Canales weighs in on the checkpoint's effects on valley citizens.
DPS dubs Valley checkpoints a success
Jacob Fischler, The Monitor
Dubbed “Operation Strong Safety,” the $3.4 million, three-week initiative in the Rio Grande Valley included increased patrols and traffic checkpoints in DPS primary jurisdictions — rural areas and unincorporated colonias — and ended nearly three weeks ago.
The checkpoints garnered statewide attention and became something of an issue among local residents, politicians and law enforcement officials. Immigrant advocates claimed the checkpoints were used to round up and identify those illegally in the country, though DPS and local law enforcement denied that was the case.
DPS officials said the random stops promoted highway safety — even when data show the Valley has safer roads than elsewhere in the state.
An analysis by the Austin American-States-man revealed that state traffic data showed that Hidalgo and Cameron counties lag behind cities like Houston, Laredo and Midland in crashes per mile traveled. Fatal crash rates locally were below the statewide average last year, as well.
Canales participates in Boys & Girls Club Rally.
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF EDINBURG RGV TO HOLD LIGHTS ON AFTERSCHOOL RALLY
Edinburg Kids
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Edinburg RGV Afterschool Program will sponsor a Lights On Afterschool Rally on Thursday, October 17 at 5:30 p.m. The rally will be one of more than 7,500 such events around the nation that day, the 14th annual Lights On Afterschool, organized by the Afterschool Alliance. Speakers in Edinburg, TX will call for expanding afterschool opportunities so that every child who needs a program has access to one, and discuss the harm that results from budget cuts and freezes to these program. At the event, parents and supporters will sign a petition that urges lawmakers not to deny or divert funding for afterschool programs.
Participants in the Lights On Afterschool rally include State Representative Terry Canales. The event will highlight three of the significant contributions that afterschool programs make to Edinburg, TX, keeping kids safe and healthy, inspiring them to learn, and relieving working parents of worries about their children’s activities during the afternoon hours. We invite the community and parents to attend at any one of our afterschool units for the Lights On Afterschool Open House. Activities include hands on science experiments with Club members, coloring of a light bulb and at the Legacy Center, guests are free to tour the building and the programming areas.
Canales recognizes school district at board meeting.
Edinburg city leaders congratulate ECISD for being named Texas Outstanding School Board of the Year
Valley Town Crier
Edinburg city leaders on Tuesday, October 8, joined Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, in publicly congratulating the Edinburg school board for being named the Texas Outstanding School Board of the Year for 2013.
The prestigious award, bestowed on Friday, September 27 by the Texas Association of School Administrators/Texas Association of School Boards, recognizes outstanding Texas school boards for their commitment to school children and their communities.
Back home, the local school board’s statewide achievement is being praised, both as a reflection of the high quality of public education available in Edinburg, and in tribute to the school district’s elected and appointed leadership for helping steer a successful course for the community.
“I am fortunate, humbled, and honored to represent one of the most successful districts in all of Texas and I, along with the citizens of Edinburg, are blessed by the hard work of this school board,” Canales addressed trustees, administrators, faculty and staff at the beginning of the board’s regularly-scheduled public meeting.
Canales asks why there isn't DPS checkpoints in other cities.
Terminan retenes
El Nuevo Heraldo
AUSTIN — Los puestos de control de tráfico en disputa a lo largo de la frontera de Texas, que los críticos acusaron estaban contra los inmigrantes que están en el país sin documentación legal, han dejado de aplicarse, pero sigue habiendo dudas sobre la iniciativa que inició hace tres semanas defendida por las autoridades estatales como forma de combatir a los conductores sin seguros.
El portavoz del Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas, Tom Vinger, confirmó este fin de semana que la agencia había terminado la ejecución del operativo en el Valle del Río Grande, donde los agentes también se dice que están en busca de ocuparse en otros delitos relacionados con la frontera, como el tráfico de personas y el secuestro.
El DPS encontró oposición y escepticismo acerca de los retenes desde un inicio, incluso de algunos legisladores cuestionaron por qué los puestos de control no estaban en las grandes ciudades de Texas.
“La iniciativa de ley se terminó , como estaba previsto”, dijo Vinger al San Antonio Express-News.
Canales doubts checkpoints legality and fairness.
Border area checkpoints raise questions of intent
Jeremy Schwartz, Austin American-Statesmen
When it announced last month it would begin stopping motorists at randomly placed roadblocks throughout the Rio Grande Valley, the Department of Public Safety cited roadway safety as the rationale for conducting its first regulatory checkpoints in two decades.
The tactic came as a surprise to many. State troopers hadn’t conducted such checkpoints since at least 1994, when a Texas court effectively prohibited most law enforcement roadblocks in the state.
Canales sees political motives in Dewhurst visit.
Dewhurst visits Valley, lauds DPS initiative
Jacob Fischler, The Monitor
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst got a firsthand look at the Department of Public Safety-led surge of law enforcement officials in the Rio Grande Valley during a visit last week, but critics dismissed the visit as a political stunt.
Dewhurst received a briefing from DPS Director Steven McCraw, surveyed the border from a DPS helicopter and rode a DPS river patrol boat all on the morning of Sept. 26, a spokesman said Wednesday. He did not observe any of the controversial regulatory checkpoints on Hidalgo County highways that have drawn the ire of immigration advocates, among others.
In a Wednesday news release, Dewhurst praised DPS and the initiative while aiming harsh words at Washington.
“The federal government has proven incapable of fighting the increased drug and human trafficking plaguing this region,” Dewhurst said in the release. “I’m proud to say that Texas law enforcement is showing Washington how to secure the border by coordinating the efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement entities.”
DPS responds to criticisms of their checkpoints in RGV.
DPS rebuffs checkpoint criticism
Jacob Fischler, The Monitor
The Texas Department of Public Safety sought to calm fears Thursday about its controversial regulatory checkpoint program in the Rio Grande Valley, responding to concerns the checkpoints are being used for immigration enforcement.
A DPS statement came one day after state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, sent inquiries to the state law enforcement agency asking for an explanation regarding the checkpoints’ legality and purpose.
“They may or may not meet constitutional muster, but we as a community deserve answers,” Canales said in a Thursday telephone interview. “And not just general answers, we deserve specific answers that are backed up by data.”
Canales said part of his constituents’ fears involved allegations that the checkpoints are also used to enforce immigration violations — a contention DPS vehemently denied in one of 12 bullet points in Thursday’s statement from the DPS.
Canales questions checkpoints.
Terry Canales Questions DPS Checkpoint Operations, Residents Say DPS In Cahoots With Border Patrol
Omar Araiza, Burnt Orange Report
State Representative Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, is joining the voices of many Rio Grande Valley residents outraged at the Texas Department of Public Safety for allegedly lying when it says its troopers are not checking immigration status at its random checkpoints in the Valley.
Many random checkpoints have been set in the Valley by DPS seemingly set to target low income, economically disadvantaged areas. DPS has said the temporary checkpoints are in place to check if drivers have a valid driver's license and auto insurance, and that they are not checking the immigrant status of drivers. Yet Canales and Valley residents are not buying their story.
Some residents are reporting having been taken into custody by Border Patrol because of not being able to produce papers to vouch for their legal residency. Others are saying having seen Border Patrol parked a block away from these random checkpoints, waiting for a call from DPS to arrest people without documents.
Canales questions the legality and legitimacy of checkpoints.
Valley lawmaker questions DPS checkpoints
Sergio Chapa, The Monitor
A Rio Grande Valley lawmaker is questioning a series of random checkpoints that have created fear among rural Hidalgo County residents.
Texas State Rep. Terry Canales (D-Edinburg) submitted a list of questions about the checkpoints to Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Executive Director Steve McGraw.
DPS announced two weeks ago that it would be deploying a surge of state troopers to the Valley in order to improve several public safety issues.
The agency said it would be setting up checkpoints on state roadways to check motorists for driver licenses, auto insurance and vehicle registration.
Rep. Canales responds to communities’ concerns over random DPS checkpoints and possible targeting of poor neighborhoods in the Valley
David A. Diaz, Your Valley Voice
Random road checkpoints being set up in deep South Texas by the Texas Department of Public Safety have raised serious concerns among Valley residents, including questions on why certain areas in Hidalgo County appear to be targeted. Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, wants the state police agency to provide justification for their actions.
A checkpoint is a place along a road or border where vehicles are stopped for inspection.
According to Canales, he has received reports from constituents that the DPS road checkpoints being conducted “seem to be placed in economically disadvantaged areas. Checkpoints have been set up in Alton, the east side of Pharr, a portion of Alamo, but none, so far, along highly-traveled roadways in wealthier parts of the county, such as along Trenton or Dove roads in northeast McAllen.”
Canales has submitted a series of questions to Steven McCraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, that would require state police officials to provide more important details about the random road checkpoints, including other locations in Texas where state police checkpoints are taking place.