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.