Thread: Texas House committee plans second immigration hearing

12/27/2007
Texas House committee plans second immigration hearing
Bob Campbell
Midland Reporter-Telegram

-Local officers could gain federal authority to deport undocumented workers

Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland has asked two Texas House of Representatives committees to consider immigration reforms and possibly enable city, county and state officers to step in when federal agencies falter.

State Affairs Committee Chairman David Swinford, R-Dumas, was disappointed when representatives backed by the American Civil Liberties Union defeated his House Bill 13 last spring in Austin to withhold state money from "sanctuary cities" that refuse to cooperate.


So he was pleased that Craddick gave him the responsibility to draft legislation for the 81st Legislature in January 2009.


"The ACLU got it killed because some representatives were more beholden to them than to protecting our kids from the drug dealers," Swinford said. "It's absolutely untrue that people on the U.S.-Mexico border don't want border security because who is the first to get whacked? They are."


"My bill said, 'You need to enforce all the laws. If you pick and choose, the state will withhold some of your funds because we are not a sanctuary state, we're a law abiding state."


Robstown Democratic Rep. Abel Herrero raised the point of order that killed the bill, according to the May 3 online edition of the Brownsville Herald.


Swinford, whose Democratic co-sponsors were Reps. Juan Escobar of Kingsville and Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, will convene his nine member committee in late February in an as yet undetermined city in the Rio Grande Valley.


House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Plano, plans hearings around Texas to review making city and county jails notify federal authorities before releasing illegal immigrants.


Swinford said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Section 287-G allows the delegation of federal authority to pursue violent crimes, human and narcotics smuggling, sexual offenses and money laundering and deport undocumented workers.


Four weeks of training are needed for prison correctional officers and five weeks for city, county and state officers.


"We have a lot of illegal immigrants in our prisons and jails and when it comes time to send them home, the federal government has been very slow to do that," said Swinford. "That's why we've been holding them way past the time we need to deport them.


"The U.S. Constitution gives immigration issues to the feds, but the majority of them have flat dropped the ball. People in West Texas want something done and I'm not necessarily talking about a fence. I'm talking about immediately securing our border."


When asked his view of the immigration reform bill backed by President Bush and Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy last summer, Swinford said, "The president is a good friend of mine, but we don't agree on everything and I didn't agree that we ought to reward illegal acts by giving citizenship."


Other State Affairs Committee members are Vice Chairman Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, Republicans Corbin van Arsdale of Houston, Wayne Christian of Center, Byron Cook of Corsicana, Dan Flynn of Van and Tan Parker of Flower Mound and Democrats Jessica Farrar of Houston and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth.


Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter has had a satisfactory arrangement for some time with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and does not have the manpower to dedicate any deputies to federal duties.


"With any inmate born outside the U.S., we check to see if they're here legally and if there's a question, ICE gives us the authority to hold them until determining if they are illegal," Painter said. "Once the charges are completed, we turn them over to the federal authorities.


"You can't just take somebody to the border and tell them to go across. You have to take them to a federal magistrate or judge and do the formal deportation."


www.mywesttexas.com

I would like to remind Texans that Jon Eifert the person who created the national legislative fax engine for NumbersUSA is available for the creation of state level legislative fax engines and Texas has enough members now to make it worth while.