Thread: Illegal Immigrants NOT Criminals, Right?

Bill makes police tackle crime, not immigrants
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 03/27/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


AUSTIN -- Legislators got a small taste Monday of what is to come later this week when a House panel kicks off debate over border security and immigration in Texas.

The House Border and International Affairs Committee heard from supporters of a bill intended to ensure police use federal border security dollars to battle serious crime, not to target undocumented immigrants.

"Immigrants are no more likely to be criminals than any other part of our society," said Luis Figueroa, legislative attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The proposal would require police and sheriff's departments that receive federal money for border security operations to report to the Texas Department of Public Safety about the effectiveness of their operations. They would have to report how their efforts stifled terrorism, violent crime and drug crime.

The legislation is the same as a Senate bill state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, filed after an El Paso Times investigation revealed that border sheriffs participating in Operation Linebacker last year turned over undocumented immigrants seven times more often than they arrested criminals.

The federal grant dollars for the operations were meant for fighting violent and drug-related crimes.

El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego's department came under fire for allegedly seeking out undocumented immigrants to turn over to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Samaniego has adamantly defended his department, saying his officers do not enforce immigration laws and do not target immigrants.

Sheriff's department spokesman Rick Glancey called the legislation "overkill."

Departments that receive border security grants, he said, already report to the governor's criminal justice division. He said the success of border security operations could not be quantified with numbers.

The way to measure whether border security efforts work, Glancey said, is to gauge the sense of safety among border residents.

"Unfortunately, people in Austin sit behind closed doors and don't realize there is a rural environment under attack," he said.

State Rep. Juan Escobar, D-Kingsville, who worked for 25 years in federal law enforcement, including time as border checkpoint commander, sponsored the House bill.

He said dollars should be spent to secure the border, but those monies should be aimed at catching drug traffickers and cartel operators.

"There's not a logical connection between undocumented or illegal immigration and crime," said Rebecca Bernhardt, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union, who supported the legislation.

Legislators took no action on the bill Monday, but that committee and another one, the House State Affairs Committee, will hear much more about the issues of immigration and border security Wednesday.

The committees will host what is set to be a marathon hearing of invited testimony from a wide variety of immigration experts, police, border officials and business representatives.

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, leads the State Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over most of the immigration-related bills.

He said Monday that only a handful of the 40 or so immigration bills coming through his committee would likely get a vote. Last week, he said, officials from the Texas Attorney General's office told him many of the bills were unconstitutional or in some other way beyond the state's purview.

"We are not in the immigration business," Swinford said.

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com;(512) 479-6606.

Notice how it suddendly became immigrants?

Immigrants most likely are not criminals, however, every illegal alien is.

Who are they trying to fool? Anyone with half a lick of sense can see through those statements and understand the need to lump immigrants and illegal aliens together.

If you take the immigrants out of the illegal aliens, there is nothing left but stats and facts that don't look good to the OBL.

Dixie

The article is sickening. So much bias...I CAN'T STAND IT!!! Look at the names and who is interviewed: MALDEF, ACLU, Eliot Shapleigh, Juan Escobar. It's a literal who's who of liberals. I hope this bill sinks back under the rock it came from. However, I don't have a lot of confidence in Rep. Swinford. He seems sort of cowardly to me, especially after he mentioned his meeting with AG Abbott telling him most of the bills addressing illegal immigration are unconstitutional. I'd fight to make them constitutional. That's just me.

[quote]"There's not a logical connection between undocumented or illegal immigration and crime," said Rebecca Bernhardt, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union, who supported the legislation.[/quote]

Liar, Liar, Liar, pants on fire! What a ridiculous statement. Criminal aliens and their supporters can make all the empty arguments they want, but the fact remains - anyone who breaks a written law has committed a crime! All the word games in the world won't change that fact. Illegally crossing the border is a crime, overstaying a visa is a crime, using forged and fake documents to gain employment is a crime, using someone elses SSN is a crime, etc., etc., etc. The very nature of being illegal forces many criminal aliens to routinely add to their list of crimes. The ACLU needs to remove their collective heads from the darkness between their legs and start being truthful in the debate. Statements like the one made by Ms. Bernhardt are simply lies that the ACLU and similar groups keep spouting off in order to keep the masses confused and off-balance.

In actuality, I assume Ms. Bernhardt is referring to crimes that most of society would consider serious. However, that is not what she said. I'm getting fed us with the disingenuous play on words from these kooks!

I love this stuff.....Every time crime and illegal immigration is brought up, they say, "Yeah but, they are no more likely to commit crime than legal citizens." You know why they argue this?? Simple, they know that the exact #s are not their BECAUSE WE DO NOT EVEN KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY ILLEGALS ARE IN THIS COUNTRY!! Its a cop-out, used to get you to try to prove something that their is no way to know for sure, but is plainly evident at the same time. So, I might ask them, seeing that we do not know how many illegals are in this country, how would you be able to make such an assertion that they are not prone to crime???

So, what can we use for determining illegal aliens likely-hood to be criminals? Let's start with amnesty pusher George Bush.....According to him, during the last five years 4.5 million illegals were caught by the ICE sneaking into this nation--not a bad sample size, eh? Out of these one in 12 had criminal records. Is one in twelve legal Americans a criminal?? Or, how about the fact that 29% of our prison population are illegal immigrants?? Are they 29% of the population?? MS-13 is an illegal immigrant gang, as are the top Mexican gangs in LA. Illegals are responsible for the spike in gang violence--the only violent crime on the rise, and are responsible for making ARIZONA the leading state in crime.

So, even though we do not know exactly how many illegals are in this nation, we do have evidence to go by. Yes, illegals most definitely are more prone to crime than legal citizens by the information at our disposal. Besides, just use common sense. Anyone who has gone to a public school or has children who go to a public school with illegals has seen first hand that they have a high criminal and gang element. Most illegals are young, poor, uneducated males......Kinda fits the profile, doesn't it? Mexico has always had a criminal culture, and now they are exporting it here.

Oh man, have you got your boots on? 51% of El Paso's population is illegal aliens. I mean really, arrest someone there you are most likey have an illegal in your cuffs.

How unrealistic is that? The foolish statements are in abundance.

Dixie

By their very presence her they are criminals.
When are poeple going to start to tell the truth?

Not to mention, driving without a licence...are any of them doing that?

Driving without insurance, any of them doing that?

Using false documentation...are any of them doing that?

Not paying taxes and SSI are they doing that?

They are criminals.
And I refuse to call them migrants...immigrants....or undocumented
I am keeping it real. They are illegal aliens. PERIOD.

Boy, how the left like to twist the words to their own advantage.

If the majority of the people would actually listen to what the left is saying, they could find the spin. With the illegal immigration debate it is so simple. They want to say we are anti-immigration, but KNOW we are against ILLEGAL immigration. However, those that aren't paying attention can get suckered into the Lefty Spinjob, and that is what the ACLU, LULAC, etc. are counting on.

Srrendering our cities without a fight? Baffles me how we can be so dense?