Hello Isaac, 

It’s Luis Ruiz! Thank you once again for watching my film, it really means a whole lot to me that you would take the time. 

I promised you an email and I’ve sat on what to email you since we last spoke in person. Today, it finally came to me. 

I have a very specific ask of you, Borderplex Alliance and your founder, Woodrow Hunt.

Below is a letter that I have crafted for Mr. Hunt that I would like you to read and pass on; I will not contacting Mr. Hunt directly, but I am contacting you directly as this is a matter of economic development that will absolutely affect the future of our community and I’d rather be inclusive than my normal posture. 

I hope you can:

1. Confirm reception 

2. Confirm reading 

3. Inform me of your decision to either pass on to Mr. Hunt or deny my request and a short explanation why. 

I hope we can do business. I have a whole lot to offer this city. 

Luis Ruiz

Borderplex Ledger

Personal and Confidential Delivered to: Woody Hunt, Hunt Companies From: Luis Ruiz, Borderplex Ledger Date: May 2026

Mr. Hunt,

I've been trying to ask you a question for years. You've declined every opportunity to answer it. I want to give you one more — this time in a form that makes the nature of the choice completely clear.

I am making a film.

It documents the journalism I've been publishing from El Paso — the DOJ fraud settlement against Hunt Military Communities, the DOD Inspector General findings at every audited installation, the career of Brian Stann from Cerberus Capital Management to your company's leadership, the position of Stephen Feinberg at the Pentagon, the timeline of Heather Wilson's departure and subsequent appointment at UTEP, the role of the El Paso Community Foundation in the local media ecosystem, and what a founding partner of the Puente News Collaborative said on the record when she left.

It also documents what happens when a journalist asks questions about these things in El Paso. The police report. The City Clerk letter. The welfare check. The speaking time reduction at City Council. The Raben Group's cease-contact directive. The absence of local coverage of a federal fraud settlement, a DOD Inspector General audit, and a congressional act designed to protect military families living in documented hazardous conditions.

All of it is documented. All of it is timestamped. Primary sources are in hand.

The film is being made. That decision is not contingent on this letter.

What is contingent on this letter is whether you have anything to say before it's finished.

I am extending to you the same offer I have extended to every subject of this journalism — the opportunity to answer the questions on the record, to provide context I may not have, to correct errors of fact if any exist, and to speak for yourself rather than allow the documented record to speak for you.

I am also extending something more unusual.

I am offering you the opportunity to be an Executive Producer of this film.

I want to be precise about what that means and what it doesn't mean. It does not mean editorial control. It does not mean approval rights. It does not mean the journalism changes or the questions get softer. The film will document what the record shows regardless of who funds it — and that fact will be disclosed publicly and completely.

What it means is this: a man who has shaped El Paso's civic life for decades would have the opportunity to engage directly with the journalism that has been documenting that influence — not through lawyers, not through Raben, not through the institutional silence that has been your organization's consistent response — but directly, on the record, in a film that will be seen by people who deserve to understand what has been built here and who built it.

You have been the most powerful private figure in this region for a long time. That power has produced real things — some of them genuinely good for El Paso and some of them documented in federal settlements and Inspector General reports. A man of your standing engaging honestly with both sides of that record would be more compelling than anything I could manufacture.

That is a genuine offer. It is not a trap. It is what I would extend to any subject of journalism this significant.

The alternative is also clear. The film proceeds without your voice. The record speaks without your context. And the first Executive Producer letter sent for this project — this letter, dated today, addressed to you — becomes part of the documentary record of how El Paso's most powerful private citizen responded when offered the chance to speak.

I'll leave the choice with you.

I can be reached at the contact information below. I will not be contacting Raben. I am writing to you directly because this is a direct matter between a journalist and the subject of his journalism.

Whatever you decide, I want you to know that I do not believe you are beyond accountability or beyond the possibility of honest engagement. I have covered enough powerful people to know that silence is almost never their best option. It just feels like the safest one.

It isn't. Not anymore.

Respectfully,

Luis Ruiz Borderplex Ledger El Paso, Texas @bplexledger on X borderplexledger.substack.com