With millions of Texans, including waves of new immigrants, who have difficulty communicating in English, the Texas Legislature has approved a measure to protect their U.S. constitutional rights when facing a criminal accusation.

Here’s a look at the 10 delegates’ key feats from the 2013 legislative session:

The Texas House of Representatives on Friday, May 17, gave preliminary approval to blockbuster legislation, authorized the previous day by the Senate, to merge The University of Texas-Pan American with the University of  Texas-Brownsville, and bring major components of a UT medical school to Edinburg and Hidalgo County. 

Negotiations built last-minute compromise on med school

Jared Janes, The Monitor

AUSTIN — Standing together as an entire delegation, the Rio Grande Valley’s House members pushed through a compromise Friday that would finally establish the region’s long sought medical school and a super university.

The House voted unanimously to adopt a compromise amendment drafted by the Valley’s legislators that lays out a detailed blueprint for the new university and medical school, ending strife that erupted over whether Hidalgo County should be the primary site for the medical school. With the proposal’s Senate sponsors already announcing their intent to support the compromise, the bill will be sent to Gov. Rick Perry after perfunctory actions that remain in both chambers.

While the bill garnered early support from both ends of the Valley, the region’s unity nearly broke down over the location of the medical school — a fight that has lingered since the creation of the school’s precursor in the late 1990s.

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Freshman Democratic Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg just told a story that left few dry eyes in the House.

His new baby boy was born over the last few days, Caleb Ezra Canales, which is great news on its own. The heartbreaker here is that the Canales family had already lost a baby boy, Judah.

At some point recently, GOP Rep. Debbie Riddle asked Canales if he had named his baby yet. He responded that he was too busy and hadn’t yet, so she suggested he name the baby Caleb.

“That’s a beautiful, Biblical name,” Canales responded. Then, as she was sitting there at his desk, he looked it up.

Originally posted in the Dallas Morning News.

A bill that would require lobbyists to disclose the names of lawmakers who pay them using campaign funds for services, including political consulting, is headed to Gov. Rick Perry for approval after the Senate passed the measure on Thursday.

Poor, underinsured, and uninsured residents in Hidalgo County would have access to a better system of medical care under legislation approved on Wednesday, May 1 by the Texas House of Representatives, says Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, a Joint Author of the measure. 

During a heated gun debate Saturday, state Rep. Terry Canales lobbed a wager from the dais that he owns more guns than any other state representative.

Migrant farmworkers are so important to America that without them, the United States would no longer serve as the “breadbasket of the world”, helping alleviate hunger and famine here at home and throughout the world.