Congress conflicted: Cocke County woman leaves Capitol Hill with few answers
BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about the testimony of a Cocke County woman involving illegal immigration in the Lakeway Area.

When Lora Costner met with authors of U.S. immigration policy, she met with little consensus beyond the fact that the plot was badly flawed and nobody knew how the story would play out.

Both Costner and her husband had their identities stolen by illegal aliens who worked at a Morristown chicken-processing plant.

She was summoned to Capitol Hill last week to testify about the ordeal before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee.

The responses she received from members of Congress ran the gamut, and all seemed to reflect some sort of disconnect between elected representative and what’s happening outside of Washington D.C.

One suggested the fault was with local law enforcement, which should have ensured that both individuals who stole the Costners’ identity were deported.

Another said it should be the employer — not the person who entered the country illegally — that should be the focus of criminal prosecution.

A third conclusion that surfaced is that illegal immigrants who use someone’s Social Security or invent a number haven’t committed an offense worth prosecuting if they don’t break other laws.

It appears the only thing that Costner’s questioners could agree on is that Congress had failed to develop an effective immigration policy during the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Immigration officials widely concede that millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Central American countries have entered the U.S. during the last 15-plus years.

One of them assumed the identity of Costner’s husband, Jamey, the Cocke County woman testified.

They learned that Mr. Costner’s identity had been compromised after the Mexican national got a speeding ticket and gave Mr. Costner’s Social Security number.

When he learned he’d been identified, he made what they perceived as thinly veiled threats to harm them and Costner’s niece, who was staying with them.

"I want the bad guys, the ones who are stalking you, who are criminally calling you up on the phone and ridiculing you... to be deported," said Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat.

"The outrage is where was there was a disconnect," Jackson added. "The local law enforcement could have taken the gentleman in and called the federal law enforcement right there," Jackson added. "That’s the kind of criminal bad guy that you want to be gone."

Jackson’s assessment of the problem is off point, according to Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt.

"As we in local law enforcement have stated in the past, we are limited on the actions we can take to deport someone," Overholt said this morning.

"We would welcome action by Congress to deal with immigration issues," Overholt added. "The laws on the books don’t give us many options."

The Morristown Police Department sought and was denied so-called 287(g) training for officers. The 287(g) status would have allowed them to enter suspected illegal aliens into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement database for possible deportation.

The 287(g) program is a partial solution advanced by U.S. Rep. David Davis (R-Tenn.) who arranged for Costner to testify in before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law.

Overholt pointed out that placing an illegal immigrants name in an I.C.E. database doesn’t guarantee he or she will be deported. That responsibility would remain with federal officials.

The hearing was convened to hear testimony about a recent I.C.E. raid in Iowa that netted more than 300 illegal workers.

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) says that the companies who hire undocumented workers should be the targets of federal prosecutors.

While these laws exist, they’re seldom enforced frequently enough to serve as a deterrent, according to U.S. Rep Dan Lungren (R-Calif.).

Lungren says the only solution to the country’s illegal immigrant problem is allowing foreign nationals to come into the country as part of a guest-worker program.

Ironically, Lungren maintains, the American people won’t accept a guest-worker program until Congress demonstrates it can pass laws that stop illegal immigrants at the border.

Lungren told Costner that Congress has proved it’s not up to that task.

In addressing the Iowa I.C.E. raid, the subcommittee chair, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) made a statement that appears to suggest a limited resolve for enforcing existing immigration laws.

"The evidence … shows that 80 percent of these people had a (Social Security) number that didn’t belong to anybody so it does go to the due-process question," Lungren said. "These individuals plead guilty to something there was no evidence to.

"It was a made-up number not attached to any real person," she added. "I think that is one of the issues that is of concern here, there was no victim because there was nobody that had the number."

One of the cities that Lofgren represents is San Jose, which has declared it is a sanctuary city that will not enforce laws against illegal immigrants who have committed no other crime than to enter the U.S. illegally.

Lofgren’s Republican counterpart didn’t appear satisfied with her summation.

"And we’re all going to invite you here and we’re all going to apologize to you, say we’re sorry it happened to you," Lungren said. "Yeah, we’ll pass around a hat, but we won’t do anything about it.

"I’ll add my apology too, but the best apology we could make to you is when we pass a law that deals with this and puts it on the right track," he added.
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