Thread: MINUTEMEN Border watchers coming to city They'll target HPD

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... an/3257676

July 8, 2005, 3:38AM
MINUTEMEN
Border watchers coming to city
They'll target HPD's hands-off policy on illegal immigrants and day-labor sites
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The Minutemen are coming to Houston.
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Leaders of the controversial group dedicated to stopping the flow of illegal immigration said they will patrol the streets of the Bayou City beginning in October, as part of a campaign that will extend north from the Mexican border. Houston volunteers will gather near day labor centers and corners where immigrant workers solicit work, in an effort to draw critical attention to the city's hands-off policy toward illegal immigrants.

"We will be videotaping the (day laborers) and we will be videotaping the contractors who pick them up," said Bill Parmley, a Goliad County landowner who heads the Texas chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The Minutemen will only observe to draw attention to the problem and will not attempt to make arrests, he said.

News of the potential patrols in Houston drew a muted response from Mayor Bill White, who said he did not want to engage in a "pointless public relations battle."

"I'm not in a position to dictate to private organizations other than that they should obey the law," White said.

But others were more outspoken.

"This is a welcoming community, and (the Minutemen) should let the law do its job," said City Councilman Gordon Quan, a longtime advocate for immigrants. "They would be a polarizing influence that would bring out latent prejudice."

"These people who hunt immigrants are only thinking of themselves," added Maria del Carmen Yupe, a leader of The Metropolitan Organization. "They don't think of the suffering of these immigrants who stand on the corner hoping to work for something to eat."

Even some supporters of the Minuteman project were initially ambivalent about the idea of bringing the effort onto city streets.

"I just don't see how it could work in Houston," said Wanda Schultz, a West University Place resident who participated in patrols in Arizona last April. "How would anybody know who is illegal or legal?"

But Schultz, after talking with her husband, said later she would gladly participate in an operation to observe and photograph day laborers who gather along Westpark and other streets.

City Councilman Adrian Garcia said he worries that in an increasingly Hispanic city, the Minutemen would have trouble distinguishing illegal immigrants.

But Garcia said he agrees with the Minutemen that the federal government needs to do more to protect the borders. "I respect the message that they're sending," he said.

The Minutemen started with a monthlong citizen patrol along the border in Arizona in April, which led to plans to patrol the entire Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville beginning in October. But Parmley said he now wants to extend the Texas effort far inland. He said he was particularly concerned by what he has learned about the city of Houston's policies toward illegal immigrants.

No questions about status
Houston Police Department policy forbids officers from asking about immigration status in most cases. The city also funds day labor sites used by immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to find work.

"Aren't they aiding and abetting illegal immigrants?" asked Parmley. "Isn't that against the law?"

White defended current policy.

"The protection of our borders is essentially a federal function," the mayor said. "I am not going to take our police out of the neighborhoods" to start looking for illegal immigrants. "Our police priority is going to be public safety."

Local law enforcement agencies have particular reason to be gun-shy about rounding up illegal immigrants.

In 1994, the Katy Police Department decided to conduct a raid for illegal immigrants, but it led to the detention of some Hispanics who were in the country legally. That led to a federal lawsuit resulting in a settlement under which Katy police promised to no longer enforce immigration law.

The lawsuit also led to an injunction that forbids even federal immigration officers from entering some local institutions like hospitals and schools, said Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston.

Deason said the bureau would accept any information the Minutemen bring forward about illegal immigrants. But she noted that the limited number of federal agents in Houston spend most of their time looking for immigrants who are also child molesters, violent criminals, gang members or terrorists.

"We have to prioritize," she said, and rounding up day laborers "is not at the top of our list."

It was not immediately clear what reaction the Minuteman effort would have in greater Houston, which is home to an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants, according to demographers. Polling finds Houstonians generally support immigration.

Nearly 60 percent of Houstonians do not think illegal immigrants are a major cause of unemployment in the area, and 67 percent think the diversity brought by immigration is a good thing, according to recent data from the Houston Area Survey, annual studies conducted by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg.

Lawmakers voice opinions
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, has called on Gov. Rick Perry to let the Minutemen know they are not welcome in Texas. She described the Minutemen as an "unofficial, untrained and uncontrolled militia."

But U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a west Harris County Republican, called the Minutemen "patriots" and said he would not discourage them from coming to Houston. Culberson criticized the city's policy against asking about immigration status. "Failure to enforce the law invites anarchy, and it is deadly dangerous in this war on terror," he said.

Just this week, HPD came under pressure by The Metropolitan Organization and other groups to stop photographing day laborers. An HPD spokesman said it has temporarily stopped the practice.

edward.hegstrom@chron.com

"This is a welcoming community, and (the Minutemen) should let the law do its job," said City Councilman Gordon Quan, a longtime advocate for immigrants. "They would be a polarizing influence that would bring out latent prejudice."

I have news for you Councilman. The law is NOT doing their job and neither are YOU.