The Law Offices Of Eric Cedillo PC

CNN.COM Judge orders Trump administration to accept new DACA applications Eric Cedillo July 17 at 4:32 PM · Federal District Judge orders Government to accept new DACA applications!

Eric Cedillo July 17 at 4:32 PM · Federal District Judge orders Government to accept new DACA applications!

Humanitarian Crisis in Dallas There is a massive humanitarian crisis in Dallas, and we need your help. One of the most vulnerable groups living amongst us - the undocumented residents and those married to undocumented residents account for over 500,000 Metroplex residents. The first to lose their jobs, they were specifically excluded from receiving any federal aid. Thousands of undocumented people are now losing their homes and suffering from malnutrition and starvation. Deprived of income and food, they are now in a high-risk environment of contracting the virus. March to the Polls (MTTP) and the Latino Voter Empowerment Coalition (LVEC) created the “We Care” project to aid those in need and were joined by the Hispanic Bar Association (HBA) (a 501C3) which will collect tax deductible contributions and other humanitarian aid to distribute to those affected by the Covid-19 crisis and for whom other aid may not be available. We need your support through both your financial contribution and the solicitation of others. Several people have already committed to contribute the funds they received from the government to assist We Care in helping those in need. If you can help in that way, or with any other financial contribution, please join with them. Because the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, your donations will be tax deductible. Make your donation to the Dallas Hispanic Bar Foundation and specify that it is for the We Care project. Please send your checks made out to Dallas Hispanic Bar Foundation and mail to: We Care c/o Maria Kalman 10431 Pagewood Drive Dallas, TX 75230 To transfer funds electronically, contact us at info@marchtothepolls.org and we will supply you with electronic transfer information. Thank you in advance for your help and support.

On CW33 at 10:00 this morning discussing the Governor’s authority to issue Mask order. Check it out if you can..

PERSPECTIVE, COPS AND ROBBERS AND DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30: My first interactions with the Police came early and often. My Dad was a boxing coach and my two older brothers and myself were his early trainees. I began boxing at the age of 3, nothing serious, mainly cause I didn't have very many 3 year olds to fight at the time. Early on, we fought for the Dallas Police Department Police Athletic League. Lieutenant Anderson was the DPD representative and I always appreciated his kindness and support. We would occasionally see them in their uniforms, thus making them real policemen in the mind of a young boy. I recall pretty vividly the time Santos Rodriguez was shot and killed and the subsequent response. I remember this because we had something of a family discussion about it. I think his killing really affected my older brother who talked about it a lot and thus shaped the way I saw it growing up. My early belief, the police were something to be feared, don't talk back lest you be shot and killed. My older brother spoke often and proudly of the Power of the Brown Berets, which again, shaped my early opinion of how brown people protected themselves. Looking back now, my brother was only 5 years older than me and probably 11 or 12 at the time, but I considered him to be adult-like at the time and what he said stuck in my psyche, still does. When I was about 8 years old, i was working with my Dad in Highland Park installing some fans. He sent me out to get a screwdriver from the car and I remember singing, "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, why don't you be my girl." this was a tune stuck in my head from the Beverly Hillbillies, via Flat and Scruggs. I was in the middle of my rendition, using the proper accent and all, when I was tapped on my shoulder by a Highland Park Police officer. He asked me what I was doing there. I told him my Dad was inside and we were working there. He told me overly aggressively, because I was only 8 years old, "Well, get your a-- in there and get him!" I ran in and told my Dad that two policemen wanted him outside. My Dad's expression was one I hadn't seen up to that point in my life, it was one of fear. This of course scared me as he walked up to the policemen and told them he was there working as he handed them his driver's license without being asked. The officers then said something that has stayed with me my whole life, "you see those n-word ladies over there going to catch the bus to go home? Well, when their a---- leave, you make sure your a-- is gone too!" Yes sir, was my Dad's response and we never really discussed it again, I believe because it wasn't really that out of the ordinary. When I was 15 years old, a neighbor that I grew up with and I had walked to the Lakewood Theater to see a movie. The movie was Rated-R and before I could say anything he said, "we're both 17." As soon as he said that, a Dallas Cop grabbed me by the back of my collar and literally threw me up against the wall. told me to put my hands up against the wall and started going through my front pockets, pulling out a 5 dollar bill and tossing it on the ground. He then pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and opened it up. I had no ID, and I think I only had a small picture of the girl I had a crush on at the time in there. He looked through my wallet for what seemed like forever, I just remember looking at people walking into the theater and shaking their heads at me. He finally threw my wallet on the ground and told me and my neighbor to go home. We did, and never really talked about it as being out of the ordinary. About a year later, me and the neighbor, along with my older brother were walking down the street, on our way to a party not far from our house. As soon as we passed an alley way, the police lights lit up and we were told to put our hands in the air. My brilliant neighbor took off running. (We later learned he had a small pocket knife on him and he was worried they'd find it.) The bigger older officer took off after him and the younger smaller officer got on his radio as he pulled his gun and incredibly shakily pointed the gun at me and my brother. He handcuffed us, putting me in the front and my brother in the back and took off after his partner. We jumped over a couple of yards and landed in the street. My neighbor weighing in at about 100 pounds, in cuffs and with blood completely covering his face, was literally picked up and slammed onto the hood of the police car. He yelled out, "Eric, he beat the s--- out of me, help.." We were taken out of the car and placed behind it, handcuffs still on, our jackets and shirts were pulled down to the point of the cuffs and our undershirts raised up to our armpits. I remember thinking, it's freezing out here, I hope it doesn't snow. About 10 minutes later, a guy walks up to us and says "that's not them." They take off the handcuffs, place me and my brother on the curb and take off with my neighbor. I had several interactions with Police Officers before and after this, one time witnessing by brother get choked out by a female officer as her male counterparts laughed and egged her on. There were times that I could at least understand why I was questioned, like the time I was in second grade and me and my brothers were walking to Polar Bear Ice Cream for a cone. We were off that day from school because it was a Holy Day of Obligation and we attended a Catholic School. We stopped in to the Safeway picked up some candy and, because it was a weekday morning, there were no cashiers to be seen. We kept on walking. About a block later, a large Hispanic Officer jumped out of his unmarked car and told us to put our hands up against the wall. He asked us why we weren't in school and when we told him we didn't have school because it was an off day at Catholic schools, he told us we couldn't afford to go to Catholic school and that we were lying. He asked our names and when we said Cedillo, he asked if we were Mary Helen's kids. We said yes, he laughed and took us home. Turns out he was our Mom's cousin and the first Hispanic officer in the City of Dallas. I mention this one because it was only a few years after Santo's killing. If this guy wasn't related to us, it could've turned out a lot differently. Again, these are just a few of the incidents that shaped my early view of police officers. I'm not sure how many "run-ins" other people had when they were young, if this is a lot or just a few. I'm now a Clinical Professor of law at SMU, I get kidded once in awhile by colleagues when I wear a suit or tie to the school. I usually just say I'm meeting a client later but If I'm being honest, I wear it because I have to go to the Park Cities and expose myself to that police department. I need to look the part of a Professional. If I'm being rationale, I'm sure things have changed but our hard wired minds don't always think rationally. In my mind, I'm that 8 year old boy watching my father be chastised for being brown. The point to this writing is we all come from different perspectives. A few of the things I mentioned above would've been too embarrassing for me to share a few years ago. We need to understand that we have all experienced different lives growing up, many of us have much more living to do whereas some of us are writing those final chapters. I might just suggest that we listen to one another. Listening doesn't mean we are in agreement necessarily it just recognizes the respect we have for one another as human beings. There are no absolute rights and wrongs. Nothing is usually ever totally black or white. It is in the grey where we need to have our discussions even if they are a little scary..

Incredibly honored to be appointed as the National LULAC Legal Advisor..

MESSENGER Law Offices of Eric Cedillo, PC updated their business hours.

Make a plan to early vote.. Eric Cedillo was live. October 13 at 3:10 PM ·

Family Separations.. Eric Cedillo was live. October 22 at 11:49 AM ·

LULAC is doing some amazing things. Look into joining a local council and getting involved.. Eric Cedillo is with Domingo Garcia. January 11 at 4:30 PM · Leaving very productive meeting with the Secretary of the Army. Photo in front of the Pentagon.. 😉

FROZEN PIPES, DE-REGULATION AND EXTREME FINGER POINTING: Not sure where I first heard it but I recall as a kid hearing that when you point your finger at someone, at least three fingers are pointing back at you. Over the last few days the State of Texas has experienced our decennial cold spree. This year however, we've additionally been hit with what amounts to one of the most avoidable, slowest rolling blackouts we've ever experienced. I recall in the mid 80's many days in the dark because of the ice storm which downed power lines and required that the lines be physically repaired before the power could be returned. Recently, many sustained blackouts for days, not because of downed power lines but because our State failed us in how we run our electric power grid. Ercot, the Electric Reliability (irony) Council of Texas, runs our power grid. They are a private non profit 501(c)(4) run by a CEO who makes over 750K per year and a board of directors. They are quasi governmental in function but not in composition, and probably purposefully so. As a private group, they don't have to adhere to certain government mandated transparency laws like open meetings. This organization runs over 90% of the entire Texas grid. The Governor immediately placed the blame on them for the unprepared response to the storm. However, it is the PUC, Public Utility Commission that oversees Ercot. Many of the members of the PUC commission are Abbott appointees. In 2011, this same bad weather happened which led to extended rolling blackouts and a big black eye to our area because of the impact it had on the Super Bowl at Jerry World. We paid lip service to the requisite need to effect change, the PUC went so far as to say through suggestion that Ercot require power suppliers to "winterize" their equipment. No mandate was issued and of course nothing of substance was done. Why? Cost too much. Sunday night, many of the Power suppliers began going off-line because their equipment was improperly "winterized" and began failing. Surprise, surprise! As demand rose, capacity went down and thus the need for rolling blackouts. Additionally, the cost of a megawatt of electricity rose exponentially and probably led to automatic shutdown based on the software used by Ercot. Where a megawatt can cost roughly 40 Dollars on average, the amount for a single megawatt can run up to 9 thousand dollars if the demand is there! Another, governmental allowance and an expense that is ultimately borne by you and me. Once it hits this amount, automatic shutdowns, blackouts, can occur. Why? Cost too much. This was all foreseeable! People have died (I'm thinking of the little boy who froze in his bed in Conroe) and billions in property damage has been sustained because of the failure to regulate and require what 49 other states mandate. Who suffers because of this? We do! How and why do we continue to allow this to happen? Because we continue to hire (elect) the same bought and sold political finger pointers currently at the helm. The CEO of Ercot recently came out and said we were lucky because we were seconds from a total failure that could have caused a blackout for months. Is this true? If so, why do we have such a vulnerable system that could plunge us into darkness for months because of the incompetence of the organization running the grid? If not true, it's a good way to keep us thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't worse while they continue to do nothing to fix it. In 2016, the Panda Company sued Ercot for misstatements they say Ercot made which Panda relied on to come to Texas and build 3 Power Plants at a cost of over 2 Billion dollars. They maintain that Ercot said that Texas was way underserved regarding Power Capacity and that new Power Plants were very much needed. Ercot realized that this became misleading, mainly because of many new wind turbines coming on line, but did nothing to change their analysis. Panda spends a whole lotta money to build the Plants but can't recoup the expense because of so much competition they were told didn't exist. Panda sues Ercot and Ercot asserts it's entitled to Sovereign Immunity because of its performance of a governmental function and that the lawsuit should be dismissed. The case has been heard by the Texas Supreme Court and we are currently awaiting a ruling. If they rule Ercot is entitled to Sovereign Immunity, they may be able to continue their misleading statements with civil impunity. Regulation isn't all bad. Believe it or not it can tend to protect people like you and me. It might cut into corporate profits but at least we can avoid the loss of life and property that comes with unchecked corporate greed. Maybe today isn't the day to shine a light on the Finger pointers, as many of us try to fix our busted water pipes or find potable drinking water, but perhaps next week we'll be ready. I'm free next Wednesday, how about you?

Eric Cedillo February 24 at 12:05 AM · JERRY'S MILLIONS AND ABBOTT'S TIES... How did Jerry Jones and all those other Energy Companies make so many millions on the backs of us consumers? One way was to have the Public Utility Commission of Texas (The PUC) issue an order that forced Ercot to take into consideration the “shed” represented as rolling blackouts into consideration in determining supply and demand. “At various times today, energy prices across the system have been as low as approximately $1,200.” (God forbid) “If customer load is being shed, scarcity is at its maximum, and the market price for the energy needed to serve that load should also be at its highest.” This allowed, and practically pushed, for the price of a Megawatt of power to rise to $9,000.00 per hour, the cap. The average price of a Megawatt of power is usually between 30 to 40 dollars per hour. We saw the results of this action in real time with some Griddy customers. They payed the wholesale price paying almost 9 Grand for a Megawatt of electricity and their bank accounts were hit automatically. But for us folks who didn't play the wholesale game, we'll be hit eventually too. Imagine that, they put us in the cold and the dark for days but we'll end up paying even more than normal for the experience. Thank you Sir, may I have another! (Animal House reference for you young folks.) These three Commissioners were all appointed by Abbott, two of them worked directly for the Governor before appointment and the third worked for Ercot. I wonder who convened the emergency meeting and who actually wrote the order and if they did it by candlelight like the rest of us on February 16th!