Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from Ocañas: $170 Billion for the Border. $4.2 Million for the People Who Live There. and dont use quote marks

By Steve Taylor and Daniela Capistran, Reporters

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – San Antonio-based consultant Gilberto Ocañas has welcomed what he says is a landmark report on colonia communities in the Rio Grande Valley.

The report is titled “As border enforcement expands, ‘colonia’ communities are left without basic infrastructure.” It was penned by public policy researchers Tonantzin Carmona and Andrik Gonzalez and published by The Brookings Institution. 

“Every elected official, policy strategist, and civic leader who claims to speak for the Latino community should read it before they speak again,” Ocañas said, in a post on social media.

“The federal government is spending $170 billion on border enforcement. In the same decade, Hidalgo and Cameron counties — the heart of colonia America — received a combined $4.2 million in federal infrastructure assistance. That is not a resource problem. That is a priority problem.”

Ocañas cited numbers from the Carmona/Gonzalez report:

• 188,000 residents live in roughly 1,200 colonias in the Rio Grande Valley — the largest concentration in the United States.
•  95% sit in 100-year flood zones. Compare that to 6% of all Texans.
• A 2025 Texas A&M study found uranium, nickel, and arsenic in water samples from 203 colonia homes.
• 37% of colonia adults lack a high school diploma — nearly 3x the state and national rates.
• Nearly 60% of colonias risk losing federal infrastructure eligibility — not because conditions improved, but because the surrounding population grew.

“That last point is the policy scandal hiding in plain sight,” Ocañas said. “Population growth is disqualifying these communities from the very programs designed to serve them. The federal definitions governing eligibility have not been updated since 1990 — before the internet existed. And per a 2024 GAO report, agencies cannot track whether their own investments reach these communities.

This is not bureaucratic failure. This is chosen neglect.”

Ocañas, CEO of Ocañas Group, points out that the Rio Grande Valley will be one of the fastest-growing regions in America by 2045. He notes that three of the top ten U.S. metro areas for Latino-owned businesses are already there.

“You cannot build a thriving Latino economic future on roads that flood, water systems that fail, and policy infrastructure frozen in the last century,” Ocañas concludes.

“To every Texas legislator and federal representative from this region: this report is about your district. The data is public. The need is documented. The only remaining question is whether you will act — or wait for the next flood, the next study, the next generation left behind.”

Public policy analyst Gonzalez penned a guest column for the Rio Grande Guardian about the report he co-authored. Its headline: “The Valley is Growing, Not Eveyone is Growing With It.” Click here to read the column.

The report’s paragraph headings are:

Colonia communities are embedded in growth regions, not isolated at the margins

Colonias emerged from border growth without regulatory or infrastructure safeguards

The Rio Grande Valley concentrates both the largest colonia population and some of the deepest structural disadvantages in the US

Colonia households face severe structural barriers to securing safe, affordable, and equitable housing

Regional water systems and flood dynamics place colonia communities at disproportionate environmental risk

Severe health care gaps across the Rio Grande Valley continue to strain colonia communities

Fragmented governance and outdated definitions keep colonias invisible within public investment systems

State systems underutilize funding and limit investment in colonia communities

Federal systems fail to track and properly target colonia investment

Improving conditions in Rio Grande Valley colonias requires a coordinated, place-based policy response across levels of government

The report outlines six recommendations:

• Strengthen county-level coordination through a regional compact.
• Reestablish the Texas Office of Colonia Initiatives and restore its ombudsperson network.
• Establish a regional infrastructure project pipeline to move colonia needs from eligibility to implementation.
• Update population thresholds for colonia-targeted funding.
• Modernize the federal definition of colonias to reflect post-1990 development patterns.
• Require consistent federal tracking and reporting of investments reaching colonias.

About Gilberto Ocañas

Gilberto is a native Texan that has spent over thirty years building a trusted political and business network with corporate executives, community leaders, operatives, entrepreneurs and elected officials. He builds coalitions by gathering local intelligence, performing political outreach and crafting communications strategies. He is CEO of Ocañas Group founded in 1992 and is also Senior Advisor for Dentons, the largest global law firm, where he provides government and business advisory services.

A veteran of four presidential campaigns, Gilberto has managed  two statewide campaigns in Texas and was one of the first Hispanics to do so. He is proud to have served under the late Willie Velasquez as director of Communications for the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. Gilberto’s civic participation is complemented by experience growing a start-up printing company into a successful security printing and fulfillment company, providing  95% of all the online printed products for the Texas Lottery. His political and business experience provides him with key insights into business growth and governmental contracting.

The success of his business enterprise, coupled with his commitment to the Latino community, garnered him local recognition as the “Hispanic Businessman of the Year” as well as “Volunteer of the Year” by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Hispanic Magazine Gilberto as a “Rising Entrepreneur.”