http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... cs/3400852

Oct. 17, 2005, 11:21PM

Jackson Lee proposes stronger border security
Congresswoman wants 100,000 spaces added at detention sites
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee joined the border security debate Monday by offering her own proposal to beef up Rio Grande patrols and add 100,000 spaces at detention centers.

The Houston Democrat, best known for supporting immigrants, says a recent tour of the border left her convinced the federal government is not doing enough to secure the borders from drug runners and terrorists.

"This government, the federal government, has failed," she said at a press conference attended by T.J. Bonner, the head of the National Border Patrol Council.

Jackson Lee is not the first Democrat to criticize the Bush administration on the national security issue. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, both Democrats, declared states of emergency earlier this year because of drug-related violence on their respective borders.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, offered his own proposal last week, which would spend $9.7 million to put sheriff's deputies to work stopping the flow of drugs across the Rio Grande.

But Jackson Lee said patrolling the border needs to be left to the federal government, which can provide the proper training for officers, leaving local police available to look for "child molesters and bank robbers."

Her bill, called the Rapid Response Border Protection Act, calls on the government to train enough new recruits so that 1,000 Border Patrol agents could be mobilized to respond during an emergency on a particular stretch of the border. She also proposes equipping the agents with better helicopters, boats, trucks, computers, radios and night-vision goggles.

The addition of 100,000 detention beds would allow the government to hold and then deport more illegal immigrants. Currently, some illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico are released because the government doesn't have anywhere to detain them.

The bill offers benefits such as relocation bonuses and student loans to Border Patrol agents. Jackson Lee's bill would allow union employees to regain their right to collective bargaining, which they lost in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

No cost estimate was immediately available for the bill.

Jackson Lee said the proposal does not represent a departure from her long-standing position as an advocate for immigrants, including illegal immigrants. Experts estimate there are 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country, and Jackson Lee said it would be impractical for the government to deport all of them. She has proposed offering them "earned access to legalization," which would allow them to become U.S. citizens over time.

Opponents of illegal immigration don't like Jackson Lee's proposal to legalize those now in the country, which they consider an amnesty. But some of them say they were pleasantly surprised to see the details from Jackson Lee's new border security legislation.

"It's a good bill," said Rosemary Jenks, who tracks legislation for NumbersUSA, a Washington, D.C., group pushing to reduce immigration levels.

Jenks said Democrats would be smart to take up the issue of border security.

"This White House has been an absolute disaster on enforcement," she said. "If (the Democrats) are serious, they're onto something. This is something that resonates with the public."

Still, Jenks gave the bill little chance of going anywhere.

"It's a Republican-controlled Congress, and they're not going to move a Sheila Jackson Lee bill," she said.