Brownsville protesters decry Rep. Gonzalez’s support of Laken Riley bill

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BROWNSVILLE — The 46-degree weather did little to deter a group of just under 20 protesters from gathering outside of U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s district office Friday morning.

The wind made the temperature feel like they were in the low 30s, but it also carried the protesters’ voices well past the sliding doors of the Cameron County Tax Office building, where Gonzalez’s office is located.

They chose to endure the cold temperatures to show their disapproval for the Democratic congressman’s decision to vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act, the bill that appears to have bipartisan support in the House of Representatives.

Named after the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan man illegally in the U.S., the bill would allow the Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants unauthorized to be in the country who are charged with lesser crimes including burglary, larceny, theft or shoplifting.

The bundled protesters, many representing La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and the Sidewalk School, which offers education and other humanitarian services to asylum seekers near the Texas-Mexico border, stood on the sidewalk and carried signs as they awaited a delegation of representatives who’d ventured inside the building to deliver a letter to Gonzalez.

They did not have much luck.

“They didn’t want us to go up to their office. They locked their elevator, and they sent a representative down to come and pick it up and listen to us,” Victor Cavazos, a co-director of the Sidewalk School, said. “Hopefully they will get it to him. We’ve tried to reach out to Vicente Gonzalez before. He hasn’t spoken to us in person before. He’ll always send a delegate.”

Gonzalez was not at his Brownsville office at the time of the protest.

The response from the congressman’s office did not discourage the protesters outside of his office. They continued with their chants while passerby vehicles honked in support.

“It’s kind of like a written warning that you would receive at work. You know, after certain warnings, you’re out,” Cavazos said. “That’s what we’re going to plan to do. If he is not going to be representing the people that voted him into office, then we will look for another candidate. It’s going to be a very busy year.”

Some of the protesters took to a microphone to deliver remarks to media members gathered for the protest.

Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, a cofounder of the Sidewalk School, offered condolences to Riley’s family before tearing into the controversial bill.

“One man does not represent a whole population of people, nor does it make all Venezuelans criminals, rapists and murderers. That’s ridiculous,” she said.

She was critical of President-elect Donald Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony charges last year, as well as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy who are set to lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

“People need to realize what these laws are about, and it’s about criminalizing brown and Black people,” Rangel-Samponaro said. “This is white supremacy in its plainest form, in its plainest form that other people — that I’m sad to see — who look like me are participating in because they don’t understand really what immigration is about, because our U.S. government keeps it as a moving target so that no one can ever really pinpoint what it is they’re supposed to do to legally be here in the U.S.”

LUPE’s Director of Community Organizing Joaquín García was also among the group of individuals who delivered the letter to Gonzalez’s office. He said that the main goal of the protesters is to capture the attention of the congressman and have him understand that they are unhappy with his decision to support the Laken Riley Act.

“He should really represent the values of the Valley, which is compassion, the right to liberty,” García said. “Bills like this only keep dividing our community, and he keeps expanding the rhetoric that the immigrants are criminals and that they’re committing acts of harm and whatnot, that they don’t contribute to this community and this country. We know that that is not a reality.

“He wants to be part of that rhetoric, and unfortunately, it hurts our families and our neighbors here in the RGV.”

Karla Marisol Vargas, an attorney who practices out of Brownsville, said that she chose to attend Friday’s protest because she is concerned that the Laken Riley Act will set a dangerous precedent in terms of requiring incarceration of people in the country illegally, as well as potential changes to the law that could facilitate lawsuits for states to be more involved if they disagree with the way in which the federal government is implementing immigration policies.

“As someone who practices here on the Texas-Mexico border, right here in the Valley, we all know the impact that the criminalization of immigrants tends to have, especially on black and brown Indigenous communities,” Vargas said. “Obviously, we want to make sure that we’re vocal and that we are letting our officials know that we disagree with this bill, with the rhetoric accompanying this bill, and that we are going to be vocal about challenging that.”

Gonzalez responded late Friday by thanking the protesters for expressing their concerns but stood by his support of the bill.

“What this bill does is empower law enforcement agents to take action when an undocumented immigrant decides to break a criminal law,” he said in a statement. “Laken Riley’s death was a preventable tragedy, and this bill would have kept her alive. We’ve also had similar situations of undocumented immigrants harming people in South Texas.

“And although the vast majority of immigrants are good hard-working people that come here for work and a better life, we should always eradicate bad apples and encourage good behavior from immigrant communities.”

“I will continue to fight for South Texans’ and Americans’ safety, for increased legal pathways to citizenship, and to protect good immigrants with a legal standing to be in the United States,” Gonzalez added. “But I will never give a free pass to those who come to our country and break laws that put my people in harm’s way. This should not be a Democrat or Republican idea. We should be united as Americans on basic principles of morals and good conduct.”

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