Who We Are

In El Paso, home to one of our largest offices, TRLA has done considerable work seeking justice for veterans, domestic violence survivors, farmworkers, homeowners, renters, elders, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community, and many others who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. In the past several years, our legal staff have also fought for community preservation by representing the last remaining resident of the Duranguito neighborhood (which was saved from destruction last year!), fighting polluters, and standing up for our most vulnerable families.

We also stand up for the El Paso community - this year we began representing local refugee shelter Annunciation House when its private client records were demanded by the Attorney General. TRLA General Counsel Jerry Wesevich said of the lawsuit that, “The Attorney General is not looking for documents: what the Attorney General is looking for is an excuse to close Annunciation House.” TRLA continues to fight for Annuncation House and its clients.

Time after time, legal aid has been there when families needed it most – during economic crisis, the pandemic, mass shootings in El Paso and Uvalde, and more.

All this work is made possible by our generous donors. When TRLA needs to respond fast to a crisis like after the August 3rd shooting, we turn to individual contributions to support our work. In our everyday cases, individual gifts are vital to fill in the cracks of funding needs not covered by grants.

Thank you for considering giving or sharing our profile – your contributions will support necessary legal services for your neighbors for years to come!

ALL donors will be entered to win prizes from legendary local artist and public defender, Patrick Gabaldon!

Donors who give any amount will be entered to win: * a framed print called “The Trek” * Blackout El Paso socks * Frontera socks * Tote bag with a cactus flower that says, “Stay Sharp Be Prickly Bloom Brightly”

Donors who give over $250 will be entered to win an ORIGINAl Patrick Gabaldon painting of a cactus and prickly pear.

Want to know more? Read below for fast facts about TRLA in El Paso!

Our El Paso staff conducts outreach and education events in addition to taking on cases for individuals or families, such as:

Serving Veterans

• Ask-a-Lawyer events twice a month held at the Veteran’s Administration clinics

• Regular response and intake from our special Veterans Advocacy Project Hotline

• Trainings for community partners that serve veterans

• Trainings with the Ft. Bliss JAG legal services office

• Participating in the annual Stand Down for homeless veterans

Environmental Justice + Community Preservation

• Worked with San Xavier to submit public comments about the disastrous levels of pollution caused by commercial traffic on I-10 to and from the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry; commercial traffic is now planned to be halted

• Currently assisting Socorro residents in their fight to prevent 1,000 community members from being displaced by road expansion projects

Fighting for Survivors

• Provide trainings to local organizations on civil legal remedies available to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault

• Receive referrals from partner agencies such as Center Against Sexual and Family Violence and La Posada

• Co-organizing our first annual El Paso Family Justice and Wellness Conference (Oct 28-29th). This is a cross-training for victim advocates, social workers, attorneys, and the judiciary in El Paso.

Community Empowerment

• Special legal clinics in partnership with local organizations, like our Alternatives to Guardianship Clinic with the Arc of El Paso this month

• Weekly special legal clinics for the homeless on Tuesdays and Thursdays

• Renters’ Rights Power Hour clinics/ Hora de Poder sobre los Derechos de los Renteros

• Provide outreach and know your rights presentations to foster youth through the PRIDE Center and other community groups

Advocating for Victims and Survivors of the 2019 Walmart Mass Casualty event

Our El Paso office, led by three attorneys all born and raised in the El Paso-Juarez metroplex, advocated for victims and survivors of a mass shooting that affected the entire border community. Legal Aid staff did what it does best and advocated for low-income El Pasoans and created the template that TRLA and other legal aids would use in the future to model legal aid response to mass casualty events. Since that time TRLA has used the El Paso template to model our response to the mass casualty event in Uvalde in 2022 and has now begun work on a toolkit for the Legal Services Corporation that will help other legal aids affected by mass casualty events in their service area.

Public Benefits

All TRLA public benefits advocates have spent a very busy 2023 advocating for low-income people in SNAP and Medicaid cases. Because the federal government determined that the federal public health emergency from COVID ended on May 11, 2023, our public benefits team has spent countless hours working with our legal aid sister organizations and other legal services offices across the state to ensure a coordinated effort to help low income Texas receive the SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid they were eligible for and needed. Texas has sadly become a state with the highest number of individuals terminated from SNAP and Medicaid due to the state’s abysmal efforts in the unwinding of the public health emergency.