Thread: Texas House, Senate debate border security

Texas House, Senate debate border security
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
El Paso Times
Article Launched: Apr 6, 2007

AUSTIN -- Texas legislators are at odds over how much to spend on border security, which agencies should get that money and how it should be used.
Though the House version of the two-year state budget gives Gov. Rick Perry the full $100 million he has asked for to enhance border security, the Senate has adopted a measure that would provide just $55 million.

Donald Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition, said his group prefers the House s border security approach.

We think that is a more equitable distribution, said Reay, a former training director in the El Paso County Sheriffs Office.

The House budget sends border security dollars to the governor's homeland security department. Much of that money would then be awarded as state grants to border law enforcement agencies.

The Senate would give most of the money directly to the Texas Department of Public Safety and not to local sheriffs and police departments.

Legislators also seem to have differing views on what types of work state and local officers on the border ought to do. The House s lead border security champion wants officers to, in effect, enforce immigration laws by turning undocumented immigrants over to U.S. Border Patrol.

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, $55 million won t do the job on the border.

He said too much crime and too many undocumented immigrants are entering Texas between the ports of entry and there aren t enough federal immigration officers to tackle the problem.

Local officers, he said, need resources to help combat drugs, smuggling and illegal crossings. The House budget provides enough money to hire 300 local officers.

That s what we need to do shut the border down from crime, from drugs, from illegals and everything else, he said.

The senator working on border security spending plans said the state should focus on violent crime and drugs, leaving immigration to the federal government.

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, wrote the Senate s budget plan for border security. He said other areas of the budget already include spending that would allow for increased security efforts.

Many senators agreed the state should spend money on border security, but he said they also wanted legislators to have more oversight over how those dollars would be spent.

The Senate budget plan includes about $10 million to hire 56 DPS troopers.

It would allocate another $10 million for local sheriffs and police to participate in border security options only if the governor runs out of federal money to grant local departments.

It s not our job at the state or local level to provide border patrol people, and we can t have our local and state taxpayers supplanting what the federal government s responsibility is, Williams said.

Perry has spent more than $20 million on border security since 2005. Much of that money has gone to local sheriffs departments through federal grants.

Last summer during his re-election campaign, Perry promised to ask lawmakers for $100 million to continue border security operations.

It has worked very effectively flowing through the governor s office, Reay said. The money has come to us in a timely manner, and we have been able to apply it to boots on the ground.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said the Senate s plan was better because it directs money to be spent specifically to fight drugs and violent crime on the border.

But he said both plans lack a critical element: preventing local officers from enforcing immigration laws.

The state has no role in immigration enforcement, he said. Why have state and local taxpayers pay for what is federal function?

The Senate must still approve its version of the budget, and then the chambers will appoint legislators to hash out a compromise between the House and Senate proposals.

We all share the same goal, Williams said. We want better law enforcement, more robust law enforcement presence in border region.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_5611380

The Senate would give most of the money directly to the Texas Department of Public Safety and not to local sheriffs and police departments

That is not a good idea...since the DPS are supporting the open borders...they are working for the Perry gang

It's not their job. We vote for these idiots and they are suppose to look out for us, if the Feds wont they should. I'll be calling these idiots.