El Pasoans will testify on immigration at statehouse
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 03/24/2007 12:00:44 AM MDT


AUSTIN -- Some high-profile El Pasoans are among people invited to testify at what could be the opening salvo in a brewing Texas House battle over how the state should deal with illegal immigration and the porous border.

Mayor John Cook, U.S. Rep. Silves re Reyes, D-Texas, El Paso County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rick Glancey and immigration lawyer Kathleen Walker are on list of more than 40 experts Texas lawmakers have asked to testify at an immigration and border security hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, will lead the joint hearing of the House State Affairs and Border and International Affairs Committees.

Swinford, chairman of the State Affairs Committee, has filed legislation that he has said would probably become the House's primary immigration and border security proposal.

Legislators have filed more than 30 bills this session that aim to create disincentives for migrants to stay in Texas illegally and to reduce the burden undocumented immigrants put on taxpayers.

House budget

writers have also approved spending more than $100 million to continue Gov. Rick Perry's border-security operations.
The hearing is supposed to help lawmakers determine which measures the state can enforce under the U.S. Constitution and without treading on federal law.

Many of the bills, including Swinford's, would require local and state police officers to, in effect, enforce federal immigration laws by turning over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.

Swinford's bill would take away border-security dollars from agencies that adopt so-called "safe haven" policies that prevent police from asking about immigration status.

"Anybody that doesn't want the law enforced, I don't have an understanding of that," Swinford said.

El Paso County Sheriff's Office spokesman Glancey, former executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition, said he planned to talk to lawmakers about border experiences he has witnessed in the past two years.

Glancey said he was still working on his testimony and couldn't provide details except to say that he planned to tell the side of the border security story the press has not.

A spokeswoman for Reyes said he would not be able to travel from Washington, D.C., to Austin for the hearing but would send written testimony.

Mayor Cook said he had not yet received an invitation and would not be able to travel to Austin on Wednesday because the Chinese ambassador is expected in El Paso. He added he would send a representative of the city to the hearing.

Walker, the incoming president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she planned to encourage Texas lawmakers to leave immigration enforcement to federal officials.

Enforcing federal immigration law, Walker said, could become a huge expense for the state of Texas.

"There needs to be very frank and earnest discussion about what it means to deal with enforcement regarding border security," she said.


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


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