Thread: Secure border with economy, panel told

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_4222994

8/23/2006

Secure border with economy, panel told

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
El Paso Times

AUSTIN -- Healthy trade and a growing economy on both sides of the border will do more to boost homeland security than new immigration laws and crackdowns on border crossers, border leaders and businessmen told a Texas House committee Tuesday.
"A border without economic vitality will never develop security," said Hector Holguin, CEO of the Holguin Group in El Paso.

The Texas House Border and International Affairs Committee, led by state Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, heard testimony from local officials about economic development and tourism on the border.

City and business leaders from El Paso and other border cities told committee members that economic considerations are a key factor that has been largely ignored in the national discussion of border security and immigration.

"Getting lost in the immigration debate has been the reality of commerce along the border," Chávez said.

Though Congress is responsible for making decisions about regulating the border and immigration, the state must take a stand on issues that affect the economy, said Mike Allen, of the Texas Border Coalition, a group of border city officials concerned with economic development infrastructure.

"We believe (illegal immigration) very, very clearly affects the economic development future not only of our border but of our state and our country," Allen said.

He said border city leaders want immigration law that allows Mexican workers to enter the U.S. legally and that improves the speed and intelligence of trade along the border.

"If we delay the amount of commerce getting from one side to the other, it will find another way," said Robert Andrade, executive assistant to El Paso Mayor John Cook. "It will seek another manufacturer in another country."

Holguin said using technology to improve the economy in Mexico and the U.S. is the way to increase border security.

He expects the 10 U.S. and Mexican border governors at a conference in Austin later this week to approve a trade initiative the Holguin Group helped develop.

The plan would create so-called secure manufacturing zones along the border that use Web-based technology to track goods from origin to endpoint, eliminating the need for redundant security checks at border crossings.

"To me, it's not about building fences or creating more laws or throwing thousands of sheriffs and Border Patrol officers at the problem," Holguin said. "We need to create economic vitality second to none."

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has been working for years to promote the trade initiative he said would increase border security and improve the economy locally both in Juárez and El Paso, which would likely be among the first communities to implement the new technology.

"It's far more beneficial to both sides to build secure technologies than to build walls," Shapleigh said.

Wasn't that the same song we heard when we got NAFTA.

'If Mexico has plenty of jobs, there won't be a problem with illegal immigration.'.

There is only one way to fix this problem. Either we have laws and we will enforce them or we don't.

IF and that is a big IF, temporary workers (and call them what they are - they will not be guests) are needed, then bring them in, no families, and let the employer be responsible for the workers and for seeing they return home on time.

"A border without economic vitality will never develop security," said Hector Holguin, CEO of the Holguin Group in El Paso.

There you have it, straight from a business interest! If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem - and corporate America has been part of the problem!

The way I see it, you're either with us or against us, and corporate America has shown time and time again that they are against us.