Move for HPD help decried
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 23392.html
Dec. 13, 2005, 10:37PM
IMMIGRATION LAW
Move for HPD help decried
Resolution for local enforcement help invites racial profiling, say some council members
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
About 40 protesters, including Republican City Councilman M.J. Khan, appeared in front of City Hall on Tuesday to oppose a resolution that would require Houston police to enforce immigration law.
City Councilman Mark Ellis has introduced the resolution, which is not expected to get support from a council majority. Critics led by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now gathered for a protest before the second public hearing on the proposal.
Khan made it clear he strongly opposes illegal immigration. But he said it is the responsibility of specially trained federal officials to check for valid visas and passports.
Asking Houston Police Department officers to enforce immigration law would invite racial profiling, Khan said.
"Chances are, someone with broken English who looks like me is going to get detained," said Khan, a native of Pakistan and a naturalized U.S. citizen.
City offices are officially nonpartisan, but Khan is widely known to be one of the council's eight Republicans. Ellis has said Khan and Shelley Sekula-Gibbs are the only Republicans who haven't supported his proposal.
A telephone poll of Texans last month found 75 percent support having local and state police help federal officials enforce immigration laws.
A public hearing on the resolution last week drew mostly supporters. But Tuesday's forum drew a dozen speakers against having HPD enforce immigration laws. Three city councilmen and other leaders spoke against the resolution at the news conference.
"This resolution threatens to divide our city," said City Councilman Gordon Quan. He, too, warned the change might lead to profiling of all immigrants.
"We are not that kind of city," he said. "We are a city that welcomes."
edward.hegstrom@chron.com
