Fuerza del Valle (FDV) is a labor activist and pro-illegal immigrant advocacy group located in the Rio Grande Valley. The organization focuses primarily on educating low-income workers as to their rights to collect earned wages. FDV is a member of the two-organization group, Border Workers United (also known as Labor Justice Committee), which advocates for left-of-center employment policies liberalized and expanded immigration, higher minimum wages, and ethnic interest politics.¹

Resources

Fuerza del Valle offers “resources” to visitors of its website in the form of links to other organizations. These organizations consistently cater to left-of-center and liberal issues such as raising the federal minimum wage, legal status for illegal immigrants, and labor union advocacy. These organizations include Fight for 15, a corporate campaign funded and orchestrated by the Service Employees International Union; National Domestic Workers Alliance, a labor union-aligned organization; United We Dream, an illegal immigration advocacy organization; and Jobs With Justice, a left-of-center coalition of labor union-aligned advocacy groups.²

Build a Better Texas

Build a Better Texas is a campaign funded by Fuerza del Valle that aims to increase regulation of construction industry in the state of Texas. The organization claims that illegal immigrant workers are at a higher risk of injury or death on the job and that such issues should be solved through heightened restrictions on employers.³

Wage Policy

Fuerza del Valle campaigns against the alleged underpayment of agreed wages in the Rio Grande Valley and the rest of the state of Texas. The organization aims to protest these issues through organizing public protests with aims to “raise awareness and pressure unscrupulous businesses to comply with the law.” The organization also aims to advocate for increased regulation regarding these issues through its “Build a Better Texas” campaign.⁴

Domestic Workers’ Rights

The “domestic workers’ rights” campaign of Fuerza del Valle aims to create tougher regulations in all work places that employ hourly workers. Such regulation would include a higher minimum wage, increased mandatory break time for workers, increased overtime regulation, health and safety code, and more. Similar to other campaigns of the organization, Fuerza del Valle aims to achieve these changes to Texas law through organized protests and appealing to low income workers to push the issues to their local legislators.⁵

Staff

Hector Guzman-Lopez is a coordinator for Fuerza del Valle. He has written multiple opinion pieces covering labor law, racial issues, and illegal immigration, and has appeared on multiple left leaning radio talk shows and podcast episodes. Guzman-Lopez is listed as the officer in charge of the organization.^{6 7}

Erica Galindo is a media advisor for Fuerza del Valle. Galindo has contributed to opinion pieces regarding illegal immigrant advocacy, employment legislation local to the Rio Grande Valley and the state of Texas, and more.⁸

Michael Callahan-Kapoor is a media advisor for Fuerza del Valle. Callahan-Kapoor has contributed to opinion pieces regarding illegal immigrant advocacy, wage legislation local to the Rio Grande Valley and the state of Texas, and more. ⁹

Partner Organizations

FDV works closely with multiple left-of-center organizations in the fields of wage recovery, illegal immigration advocacy, and general liberal issues. It lists partner organizations as Mano a Mano Promotoras, a left leaning immigration advocacy organization; Proyecto Juan Diego, an organization that aids illegal immigrants in hiding from authorities; Texas Civil Rights Project, a left-of-center organization which focuses on liberal racial, economic, and social issues; and La Unión del Pueblo Entero, an organization founded by labor union activist Cesar Chavez. ¹⁰

Podcast and Radio Appearances

Employees of Fuerza del Valle have appeared on left-leaning podcasts and radio shows to speak on issues such as illegal immigration, wealth distribution and more. Hector Guzman-Lopez, a coordinator for the organization, appeared on Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network, a left-of-center podcast that covers local issues such as race relations, illegal immigration and more. ¹¹

Funding

According to information in the organization’s IRS filings accessed through CharityNavigator.org, Border Workers United, the parent organization of Fuerza del Valle, received $232,347 in 2017 and held assets amounting to $102,389. ¹²

1. “Mission and History.” Fuerza del Valle. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/about/mission-history/.
2. “Links to Resources.” Fuerza del Valle. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/resources-for-workers/links-to-resources/.
3. “Build a Better Texas.” Fuerza del Valley. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/campaigns/build-a-better-texas/.
4. “Wage Theft.” Fuerza del Valle. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/campaigns/wage-theft/.
5. “Domestic Workers’ Rights.” Fuerza del Valle. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/campaigns/domestic-workers/.
6. “BORDER WORKERS UNITED 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization Information” TaxExemptWorld.com. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=2482794.
7. “Modern Day Slavery, Freedom, and the Symposium on Human Trafficking” Hector Guzman-Lopez. Rio Grande Guardian. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://riograndeguardian.com/guzman-lopez-modern-day-slavery-freedom-and-the-symposium-on-human-trafficking/.
8. “Guzman/Galinda/Callahan-Kapoor: Unpaid Labor in the Borderlands” Rio Grande Guardian. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://riograndeguardian.com/guzmangalindacallahan-kapoor-unpaid-labor-in-the-borderlands/.
9. “Guzman/Galinda/Callahan-Kapoor: Unpaid Labor in the Borderlands” Rio Grande Guardian. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://riograndeguardian.com/guzmangalindacallahan-kapoor-unpaid-labor-in-the-borderlands/.
10. “Partner Organizations.” Fuerza del Valle. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://fuerzadelvalle.org/about/partner-organizations/.
11. “Network Partners.” Rio Grande Valley Equal Voices Network. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://www.rgvequalvoice.com/network-partners.
12. “Border Workers United.” Charity Navigator. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=813709604.