Edinburg mayoral candidates speak out against council’s anti-abortion proclamation

Ramiro Garza Jr. and Gilbert Enriquez

Two Edinburg mayoral candidates spoke out against the actions of the current mayor and city council who last week voiced support for anti-abortion efforts.

Former City Councilman Gilbert Enriquez and former City Manager Ramiro Garza Jr., who are both currently running for mayor in the November elections, said they disagreed with the council’s decision to issue a proclamation declaring June 27 as Prolife Apostolate Day and to subsequently express support for a potential citywide abortion ban.

Enriquez said the actions of current Mayor Richard Molina and the three councilmen were politically motivated.

“City government is nonpartisan, so right there that should explain that what they did was just basically pandering to one segment of the population because it’s election time and they’re going to do and say whatever they need in order to get elected,” Enriquez, who served on the council from 2017 to February 2021, said.

“The city of Edinburg does not allocate tax dollars to any of those types of services so for them to issue a proclamation, in my opinion, was just political and it was so they could appeal to one segment of the population and I don’t think that’s right,” Enriquez continued. “I hope that the public sees through that and understands why they’re doing these things because I don’t think it should be something that the city of Edinburg should have an opinion on.”

Councilman Johnny Garcia denied that it was a political move.

“I don’t see how it would be political but it is political season so they’re going to choose what they want to say,” Garcia said Wednesday. “But in no way was it ever political because, at least from my standpoint, I don’t speak to the mayor nor the other councilmembers in regards to any items that take action and that was not an item of action, it’s a proclamation.”

As to whether the city would move forward with the request from the Holy Family Prolife Apostolate to declare Edinburg a “sanctuary city for the unborn,” Garcia said he didn’t know.

“I don’t know because, like I said, the mayor was the one that first started with that comment and before we went into executive session, I did tell him that you have to really look at all the ramifications (from) it because it can be against some grants that the city normally can qualify (for) when you do things like that,” Garcia said. “So we had asked the city attorney to look into more details before anything is pushed forward.”

Enriquez said the city responsibilities are water, sewer, infrastructure, and parks and recreation — not making those types of decisions.

“We provide city services and it’s just amazing that they would take a stance on something like this that we don’t even allocate tax dollars to,” Enriquez said. “I’m dumbfounded to be honest.”

He added that his faith and his convictions were his own and that every woman had a right to choose.

“I believe it’s their choice because we all have different circumstances in our lives,” he said. “We all don’t have the same lives, we all have different circumstances, so I think it’s a choice that the mother, the father and their god have to determine, and I don’t think the city council should make that determination for anyone regardless of our faith and our opinions and our positions on these issues. That’s not what city government does, it doesn’t operate on the social side.”

Enriquez said he believes in God and is a Catholic but that didn’t play a part in his decision-making.

“I make my decisions based on the facts that are provided to me by city administration and my experiences in the industry and in government,” he said.

He pointed out  that Mayor Richard Molina was currently under indictment for election fraud and questioned why he didn’t issue a proclamation relating to election integrity instead.

“I mean if you’re going to take a stance on one, then you should take a stance on the other,” Enriquez said. “He’s been indicted but yet he’s still there, he didn’t resign, he didn’t feel that he should resign, so why not do a proclamation for voting integrity?”

Molina did not respond to a message requesting comment Wednesday.

“I think the people need to know the hypocrisy in what he’s doing and what the council is doing because it doesn’t make sense to me that you would do that,” Enriquez continued. “We have so many issues here in the city of Edinburg — we have drainage issues, we have street issues, we have lighting issues, we have economic development issues, we have public safety items that we need to take care of.”

Garza, the former city attorney, said it was not the council’s place to take that position.

“I appreciate the intent by what was put forward, I just don’t believe that the city … it’s not the city’s responsibility for a matter of that nature,” Garza said. “It’s beyond the scope of what the city is supposed to do, which is take care of our residents, take care of streets, drainage, (and) create employment opportunities.”

“We’re just getting out of this pandemic and there’s so many needs our community has,” Garza added. “There are so many responsibilities the city has … and that’s just not one of them.”

Issuing the proclamation to the pro-life group went against the city’s own guidelines which state that “proclamations are not issued for political organizations, campaigns, candidates, for-profit activities or to promote religious beliefs or individual conviction.”

“That is under a policy, but it’s not under a charter,” Garcia said of those guidelines.

Garza, however, said such policies should be followed and noted that he hoped to implement a code of ethics if he were elected mayor.

“It’s so important to me that we have something in place,” Garza said.


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