No to Arizona law in Texas: El Paso leaders, groups to fight immigration bills
by Zahira Torres \ Austin Bureau
Posted: 01/06/2011 11:56:10 PM MST

AUSTIN -- Arizona-style laws that crack down on illegal immigration will not make it into Texas without a fight.

At least that's the impression left by El Paso leaders and prominent business and civil- rights groups who gathered Thursday in Austin to denounce any legislation that offers even a semblance of what Arizona passed last year.

Arizona's immigration law, which is being challenged in court by the federal government, requires local law enforcement to act as de facto Border Patrol agents and makes it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant.

Several Republican Texas lawmakers, now reveling in their largest political gains since Reconstruction, want to follow suit.

Those lawmakers have filed more than 40 bills that target undocumented immigrants.

One bill seeks to give police officers authority to arrest a person for violating a state criminal trespassing law if police have "probable cause to believe" the person is in the country without legal documentation.

Other bills would deny state money to cities or counties that do not enforce federal immigration laws; make local governments that do not enforce such laws subject to a lawsuit by the state seeking up to $10,000 a day; and require businesses to use the federal E-verify system to check the legal status of employees.

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles and state Sen.-elect JosĂ© RodrĂ*guez disagree with such bills.

They along and groups such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Catholic Conference and the Texas Association of Businesses believe that immigration must be handled at the federal level.

Many said the federal government has failed to enact comprehensive immigration reform but stressed that states should not take on those responsibilities.

Texas already faces a budget deficit that could exceed $24 billion. Lawmakers will have to balance budget cuts with state needs, and they also face the contentious process of redrawing political boundary lines.

Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said he hopes that fellow lawmakers will reject "anti-immigrant" bills and instead focus on more pressing issues.

He said such legislation would "tarnish" Texas' image as a pro-business state that offers opportunities to its residents.

"These anti-immigrant measures send the opposite message," he said. "They send a message that these opportunities are only available for some people and not others."

But state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who filed several bills that target undocumented immigrants, said the dissent expressed Thursday would not deter his resolve.

"I guess they forgot about the recent election that was held November 2 and who won that election," Berman said. "Seventy percent of the people in the state of Texas want an Arizona bill in Texas."

Berman is referring to a Rasmussen Poll conducted last July that found 69 percent of 500 Texans surveyed supported Arizona-style legislation.

Another poll, conducted in September by the state's five largest newspapers, found that 53 percent of 1,443 Texas adults, including 1,072 registered voters, supported such legislation.

But Bill Hammond, executive director of the Texas Association of Businesses, said many people do not realize that Mexican nationals contribute millions of dollars to the state's economy and that investment would dry up with the passage of such legislation.

Hammond said traditionally his organization shares close ties with Republican lawmakers but added that an Arizona-style bill would be bad for the state, its businesses and its tourism.

"Most Republicans are favoring this type of legislation and they're our traditional friends," he said. "It's no secret. It's our hope that they will slow down and take a hard look at the long-term impacts on Texas before they enact this legislation."

A state comptroller study in 2006 found that about 1.4 million undocumented immigrants bolstered Texas' economy by an estimated $17.7 billion in 2005.

Back then, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn estimated that state revenues from undocumented immigrants exceeded what the state spent on services for them by nearly $425 million.

But, she said, it was the reverse for local governments and hospitals, which had an estimated loss of nearly $929 million in 2005.

Berman bristled at the results of the study. He said the contributions are not enough for a state whose economy is $1 trillion.

"That is absolutely outrageous," he said. "You can do anything you want to with statistics. She supported illegal aliens in Texas."

Wiles, a Democrat, said he does not support illegal immigration, but he called the passage of such legislation bad policy. He said it would put further demands on already strained law enforcement and saddle state and county taxpayers with extra costs that should stay at the federal level.

Wiles said the federal government trains agencies to deal with complicated immigration issues and defends them if they make a mistake.

"If a local law enforcement officer messes up and stops somebody and makes an improper arrest and they get sued, who is going to defend that officer, and if we lose in court, who is going to pay the suit?" Wiles said.

"It's going to be the local taxpayers."

The sheriff said assertions by some lawmakers who say the legislation would help quell the threat of spillover violence from Juárez, Mexico, are "absolutely ludicrous."

"Those issues that are occurring in Juárez right now have nothing to do with the immigration problem," he said. "Those issues are about the drug trade, about cartels fighting each other."

Still, Wiles said his biggest concern is that if sheriff's de puties are required to enforce federal immigration law, undocumented immigrants who are victims of crimes or witness a crime will not come forward.

"If they do that and that trust and relationship breaks down, we have the potential of increasing crimes in our communities," Wiles said. He added that El Paso received its ranking as the safest large city in Texas in part because of the relationship between law enforcement and residents.
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