Carlos Spector, a noted El Paso immigration attorney and human rights advocate, died Sunday. He was 71 and would have turned 72 on March 13.
His daughter, Alejandra Spector, announced his death Sunday night on Facebook.
“Adiós, papá. Carlos Spector 3/13/54-3/1/26. May his memory be a blessing. We will do you proud, dad,” she said.
Carlos Spector was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in February, but doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston determined it couldn’t be treated.
His family started a GoFundMe campaign to fly him to El Paso so he could spend his final days in the community he loved. The effort raised more than $50,000 to cover his air ambulance and other expenses for his treatment.
Spector returned home Feb. 17 on a flight with his wife, Sandra Garza Spector, and spent his remaining days in hospice care at his Lower Valley home.
He was a graduate of Bel Air High School and the University of Texas at El Paso, as well as an Air Force veteran. He received his law degree from Texas Southern University.
Spector specialized in immigration law, with a focus on protecting the rights of Indigenous migrants and advocating for asylum for people displaced by drug violence in Mexico.
Colleagues say Spector led immigration courts – long reluctant to grant asylum to people from Mexico – to take a serious look at the plight of Mexicans who were being targeted by drug gangs that had largely supplanted the government in northern parts of the country.
Alejandra Spector has said the family is looking to create a foundation to honor her father’s legacy and to help continue his work.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
The post Carlos Spector, pioneering El Paso immigration attorney and human rights advocate, dies at 71 appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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