US border governors urge Congress to pass immigration reform
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/143690
U.S. border governors urge Congress to pass immigration reform
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON
The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.25.2006
Accusing Congress of abdicating its responsibility to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the governors of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona signed a letter on Friday urging federal lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform before the end of the year.
The state leaders also joined the governors of six Mexican states in signing a joint declaration in which they agreed to vigilantly detect and deter criminal activity along the border by sharing information about issues such as human, drug and arms trafficking.
"No civilized society that values freedom and the rights of the individual can allow the unique criminal threat that exists along our international border to go unchallenged or unchecked," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said during the closing ceremony of the two-day Border Governors Conference.
In the letter being sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the governors said citizens and noncitizens are losing respect for the rule of law thanks to six years of lax and ineffective enforcement of the borders.
"Instead of holding dozens of field hearings that do little but stir the pot of discontent, we urge you to get back to work and pass legislation that puts the interest of taxpayers first and solves this crisis once and for all," the governors said in their letter.
U.S. House and Senate members have passed differing bills this year dealing with immigration and border security, but they've yet to work out the differences in the two versions.
House GOP leaders convened a series of hearings this summer after the Senate approved a guest worker program and a possible path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. The House-approved bill focuses on enforcement and has no provision for illegal immigrants or future guest workers.
The ongoing hearings have been criticized as a political maneuver to delay immigration legislation and to help Republican candidates in an election year.
Perry, a Republican, said he and the other governors were not endorsing either chamber's plan.
"It is time for Congress to act and to act with great expediency," he said.
While the Mexican governors did not sign the letter to Hastert and Frist, several of them urged Congress to act in their closing remarks. Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther said political leaders must recognize that people will always migrate across borders, like the first North American settlers did thousands of years ago.
"What we need to do is address it as a reality, address it legally and humanistically," he said.
Border governors look at issues for both sides
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 40253.html
Aug. 25, 2006, 1:23AM
Border governors look at issues for both sides
Those from U.S. focus on fighting crime; those from Mexico center on building economy
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — The international border governors conference opened with Texas Gov. Rick Perry saying border security is needed to fight crime and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger saying it is needed to fight possible pandemics like avian flu.
But governors from the Mexican states said border security also is about building the economy of Mexico so that there are good jobs to keep Mexican workers at home.
One Mexican official, Juan Bosco Marti, director general with Pan American del Norte, said the two countries need to balance trade with security: "More bridges and fewer walls are needed."
The two-day conference at the Texas Capitol is the 24th annual meeting of the 10 border governors from the U.S. and Mexico to discuss economic and security issues facing the nations.
Border security was the main theme of the opening speeches.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff described the battle to secure the border in terms of crime: both the trafficking of narcotics and human beings. "Criminals prey on innocent people," he said.
Earlier in Weslaco, he said the arrests of people trying to sneak across the border have dropped by a third, an indication that interdiction programs are working.
Perry opened the conference by saying terrorism and illegal immigration have made the border between the U.S. and Mexico more important than it has been in more than 100 years.
Perry said he supports free trade and guest worker programs, but he also said he believes securing the border is an issue of U.S. national security.
"It is the right and I would argue the imperative of every sovereign nation to establish an orderly process by which people and products can legally cross from country to country while ensuring there are safeguards in place to prevent the illegal smuggling of narcotics, weapons and people," Perry said.
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
