Law Office of J.M. Chema Garza Celebrates a Decade of Bilingual Service in South Texas

Rio Grande City, TX. The Law Office of J.M. Chema Garza this month marks ten years of full-time legal practice in South Texas. Founded in 2014 on Britton Avenue, three blocks from the Starr County Courthouse, the firm has represented Valley families in personal-injury, criminal-defense, family-law, and immigration matters across Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron, and Webb Counties since opening its doors.

Over the past decade the firm has filed more than two hundred personal-injury matters, defended hundreds of state and federal criminal cases out of the McAllen and Brownsville divisions of the Southern District of Texas, and filed family-based immigration petitions on behalf of hundreds of mixed-status families. Specific outcomes are confidential and past results do not guarantee future ones.

Founding attorney J.M. "Chema" Garza thanked clients, staff, and the Valley bar for the partnership that has made the milestone possible. "It is a privilege to have spent ten years serving the same community I grew up in," he said. "The next ten will look more like the first ten than people might guess: same office, same phone number, same lawyer answering."

The firm plans to continue expanding bilingual community resources in 2026, including the annual Know Your Rights talks at the Rio Grande City Public Library and the new immigration help clinic at Immaculate Conception parish hall.