Round Rock citizens talk immigration
By: Amanda DeBard

Posted: 7/24/07

Every year, Round Rock citizens choose one book to collectively read and talk about during library-sponsored forums. Citizens voted on "A Devil's Highway" this summer, a book about 26 Mexican men trying to cross the border into the United States.

Under the auspices of the moderator, the Rev. Dr. William J. Sappenfield, five panelists discussed their views on making the border more secure, immigration laws, the T. Don Hutto immigration detention facility and the rights illegal immigrants should be granted as noncitizens.

"White people don't have anything against brown people," said Curtis Collier, president of U.S. Border Watch. "It's not about race, it's about legal and illegal immigrants and keeping people out of the country who shouldn't be here."

Panelists included Terri English, director of Immigration Counseling and Outreach Services; Curtis Collier, president of U.S. Border Watch; Leslie Helmcamp, director of immigrant concerns for the Catholic Charities of Central Texas; Edna Yang, general counsel for Political Asylum Project of Austin; and Larry Youngblood, Texas border patrol volunteer.

English said there's not much that can be done to stop the Texas population from changing after the moderator referenced the statistic that, by 2015, 50 percent of Texas will be non-Caucasian.

"Most people are afraid of change and find it disconcerting to drive through a town you grew up in to see the signs in another language," English said.

Lou Ann Anderson, a Temple resident who grew up in Austin, agreed with English and said she doesn't recognize the streets she grew up around.

"Every time I drive down South Lamar and see Mexican flags, I wonder where the hell I am," Anderson said.

Panelists and participants were not in agreement on their views regarding the border wall the government will begin building by the end of September, though.

"The wall will not solve immigration problems," said Youngblood. "We need to encourage politicians to support border officials, and we need lots more border patrol help. We're undermanned."

Collier repudiated Youngblood's opinion when he said walls do work. If they didn't, he said, they wouldn't be put around every prison in the U.S.

Opinions regarding the Hutto immigration detention facility were even more polarizing.

Helmcamp, a frequent visitor to the the facility, said the facility is a jail no matter what its intended purpose.

"I've reviewed many cases there, and I've seen changes as a result of a lawsuit filed against it by the ACLU," she said. "The conditions were much worse, and it upsets me there had to be a lawsuit filed to make changes."

Youngblood said the facility conditions seem fair, and illegal aliens are put in better situations than some legal citizens.

"We're providing an incentive for them to come here," he said. "They're going to continue to run their children across the desert, because they know they'll go to a nice little hotel outside of Austin."

The Hutto detention facility houses no Mexican nationals.

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