By Raul Garcia Jr.

Legislators across the country have been introducing anti Immigration laws after seeing Arizona pass SB 1070 and the same kind of politics has spilled into Texas with 32 bills that will be voted on in Austin. 

Santa Maria, Texas Border Wall along the Rio Grande River.

The Rio Grande Valley sits along the border of Mexico and the United States and the passage of illegal immigrants from Mexico, South America and other parts of the world happens everyday. And business people in the area have been employing such law abiding and hardworking people for a long time.

One bill that is gaining wide spread attention is Republican State Representative Debbie Riddle’s HB 2012 that creates tough punishments for those that employ unauthorized immigrants. If passed violators will face up to $10,000 dollars in fines and two years jail time.

It’s been estimated that eleven to twelve million people in the United States are illegal immigrants and possibly one-third of the population in South Texas is undocumented.

82nd Legislature Regular Session.

“Those are Federal Government issues and the state of Texas should not even be dealing with the Federal Government’s job,” said State Representative Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco). “We need to keep up with the issues of Texas like jobs, education and health care.”

A mural at LUPE in San Juan representing farmworkers.

“The work we are trying to do is lift up communities to lift up their lives,” said Torres. “If SB 9 passes it’s not going to change the need for immigration services or tax preparation, but there will be a lot more people afraid to walk out of their homes and it will definitely effect a lot of people.”

According to passionate advocates against the anti immigration legislation congressmen and woman do not understand the economic benefits that are received from labor coming out of Mexico and South America.  And the major concern from the immigrants is how the law will affect them when crimes are committed against them and their family members.

“We have a lot of concerns with some of the anti- immigrant sentiment concerning bad law in Texas,” said Corinna  Spencer-Scheurich, South Texas Civil Rights Project Regional Director. “The idea of not providing Spanish forms is just simply discriminatory. The only thing that is does is create more of a hardship for people in working in state agencies to try to help out people fill out forms.”

Spencer-Scheurich said it’s is not the job of the state of Texas to try and fix the broken immigration policies and a federal change on immigration is needed because it’s a federal law and trying to go after employers is not going to be effective.

“I think we could do better as citizens and after all we are a nation of immigrants. Ultimately we need each other to succeed,” Spencer-Scheurich said.  “People are very passionate about this issue because it comes to the safety and security of the community and discrimination and people really feel it’s a justice issue.”

Enter the 2011 mayor race candidates: Henry Hinojosa, Ruben Guajardo, Vernon Hoover, Gilbert Dominguez and David Garza. All but political newcomer, Vernon Hoover, have been elected officials for Mercedes; Dominguez elected Mayor in ‘82.

 What has changed the political air in Mercedes is the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets has shot the city into an international destination and hub for economic development. Mercedes is stronger than ever with a Standard and Poor’s A rating and enough money to operate the city for six months with no revenue.

 Mercedes has not seen a heated political race since 2007 and will end up in a runoff and the city will continue operating for another month without a mayor. A run-off of the top two vote getters would be held 30 days after the May 14 election. People are saying Garza and Hinojosa and others say Hinojosa and Guajardo will meet in the run off.

No one knows who has an edge and all the candidates are confident they will win. For the most part some think Hinojosa is the candidate to beat, others think Guajardo is still the front-runner, some say Garza is outspoken and is sure to make the run-off, Dominguez was a strong candidate in the ‘80s but is in now a political unknown who believes can win the race outright. As for Hoover he has been taken seriously but is still a political novice and unknown to Mercedes.

By Raul Garcia Jr.

A native of Santiago, Chile, Katherine Droguett, remembers listening to popular music from the United States of America to learn English. At 16-years-old Katherine reunited with her mother and father in Virginia in hope for a better life.

“I knew there was more opportunity here than there was in my country. I’ve been here almost twenty years and I would never go back. This is my second country and I love it,” said Droguett.

Today you can find her living a happy life at home with her three daughters that she loves spending time with on the weekends with her husband. She enjoys taking them to their youth programs, watching educational programs with them and baking in the kitchen. But she is not your ordinary soccer mom. Droguett is studing to become a new media content developer spcialist.  And since enrolling at Full Sail University she has found the opportunity to broaden her skills and horizons in hope of leaving a legacy for children and being a role model to them.

Droguett has come a long way from Chile. She completed her Bachelors in 2004 with a Computer Science degree and is not shy to express her happiness on working on her Maters in New Media Journalism. She finished high school in 1996, got married, had her first daughter, entered college and started working.

“It was really challenging having a full time job, two kids and going to school was a little overwhelming,” Droguett said. “After entering the job market she decided to come back home and work raising her children and help her husband began his business in the construction industry.”

She said they were able to make things work and were always together as a family and it has made them very strong but when the housing market tumbled the family business took a big hit.

She said what really kept them going was their strength and motivation for the family and Droguett would turn to the workforce to help with the finances during the recession. In the network marketing industry she would find her calling as a graphic designer specializing on social networking.

 “I did have some success and I really learned how to run my own business. And it was where I became fascinated with the art of graphic design,” Droguett said.

She then wanted to become more familiar and proficient in graphic design and began to look for avenues to feed her newfound inspiration of work on graphics and web design.

“I found this advertisement about Full Sail University and I was very attracted to the advertisement because it was very professional and eye catching,” Droguett said. “I really liked the program that they had to offer and the program was perfect for my lifestyle. Because I have three kids and it is something that I really wanted to accomplish.”

She wants to work as a new media content developer specialist and be able to help people grow their business with her new journalism and multi media skills.

“Your going to have to have more skills to be successful and this program offers that and I’m very happy,” Droguett said.  “I think that I would be fine after completing the program at Full Sail working with a politician or anyone out there in the communications field.”

By Raul Garcia Jr.

Photo By Norma Saldana Raul Garcia taking pictures at the Mercedes Parade.

I want to work in the newspaper industry after graduation, preferably as  a small town community reporter. The hiring process for a position for a  job in the newsroom takes three phases. Each phase is supported by skill and experience. The first thing that must be done to be considered for a position at a newspaper as a reporter would be to apply for the position. The application process is usually basic as far as contact information and background.  Applying for a position is important because it shows interest. With the application a resume should also be submitted to highlight the candidates' experience. Also the application package should be organized and well put together to make it easy for a prospective employer to review with a resume and clips to win an interview. appointment.   The second phase of getting a job as a reporter is the interview. Here it is important for talk about reporting and experience in the field of journalism and interviewing for a story to write for an audience and on deadline.  It helps to be ready to answer industry questions. The third phase is a hands on test of skill with a test run of journalism aptitude with a deadline in the office or out in the field. The assignment.

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Newspapers are now using social networks and reporters have blogs and they are also being asked to shoot video to enhance their reports to draw readers to their site.  Since the newspaper industry is in bad shape most organizations are working on a shoe string budget and are cutting costs and downsizing in the newsroom. Right now newspaper employers are looking for reporters that design, take photos, create web posts and edit video to add multimedia to stories. So knowing the cutting edge tools to enhance journalism and knowing all aspects of newspaper production is a sure way of landing a job in the newsroom.