September 7, 2025 • 32 mins
On this episode of the El Paso Public Forum:
Segment 1: Estrella Del Paso
Free legal immigration services! Amber Banda talks with Sandra Ramirez, Director of Communications for Estrella del Paso. This non-profit has been helping immigrants and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in West TX and NM since 1986. Listen to learn about what services the offer, how they are adapting to the government changes, and Sandra explains some common misconceptions when it comes to immigration and policies.
.
Join them for their 2nd Annual Community Art Exhibit, "The Art of Welcoming," during annual welcoming week on Friday, September 12th from 5-9pm at The Falstaff located at 3801 Frutas Ave in central El Paso. This art exhibit will include local student photographers, with some options to purchase. See what "welcoming" means through the eyes, (lens), of a student and support your local community.
If you or someone you know thinks they would benefit from their services, find them on Instagram and Facebook @estrelladelpaso or visit estrelladelpaso.orgestrelladelpaso.org
_______________________________________________________________________________
Segment 2: American Legion-Auxiliary- Unit 58
Enjoy some delicious BBQ while supporting veterans! Amber Banda talks with Robert Thomas, American Legion Post 58 1st Vice Commander and his wife, Armida Thomas, President of Auxiliary Unit 58.
.
Unit 58, located at 4724 Vulcan Ave in Northeast El Paso, is having their 2nd Annual Supporting Veterans BBQ Cookoff on Saturday, September 13th from 9am-6pm.
.
There will be vendors, raffles, food trucks, beer, and cash prizes for competitors. Over 20 meat professionals will be competing to win the State Championship at this event, which also includes a veteran only cookoff. Funds raised will go to Unit 58 to support veterans. Listen to find out what American Legion Unit 58 does for the community, what the competitors will be judged on, whether or not you can judge for yourself, how this competition came to be, and more.
.
For more information find them on Instagram @58svcookoff and on Facebook @supportingveterans BBQ Cookoff.
Segment 1: Estrella Del Paso
Free legal immigration services! Amber Banda talks with Sandra Ramirez, Director of Communications for Estrella del Paso. This non-profit has been helping immigrants and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in West TX and NM since 1986. Listen to learn about what services the offer, how they are adapting to the government changes, and Sandra explains some common misconceptions when it comes to immigration and policies.
.
Join them for their 2nd Annual Community Art Exhibit, "The Art of Welcoming," during annual welcoming week on Friday, September 12th from 5-9pm at The Falstaff located at 3801 Frutas Ave in central El Paso. This art exhibit will include local student photographers, with some options to purchase. See what "welcoming" means through the eyes, (lens), of a student and support your local community.
If you or someone you know thinks they would benefit from their services, find them on Instagram and Facebook @estrelladelpaso or visit estrelladelpaso.orgestrelladelpaso.org
_______________________________________________________________________________
Segment 2: American Legion-Auxiliary- Unit 58
Enjoy some delicious BBQ while supporting veterans! Amber Banda talks with Robert Thomas, American Legion Post 58 1st Vice Commander and his wife, Armida Thomas, President of Auxiliary Unit 58.
.
Unit 58, located at 4724 Vulcan Ave in Northeast El Paso, is having their 2nd Annual Supporting Veterans BBQ Cookoff on Saturday, September 13th from 9am-6pm.
.
There will be vendors, raffles, food trucks, beer, and cash prizes for competitors. Over 20 meat professionals will be competing to win the State Championship at this event, which also includes a veteran only cookoff. Funds raised will go to Unit 58 to support veterans. Listen to find out what American Legion Unit 58 does for the community, what the competitors will be judged on, whether or not you can judge for yourself, how this competition came to be, and more.
.
For more information find them on Instagram @58svcookoff and on Facebook @supportingveterans BBQ Cookoff.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the El Paso Public Forum. I'm your host, Amberbanda,
and today we have Sandra Ramidez. She is the director
of communications for Estrea del Paso. Sandra, thank you for
being with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Of course thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Of course, so Estrea del Paso. I was at a
NAMI event. I was a moderator and on the panel
it was Christian and he's.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Your social media person. Yes, that's how I thought about
about you. Is he's a great yeah, really great sense
of humor. He hung with with the best of them.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
That we're up there, and so I'm excited to talk
to you because I've never heard of this nonprofit. Now,
this nonprofit, according to your Instagram, it is for empowering
migrants and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in
West Texas and New Mexico since nineteen eighty six, which
also happens to be the euro was born. So you've
all been around for almost forty years. Yes, So Sandra,
(01:13):
can you tell us a little bit more about what
esaya that BASIL offers the community.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Absolutely, as you mentioned, it's free immigration legal services, so
we have several different units. It really runs the gamut
of different processes. So we have several different units. Our
Affirmative Legal Services offers support for people who are doing
anything within the country, so DOCA renewals, green cards, naturalizations.
Under that department, we have a crime Victims unit and
(01:37):
so they handle domestic violence victims, violence against women's, human trafficking,
labor trafficking, labor abuses. So those are all ways that
people can apply for petition for status.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We also have.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Our religious workers, so a lot of people don't know
that a lot of the people who work in our
local dioceses are from other countries and so they have
a special process that they can go through to apply
to work work in the United States. So we handle
all of.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Those we have.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
There's a lot of units. So I'm going to go
as as I guess I.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Want people to know what is available to them.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
So.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
One of our largest unit is our Company Unaccompanied Children's Program,
So this is for children who arrive at the border alone.
In twenty eighteen, it was more for children who were
separated from their parents once they arrived, when we saw
that happening, family separation happening. But now we're not seeing
that as much, but we are still seeing children arrive
at the border alone, and so we provide representation to
those children who are in local shelters. We also have
(02:35):
our Refugee Services Unit, which was just restarted last year
then immediately terminated this year, so the United States ended
the administration ended the refugee resettlement program, so we're no
longer as a country accepting refugees, but the unit still
exists to provide support for refugees and asylum seekers who
are here. And that really is one of my favorite
units because I think that that models how this system
(02:57):
could work in a really great way because they help
orient people when they arrive, teach them how to use
bus service, teach them how to open a bank account,
teach them how to make a doctor's appointment, enroll their
children in school, get them enrolled in language courses, financial courses,
so it's really just teaching them how to be members
of their community. So that's a really good model. So
we offer that service. And right now our busiest unit
(03:20):
is our Removal Defense Unit, so that's for people who
are in deportation proceedings. So these are people who find
themselves inside ICE detention centers or even people who have
an order of deportation but are still able to go
to work every day, go home every day, but are
still have to show up to immigration court for their
deportation hearings. And so right now what we're seeing is
(03:40):
a lot of people ending up in ICE attention because
they're getting picked up because we know that there is
this goal, this quota to detain people and deport people.
So a lot of people are finding themselves in deportation
proceedings right now. So the unit that handles that they
show up to court, they offer legal representation. There's another
unit that was terminated earlier this year, which is our
(04:01):
LOP our Legal Orientation program and our Immigration Court help desk,
and so those are free services for people inside the
detention center. And so if you think about you know,
for Bliss just opened and so it's a capacity of
a thousand. They're expecting it to go up to five thousand.
That's an addition to the Elpaso Processing Center that already
exists and the Oteo Processing Center in Chaparral. So there's
(04:22):
a large number of people and the resources are already limited.
So even if we try to represent everyone in detention,
that's just not possible. So we have this team, had
this team that would go in and offer no your
rights presentations, individual orientations, group orientations pro se, which is
teaching them how to represent themselves. And they have been
successful in helping guide someone to represent themselves in court
(04:46):
and have been granted asylum.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So it's it's these are really really important programs.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
But that program was terminated very under this new administration,
so we don't have access to the detention centers right now.
But that's kind of the that's sums up all of
the different departments.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, that's amazing, and this is all very foreign to me.
I'm not very you know, thankfully, you know, I don't
have to really worry about that when with any immediate
family or with myself. But that's why I know that
it is an issue for a lot of people here
in the border city. And when you talked about, you know,
religious leaders coming in here, I don't know why it
dawned on me. It's probably not all from people from Mexico,
(05:24):
right races like you know, I would assume and correct
me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
The majority is or where.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Do you're coming from? The Philippines are coming from Africa,
They're coming from different Yeah, so we have religious workers
from literally all over the world. We have some com like,
so they really come from from everywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And for the was I gonna ask you, Oh, the lawyers.
You know, there's so many people that need help and representation.
How many lawyers do you have working with you or
helping you?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Our team the that's a good if that changes a
lot a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But our team that removal defense, like the people that
help people, the team that helps people in deportation proceedings
is a team right now.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Of two attorneys.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And several legal assistants, and then are an accompanied minors
program has more. I want to say they have like
six or seven, so I don't know those exact numbers,
but yeah, so they're relatively small teams that are doing
a huge amount of work.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So are these lawyers and legal assistants that work their
full time or if there's a lawyer or legal assistant listening,
can they donate their time you know, I guess it's
like the pro bono to.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Help out or get hours or whatever it is they need.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Absolutely, so right now they work that our team works
for us full time, so they they're grant funded, so
it's not the lucrative corporate attorney job. So they do
this really for the cause, right and so, but at
this time, we are really counting on pro bono attorneys,
private attorneys coming in and tapping in and saying, hey,
I can help, I can do this. I have the knowledge,
(06:53):
I have the experience, I have the license ye to
tell people, right and so, yeah, we absolutely are. I'm
seeking pro bono attorneys and volunteers who are willing to
help with the legal work that we're seeing.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And before we get into how someone might apply for
these services, what I want to ask, is there anything
that maybe, uh, there's a misconception about what you all do,
or misconceptions on immigration or refugees in general that you
would like to talk about to the public.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Oh, A huge one that I'm seeing right now that
we've seen all along, right is this argument of people
should do it the right way, they should do it
the legal way. And what's really frustrating about that is
trying to explain to people is that many of the
people did do it the right way. What we are
seeing right now are people who entered through the CBP
(07:42):
one app which was created under the Biden administration for
people who were seeking asylum, and so you had to
wait in line, get an appointment, plead your case, and
then be allowed in. So they were legally allowed to
enter this country. Once you enter the country as an
asylum seeker, you have one year to file that asylum application.
During that year, you have status to be You have
permission to be in the country legally, so you are
(08:05):
here legally. When you talk about people with temporary protected
status from countries who are war torn or facing different challenges,
we're talking Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, or like political persecution. So
other people who face have temporary protected status are also
allowed to be in this country. They are given permission
to be in this country legally. They are given work
(08:26):
authorization in some cases, so you have the government knows
you're here. They let you in, they let you stay here,
they let they gave you the documentation to be here.
You did it quote unquote the right way, right like
you did it this legal way. What we're seeing now
is people being stripped of that status. So temporary protected
status is being removed. So all of a sudden, you've
been here legally, and all of a sudden, the government
(08:47):
says you can't be here anymore. We're removing that status.
Or you're an asylum seeker who's pending a court date
and the government says, no, too bad, we're going to
detain you.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
We're going to pick you up and we're going to
detain you.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
We're going to put you a nice attention and we're
going to try to deport you before you have that
immigration hearing. So people have done things the right way,
and that status is being removed, and all of a sudden,
they've been here legally, they've been doing their check ins.
We know that ninety nine percent of asylum seekers show
up to their court hearings. They're not skipping their court hearings.
(09:17):
They are showing up, they're not disappearing, and so we
know that that's what's happening. But once the status has removed,
all of a sudden, from one day to the next,
they're finding themselves undocumented essentially.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I mean, everything is changing, and it can change from
one day to the next, from one minute to the next.
It's hard to stay on top of that. So if
someone did want to go, you know, to Esseya del
Paso for maybe legal services or just to better understand, well,
what's happening today, you know, how can they how can
they do that?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
How can they get ahold of you? How can they
get this going?
Speaker 5 (09:48):
We actually really encourage people who have any kind of
immigration processor or curious about what they're eligible for to
reach out to us for free consultation. So our services
in twenty twenty four were one hundred percent free. Can
also get a free consultation. You can go to our
website TOTS Today al Paso dot org and there's an
email address Kunzulta at Estrea dot org and we can collect,
(10:10):
well collect some information to make sure that you qualify
for benefits for the free services, and you can sit
down with a Department of Justice accredited representative or an
attorney who can tell you this is who can really
go into your case and see what options are available
for you, because every case really is very different and
you should have your individual situation reviewed by an attorney
(10:32):
or a representative.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And as you're speaking, I'm thinking English Spanish, but like
you said earlier, there's people that are coming from all
over the world. So are there different languages available in
addition to Spanish.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Yes, So we work with translators and language services and
interpreters to make sure that we're able to accommodate the
different languages.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And if you're just tuning in, I have here Sanjo Ramidez,
director of Communications for Estrea del Paso again empowering migrants
and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in West
Axis and New Mexico since nineteen eighty six. So reminder,
if you're listening to this live on any of our stations,
this is a free podcast on the iHeart app, the
(11:08):
al Paso public forms, you can go back and listen.
Information again will be available on poun O two point
one sending that at nine point nine and ninety six
point three k country, Instagram and Facebook. So, Sandra, you
gave a very good explanation of what Esrea del Paso
offers the community and now people that want to help
you accept donations of course at Estrea del Paso dot org.
(11:29):
You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram at
thee del Paso. And you have an event coming up,
second annual Community Art Exhibit. Can you tell us a
little bit more about that.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
So this is part of Welcoming Week, which is a
national effort and it's called the Art of Welcoming is
the event that we're hosting because we really want to
embrace the spirit of welcoming you o'll past. So we
feel that that is the true spirit of this community
that is welcoming and invites people and responds when people
are in need, and we really want to embrace that.
So this year we're doing it. We're inviting local photographers
(12:01):
to share their photography in a gallery that we will
put up at the Fall Staff on September twelfth from
five to nine pm. And so we just invite We
have also invited students in the local community from local
schools to create artwork that they think displays welcoming, the
welcoming spirit, like how do you welcome a new student,
how do you welcome a new friend? Right? Yeah, so
(12:24):
all of these things, right, Like it's just creating, like
really embracing that spirit and acknowledging that that we are
really a welcoming community and let's put that on display
because we know who we are as a community. So
we have invited students and the local photographers where will
have Djochica will be there playing for us to kind
of set up the event. We'll have live music from
(12:45):
Fronterramualu so local Kumbia event.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Like really good following.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So it's really just embracing the spirit of what Elpasso.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Is and what is Welcoming Week? Is that something specific
to isre. Is that something celebrated on a bigger scale.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, it's it's actually celebrate on a bigger scale.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So it's the Welcoming Week initiative is nationwide and it
really invites cities in counties. So we partner with al
Paso County the Office of New Americans to really take
a full week. So there will be a proclamation at
County Commissioner's Court that week in September. And so there
are different events throughout the community. Some of them are
information sessions, information fairs where you can just figure out
(13:23):
what the resources.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Are in general.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Right, so they're health resources. We've invited the all Passo
Public Library to come to our event, so that because
they're offering the library part.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, passport, I know that is so great.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
So it's just that, right, It's like, these are the
services that are that are available in our community. Let's
all come together in one space and make sure that
you have access to all of that information.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And again that's the second Annual Community Art Exhibit September
twelfth at the Fall Staff three eight zero one fruitas
Avenue wears at Bay.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
It's kind of you're on your way to the Chicostacos
and a Lamela.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Okay, kind of right off with the landmarks.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I don't know this East West stuff. I'm like, give
me landmark from five to nine pm. The Art of Welcoming.
So if you are a student, you're a photographer, you
want to submit something, they can go to the website.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Es yeah, and go to our The easiest way really
right now is through our Instagram. Send us a DM
like that's going to be the quickest response.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, and they submit a physical photo. I'm assuming rights right, okay.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Yeah, a physical frame photo. We have the requirements that
are up on our website. They can take a look
at them, or you can just DM us. We'll send you,
will email you all of the information to be a
part of it.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
And for the people that are submitting photos or people
that want to go to this event, it's a free event.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's a free event. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And do they have the option to buy the artworkers
or just to look.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
So we are giving the photographers the option of donating
their photographs so that people can They will have like
an online auction so that people are able to to
purchase them and kind of and the proceeds will benefit
the organization of course.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, I love that again, so real quick, Yeah, before that,
this is the second annual.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
What was the theme? Was it the same the year before?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah? The theme? I can't remember last year's theme.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
But last year we invited local artists, so we had
Patrick Gablone who spoke, We had uh huh we hitch
you got that as he was there, who had a mask.
So we had defines different artists who presented their artwork
with the same theme of welcoming. How do you express
welcoming in your artwork? So so this year we switched it,
switched it up a little bit to include photography.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So, Sandra, is there anything else that you would like
to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
No, I think that there's just really a lot going on.
And so if you go to our website, if you
scroll over to the bottom, you're able to sign up
for our newsletter and we just send out updates on
what's going on in our community, how we're responding, how
you can help. You're able to sign up for monthly
recurring donations. Just set it to auto pay, and even
a ten dollars a month donation goes a star Buck.
(15:49):
Very Yeah, that goes a very long way. Because we
can represent one client for one hundred dollars, So if
you ten months later of ten dollars a year, you
have given somebody full legal represent So no donation is
too small.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
And then just just let it draft out of your
bank account, just the way your Netflix.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Sar.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You switch it over this one, you'll be, it'll be
we'll put into good use.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
I promise.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I love that so again, Estraya del Paso dot org
e s t r e l l A d E
l p A s O dot org or find them
on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It's the del Paso.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Sandra, thank you so much for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Of course, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Welcome to the al Paso Public Forum. I am your host,
Amber Banda. And today we have Robert Thomas, American Legion
Post fifty eight, first Vice Commander. Robert, thank you for
being here with me today, of course. And we also
have his wife, Admita. Thomas, President Auxiliary Unit fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Did I say that right on me?
Speaker 7 (16:55):
The auxiliary Auxiliary Auxiliary Unit fifty.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
That's direct me this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, listen to her, not when I said, okay. So
we're gonna be talking today about a very special event,
but more importantly, before that, we're gonna be talking about
this organization. Now, there's different ways to say it. There's
you know, they're going to explain it more beautifully than
I can. But I have it written as American Legion
Auxiliary Unit fifty eight, and then there's also the Sun's
(17:22):
Squadron fifty eight. So Robert, can you kind of explain
how that works?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Yes, ma'am. So what happens is you have the actual
American Legion. So the American Legions have posts throughout the
United States. Our legion is post fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Oh throughout the United States, yes, okay.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
So you have our unit is post fifty eight or
I'm sorry, our post is Post fifty eight. So you
have the American Legion, which is going to be the veterans. Okay, right,
So you have to be a veteran to join the
American Legion.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So American Legion is veterans, is not active soldiers.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
We can have activism okay, okay, active veteran veteran side.
You have to be honorably discharged. And if your active
duty you can join as well.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
So under the think of it as an umbrella. So
you have the American Legion on top. Then you have
the auxiliary. The auxiliary is going to be the spouse's
male or female, and then the daughters and granddaughters of
the veteran okay, and then you have the Sons, which
is the sons and grandsons of the veterans. So you
have the three organizations within the one building that we have.
So you have the American Legion, the auxiliary, and then
(18:20):
the suns as well.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And so I know there's different ones throughout our pass
So how do you know which one?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I guess you belong to or go.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
To or it's really not so much as to where
you belong to or in an area specifically, it's where
you would choose to go to.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
Okay, So we have American Legions up in Horizon, we
have a couple in Central, we have one in Anthony.
Ours is specifically in the Northeast. We chose that one
because we actually got reached out to right well.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
Actually I was in college doing a non profit kind
of community service that I needed to do for a
college credit. We ended up going to the America some
flags across America Cohen, Yes, And so we went out
there one day for Memorial Day and we came across
some writers bikers and we're like, oh, how cold, what
have you? And we also have a writer group under
(19:10):
our American Legion. Okay, so they're the Writers and Post
fifty eight. And then so when we went across and
we're like, okay, you guys are veterans, you know, oh,
we want to join, you know, we ride, you know,
can we come?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Sure.
Speaker 7 (19:22):
We lived on the West Side, so we kind of
chose that one specifically because we spoke to those people
and there was this birdie guy. His name's rumbles, you know,
and we're like, okay, you know, like a biker, typical biker,
most humble, most nicest people walked into the American Legion.
Let's go check it out. We were going to get
married and we could rent out the space. We have
(19:44):
rentals of the bingo halls and the fine dining. And
when we walked in, everybody was so like hi, welcoming, friendly,
and we stayed there. We could have gone to Post
one twenty two, which is out there in Canotio area,
so it's on the border of New Mexico and Texas,
and so we decided. And that's why it's not so
(20:04):
much where you belong to, it's wherever you feel or
would choose to.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Like, oh okay, see, I was under the impression it
was like a school district. If you wanted to go
somewhere else, you have to transfer out. If the military
is so strict, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I was like, why would it change?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
But okay, that makes a lot lot of our posts
are good. We just like I said, we just so
happened to be at that event. We met some the
guys from Post fifty eight, so we kind of went
out there, talked to them, walked in very friendly, very nice,
and we said, you know what, we want to be
part of this post.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So these these places, these buildings, what do they have
in there for military?
Speaker 6 (20:36):
So you can make it for what you want. So
you have to pay your dues. We do charge. It's
forty five dollars a year. What those dudes go to though,
is if you remember, we have the Kapala jun tainted water.
So the American Legion has actually partnered with the attorney.
You don't have to use those attorneys, but they advocate
for the veterans to get this stuff like this burn pits.
(20:59):
They advocated for burn pits, burn pits, burn pits when
Iraq Afghanistan where they burned all the material and now
you have the service member coming back to the United
States with with different problems. They causes cancer, lung deficiencies,
you name it, the burn pits because of all the
chemicals that burned burn pits. So they advocate that's what
(21:21):
the dues help go to. We can we can actually
lobby in DC. So we're a five oh one C nineteen.
What that means is we have to have a certain
percentage of veterans in our nonprofit. So we do a
lot of advocating at the national level, so that's where
part of the dues go to. Other than that, like
local stuff that we do. Some of the things that
(21:42):
we've done from our posts specifically is we've adopted I
believe it's Logan Elementary.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
Logan Elementary we have like our auxiliary unit and the
Squadron fifty eight. We kind of collaborated with the Northeast
Regional Command Center, which is a police department in the Northeast,
and we adopted Logan Elementary, which is military on ality.
It's on for Bliss, but they have military children. You know,
the majority I want to say is military and not
(22:11):
public so much. But we adopted them. And for Christmas
they get us a list and we have thirty two children,
you know that needed. So they get a shirt, pant, shoes,
and a toy. So we get all of this together
and we go and we wrap it, we go and
take it. The Northeast Regional Command has Santa Claus and
(22:33):
the Grinch and it is the most oh my God.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
And again auxiliary meaning the theses, okay, the spouse, the spouses.
So these these places there, you know, they offer I
know I've been into a few and they have you know,
like places to get a drink, places to get food,
they have events, and then like you said, they do
you know, the lobbying on a national level, and then
they do community stuff for the school. So I'm getting
(22:59):
a better picture now. Again, I've been to these places,
I've experienced these places, but now that you're all explaining it,
it's given me a much better idea. And Rob, can
you give us a little bit of history of the
one that you specifically belonged to?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
So we were the building was actually built in the sixties.
It was a small building at that time, and we've
added on to it on each side. So the history
of our building is we were built in the sixties.
So you walk in, it's a little it was a
little outdated when we first walk in. We're updating it.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
We oh, yes, it was paneling and carpet, So.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
We're updating it now as we go along. But our
building was in the sixties, and because we've done two
add ons to it as well. But the history of
the American Legion in general is we were the oldest
veteran nonprofit in the United States. We were actually founded
after World War One. Oh wow, some of the things
that the American Legion has done is we started what
(24:01):
is now known as the VA Okay, so there's a
huge history on that. I don't want to get too details. Yeah,
but those are some of the things that we did.
So the history that we do is we support the veterans,
the veteran families. If veterans need any type of assistance,
they're more than welcome to come to any American Legion
and ask is pretty much all you really needed to
(24:23):
and how long have.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
You both been in it?
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Nine years?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Nine years? Okay?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
And if you're just joining us, we have Robert Thomas,
American Legion Post fifty eight, first vice Commander and Admia Thomas,
President of Auxiliary Unit fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Did I say that word right?
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yes, look correct, correct, And we're talking about, you know,
the kind of the history of the organization. They gave
a description of how that works for all of us civilians.
But if you want to help, there's many ways. But
there is an event coming up that sounds really delicious
September thirteenth. It's the second annual Support Veterans Barbecue Cookoff. Admida,
(25:03):
can you tell us a little bit about what this
event is.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Oh yes, let me tell you a little bit of
a history of how it became about. Okay, we went
to Blanco, Texas with my sister, she lives out there.
We went to Lockhart, which one of her friends was eight.
They're having a barbecue cookoff. Okay, let's go, let's go
have fun. When we ended up going there, they had
the competitors, they had vendors, they had food trucks and
what have you. Oh, He's like, I think we can
(25:27):
do this at the Legion and I'm like, sure, how
hard could it be?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Right?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
It takes a lot of planning. And we had the
IBCEA well at that point, we didn't we called them up,
but we needed Elevenda.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
The International International Barbecue Cookers Association. They're a sationing body
here in Texas.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
Okay. So then when we got in contact with him,
since it was going to be our first year, they're like,
you need eleven competitors and we're like, oh, that's easy,
you know, come.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
On, everyone has got a passle.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
Oh my gosh, you know, trying to get eleven teams
out there was a little challenging and oh yes, and
then we got vendors and go we can get vendors
in the whole building. So we have three parts to
our building. It's the Bengal Hall, it's the lounge bar area,
and then we have fine dining, so I fit twenty
seven vendors in there, you know, trying to get people
(26:17):
you know to come in. You know, we had to
kind of organize. We started off with how many people
in our Communit eight people in our committee last year.
So then we all kind of like brainstorm, you know,
what can we do? And of course, like everything else,
trial and ever, we learned. We came about we need this,
we need that. We needed sponsors. We got sponsors. They
helped us out. But then we're like, okay, what is
(26:38):
the cash payout, you know, to do all of this
stuff next year. We're going to need to do this.
Now we're up twenty five plus.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
I think we have to. We're waiting on number twenty six.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
To join Competitors.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Competitors too.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
We just reached out and right before actually we were
pulling into the parking lot, we had the twenty sixth
team reached out to me.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So it was obviously worth doing again because this is
the second annual supporting veterans Barbecue Cookoff. It's September thirteenth,
nine am to six pm, forty seven to twenty four
Vulcan Avenue. So that's in the Northeast and this is
a state championship. It's IBCA sanctioned. So Rob, can you
tell us a little bit more about there's obviously going
(27:20):
to be the barbecue competition, but like, what's gonna like
can people go and try for themselves?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Who are the judges? How does this work?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
So some of the judges, we do have some city
leaders that will be there. Okay, they have confirmed those
judges there.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Are not vegan, right, okay, just making you can't them.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
So the judges have we already have made contact with
all the judges. So what to expect if you show up,
you can expect there.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I mean when they show up, when the show, when.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
They show up, yes, ma'am, they're gonna be I believe
it's thirty four vendors, thirty two. Thirty two vendors met
it was in charge of the vendors. So thirty two
vendors are going to be out there. We have the
twenty six competitors. We are going to have a twin
city off road. They will be doing what's called a
flex off, so for a small donation if you own
a jeep. What they do is they run that front
(28:08):
tire up on the ramp to see how high they
can get up on the ramp and then they measure
it twin city off road will be they're the ones
running that. So I don't know much stream too much
about that, but I watched them, so they do. They
run that front tire up off and they have like
their how they measure and stuff like that to see
who went the highest. I don't. I don't. I don't
want to talk too much about that because I have
no idea about that.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Be fun to go see.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Yes, we will have a jumping balloon for kids. We
are very kid friendly. We do have a mechanical bull
that will be out there as well DJ the DJs
when you walk in. We do have a TBC license,
so we have all the TV products that alcohol.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
We have not a lot of non alcohol.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
You cannot, but if.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
You don't partake in alcohol, we do have all the
non alcoholic drinks as well. We are selling food. Dodgy's
World Catering is they are going to be selling.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Hawaiian Island barbecue Island Barbecue Coast Law and oh yeah,
it's going to be really good.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So with the competitors, what are they being judged on?
Is it just one dish that they're making.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
No, ma'am. So we have what's called ancillary's. Those are
Friday Night, So we also have Friday Night as well,
So if you want to come out Friday night, we
are selling pulled pork and Colts law along with we
have some raffles and stuff like that going on Friday
as well as Saturday. Yes, okay, so Saturday, I'm sorry, Friday,
they will be turning in poppers. And then for we
have a Veteran's only category which is chicken thce, and
(29:41):
then we also have a first responder only the meat loaf,
so on Friday, those will be turned in. As far
as like, if let's say you show up, be like, hey,
can I try the barbecue? That's going to be up
to the individual. Okay, Okay, I know for a fact
I have a team smoking dirty, me and my partner.
My team is smoking dirty. Yeah, my partner and I
we're going to be doing all the ancillaries. So, for example,
(30:05):
we're probably gonna do between fifty and sixty poppers, we'll
have to turn in eight. Well, the rest of them
first come for served by my team. I'm going to
hand them out. Some of the other yes, some of
the other teams, they're gonna probably be doing the same thing,
but it's not guaranteed that the team will do that.
But I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be
(30:25):
given out poppers. I'm gonna be given out Well.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
We're gonna have to get it. Well, his partner is
Chef Bryan, which is the commander of the Sun of
the Squadron fifty. Oh, that is his partner. So yeah,
and he owns Dodgy's World Catering as well. So we're
hoping that we can make this to your cheat day
if you haven't yes day exactly.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
And then on Saturday the competition itself. I well, we
have beans if you want to particular the ancillary beans
will be turned in on our Saturday. But the main
category is what is being judged is going to be chicken.
Did you have to do turn into half of chicken
not disjointed? Eight pork ribs I'm sorry, pork spare ribs, okay,
(31:08):
and then eight slices of brisket. So the categories we're
gonna be cooking is chicken, pork, ribs, and briskets.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So that's what the judges are going to be judging. Yeskay,
So they're gonna because and there's how many competitors again,
twenty six, so they're going to be trying twenty six
times three of each.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Right, and we have judges, yes, twenty judges.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Yeah, they can only judge so yeah, they can only
judge twelve teams out of time.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh twelve. Yeah, so it's not going to be to
do a competition for them and out who can judge
the most. So again, that's the second annual Supporting Veterans
Barbecue Cookoff Saturday, September thirteenth, from nine am to six
pm at forty seven to twenty four Vulcan Avenue. But
they are having that event the day before. There's going
to be more information on their Instagram at fifty eight
(31:49):
sv as in Supporting Veterans Cookoff, on Facebook at Supporting
Veterans Barbecue Cookoff, or again go to POUNA two point
one Sunday ninety nine point nine or ninety six point
three country Instagram or Facebook. That information will be on
there along with the flyer and pictures of my guests.
I just want to say again Robert and Admita, thank
you so much for being here with me today.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You've been listening to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso. If you, your
organization or event would like to be featured on an
upcoming program, please email to Epforum at iHeartMedia dot com
or call us at nine one five three five one
five four zero zero. Tune in again next week for
(32:32):
another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding program
was recorded at the studios of iHeartRadio El Paso.
Welcome to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the El Paso Public Forum. I'm your host, Amberbanda,
and today we have Sandra Ramidez. She is the director
of communications for Estrea del Paso. Sandra, thank you for
being with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Of course thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Of course, so Estrea del Paso. I was at a
NAMI event. I was a moderator and on the panel
it was Christian and he's.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Your social media person. Yes, that's how I thought about
about you. Is he's a great yeah, really great sense
of humor. He hung with with the best of them.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
That we're up there, and so I'm excited to talk
to you because I've never heard of this nonprofit. Now,
this nonprofit, according to your Instagram, it is for empowering
migrants and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in
West Texas and New Mexico since nineteen eighty six, which
also happens to be the euro was born. So you've
all been around for almost forty years. Yes, So Sandra,
(01:13):
can you tell us a little bit more about what
esaya that BASIL offers the community.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Absolutely, as you mentioned, it's free immigration legal services, so
we have several different units. It really runs the gamut
of different processes. So we have several different units. Our
Affirmative Legal Services offers support for people who are doing
anything within the country, so DOCA renewals, green cards, naturalizations.
Under that department, we have a crime Victims unit and
(01:37):
so they handle domestic violence victims, violence against women's, human trafficking,
labor trafficking, labor abuses. So those are all ways that
people can apply for petition for status.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We also have.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Our religious workers, so a lot of people don't know
that a lot of the people who work in our
local dioceses are from other countries and so they have
a special process that they can go through to apply
to work work in the United States. So we handle
all of.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Those we have.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
There's a lot of units. So I'm going to go
as as I guess I.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Want people to know what is available to them.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
So.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
One of our largest unit is our Company Unaccompanied Children's Program,
So this is for children who arrive at the border alone.
In twenty eighteen, it was more for children who were
separated from their parents once they arrived, when we saw
that happening, family separation happening. But now we're not seeing
that as much, but we are still seeing children arrive
at the border alone, and so we provide representation to
those children who are in local shelters. We also have
(02:35):
our Refugee Services Unit, which was just restarted last year
then immediately terminated this year, so the United States ended
the administration ended the refugee resettlement program, so we're no
longer as a country accepting refugees, but the unit still
exists to provide support for refugees and asylum seekers who
are here. And that really is one of my favorite
units because I think that that models how this system
(02:57):
could work in a really great way because they help
orient people when they arrive, teach them how to use
bus service, teach them how to open a bank account,
teach them how to make a doctor's appointment, enroll their
children in school, get them enrolled in language courses, financial courses,
so it's really just teaching them how to be members
of their community. So that's a really good model. So
we offer that service. And right now our busiest unit
(03:20):
is our Removal Defense Unit, so that's for people who
are in deportation proceedings. So these are people who find
themselves inside ICE detention centers or even people who have
an order of deportation but are still able to go
to work every day, go home every day, but are
still have to show up to immigration court for their
deportation hearings. And so right now what we're seeing is
(03:40):
a lot of people ending up in ICE attention because
they're getting picked up because we know that there is
this goal, this quota to detain people and deport people.
So a lot of people are finding themselves in deportation
proceedings right now. So the unit that handles that they
show up to court, they offer legal representation. There's another
unit that was terminated earlier this year, which is our
(04:01):
LOP our Legal Orientation program and our Immigration Court help desk,
and so those are free services for people inside the
detention center. And so if you think about you know,
for Bliss just opened and so it's a capacity of
a thousand. They're expecting it to go up to five thousand.
That's an addition to the Elpaso Processing Center that already
exists and the Oteo Processing Center in Chaparral. So there's
(04:22):
a large number of people and the resources are already limited.
So even if we try to represent everyone in detention,
that's just not possible. So we have this team, had
this team that would go in and offer no your
rights presentations, individual orientations, group orientations pro se, which is
teaching them how to represent themselves. And they have been
successful in helping guide someone to represent themselves in court
(04:46):
and have been granted asylum.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So it's it's these are really really important programs.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
But that program was terminated very under this new administration,
so we don't have access to the detention centers right now.
But that's kind of the that's sums up all of
the different departments.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, that's amazing, and this is all very foreign to me.
I'm not very you know, thankfully, you know, I don't
have to really worry about that when with any immediate
family or with myself. But that's why I know that
it is an issue for a lot of people here
in the border city. And when you talked about, you know,
religious leaders coming in here, I don't know why it
dawned on me. It's probably not all from people from Mexico,
(05:24):
right races like you know, I would assume and correct
me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
The majority is or where.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Do you're coming from? The Philippines are coming from Africa,
They're coming from different Yeah, so we have religious workers
from literally all over the world. We have some com like,
so they really come from from everywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And for the was I gonna ask you, Oh, the lawyers.
You know, there's so many people that need help and representation.
How many lawyers do you have working with you or
helping you?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Our team the that's a good if that changes a
lot a lot.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But our team that removal defense, like the people that
help people, the team that helps people in deportation proceedings
is a team right now.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Of two attorneys.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And several legal assistants, and then are an accompanied minors
program has more. I want to say they have like
six or seven, so I don't know those exact numbers,
but yeah, so they're relatively small teams that are doing
a huge amount of work.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So are these lawyers and legal assistants that work their
full time or if there's a lawyer or legal assistant listening,
can they donate their time you know, I guess it's
like the pro bono to.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Help out or get hours or whatever it is they need.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Absolutely, so right now they work that our team works
for us full time, so they they're grant funded, so
it's not the lucrative corporate attorney job. So they do
this really for the cause, right and so, but at
this time, we are really counting on pro bono attorneys,
private attorneys coming in and tapping in and saying, hey,
I can help, I can do this. I have the knowledge,
(06:53):
I have the experience, I have the license ye to
tell people, right and so, yeah, we absolutely are. I'm
seeking pro bono attorneys and volunteers who are willing to
help with the legal work that we're seeing.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And before we get into how someone might apply for
these services, what I want to ask, is there anything
that maybe, uh, there's a misconception about what you all do,
or misconceptions on immigration or refugees in general that you
would like to talk about to the public.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Oh, A huge one that I'm seeing right now that
we've seen all along, right is this argument of people
should do it the right way, they should do it
the legal way. And what's really frustrating about that is
trying to explain to people is that many of the
people did do it the right way. What we are
seeing right now are people who entered through the CBP
(07:42):
one app which was created under the Biden administration for
people who were seeking asylum, and so you had to
wait in line, get an appointment, plead your case, and
then be allowed in. So they were legally allowed to
enter this country. Once you enter the country as an
asylum seeker, you have one year to file that asylum application.
During that year, you have status to be You have
permission to be in the country legally, so you are
(08:05):
here legally. When you talk about people with temporary protected
status from countries who are war torn or facing different challenges,
we're talking Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, or like political persecution. So
other people who face have temporary protected status are also
allowed to be in this country. They are given permission
to be in this country legally. They are given work
(08:26):
authorization in some cases, so you have the government knows
you're here. They let you in, they let you stay here,
they let they gave you the documentation to be here.
You did it quote unquote the right way, right like
you did it this legal way. What we're seeing now
is people being stripped of that status. So temporary protected
status is being removed. So all of a sudden, you've
been here legally, and all of a sudden, the government
(08:47):
says you can't be here anymore. We're removing that status.
Or you're an asylum seeker who's pending a court date
and the government says, no, too bad, we're going to
detain you.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
We're going to pick you up and we're going to
detain you.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
We're going to put you a nice attention and we're
going to try to deport you before you have that
immigration hearing. So people have done things the right way,
and that status is being removed, and all of a sudden,
they've been here legally, they've been doing their check ins.
We know that ninety nine percent of asylum seekers show
up to their court hearings. They're not skipping their court hearings.
(09:17):
They are showing up, they're not disappearing, and so we
know that that's what's happening. But once the status has removed,
all of a sudden, from one day to the next,
they're finding themselves undocumented essentially.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I mean, everything is changing, and it can change from
one day to the next, from one minute to the next.
It's hard to stay on top of that. So if
someone did want to go, you know, to Esseya del
Paso for maybe legal services or just to better understand, well,
what's happening today, you know, how can they how can
they do that?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
How can they get ahold of you? How can they
get this going?
Speaker 5 (09:48):
We actually really encourage people who have any kind of
immigration processor or curious about what they're eligible for to
reach out to us for free consultation. So our services
in twenty twenty four were one hundred percent free. Can
also get a free consultation. You can go to our
website TOTS Today al Paso dot org and there's an
email address Kunzulta at Estrea dot org and we can collect,
(10:10):
well collect some information to make sure that you qualify
for benefits for the free services, and you can sit
down with a Department of Justice accredited representative or an
attorney who can tell you this is who can really
go into your case and see what options are available
for you, because every case really is very different and
you should have your individual situation reviewed by an attorney
(10:32):
or a representative.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And as you're speaking, I'm thinking English Spanish, but like
you said earlier, there's people that are coming from all
over the world. So are there different languages available in
addition to Spanish.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Yes, So we work with translators and language services and
interpreters to make sure that we're able to accommodate the
different languages.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And if you're just tuning in, I have here Sanjo Ramidez,
director of Communications for Estrea del Paso again empowering migrants
and refugees with free legal support and advocacy in West
Axis and New Mexico since nineteen eighty six. So reminder,
if you're listening to this live on any of our stations,
this is a free podcast on the iHeart app, the
(11:08):
al Paso public forms, you can go back and listen.
Information again will be available on poun O two point
one sending that at nine point nine and ninety six
point three k country, Instagram and Facebook. So, Sandra, you
gave a very good explanation of what Esrea del Paso
offers the community and now people that want to help
you accept donations of course at Estrea del Paso dot org.
(11:29):
You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram at
thee del Paso. And you have an event coming up,
second annual Community Art Exhibit. Can you tell us a
little bit more about that.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
So this is part of Welcoming Week, which is a
national effort and it's called the Art of Welcoming is
the event that we're hosting because we really want to
embrace the spirit of welcoming you o'll past. So we
feel that that is the true spirit of this community
that is welcoming and invites people and responds when people
are in need, and we really want to embrace that.
So this year we're doing it. We're inviting local photographers
(12:01):
to share their photography in a gallery that we will
put up at the Fall Staff on September twelfth from
five to nine pm. And so we just invite We
have also invited students in the local community from local
schools to create artwork that they think displays welcoming, the
welcoming spirit, like how do you welcome a new student,
how do you welcome a new friend? Right? Yeah, so
(12:24):
all of these things, right, Like it's just creating, like
really embracing that spirit and acknowledging that that we are
really a welcoming community and let's put that on display
because we know who we are as a community. So
we have invited students and the local photographers where will
have Djochica will be there playing for us to kind
of set up the event. We'll have live music from
(12:45):
Fronterramualu so local Kumbia event.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Like really good following.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So it's really just embracing the spirit of what Elpasso.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Is and what is Welcoming Week? Is that something specific
to isre. Is that something celebrated on a bigger scale.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, it's it's actually celebrate on a bigger scale.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
So it's the Welcoming Week initiative is nationwide and it
really invites cities in counties. So we partner with al
Paso County the Office of New Americans to really take
a full week. So there will be a proclamation at
County Commissioner's Court that week in September. And so there
are different events throughout the community. Some of them are
information sessions, information fairs where you can just figure out
(13:23):
what the resources.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Are in general.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Right, so they're health resources. We've invited the all Passo
Public Library to come to our event, so that because
they're offering the library part.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, passport, I know that is so great.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
So it's just that, right, It's like, these are the
services that are that are available in our community. Let's
all come together in one space and make sure that
you have access to all of that information.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And again that's the second Annual Community Art Exhibit September
twelfth at the Fall Staff three eight zero one fruitas
Avenue wears at Bay.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
It's kind of you're on your way to the Chicostacos
and a Lamela.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Okay, kind of right off with the landmarks.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I don't know this East West stuff. I'm like, give
me landmark from five to nine pm. The Art of Welcoming.
So if you are a student, you're a photographer, you
want to submit something, they can go to the website.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Es yeah, and go to our The easiest way really
right now is through our Instagram. Send us a DM
like that's going to be the quickest response.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, and they submit a physical photo. I'm assuming rights right, okay.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Yeah, a physical frame photo. We have the requirements that
are up on our website. They can take a look
at them, or you can just DM us. We'll send you,
will email you all of the information to be a
part of it.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
And for the people that are submitting photos or people
that want to go to this event, it's a free event.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's a free event. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And do they have the option to buy the artworkers
or just to look.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
So we are giving the photographers the option of donating
their photographs so that people can They will have like
an online auction so that people are able to to
purchase them and kind of and the proceeds will benefit
the organization of course.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, I love that again, so real quick, Yeah, before that,
this is the second annual.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
What was the theme? Was it the same the year before?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah? The theme? I can't remember last year's theme.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
But last year we invited local artists, so we had
Patrick Gablone who spoke, We had uh huh we hitch
you got that as he was there, who had a mask.
So we had defines different artists who presented their artwork
with the same theme of welcoming. How do you express
welcoming in your artwork? So so this year we switched it,
switched it up a little bit to include photography.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So, Sandra, is there anything else that you would like
to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
No, I think that there's just really a lot going on.
And so if you go to our website, if you
scroll over to the bottom, you're able to sign up
for our newsletter and we just send out updates on
what's going on in our community, how we're responding, how
you can help. You're able to sign up for monthly
recurring donations. Just set it to auto pay, and even
a ten dollars a month donation goes a star Buck.
(15:49):
Very Yeah, that goes a very long way. Because we
can represent one client for one hundred dollars, So if
you ten months later of ten dollars a year, you
have given somebody full legal represent So no donation is
too small.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
And then just just let it draft out of your
bank account, just the way your Netflix.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Sar.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You switch it over this one, you'll be, it'll be
we'll put into good use.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
I promise.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I love that so again, Estraya del Paso dot org
e s t r e l l A d E
l p A s O dot org or find them
on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It's the del Paso.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Sandra, thank you so much for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Of course, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Welcome to the al Paso Public Forum. I am your host,
Amber Banda. And today we have Robert Thomas, American Legion
Post fifty eight, first Vice Commander. Robert, thank you for
being here with me today, of course. And we also
have his wife, Admita. Thomas, President Auxiliary Unit fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Did I say that right on me?
Speaker 7 (16:55):
The auxiliary Auxiliary Auxiliary Unit fifty.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
That's direct me this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, listen to her, not when I said, okay. So
we're gonna be talking today about a very special event,
but more importantly, before that, we're gonna be talking about
this organization. Now, there's different ways to say it. There's
you know, they're going to explain it more beautifully than
I can. But I have it written as American Legion
Auxiliary Unit fifty eight, and then there's also the Sun's
(17:22):
Squadron fifty eight. So Robert, can you kind of explain
how that works?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Yes, ma'am. So what happens is you have the actual
American Legion. So the American Legions have posts throughout the
United States. Our legion is post fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Oh throughout the United States, yes, okay.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
So you have our unit is post fifty eight or
I'm sorry, our post is Post fifty eight. So you
have the American Legion, which is going to be the veterans. Okay, right,
So you have to be a veteran to join the
American Legion.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So American Legion is veterans, is not active soldiers.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
We can have activism okay, okay, active veteran veteran side.
You have to be honorably discharged. And if your active
duty you can join as well.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
So under the think of it as an umbrella. So
you have the American Legion on top. Then you have
the auxiliary. The auxiliary is going to be the spouse's
male or female, and then the daughters and granddaughters of
the veteran okay, and then you have the Sons, which
is the sons and grandsons of the veterans. So you
have the three organizations within the one building that we have.
So you have the American Legion, the auxiliary, and then
(18:20):
the suns as well.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And so I know there's different ones throughout our pass
So how do you know which one?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I guess you belong to or go.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
To or it's really not so much as to where
you belong to or in an area specifically, it's where
you would choose to go to.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
Okay, So we have American Legions up in Horizon, we
have a couple in Central, we have one in Anthony.
Ours is specifically in the Northeast. We chose that one
because we actually got reached out to right well.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
Actually I was in college doing a non profit kind
of community service that I needed to do for a
college credit. We ended up going to the America some
flags across America Cohen, Yes, And so we went out
there one day for Memorial Day and we came across
some writers bikers and we're like, oh, how cold, what
have you? And we also have a writer group under
(19:10):
our American Legion. Okay, so they're the Writers and Post
fifty eight. And then so when we went across and
we're like, okay, you guys are veterans, you know, oh,
we want to join, you know, we ride, you know,
can we come?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Sure.
Speaker 7 (19:22):
We lived on the West Side, so we kind of
chose that one specifically because we spoke to those people
and there was this birdie guy. His name's rumbles, you know,
and we're like, okay, you know, like a biker, typical biker,
most humble, most nicest people walked into the American Legion.
Let's go check it out. We were going to get
married and we could rent out the space. We have
(19:44):
rentals of the bingo halls and the fine dining. And
when we walked in, everybody was so like hi, welcoming, friendly,
and we stayed there. We could have gone to Post
one twenty two, which is out there in Canotio area,
so it's on the border of New Mexico and Texas,
and so we decided. And that's why it's not so
(20:04):
much where you belong to, it's wherever you feel or
would choose to.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Like, oh okay, see, I was under the impression it
was like a school district. If you wanted to go
somewhere else, you have to transfer out. If the military
is so strict, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I was like, why would it change?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
But okay, that makes a lot lot of our posts
are good. We just like I said, we just so
happened to be at that event. We met some the
guys from Post fifty eight, so we kind of went
out there, talked to them, walked in very friendly, very nice,
and we said, you know what, we want to be
part of this post.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So these these places, these buildings, what do they have
in there for military?
Speaker 6 (20:36):
So you can make it for what you want. So
you have to pay your dues. We do charge. It's
forty five dollars a year. What those dudes go to though,
is if you remember, we have the Kapala jun tainted water.
So the American Legion has actually partnered with the attorney.
You don't have to use those attorneys, but they advocate
for the veterans to get this stuff like this burn pits.
(20:59):
They advocated for burn pits, burn pits, burn pits when
Iraq Afghanistan where they burned all the material and now
you have the service member coming back to the United
States with with different problems. They causes cancer, lung deficiencies,
you name it, the burn pits because of all the
chemicals that burned burn pits. So they advocate that's what
(21:21):
the dues help go to. We can we can actually
lobby in DC. So we're a five oh one C nineteen.
What that means is we have to have a certain
percentage of veterans in our nonprofit. So we do a
lot of advocating at the national level, so that's where
part of the dues go to. Other than that, like
local stuff that we do. Some of the things that
(21:42):
we've done from our posts specifically is we've adopted I
believe it's Logan Elementary.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
Logan Elementary we have like our auxiliary unit and the
Squadron fifty eight. We kind of collaborated with the Northeast
Regional Command Center, which is a police department in the Northeast,
and we adopted Logan Elementary, which is military on ality.
It's on for Bliss, but they have military children. You know,
the majority I want to say is military and not
(22:11):
public so much. But we adopted them. And for Christmas
they get us a list and we have thirty two children,
you know that needed. So they get a shirt, pant, shoes,
and a toy. So we get all of this together
and we go and we wrap it, we go and
take it. The Northeast Regional Command has Santa Claus and
(22:33):
the Grinch and it is the most oh my God.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
And again auxiliary meaning the theses, okay, the spouse, the spouses.
So these these places there, you know, they offer I
know I've been into a few and they have you know,
like places to get a drink, places to get food,
they have events, and then like you said, they do
you know, the lobbying on a national level, and then
they do community stuff for the school. So I'm getting
(22:59):
a better picture now. Again, I've been to these places,
I've experienced these places, but now that you're all explaining it,
it's given me a much better idea. And Rob, can
you give us a little bit of history of the
one that you specifically belonged to?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
So we were the building was actually built in the sixties.
It was a small building at that time, and we've
added on to it on each side. So the history
of our building is we were built in the sixties.
So you walk in, it's a little it was a
little outdated when we first walk in. We're updating it.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
We oh, yes, it was paneling and carpet, So.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
We're updating it now as we go along. But our
building was in the sixties, and because we've done two
add ons to it as well. But the history of
the American Legion in general is we were the oldest
veteran nonprofit in the United States. We were actually founded
after World War One. Oh wow, some of the things
that the American Legion has done is we started what
(24:01):
is now known as the VA Okay, so there's a
huge history on that. I don't want to get too details. Yeah,
but those are some of the things that we did.
So the history that we do is we support the veterans,
the veteran families. If veterans need any type of assistance,
they're more than welcome to come to any American Legion
and ask is pretty much all you really needed to
(24:23):
and how long have.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
You both been in it?
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Nine years?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Nine years? Okay?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
And if you're just joining us, we have Robert Thomas,
American Legion Post fifty eight, first vice Commander and Admia Thomas,
President of Auxiliary Unit fifty eight.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Did I say that word right?
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yes, look correct, correct, And we're talking about, you know,
the kind of the history of the organization. They gave
a description of how that works for all of us civilians.
But if you want to help, there's many ways. But
there is an event coming up that sounds really delicious
September thirteenth. It's the second annual Support Veterans Barbecue Cookoff. Admida,
(25:03):
can you tell us a little bit about what this
event is.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Oh yes, let me tell you a little bit of
a history of how it became about. Okay, we went
to Blanco, Texas with my sister, she lives out there.
We went to Lockhart, which one of her friends was eight.
They're having a barbecue cookoff. Okay, let's go, let's go
have fun. When we ended up going there, they had
the competitors, they had vendors, they had food trucks and
what have you. Oh, He's like, I think we can
(25:27):
do this at the Legion and I'm like, sure, how
hard could it be?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Right?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
It takes a lot of planning. And we had the
IBCEA well at that point, we didn't we called them up,
but we needed Elevenda.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
The International International Barbecue Cookers Association. They're a sationing body
here in Texas.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
Okay. So then when we got in contact with him,
since it was going to be our first year, they're like,
you need eleven competitors and we're like, oh, that's easy,
you know, come.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
On, everyone has got a passle.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
Oh my gosh, you know, trying to get eleven teams
out there was a little challenging and oh yes, and
then we got vendors and go we can get vendors
in the whole building. So we have three parts to
our building. It's the Bengal Hall, it's the lounge bar area,
and then we have fine dining, so I fit twenty
seven vendors in there, you know, trying to get people
(26:17):
you know to come in. You know, we had to
kind of organize. We started off with how many people
in our Communit eight people in our committee last year.
So then we all kind of like brainstorm, you know,
what can we do? And of course, like everything else,
trial and ever, we learned. We came about we need this,
we need that. We needed sponsors. We got sponsors. They
helped us out. But then we're like, okay, what is
(26:38):
the cash payout, you know, to do all of this
stuff next year. We're going to need to do this.
Now we're up twenty five plus.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
I think we have to. We're waiting on number twenty six.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
To join Competitors.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Competitors too.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
We just reached out and right before actually we were
pulling into the parking lot, we had the twenty sixth
team reached out to me.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So it was obviously worth doing again because this is
the second annual supporting veterans Barbecue Cookoff. It's September thirteenth,
nine am to six pm, forty seven to twenty four
Vulcan Avenue. So that's in the Northeast and this is
a state championship. It's IBCA sanctioned. So Rob, can you
tell us a little bit more about there's obviously going
(27:20):
to be the barbecue competition, but like, what's gonna like
can people go and try for themselves?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Who are the judges? How does this work?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
So some of the judges, we do have some city
leaders that will be there. Okay, they have confirmed those
judges there.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Are not vegan, right, okay, just making you can't them.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
So the judges have we already have made contact with
all the judges. So what to expect if you show up,
you can expect there.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I mean when they show up, when the show, when.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
They show up, yes, ma'am, they're gonna be I believe
it's thirty four vendors, thirty two. Thirty two vendors met
it was in charge of the vendors. So thirty two
vendors are going to be out there. We have the
twenty six competitors. We are going to have a twin
city off road. They will be doing what's called a
flex off, so for a small donation if you own
a jeep. What they do is they run that front
(28:08):
tire up on the ramp to see how high they
can get up on the ramp and then they measure
it twin city off road will be they're the ones
running that. So I don't know much stream too much
about that, but I watched them, so they do. They
run that front tire up off and they have like
their how they measure and stuff like that to see
who went the highest. I don't. I don't. I don't
want to talk too much about that because I have
no idea about that.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Be fun to go see.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Yes, we will have a jumping balloon for kids. We
are very kid friendly. We do have a mechanical bull
that will be out there as well DJ the DJs
when you walk in. We do have a TBC license,
so we have all the TV products that alcohol.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
We have not a lot of non alcohol.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
You cannot, but if.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
You don't partake in alcohol, we do have all the
non alcoholic drinks as well. We are selling food. Dodgy's
World Catering is they are going to be selling.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
Hawaiian Island barbecue Island Barbecue Coast Law and oh yeah,
it's going to be really good.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So with the competitors, what are they being judged on?
Is it just one dish that they're making.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
No, ma'am. So we have what's called ancillary's. Those are
Friday Night, So we also have Friday Night as well,
So if you want to come out Friday night, we
are selling pulled pork and Colts law along with we
have some raffles and stuff like that going on Friday
as well as Saturday. Yes, okay, so Saturday, I'm sorry, Friday,
they will be turning in poppers. And then for we
have a Veteran's only category which is chicken thce, and
(29:41):
then we also have a first responder only the meat loaf,
so on Friday, those will be turned in. As far
as like, if let's say you show up, be like, hey,
can I try the barbecue? That's going to be up
to the individual. Okay, Okay, I know for a fact
I have a team smoking dirty, me and my partner.
My team is smoking dirty. Yeah, my partner and I
we're going to be doing all the ancillaries. So, for example,
(30:05):
we're probably gonna do between fifty and sixty poppers, we'll
have to turn in eight. Well, the rest of them
first come for served by my team. I'm going to
hand them out. Some of the other yes, some of
the other teams, they're gonna probably be doing the same thing,
but it's not guaranteed that the team will do that.
But I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be
(30:25):
given out poppers. I'm gonna be given out Well.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
We're gonna have to get it. Well, his partner is
Chef Bryan, which is the commander of the Sun of
the Squadron fifty. Oh, that is his partner. So yeah,
and he owns Dodgy's World Catering as well. So we're
hoping that we can make this to your cheat day
if you haven't yes day exactly.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
And then on Saturday the competition itself. I well, we
have beans if you want to particular the ancillary beans
will be turned in on our Saturday. But the main
category is what is being judged is going to be chicken.
Did you have to do turn into half of chicken
not disjointed? Eight pork ribs I'm sorry, pork spare ribs, okay,
(31:08):
and then eight slices of brisket. So the categories we're
gonna be cooking is chicken, pork, ribs, and briskets.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So that's what the judges are going to be judging. Yeskay,
So they're gonna because and there's how many competitors again,
twenty six, so they're going to be trying twenty six
times three of each.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Right, and we have judges, yes, twenty judges.
Speaker 6 (31:23):
Yeah, they can only judge so yeah, they can only
judge twelve teams out of time.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Oh twelve. Yeah, so it's not going to be to
do a competition for them and out who can judge
the most. So again, that's the second annual Supporting Veterans
Barbecue Cookoff Saturday, September thirteenth, from nine am to six
pm at forty seven to twenty four Vulcan Avenue. But
they are having that event the day before. There's going
to be more information on their Instagram at fifty eight
(31:49):
sv as in Supporting Veterans Cookoff, on Facebook at Supporting
Veterans Barbecue Cookoff, or again go to POUNA two point
one Sunday ninety nine point nine or ninety six point
three country Instagram or Facebook. That information will be on
there along with the flyer and pictures of my guests.
I just want to say again Robert and Admita, thank
you so much for being here with me today.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You've been listening to El Paso Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso. If you, your
organization or event would like to be featured on an
upcoming program, please email to Epforum at iHeartMedia dot com
or call us at nine one five three five one
five four zero zero. Tune in again next week for
(32:32):
another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding program
was recorded at the studios of iHeartRadio El Paso.
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