Thread: State's Lead Border Official Wants Immigrants to Register

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State’s lead border official wants immigrants to register
BY ELIZABETH PIERSON
The Brownsville Herald

July 2, 2006 — AUSTIN — It’s impossible to budget for an expense if you don’t know the price.

That’s the concept Buddy Garcia, the Texas Deputy Secretary of State and Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s adviser on border issues, thinks has been lost in the boisterous national debate over how to reform immigration policy.

First and foremost, everyone here illegally should have to register with the government, he said. Every person would be fingerprinted, receive an identification number and be placed in a database accessible to all levels of government so leaders can approve budgets with an idea of how much money they must set aside for social services, he said.

“There isn’t enough attention, I think, on the idea that if you’re going to change anything, the emphasis needs to be on some form of verifiable ID,” Garcia said.

Registering alone would not give anyone legal status or put them on a track to legal status, but it would provide a foundation for other programs Congress might consider in the future such as guest-worker programs, he said.

Garcia acknowledges that many here illegally may not come forward to register. Still, he thinks many will register if they are not forced to pay unreasonable fines and if they are threatened with tougher penalties for breaking the law if they haven’t registered after, say, two years.

In other words, registering should be a stick, not a carrot, he said.

Growing up in Brownsville, Garcia said he learned quickly that most people who illegally cross into the United States want to work, nothing more.

But, he doesn’t think seeking work makes it OK to break the law. He doesn’t like that once in the United States illegally, many engage in other illegal activities, like driving illegally or using false Social Security numbers to get benefits.

State and local governments in border states take the brunt of illegal immigration, he said.

“I think there’s too much talk about how people are just coming for a job and what’s the harm,” Garcia said. “That’s not the issue. The issue is once you’re here, you are probably taking social services and how do we pay those bills?

“We can’t begin to document those programs until we put (illegal immigrants) on a database,” he said.

Garcia doesn’t downplay the importance of securing the border. He said it must be sealed, but with the recognition that there have always been and will always be people who come north to work.

“I really do feel that it is a labor mobility issue more so than an immigration issue,” he said. “People are here now and that is missed when we talk about sealing border.”

epierson@link.freedom.com

Garcia doesn't appear to be a very bright apple. The illegals are not going to register. Make me laugh. Please don't waste any more tax dollars on illegals.

Dixie