Senator Carlos Uresti Champions Children’s Rights in Texas
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016
Texas Senator Carlos Uresti, District 19, is recognized in the state for advocating and passing legislation to protect the most vulnerable citizen in the state, children.
The Maverick County Sheriff Department reported that on Thursday, January 28, 2016, they received a 911 emergency call concerning a child who was found wondering and walking around in a busy street in a southern Maverick County neighborhood without any adult supervision.
Once Maverick County Sheriff Deputies arrived at the child’s location, they made contact with an adult female who had stated that she had taken in the little girl after they found her roaming around on the street by herself.
The little girl was transported to the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center where she was medically evaluated and later released to her parents after they were located after no serious injuries were found.
Sheriff Tom Schmerber stated that the child had been left by her parents in the care of relatives and that the little girl had found her way onto the streets without the relatives knowing about it.
Child neglect is a serious problem that regularly occurs throughout the state of Texas according to the Texas Department of Child Protective Services annual reports.
Texas Department of Child Protective Services in 2014 reported that at least 67.3 % of the child abuse cases reported and investigated in the State of Texas were for child neglect.
During 2014, there were 29,440 cases of child abuse/neglect reported and investigated throughout the state. Of these, 22,550 were confirmed and investigated with further action to remedy the issue.
During a recent visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, State Senator Carlos Uresti discussed child abuse and neglect in Texas.
“ Child Abuse, unfortunately is prevalent throughout the state, regardless of the region. It has been one of my top issues, as I formed the Blue Ribbon Task Force, a state wide task force, to look at issues on how to prevent abuse and neglect from taking place, in the first place. There were about 66,000 confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect in Texas. These are confirmed cases, just think about the amount of cases that go unconfirmed and un-reported, it could be well over 100,000 kids. That is on an annual basis. Just imagine that in ten years, you have over a 1,000,000 kids that are victims of child abuse and neglect in Texas,” said Senator Uresti.
“The numbers are staggering,” added Uresti.
Senator Uresti discussed some of the things that are being done in the Texas Senate level to assure there is appropriated funding for child abuse prevention measures throughout the state.
“What I was able to do among the Senate Finance Committee this year, there are 15 senators out of 31, 10 Republicans and only 5 Democrats and I’m one of 5 that sits on the Finance Committee. Every year we put it in monies for abuse prevention, this was the first time that I put in a rider into the state budget that increased it from $ 90,000,000 for Child Abuse Prevention to $127,000,000, increasing it by an additional $37,000,000 in the budget for the next 2 years for the sole purpose of trying to reduce child abuse and neglect in Texas,” said Senator Uresti.
“We have a lot of work to do. There is a lot of kids that are falling victims of not only to physical, sexual abuse , but also to child neglect and that is an important component in the problem.” added Uresti.
Senator Uresti noted that current situations in Texas have increased and changed during the past 10 or more years concerning the incidence of child abuse and neglect cases.
“Things are different now, they are different than 10 years ago and 30 years ago. A lot of us grew up in poverty and weren’t victims but now you have a different environment where you have other influences such as different type of drugs that we didn’t have back then when we were growing up.” added Uresti.
“Now we have more drugs than I can mention and drugs will destroy families. You have that concerning issue, you have mental health issues that haven’t been recognized and treated and other circumstances that could come into play creating unsafe environments manifesting itself in those type of issues such as child abuse and neglect. There are a lot of issues that create that unsafe environment for children,” added Uresti.
Senator Uresti noted that in many instances in poor communities there is an increased incidence of child abuse cases because there is a lack of a safety net to prevent such issues from occurring, including food disparity, drug and alcohol abuse, and other issues that arise from such living circumstances.
“Poverty alone, I don’t think it equates to it. But if you don’t have that safety net to help that young mom that”s 17 years old with 2 kids and no car , doesn’t know where she is going to live, has no money to buy groceries and if theirs no safety net to come in and capture those kids, then they fall victim as a result of the fact that you have poorer communities that may not have the resources of other large communities” added Senator Uresti.
Senator Uresti vowed to continue working with his colleagues in the Texas Senate to ensure funding for child abuse and neglect cases is increased to keep pace with the continuing increase of child abuse and neglect cases throughout the state of Texas. This is one of Senator Uresti’s priority legislative issues, championing the rights of children in Texas.
