Honorary Board:

Albert Armendariz, Jr.
Hon. Albert Armendariz, Sr
Hon. Linda Yee Chew
Monsignor Arturo Bañuela
Lynn Coyle, Esq.
Mike Dipp

Sister Liliane Alam

Albert Armendariz, Jr. is a graduate of Cathedral High School, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.  Mr. Armendariz is an experienced civil rights and immigration attorney. 

He was counsel on Murillo, et al. v. Musegades, et al. (The “Bowie High School case”).  In 1992, the Bowie High School case was recognized by the National Immigration Project and the American Civil Liberties Union as the top civil rights case dealing with immigration issues in the U.S. 

Since 1970, Mr. Armendariz has maintained a private law practice in El Paso, Texas, and is a partner in the law firm of Dunbar, Armendariz & Hegeman, LLP. 

He is a Past President of the Mexican-American Bar Association of El Paso and the El Paso Association of Immigration Practitioners. 

He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the El Paso Bar Association, the Mexican-American Bar Association of El Paso, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. 

Mr. Armendariz has spoken at the local, state, and national level and written on a variety of immigration law subjects.

Mr. Armendariz is active in civic and community affairs, having served on the Board of Directors of the El Paso Legal Assistance Society and as chairperson of the Board of Education of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and El Paso Concilio de El Paso. 

He is a former chairperson and current member of the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of Texas, Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. 

Mr. Armendariz has been married for 37 years to the former Virginia Concha, and they have three children and three grandchildren.

Hon. Albert Armendariz, Sr.

Hon. Albert Armendariz, Sr. was born in El Paso, Texas in 1919. His father commuted to Cd. Juarez, Mex. to work as a telegraph operator and his mother, professionally trained as a concert pianist, remained at home to raise eight children.

When Judge Armendariz was only nine years old, his mother died, making economic issues more pressing than education for the family.

After graduating from El Paso High School in 1934, Judge Armendariz worked as a shoe salesman and then as an auto mechanic. He was drafted at the onset of World War II and spent four years in the motor pool at Fort Bliss.

After undergraduate study at Texas College of Mines (now University of Texas at El Paso), Judge Armendariz attended law school at the University of Southern California graduating in 1950.

Traveling back to El Paso with his young wife, two sons and his dusty 1935 Plymouth, Judge Armendariz commenced his outstanding legal career in a law office less than four blocks from his childhood home.

Fifty-two years later, he still practices immigration law with a rigor and passion rarely seen in lawyers half his age. His work represents the words his father said to him as he lent him $40 to pay for his first month’s rent in his new law office, “The Lord did not make you a lawyer to serve yourself. You have a duty to serve your country and especially the oppressed group of people of which you are a member. If a people ever needed true and honest representation, it is the Mexcan-American.”

Thousands of clients’ lives have been transformed by the immigration and civil rights work of Judge Armendariz.

From 1976 - 1985, he was an immigration judge (special inquiry officer) with the U.S. Department of Justice. Later he held an appointment on the Texas Court of Appeals.

Judge Armendariz has been actively involved in the League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC) since 1951 and served as its national president in 1954.

In the late sixties, with the help of many other attorneys, Judge Armendariz helped found the Mexican-American Legal and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a national organization addressing education and civil rights issues.

From 1968 to 1971, he served as chairman of the MALDEF board of trustees. Judge Armendariz continues to zealously defend the rights of immigrants, the population he has served so remarkably for over a half a century.

Special Note: Hon. Albert Armendariz, Jr. Walks On

In fall of 2007, the Hon. Albert Armendariz passed way. His passing was carried in many major newspapers across the country. Please read the obit published by the national MALDEF office: http://www.maldef.org/news/press.cfm?ID=433

Hon. Linda Yee Chew

Linda Yee Chew is a native El Pasoan and has been practicing law for over seventeen years.

Her father, Wellington Yee Chew, was born in Cd. Juarez, Mexico and immigrated to the United States seventy-nine years ago. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act in effect at that time, rather than immigrating through the United States consulate in Cd. Juarez, he was forced to travel to Calexico, Mexico to be processed through the United States consulate in that city.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, among other restrictions, limited the number of ports of entries that Chinese nationals were allowed to immigrate through and the consulate in Cd. Juarez was not one of them. Her father became the first person of Chinese descent to be licensed to practice law in Texas.

Patricia Howe, her mother, was born in Chicago, Illinois, to British immigrants. After moving to El Paso, marrying and starting a family, Patricia went on to graduate school to earn an advanced degree.

She later became one the first female principals in the El Paso Independent School District. Against this rich family background, Ms. Chew obtained a bachelor’s degree from University of Houston in Elementary Education, a masters degree in Education Administration from Stephen F. Austin State University and eventually a law degree from Texas College of Law.

She is currently the Project Director of the Foster Children with Disabilities program at Advocacy, Inc. where she has worked since August 1999. While working full-time at Advocacy, Inc., Ms. Chew continued to work as the Director of Legal Services at a non-profit she founded in April 1998, the Children’s Justice Center of El Paso.

The Children’s Justice Center is a nationally recognized agency dedicated to pairing children in the child welfare system with well-trained pro bono counsel from the private sector.

Through her work, Ms. Chew has provided hundreds of children with high-quality pro bono counsel. Almost overnight, she transformed the level of advocacy being done on behalf of abused, abandoned or neglected children in El Paso.

Before joining Advocacy, Inc., Ms. Chew was a partner in the firm of Douglass & Chew where she successfully represented thousands of immigrants before INS and the immigration courts for fourteen years.

Typical of her commitment to providing quality legal representation to those who can least afford it, she represented many of these clients for little or no fee. In spring of 2002, Ms. Chew won the democratic primary race for judge of the 327th District Court, where she is currently the presiding judge.

Monsignor Arturo Bañuelas

Monsignor Arturo J. Bañuelas, STD, is a native priest of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas and since 1988 has been the pastor of St. Pius X Parish in El Paso. Msgr. Bañuelas was ordained in 1976, received his M.Div. from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana that same year, and earned a licentiate, STL from the Gregorian University in Rome, with honors, in 1986.

In 1988, Msgr. Bañuelas earned a doctorate, STD in fundamental theology from the Gregorian University, with honors.

St. Pius X was selected outstanding parish in a 2000 national survey. The parish now has over 43 ministries, including: Colonia Ministry (outreach to very poor parishes in Juarez and the Horizon area colonias with clothing, food, medicine, support groups, and housing needs); tutoring/mentoring program for at-risk students; Elderly Care Ministry (assistance to the elderly with various medical, financial, and pastoral needs); Domestic Violence ministry; Citizenship classes; Health Care Ministry; Sacred Earth Ministry (promoting stewardship of the earth and protection of the environment); and partnerships with Centro Catalina ( a women’s cooperative in Juarez), Center de La Mujer in El Paso, and Annunciation House.

Msgr. Bañuelas is the founding director of Tepeyac Institute, a diocesan ministry formation center.

The Institute is one of the largest centers training ministers for parish ministry. Since its beginning in 1988, the Institute has trained over 12,000 persons for ministry and has a visiting faculty of over 125 professors who teach in the various programs and prepare individuals for ministry and leadership from within the perspective of the border reality.

Since 1976, Msgr. Bañuelas has served in various boards and commissions including, the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), Hispanic Theological Fund, Hospice of El Paso, Paso del Norte Health Foundation (which allocates 5 to 9 million dollars annually in health grants to the border community of El Paso, Juarez, and Las Cruces), Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and the Festival Guadalupano Hispanic Leadership Institute Program.

He has worked with the Centro de Agricultura de Migrantes and the Diocesan Office for Peace and Justice to sponsor the annual César Chávez Memorial Day celebration.

Msgr. Bañuelas has offered retreats and is a regular speaker to various civic and health organizations on topics of theology, faith and politics, border culture, and other border issues. He received the Public Citizen of the Year Award for 2004 from the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Lynn Coyle, Esq.

Lynn Coyle is currently in private practice with her husband Francisco Dominguez representing clients in civil rights and employment discrimination cases.

After graduating with honors from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1990, Ms. Coyle joined the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center in Chicago where she defended clients from deportation and handled family-based immigration cases.

Three and a half years later, she joined the Texas Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Antonio, Texas, where she represented clients in law enforcement misconduct cases and challenged unlawful immigration practices.

A year later, she opened the El Paso Lawyers’ Committee office where she continued her practice of litigating civil rights actions on behalf of immigrants.

Ms. Coyle has spoken at many national, regional and local conferences on the rights of immigrants including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Texas.

She has given numerous trainings to community-based organizations and provided technical support to lawyers statewide. She has written a number of papers on criminal-related immigration issues and the rights of undocumented children.

Mike Dipp.

Mike Dipp was born on December 31, 1941. He is married to Mary Ann Wasaff and has two beautiful daughters, Michelle Alexis and Margaret Victoria.

Mr. Dipp is a graduate of Austin High School and he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master's of Economics, Magna Cum Laude from St Mary's University in San Antonio Texas.

As a student, he was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon National Economics Honor society, he was in Who's Who American Colleges and Universities and he was President of the Student Body at St. Mary's.

Mike's professional experience is extensive. Presently, he is a partner in Plaza Properties; he is Executive Vice President and Managing Partner of Coldway Storage and Warehousing, and the Chairman of the Board of Economy Cash and Carry, Inc.

Mike's professional accomplishments are very impressive. Just a few of his many accomplishments include: Past chairman of Sister Cities International El Paso/Juarez, Two term President of the Downtown Development Association, President of the El Paso Chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association, Founding and Board Member of El Paso Juarez Interplex World Trade Center.

While Mike's professional accomplishments are outstanding, his community involvement isn't any less impressive. We would need a several page bio to list all his community involvement, but a few examples are: Co-Chair of the Jewish National Fund in 93 and 95, Interim Chairman of the El Paso Civic, Convention and Tourism Board, Past President of the Minority Business Council, Chairman of the Task Force on Nuclear Waste, Chamber of Commerce, President of the Central Business Association, Founding Member and President of Coronado Kiwanis Club, Chairman of National conference of Christians and Jews, Chairman of St Jude's Hospital Fund Drive and Cathedral High School Advisory Board.

His community involvement has been recognized with several awards.

He has received the Conquistador Award by the city of El Paso. He has been honored with a Special Award of Appreciation by the Mexican Consul General. He has received a Humanitarian Award from the Black El Paso Democrats and he has been inducted into the El Paso Democratic Party Hall of Fame.

He has been honored with a Blood Drive Award by the Knights of Columbus and El Paso Shrine. He has received Certificates of Appreciation from the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, from the EPCC Insight Science Project and from the Fort Bliss Military Entrance Process Command.

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center would like to add another honor to Mike's collection. Today, he is recognized as a 2006 Border Hero.