Texas lawmakers told immigration not their worry (from the El Paso Times)

Texas lawmakers told immigration not their worry
State urged to fight crime, drugs, not immigration
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 03/29/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


AUSTIN -- Experts, border officials and businessmen told Texas lawmakers Wednesday the state should stay out of the immigration business but do all it can to secure the border against violent crime and drug trafficking.
Seven El Pasoans were among the 38 people whom lawmakers asked to testify at the immigration and border security hearing, which lasted well into the night.

Testifying at the hearing were the Rev. John Stowe of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church; U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas; El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego; Rick Glancey, former Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition executive director; Donald Reay, current sheriffs coalition director; El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles; and immigration lawyer Kathleen Walker.

Texas lawmakers hoped the hearing would provide a better understanding of how proposed border security and immigration laws would affect border residents and how much authority Texas has to control the border.

"We are trying to find out really where the state's authority is and where it is not," said


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state Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee.
Much of the testimony Wednesday focused on whether state and local officers should enforce immigration laws.

Pastor Stowe said that in El Paso immigrants became so fearful that some would not leave their homes when Sheriff Samaniego set up checkpoints where deputies allegedly asked residents for immigration documents.

"Our emphasis has been on standing for families, and many of our Texas families are immigrant families," he said.

Samaniego, who has consistently denied that his deputies enforce immigration laws, told the lawmakers El Paso has become a hotbed for drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

The failure of Congress to act, he said, has required local sheriffs to pick up the slack when it comes to border security.

"I see Uncle Sam on the border with one hand up in the air telling everybody to stop and then with the left hand telling them to come in," he said.

Police Chief Wiles said he wanted more resources to fight crime but not the authority to enforce immigration laws.

"We have limited resources," he said. "We can barely keep up with what we're expected to do now, and adding immigration would just be overbearing on us."

Immigration lawyer Walker, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told lawmakers that immigration law is too complex for local law officers to enforce.

"You're giving them an invitation to a lawsuit," she said.

Border business leaders and Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said that if the state tried to take on immigration law and stop the flow across the border, it could devastate the state's economy.

"Our economy depends on immigrant labor," said Bill Hammond, executive director of the Texas Association of Business.

Swinford and Border and International Affairs Committee Chairman Tracy King, D-Batesville, said they tried to select experts who would provide lawmakers with an array of viewpoints.

Though it may be frustrating that the federal government has not done more to control the flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States, Swinford said, the state's authority is limited.

"What we're trying to do is to do what we can do," he said.

Swinford's committee will decide the future of many of the nearly 40 immigration-related bills Texas lawmakers have filed, and of Gov. Rick Perry's $100 million border security program.

Swinford said about two-thirds of those bills, including a measure that sought to end birthright citizenship, are already destined for death because state lawyers told him they would be unconstitutional.

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com;(512) 479-6606.