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Gohmert touts work on border security

By JIM HARDIN
jhardin@longview-news.com

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Letters, telephone calls and survey responses point to border security as the No. 1 concern of East Texans, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert said Wednesday.

"To me, it's not just the southern border," said Gohmert, R-Tyler, representing the 1st Congressional District. "It's the northern border as well. It's the ports. It's the airports, every avenue of entry needs to be secured."

Gohmert, during a meeting with the Longview News-Journal editors, said border security is a "huge part" of national security.

"If you can't control who comes into this country, then you're going to end up giving up more and more civil rights to protect yourself," he said during the hourlong meeting. "I don't want to give up any more civil rights, but to secure the borders, you have to decide, do we want our civil rights or do we want to be protected?"

In September, Gohmert voted for three major pieces of legislation involving border security and illegal immigration.

The three bills are:

—Community Protection Act, which detains dangerous aliens who are unable to be deported.

—Immigration Law Enforcement Act, which reaffirms the authority of state and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

—Border Tunnel Prevention Act, which sets criminal penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment for anyone who builds or finances a tunnel across the U.S. border.

Gohmert said he is disappointed with immigration services.

"There is so much work to do with the Immigration Department. I am still so disappointed with them," Gohmert said. "The president a few years ago targeted a six-month amount of time to respond to every application. We've still got applications going back three or four years, and their backlog is something awful."

Gohmert said he doesn't believe there needs to be new "pathways to citizenship." What's needed, he said, is for immigration officials to perform their duties more efficiently so people don't have to wait years to get their applications dealt with.

"I would like to get immigration cleaned up so immigration will do what immigration is supposed to do," he said.

Gohmert, a first-term representative, faces Longview Democrat Roger Owen in the November general election. Libertarian Donald Perkison also is on the ballot. Gohmert's district covers Angelina, Cass, Gregg, Harrison, Marion, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith and Upshur counties.











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