The three-week, Texas Department of Public Safety-led enforcement surge in the Rio Grande Valley this fall may become a more permanent border security strategy, minus one controversial aspect of the operation.

Texas lawmakers from the Rio Grande Valley make the “Aye” symbol on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives last spring after unanimously voting for the creation of a new university merging the University of Texas-Pan American and University of Texas at Brownsville, and the creation of a new medical school. 

Like a vision determined to become reality, Valley state lawmakers will once again push for legislation to create a University of Texas Law School in South Texas, and Rep.-elect Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, says he will support that effort.

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 Boys & Girls Clubs of Edinburg RGV Afterschool Program will sponsor a Lights On Afterschool Rally on Thursday, October 17 at 5:30 p.m.

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 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.

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.

A Rio Grande Valley lawmaker is questioning a series of random checkpoints that have created fear among rural Hidalgo County residents.

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.