Thread: ALIPAC: Texas Checkpoint Plan Stirs Lots of Talk

Texas Checkpoint Plan Stirs Lots of Talk


Some see safety-others a plan for immigration enforcement.
By KTRH's Bill O'Neal
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The plan is pretty simple-at least on its surface. State or local law enforcement officers would man checkpoints on roadways-and look over driver's licenses, insurance information-possibly some other information. That has some State Lawmakers worried it may all be a thinly veiled disguise of an immigration enforcement effort-and many of them are crying foul.

On the other hand though, some see your safety as the number one priority in this effort.

"Quite frankly, if people are not here legally, I'm not sure why that would be problematic," said State Representative Debbie Riddle, who supports the plan.

"I do have some hesitations regarding this-I like less government, not more government. On the other hand, public safety is a big issue," Riddle said. "I'm not really concerned about political incorrectness of this particular issue as much as I'm concerned about public safety-and if this would enhance public safety, then I think we have to look at it seriously."

Riddle said immigration law should be applied to any illegal immigrant the checkpoints might turn up. But not everyone is sold-especially when it comes to any immigration enforcement effort the plan might supposedly contain.

"They've been successful at raising revenue for police departments-that catch on any little problem with your license, insurance, or taxes," said Americans for Legal Immigration President William Gheen, who has seen such checkpoints at work in other parts of the country.

"Most times… when these laws are applied-they are applied fervently to legal U.S. citizens, while illegal aliens are allowed to get away with whatever they want," Gheen said. However, if such a plan is implemented correctly, he believes it could make a difference.

"If it was actually designed to detect, detain, and deport illegal aliens, the public would support the checkpoints rather fervently. If it's designed to allow illegal aliens to just walk, and harass American citizens, then it will be unpopular," Gheen said.

http://www.ktrh.com/cc-common/news/sect ... le=4574545

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

That has some State Lawmakers worried it may all be a thinly veiled disguise of an immigration enforcement effort-and many of them are crying foul.

I wonder why our Democratic Lawmakers feel that enforcing the law is a bad thing? Especially when our illegal population here in Texas usually don’t have a driver's license, inspection stickers, current license plates, or insurance. Seems like we will be killing quite a few birds with one stone.

I've been through roadside checkpoints before and they never fined me, took me to jail or seized my auto. Oh, but I'm legal and so is my car.

Dixie

Austin is finally grasping the idea of what uncontrolled immigration brings,
DUI's hit and run, etc. While I don't believe nor like road checks we are
at the point it is the only answer because the job of securing the border
was ignored.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3724--0-0.html

"Texas Scraps Plans for Random Highway Checkpoints"
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-138277.html

If the checkpoints get un-insured and un-licensed drivers off the roads....Good!
If they get drunken drivers off the roads........Better!!
If they happen to catch illegals....GREAT!!!

Running errands today--all the way around the block--I was being tailgated by a beat-up car with five people in it, all male. As I turned the corner, they turned the corner. As I turned the next corner, they were still on my tail. I am totally upset that I have to worry about a carload of folks following my driving. I would loved to have run into a checkpoint today as these guys were talking and gesturing and even clobbering each other, from what I could see in the rear view mirror.

Originally Posted by AngryTX

If the checkpoints get un-insured and un-licensed drivers off the roads....Good!
If they get drunken drivers off the roads........Better!!
If they happen to catch illegals....GREAT!!!

[b]I guess the concerns I have with the random checkpoints revolve around the increased infringement into my life as a United States Citizens by "my" government. I can see this going the way of airport security due to Political Correctness, the 80 year old grey haired lady will be searched and her privacy violated while many others who fit the profile of terrorists or in this case also ILLEGALS will be pasted thru. It just doesn’t seem right to me to hear the police ask “Can I see your papersâ€

Abandoning checkpoints
DPS wisely drops efforts to institute inefficient and risky driver's license checkpoints

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 14, 2008, 10:08PMShare

The hardest part about building security into a bureaucracy is being sure it's not harming other types of security along the way.

A proposal to set up statewide driver's license checkpoints plainly fails the test. Fortunately, even its proponents have backed off.

Last August, the Department of Public Safety authorized a rule that, on the face of it, fell within its job description. The rule requires applicants for a driver's license to prove they're legally in the U.S. before getting a Texas driver's license or ID.

But lawmakers, including state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, only learned of the rule when it went into effect this October. What McClendon heard concerned her: Among other things, the rule denied driver's licenses to anyone in Texas for less than six months. A legal immigrant from Germany, recently arrived here with her husband for a new job, might fall into that category.

When she researched the rule, McClendon found something even more disconcerting. The DPS had also asked the state Attorney General's office if it could legally issue a rule establishing checkpoints throughout the state.

Taken together, the two proposals from DPS seemed aimed at snaring undocumented immigrants through unprompted highway searches.

According to McClendon, these goals amount to making immigration policy — policy that, according to Texas courts, should be decided, with public input, by elected officials such as the Legislature.

As for the legality of the checkpoints themselves, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that random traffic stops singling out particular drivers to check licenses — without suspicion of cause — violate the Constitution.

But the ruling did allow states to conduct broader checks that "involve less intrusion," such as "questioning of all oncoming traffic at roadblock-type stops."

But even if it's procedurally and constitutionally allowed, a checkpoint network this far from the border is still bad policy. Above all, because its motives are murky, it is impossible to evaluate its success.

Is it really meant to catch infractions such as expired driver's licenses? With so many other dangers out there, it would be absurd to launch wholesale dragnets of innocent commuters just to catch random exchange students who overstay their visas.

A more likely motive, as even some of the rule's supporters suggest, would be catching, removing and warning away some of the state's hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. This, as McClendon has pointed out, would definitely count as an immigration policy.

Understandably, many Texans are frustrated by Congress' failure to enact workable immigration reform. But this new type of enforcement is not the answer. The more constructive response to such frustration is to pressure federal lawmakers to build and pass a sound immigration policy — one that includes visas for unskilled workers as well as better border security.

On Friday the Texas Public Safety Commission bowed to lawmaker opposition and withdrew its request for the attorney general's opinion. Hopefully, the agency has learned its lesson about trying to usurp the Legislature's role in setting sensitive public policy.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/edi ... 13532.html