00:00Hace décadas, Estrella del Paso has been providing legal services to tens of thousands of individuals in the region.
00:06And now the organization's mission is in jeopardy.
00:09Executive Director Melissa Lopez is joining us now.
00:12And Melissa, you and I were talking during the break over the issues you're having with the grant funding from
00:19the federal level.
00:20Can you break down how did we get here and where are we currently?
00:23Sure, so the government has tried to terminate this program before.
00:27We went to court, we fought that. A judge ordered that the program be reinstated.
00:32Unfortunately, what we're now facing is that the government isn't paying us for services that have been provided in the
00:38past.
00:38And so currently, we haven't been paid since December of 2025.
00:43Which is a long time because you all are a nonprofit organization and you are helping people across the region.
00:50There's a large amount of people that you all help out. What services do you provide?
00:55So we represent and accompany children. So children that come to the U.S. without a parent or guardian.
01:00But we also do things like help people apply for residency and for citizenship.
01:04We help people who have DACA. We help people who are seeking asylum.
01:08So the services are very, very broad and very extensive.
01:11And to put in perspective how large of an amount you all are waiting for, it's more than $760,000
01:18and that money goes to the organization, operation, helping out these people who require these services and who need it.
01:27If not you, then who would be doing this work?
01:31I think the reality is no one. We don't have the legal infrastructure here in El Paso.
01:36We don't have enough attorneys to represent these individuals.
01:39And so without Estrella del Paso, we would have a huge, a huge lack of legal representation.
01:46And a lot of these people would probably be facing deportation.
01:50Which to be on a border city is probably a large amount of people just not having that legal backing,
01:58that assistance that your nonprofit provides.
02:01So what comes next?
02:02We're waiting for the federal funding and the okay to begin again.
02:06So where are you all heading now?
02:08Sure.
02:08So what we're trying to do right now is fundraise.
02:10We're trying to raise as much cash as we can so that we can continue to operate and ensure that
02:17we meet our legal obligations to the clients that we have.
02:20But also so that we can continue to assure that these unaccompanied children aren't going to court by themselves, that
02:26asylum seekers are getting the legal rights that they are entitled to, and that we're able to help as many
02:33people as we can.
02:34And if people are interested in helping with that fundraising effort, where can they go to be able to do
02:40that?
02:41Sure.
02:41So they can go to our website.
02:42It's Estrella.org.
02:44I'm sorry.
02:45Estrella del Paso.org.
02:47And click on the donate button.
02:49And no donation, no matter the size, whether it's $10 or a larger donation.
02:55Donations of all sizes are helpful to us at this point.
02:57All right.
02:58And of course, we have all this information online at KTSM.com.
03:02You'll just want to go ahead and click on this article.
03:04But, Melissa, thank you so much.
