Filemon Vela rolls up his sleeves in Congress

By CHARLENE VANDINI Valley Morning Star

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Filemon Vela said he thinks he’s already achieved some accomplishments at the beginning of his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

With no necktie and his shirtsleeves rolled up, Vela was between appointments on May 1, waiting to meet with Cameron County Commissioner David Garza and a delegation from the Rio Grande Partnership

The conference room of his Capitol Hill office at the Cannon Office Building displays mementoes from the Rio Grande Valley: a Donna High School football helmet on the windowsill, a framed Weslaco High School football jersey, and a model of a SpaceX rocket. There also is a large impressionistic portrait of President John F. Kennedy.

The Brownsville Democrat wouldn’t be pinned down to one issue — immigration, border security, water — that he thinks is most important to his constituents in his 34th district.

“They’re all on par in terms of their significance, from an issue standpoint,” he said, “and also from the work standpoint of this office.”

Vela said his office staff began that day hearing about suspicious material released into the Rio Grande. He had phone calls from the sugar mill about the matter.

“I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I said I deal with farmers every day, and not just on the water issue,” he said.

Among his accomplishments in his first months in Congress, Vela lists passage of the farm bill. It includes, he said, “For the first time, (it) required the state department to report to Congress on the status of (water) deliveries.”

He added that working on other measures to bring Mexico into compliance to release water is “a daily struggle.”

“It’s a Mexican issue at the end of the day, but also making sure our State Department is paying attention to it,” he said.

Other members of Congress, beyond those representatives of states affected by the water releases, need to realize the importance of the issue, he said.

“Part of my job entails talking to others, getting them to pay attention to the issue,” he said.

On the related subject of border security, Vela said he looks at the issue in the context of foreign policy, border security, immigration.

Immigration policy and border security are intertwined but different issues, he said, and doom the legalization process if taken together.

The current Democratic proposal that would allow automatic temporary residency now, followed by a green card in six years, and full citizenship in 13 years takes too long.

He cited statistics that estimates there currently are 7 million to 8 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, after eliminating undocumented immigrants who have criminal records and would therefore be ineligible for citizenship.

“Those proposals lure applicants into believing that they’ll get a green card in six years, and I have a problem conditioning immigration policy on border security,” Vela said.

“The biggest problem is that green card is conditioned on southern border fence expansion, which I oppose, and a declaration by the secretary of Homeland Security that 90 percent of illegal crossers are being apprehended, which isn’t going to happen. But in four years, you have a new secretary of Homeland Security.”

Vela is focusing on an immigration policy that will allow the estimated 7 million to 8 million undocumented persons who are living in the country to remain in the country, legally work, and allow them to visit family back in Mexico.

He and his staff are now looking at the developing issue of the persons who are gathering at the borders, particularly in Matamoros, unable to legally cross into the United States. 

“You have to look at what drives people to come over,” he said, citing socio-economic conditions and fear for life, especially in the last few years in Matamoros where violence has erupted.

“We’ve been working to bring that problem to the attention of the State Department. That’s the department that can influence Mexico City to do something about it,” Vela said.

He has developed close relationships with the Texas Democratic Caucus, particularly mentioning representatives Ruben Hinojosa, Henry Cuellar, who represent Texas’ 15th and 28th districts, respectively, and Gene Green, who represents the 29th District, near Houston.

“The beauty of Gene Green is that his family is Brownsville,” Vela said. “It’s almost like Cameron County has a second member of Congress.”

But in his first term, with so many issues facing his office and his constituents, Vela said he’s mindful of choosing the issues that can be resolved.

“You have to choose where to spend your time productively,” he said. But a veterans hospital in the Valley is not among those issues at this time.

He said it would be good to bring a veterans hospital to the Valley but there are challenges within at the veterans clinics, and clinic staff are doing everything they can with the resources they’ve been given.

Valley veterans have the same problems as veterans across the country, he said.

“We need a full hospital, but a lot of places need a full hospital,” he said. “The question is, when is the day when we can fund it. I don’t know the answer. Given the current federal funding, we’ll need to see. There’s no money for it right now.”

But Vela identified SpaceX as an issue that has a good chance at resolution.

In the case of Space Exploration Technologies’ proposal for a launch site at Boca Chica, some of that work is behind the scenes, he said, with an alphabet soup of federal agencies that include the Federal Aviation Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

“I can tell you that FAA has worked really hard and done a good job on (the Environmental Impact Statement),” he said, to resolve many issues, adding, “I think we’ll know soon.”

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/article_371fdfc0-e485-11e3-9280-001a4bcf6878.html