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Lawmaker knows immigration issue

Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Hearst Newspapers
Aug. 6, 2006 12:00 AM


WASHINGTON - Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, knows a little bit about immigration and border security.

Unlike his 434 colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives, the lawmaker from El Paso is a veteran of the Border Patrol, having spent more than 26 years with the service in Texas before his election to Congress in 1996.

Reyes' resume puts him smack in the middle of the polarizing debate on immigration and has prompted Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to recognize him as an expert on the issue.

On Aug. 17, the congenial congressman, known as "Silver" to his friends, is to testify in El Paso before a House committee hearing on immigration. In July, he appeared before three other congressional panels to share his views.

The hearings come as Congress struggles to reconcile two vastly different immigration bills passed by the House and Senate.

The Senate measure would bolster border security, create a temporary visa for foreign workers and allow most of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to eventually become citizens. In contrast, the House bill focuses on enforcement and does nothing about undocumented workers now in the U.S. except to make their "unlawful presence" here a felony.

Reyes, like many fellow Democrats in Congress, backs the Senate's broader approach. He said any immigration overhaul needs to include better border security, a crackdown on the employers who hire undocumented workers and a program to legalize illegal immigrants who "work hard, pay taxes and participate as productive members of our society."

When Reyes talks about the border, lawmakers listen, said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. "He brings unusual expertise to the debate," Cuellar said.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, said Reyes' colleagues in the House know he has real-life experience with the issue, and that gives him a platform on Capitol Hill.

"Reyes has really proven credible because of his experience with the Border Patrol," Gonzalez said.

He also has won praise from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, a conservative Republican who was one of the leading architects of a 1996 crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"I consider Silvestre Reyes to be an expert in his own right," Smith said. "He has experience that gives him great credibility on the issue."

Reyes doesn't shy away from the subject.

In Congress, "we operate on theory," Reyes, 61, said in an interview. "I actually operate on experience."

Official congressional trips to the border give lawmakers a chance to see it firsthand, but those brief visits only tell part of the story, Reyes said.

"It's a lot like having members of Congress who were never in the military visit Iraq or Afghanistan and come back and say, 'I've seen the combat zone, I know what's going on,' " Reyes said. "We visit, and it's valuable, but you don't know . . . the reality on the ground. There are a lot of things that you don't get by visiting there."

Reyes calls his Border Patrol background "inherently valuable." He also spends a lot of time fielding questions from colleagues on the subject.

"I'm happy to engage people," Reyes said. But he's frustrated that they don't always listen.

"The good news is a lot of people talk to me about it and want to get to my opinion," Reyes said. "The bad news is (sometimes my comments) are disregarded, and we keep doing the same things over and over to the detriment of the security of our country."

For one thing, Reyes said, outsiders often don't realize how interconnected Mexican and U.S. commerce is along the border.

"On the border, nothing can be black or white, because decisions we make, although they may seem good or play well politically, can affect in a negative way" the entire region.

Reyes' career with the Border Patrol began in 1969, after he served in the Army in Vietnam. He rose through the ranks quickly, ultimately spending 11 years as chief of the Border Patrol in McAllen, Texas, and then El Paso.

Frustrated with illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, Reyes initiated Operation Hold The Line, a plan still running today, to put more officers right on the border, rather than miles inland.

When House Republican leaders announced their plans for the hearings, designed to highlight flaws in the Senate bill, some Democrats wanted to opt out.

Gonzalez calls them nothing more than a forum for "political posturing," that "can do great harm and mislead the public."

But Reyes urged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic leaders to stay involved.

At the very least, Reyes said, by participating, "we can checkmate some of these false arguments they present."