Thread: Texas Republican introduces measure to tighten border securi

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Proposed immigration legislation draws praise, criticism

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Wednesday that local officials should be given extended immigration powers to stop the "hemorrhaging" at U.S. borders, drawing criticism from advocacy groups who claim the move would open the door for an increase in unreported crimes and racial profiling.


The Texas Republican's proposed legislation would allow local law enforcement to arrest and detain illegal immigrants for immigration violations. It would also implement a Border Patrol marshals program giving states the power to license police officers, marshals and FBI agents who want to volunteer to patrol the border.

The proposal drew praise Wednesday from other lawmakers, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who said the legislation would safeguard Americans' security.

"It's not just a question of people coming into our country who want to work here," Cornyn said. "It's people who will exploit those same avenues of entry into the United States to come here to kill innocent Americans."

But members of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition said the legislation would harm public safety, discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes out of deportation fears.

"Immigrants will become reluctant to report crime, thus encouraging criminals to further victimize these immigrants and as a result increasing violence in our streets," said Ana Yanez-Correa, the coalition's executive director.

She also raised concerns about racial profiling as a result of the legislation.

"The U.S. Constitution does not require the public to carry any proof of citizenship; therefore the agents would be forced to stop and question people of a certain ethnic group, who speak a different language and have an accent," she said.

Alabama, Florida and Los Angeles County, Calif. have already obtained federal approval to train civilian law enforcement officers so they can arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Local officials must first go through training to get such approval.

Members of a volunteer civilian border patrol group known as the Minutemen have recently been staging patrols in U.S. border states to stem illegal immigration. The group has sparked national controversy, viewed by some as courageous and others as vigilantes.

Hutchison cited the Minutemen's self-professed mission as a motivation behind her legislation.

"There is no doubt the Minutemen highlighted the dire need for more agents to patrol our borders," Hutchison said. "Trained, licensed peace officers could be a valuable and accountable asset to supplement our Border Patrol."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 826472.htm

Posted on Wed, Oct. 05, 2005

Texas Republican introduces measure to tighten border security

BY TODD J. GILLMAN

The Dallas Morning News


WASHINGTON - (KRT) - With complaints mounting about lax border controls, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison called Wednesday for giving local police the power to arrest illegal immigrants and for creation of a "border marshal" program to let local peace officers help patrol the border.

"Our borders have been hemorrhaging for too long. It is a national security and safety threat to our nation," said the Texas Republican, vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. "I just don't think we'll ever have enough Border Patrol agents."

The proposal is one of slew of proposals around Congress to tighten borders, and like many of the others, this one drew swift denunciation from immigrant advocates, who warned that police aren't properly trained and have enough to do already.

Hutchison called her plan a direct response to the Minuteman Project, the controversial group that has sent hundreds of volunteers to deter illegal crossings in Arizona, Texas and other states, and "the Minutemen have shown that citizens are now really wanting to be helpful in patrolling borders."

But she added, it's "not safe" for untrained volunteers to take on those duties. Her bill would let Homeland Security Department create a "Volunteer Border Marshal" program involving police, sheriffs and other licensed peace officers. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was noncommittal about the idea during a 45-minute meeting in her office Wednesday, the senator said.

The bill would give cities and states the option to enforce and prosecute federal immigration laws.

Immigrant advocates warned that local authorities are more likely to injure or kill non-whites - immigrant or citizen. And they predicted sweeps of construction sites and day-laborer pickup areas across the country, deterring immigrants from reporting crimes.

"They'll be easy victims. No one will protect them," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens.

He called the proposal a sign of an immigrant-bashing spiral.

"They're getting more and more aggressive, more and more outrageous in the proposals. It's like immigrants are all mass murders," he said. " ... You could turn the whole country into a police state and that still won't solve the problem. People come here for jobs that are offered by American employers."

Pressure has been building for tighter border controls.

Last month, Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, co-chairman of the Congressional Border Caucus, wrote President Bush urging immediate action to cope with a "state of emergency" along the border. All but one Texas Republican in the House co-signed the letter, along with half the Democrats.

"If you live in America and you're not worried about border security, you should be," Bonilla said Wednesday. "Senator Hutchison's legislation is a step in the right direction."

Said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas: "You always have to have partnerships. The more people you have working together, the better."

This summer, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, called for creation of an armed civilian "militia" to guard the borders. He said Wednesday he likes the Hutchison idea, though he'd prefer requiring local authorities to help enforce immigration laws.

And he plans to meet with border sheriffs next week to discuss their needs.

Culberson planned to file a bill Thursday to provide federal funds to help border sheriffs train and hire more uniformed deputies for border patrol purposes - a "better approach" than militias, he said. "We need to use our local and state law enforcement resources to support the Border Patrol."

www.lufkindailynews.com

EDITORIAL: Deputizing local cops to enforce laws not the answer

The Lufkin Daily News

Thursday, October 06, 2005

We were disappointed to learn that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has proposed legislation that would expand the authority of local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants for immigration violations. As if local cops don't have enough to do; now they're being recruited to ferret out those living here illegally.

Demagogues and cranks somehow think that this country would be better off if every illegal immigrant was tossed out of the country. The hard truth is that our economy would come to a screeching halt if that happened. Construction, landscaping, restaurants, poultry workers and other classes of laborers would be in short supply.

President Bush understands that. Last year he proposed a reasonable guest worker program that would allow those here illegally, if they have jobs or the promise of a job, to pay a one-time fee to get a permit to work and live here for three years. The permit is renewable, as long as the worker has a job and doesn't commit a crime.

Sadly, his proposal, also backed by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has gone nowhere. Instead, anti-immigrationists have backed vigilante groups such as the Minutemen, who are voluntarily patrolling our borders to turn back people entering illegally. They've introduced legislation to bar citizenship to children born here, even though that's been a American tradition for more than a century.

As columnist Cynthia Tucker pointed out recently, anti-immigrationists rarely attack those who hire illegal immigrants. If they were truly serious about stopping illegal immigration, then they ought to pass laws and start prosecuting folks who hire undocumented workers.

Our failed drug war offers an analogy. If there were no demand, there would be no drug problem. If there were no demand for undocumented workers performing jobs that American citizens are unwilling to do â€â€