The El Paso County Commissioners Court approved a resolution recognizing four decades of work by the El Paso-based immigration legal aid organization Estrella del Paso.
The commissioners unanimously approved the resolution during a Monday, May 11, meeting, just a week before the 40th anniversary of the organization’s founding.
The commissioners celebrated the work that the lawyers and volunteers have provided to asylum seekers and immigrants since 1986. Estrella del Paso’s executive director Melissa Lopez and members of her team attended the meeting to receive the recognition.
“I think it is really important for our team, especially right now, as we are dealing with really difficult times financially, but also with the rhetoric in the country about immigrants,” Lopez said. “It is really important to have recognitions like this that really acknowledge the work and the importance of what we do and the impact that it has in the community.”
Commissioner David Stout proposed the recognition and naming of May 17, 2026, as “Estrella del Paso” day. He focused on the critical work Estrella del Paso lawyers do for immigrants, especially today, as immigrants have faced a campaign of misinformation from the Trump administration that critics say demonizes migrants.
“In recent years, immigrants have frequently been portrayed through harmful and inaccurate narratives that characterize them as ‘violent criminals, drug dealers and rapists’ by someone who is right now our president,” Stout said ahead of reading the resolution. “Estrella del Paso has worked to elevate the real stories of migrants who leave their home countries in search of safety, stability and opportunity … the environment at the federal and state level of hostility to immigrants, regardless of their legal status, makes the work of Estella del Paso more important than ever.”
The organization was formed in collaboration with the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, before becoming an independent non-profit in 1990. The organization was founded following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, during the second term of President Ronald Reagan, to provide legal services to immigrants.
The organization was renamed Estrella del Paso in 2023.
The organization has served 600,000 people since it was founded. The organization has provided free legal services to immigrants since 2022.
But in recent years, the organization has faced funding problems because of federal grant cuts. Estrella del Paso was gifted a $25,000 grant from the El Paso-based Hope Border Institute in May 2025.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@usatodayco.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso-based immigrant legal advocates recognized by county commissioners
Reporting by Jeff Abbott, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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