Thread: House Committee Holds Immigration Hearing In Santee

http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.58981.html

House Committee Holds Immigration Hearing In Santee

Last Updated:
08-05-06 at 5:44PM

The heated illegal immigration debate took center state in the East County Saturday.

A house committee held an immigration hearing in Santee, drawing people from both sides of the debate.

Among the topics discussed were border security and its impact on federal land.

Those attending had no problem expressing their opinions.

This is the third congressional hearing on immigration to be held in San Diego in the past few weeks.

If the House comes back after their 5 week break and says they still need more hearings, I'm gonna flip out!!! I hope eveywhere they go the people are just smothering them with immigration complaints.

http://www.10news.com/news/9634267/detail.html

U.S. House Committee Meets At Local High School

POSTED: 8:01 am PDT August 5, 2006
UPDATED: 1:36 pm PDT August 5, 2006

SANTEE, Calif. -- About 120 people rallied outside West Hills High School in Santee Saturday, where the House Committee on Resources met to discuss border security and illegal immigration.

The 10 a.m. hearing, the third held in the county in recent weeks, was billed as "Border security on federal lands: What can be done to mitigate the impacts along the southwestern border?"

No problems were reported and it was not clear whether the protestors were on both sides of the illegal immigration issue, which is usually the case.

The Senate and House of Representatives are deadlocked over competing legislation aimed at controlling the flood of people sneaking across the U.S. border from Mexico.

About 11 million undocumented immigrants are believed to be living in the country.

House Republicans argue that the Senate bill, which would provide a path to legalized status for some undocumented immigrants, rewards lawbreakers with the equivalent of amnesty.

The House Judiciary Committee, led by Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, held a hearing Wednesday at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

Another Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration was held early last month at an Imperial Beach U.S. Border Patrol station.

http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.58663.html

Local Hearings On Cost Of Illegal Immigration

Last Updated:
08-03-06 at 8:58AM

A hearing on illegal immigration in San Diego casts a gloomy outlook for the future.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from leaders in a variety of fields impacted by immigrants Wednesday. They told committee members, illegal immigration could end up reaching half a trillion dollars.

Some at the hearing were angry about the high costs, while others think the wrong people are being blamed.

"The American people have a right to be angry about the fact that this Congress has done nothing, because the failure to act has made our immigration problem exponentially worse," explained California Democratic Representative Howard Berman.

"They are not criminals. They came to work. Criminals are in every nationality, not only Latinos and Mexicans," said Border Angel Micaela Saucedo.

The hearings will continue around the country throughout August.

http://www.signonsandiego.com

The environmental cost of illegal immigration


Witnesses testify at Santee hearing
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 6, 2006

Illegal immigrants, on their journey from the border, leave behind trash and human waste that can seep into soil and water and harm wildlife.

The federal agents who pursue them do their own damage to the environment. The low-flying helicopters and off-road vehicles disturb wildlife and destroy habitat.

The extent of damage to federal lands and what can be done about it was the topic of discussion yesterday at a hearing of the House Committee on Resources, the third of its kind to be held in San Diego County to discuss illegal immigration.

The two-hour meeting at West Hills High School in Santee began at 10 a.m. and was attended by about 100 people. The hearing chairman was Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and was attended by Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad.

Giving testimony were representatives from the Bureau of Land Management; Border Patrol; Gulf South Research Corp., an environmental consulting firm; Off-Road Business Association; Western Growers, an agricultural trade association; as well as a Jamul equestrian and a New Mexico rancher.

Witnesses cited the recent Horse fire, which burned 17,000 acres in East County and was believed to have been caused by a campfire set by border crossers, as an example of the harm being done to the environment.

They also described the trash, including plastic bags used as makeshift boots, that are discarded and piled up.

Still, the government's attempts to curtail illegal immigration had its own set of negative effects. Some areas that were closed off for Homeland Security purposes meant that recreational users were denied use of the land.

Judy Keeler, who owns two ranches with her husband in New Mexico, told of how immigrants cross her property, littering and scaring the cattle from water troughs. Yet most troubling, she said, was the immigrants' physical suffering at the hands of their smugglers and from dehydration and exhaustion.

“The greatest tragedy in my mind is what is happening to the Mexican people,” Keeler said.

She suggested building a fence, increasing Border Patrol activity and installing cameras to monitor traffic.

“We need a guest-worker program,” Keeler said, to which the audience responded with both boos and applause.

Thomas Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, said farmers wanted to protect the environment and supported opening legal channels to immigration.

He said the simple fact of his industry was that crops were going to be harvested by foreign workers.

“There is a simple solution to this problem, which will not only protect the environmentally fragile federal lands of the Southwest, but will also bolster national security, benefit the U.S. economy and provide humanitarian relief.

“That is a simple, feasible guest-worker program.”

Nassif said farmers were already facing worker shortages.

“I'm getting calls for the first time from people saying no one's applying for jobs,” he said.


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Elizabeth Fitzsimons: (619) 542-4577; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com