

Everywhere you look—straight ahead, to the side and even skyward—uniformed officials in grim vehicles, and big objects fat with helium, are watching you. Watching you. Watching. You can always grab your cellphone, tap the camera app, and watch back. That’s what I’ve done since arriving in the Rio Grande Valley just before the Presidential election, to work as ACLU Texas’ reporter for immigration issues. My photos are piling up, especially since the election. Here are a few. If you don’t live here, in our country’s ultimate surveillance zone, give a look. Watch what it’s like to be watched.

The 85th Texas Legislature gaveled in today, and already over 1,300 bills have been filed. Many of those bills pose considerable threats to Texans’ freedom and equality. On LGBT equality, reproductive freedom, and immigrants’ rights, many of our lawmakers will stop at nothing to roll back the clock. Want to know what you can do to fight back? Keep reading.

The day after the Presidential election felt like a giant funeral in Brownsville, Texas—especially for people like Ninfa Alemán and her children.

This op-ed was originally published in the Houston Chronicle.