The Big Conversation

Texas Tribune
January 29, 2013
by David Muto

A major new federal immigration proposal has corralled bipartisan support, but Texas Republicans aren't biting.

The proposal — unveiled Monday by a group of four Republican and four Democratic U.S. senators — includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and increased border security. The unveiling came a day before President Barack Obama is expected to lay out a plan of his own that is said to be moderately more liberal than the senators' proposal.

But in Texas, the senators' proposal isn't winning much GOP support. Both of the state's U.S. senators, Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, expressed reservations about the plan.

"There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration," Cruz said in a statement. "However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally."

A spokeswoman for Cornyn told the The Dallas Morning News, "There are many facets to immigration reform, but one that must be addressed first and foremost is our porous border."

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a San Antonio Republican and member of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, called the plan "amnesty," adding, "When you legalize those who are in the country illegally, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, costs American workers thousands of jobs and encourages more illegal immigration."

The opposition from Texas Republicans may mirror the pushback the plan receives from Republicans in Washington, especially in the GOP-controlled House, whose speaker, John Boehner, on Monday offered a tepid response to the proposal.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/01/29/brief-top-texas-news-jan-29-2013/

The right way to mend immigration

Washington Post
March 19, 2010
by Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham

Our immigration system is badly broken. Although our borders have become far more secure in recent years, too many people seeking illegal entry get through. We have no way to track whether the millions who enter the United States on valid visas each year leave when they are supposed to. And employers are burdened by a complicated system for verifying workers' immigration status.

Last week we met with President Obama to discuss our draft framework for action on immigration. We expressed our belief that America's security and economic well-being depend on enacting sensible immigration policies.

The answer is simple: Americans overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration. Throughout our history, immigrants have contributed to making this country more vibrant and economically dynamic. Once it is clear that in 20 years our nation will not again confront the specter of another 11 million people coming here illegally, Americans will embrace more welcoming immigration policies.

Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.

Besides border security, ending illegal immigration will also require an effective employment verification system that holds employers accountable for hiring illegal workers. A tamper-proof ID system would dramatically decrease illegal immigration, experts have said, and would reduce the government revenue lost when employers and workers here illegally fail to pay taxes.

We would require all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want jobs to obtain a high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security card. Each card's unique biometric identifier would be stored only on the card; no government database would house everyone's information. The cards would not contain any private information, medical information or tracking devices. The card would be a high-tech version of the Social Security card that citizens already have.

Prospective employers would be responsible for swiping the cards through a machine to confirm a person's identity and immigration status. Employers who refused to swipe the card or who otherwise knowingly hired unauthorized workers would face stiff fines and, for repeat offenses, prison sentences.

We propose a zero-tolerance policy for gang members, smugglers, terrorists and those who commit other felonies after coming here illegally. We would bolster recent efforts to secure our borders by increasing the Border Patrol's staffing and funding for infrastructure and technology. More personnel would be deployed to the border immediately to fill gaps in apprehension capabilities.

Other steps include expanding domestic enforcement to better apprehend and deport those who commit crimes and completing an entry-exit system that tracks people who enter the United States on legal visas and reports those who overstay their visas to law enforcement databases.

Ending illegal immigration, however, cannot be the sole objective of reform. Developing a rational legal immigration system is essential to ensuring America's future economic prosperity.

Ensuring economic prosperity requires attracting the world's best and brightest. Our legislation would award green cards to immigrants who receive a PhD or master's degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. university. It makes no sense to educate the world's future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy.

Our blueprint also creates a rational system for admitting lower-skilled workers. Our current system prohibits lower-skilled immigrants from coming here to earn money and then returning home. Our framework would facilitate this desired circular migration by allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can show they were unsuccessful in recruiting an American to fill an open position; allowing more lower-skilled immigrants to come here when our economy is creating jobs and fewer in a recession; and permitting workers who have succeeded in the workplace, and contributed to their communities over many years, the chance to earn a green card.

For the 11 million immigrants already in this country illegally, we would provide a tough but fair path forward. They would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society by performing community service and paying fines and back taxes. These people would be required to pass background checks and be proficient in English before going to the back of the line of prospective immigrants to earn the opportunity to work toward lawful permanent residence.

The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms.

Charles E. Schumer is a Democratic senator from New York. Lindsey O. Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031703115.html

Senate backs 700 miles of real fencing on border

Associated Press
July 8, 2009
by Andrew Taylor

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Wednesday to require actual fencing along 700 miles of the border with Mexico rather than vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

The plan by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., won approval by a 54-44 vote as the Senate began a second day of debate on a $42.9 billion measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

DeMint said the U.S.-Mexico border "has become a battleground" as drug and weapons traffickers, along with illegal immigrants, move too freely. He said the department is spending too much on "virtual" fencing such as motion detectors. Those barriers, he said, don't work as well as a real fence designed to block people crossing the border on foot.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, countered that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency was the best judge of the preferred fencing for various parts of the border. He said some stretches of physical fencing can cost up to $5 million per mile.

Separately, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., pushed through a plan to extend permanently the E-Verify program, which uses the Social Security database to check whether workers are illegal immigrants. His plan also would require companies doing business with the federal government to use the system.

The two developments demonstrated the extent to which spending bills can serve as vehicles for policy debates.

On Tuesday night, for example, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that effectively would force General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to restore franchise agreements with dealers as a condition of partial government ownership. That development came as the committee approved a spending bill to fund the Treasury Department, White House operations and other programs.

"It would force them to honor their franchise agreements and not use the excuse of bankruptcy to do what they couldn't have done under state franchise law," said Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio. "There are horror stories all over the country."

LaTourette's amendment is vulnerable to a procedural challenge in the full House next week. But the committee chairman, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said he would fight to save the amendment.

Other budget work kept Congress busy Wednesday.

A Senate panel approved a $34.3 billion measure for the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers' water projects. A second was set to OK a $24.4 billion proposal for the Treasury Department, the White House and the federal contribution to the District of Columbia.

Later, the House planned to consider a measure covering farm and nutrition programs.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBPaHA8wyvhZsKWPW8Uxp30QpfqgD99ADH200

(Here is the roll call for the amendment sponsored by Senator DeMint, best known for renaming French Fries "Freedom Fries")

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00220

YEAs ---54
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Merkley (D-OR)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Webb (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---44
Akaka (D-HI)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

Not Voting - 2
Byrd (D-WV)
Kennedy (D-MA)

'Los Ebanos thanks you for the new rope,' Foster tells Senate panel

Rio Grande Guardian
May 20, 2009

McALLEN, May 20 - Speaking at a Senate hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Eagle Pass Mayor and Texas Border Coalition Chair Chad Foster decried the lack of federal infrastructure dollars for major inland ports in Texas.

Foster noted that the tiny hand-drawn ferry operation at Los Ebanos in western Hidalgo County got additional funding from the General Services Administration this year but bigger ports like Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso did not.

“Los Ebanos thanks you for the new rope, but we need another $700 million, this time in the right account please,” Foster said.

Foster was testifying before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. He again criticized the border wall plan.

“In their headlong rush to achieve an arbitrary deadline to erect an ineffective wall, the Bush Administration chose to abandon our nation’s laws and commit us to preserving our environment, our culture, our history and our religious liberties. We can’t afford to go down that path – a path that waives all laws – again,” Foster said.

Foster said the TBC supports repeal of unconstitutional waiver authority and the Secure Fence Act in favor of measures that will provide the border region with “real security.”

The title of the hearing was “Securing the borders and America's points of entry, what remains to be done?” The Guardian has posted Foster’s prepared remarks below.

Also testifying was Sam Vale, a founding member of the Border Trade Alliance (BTA), owner of Telemundo Channel 40 in the Rio Grande Valley and owner-operator of the Starr Camargo International Bridge.

“The movement of goods and people at our borders generates 2 billion dollars a day in economic activity,” the BTA said, in a statement issued ahead of the hearing. “In order to better ensure our economic and physical security, BTA will testify that the federal government must do more to address the decades old backlog in our immigration codes, while providing more adequate annual infrastructure and resource investments at U.S. land ports of entry.”

The BTA said that currently, a majority of U.S. land ports are “overburdened by the combination of vast federal security operations with massive increases in cross-border trade and travel volumes at U.S. border crossings.” The group said President Obama's plans to successfully achieve comprehensive immigration reform “hinge on the government's ability to improve the secure and efficient facilitation of legitimate trade and travel at our nation’s borders.”

Others slated to testify were John Torres, deputy assistant secretary for operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, David V. Aguilar, chief, Office of Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Thomas Winkowski, assistant commissioner, Office of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, J.D. Hayworth, former United States Representative of Arizona, Richard Wiles, sheriff, El Paso County, Texas, and Dr. Douglas Massey, professor of sociology and public affairs, Princeton University.

Here are Foster’s prepared remarks:

“Chairman Schumer, Ranking Member Cornyn and subcommittee members, I am Chad Foster, mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, and chairman of the Texas Border Coalition. I am speaking today on behalf of 2.1 million Americans in 17 border counties of the 1,250-mile Texas-Mexico border.

“Ours is a region of contrasts, exhibiting differences and similarities of language, culture, tradition, and economy. The multi-national, multi-cultural nature of our communities on both sides of the international boundary gives our region a distinct sense of place.

“Our blending of cultures is unique. The Texas-Mexico border played a central role in shaping the history of our continent. Two civil wars occurred simultaneously where we live, and created such cross-cultural alliances and enmities that we could spend days rediscovering them. You can breathe easy, Mr. Chairman, because I won’t go that far back in time.

“I only want to travel back two years to June 2007, when the Senate last debated immigration reform. I recall the opponents of the bill saying that the borders had to be secured before any visas could be reformed or any effort made to legalize the status of the undocumented among us or to institute a guest worker program. Those conditions included, now completed, just two years later:

• 20,000-person Border Patrol force;
• DoD and DHS coordination plans;
• 600-plus miles of border fence, roads and vehicle barriers to achieve operational control;
• deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles and related surveillance technologies;
• cooperation among U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central American governments to improve security south of our border, specifically relating to gang and drug activity, and other law enforcement assistance;
• law enforcement relief for states and localities that provide border related assistance;
• more ICE agents and detention space;
• tightened voluntary departure requirements and expanded expedited removal procedures;
• improvements and additions to our ports of entry;

“In my opinion, land ports are now our nation’s weakest link. We need your help and we would appreciate it now.

“We are within sight of operational control of the border between the ports of entry, and that puts our ports under greater stress. According to the Government Accountability Office, we needed 4,000 new officers to secure the ports of entry before we placed the new emphasis on southbound checks to stop the trafficking of guns and cash. We needed $4 billion in infrastructure and technology – and I want to thank you for putting $700 million into the stimulus bill toward this goal – but you put most of the money in the wrong account. We need the money for CBP ports. We have three of those in Texas; two are on top of dams and one is a three-car hand ferry. Los Ebanos thanks you for the new rope, but we need another $700 million, this time in the right account please.

“Mr. Chairman, our shared goal is security, and we need your help to fund these priorities that are ignored by the president’s budget. We need 1,600 more CBP officers, along with 400 canine units. We need the southbound operation to be controlled by the CBP, which has training in dealing with the traveling public, and not the Border Patrol, whose training with travelers is more confrontational.

“We need $130 million for 350 new ICE investigators to work on firearm trafficking and money laundering investigations and $20 million for improved tactical field communications for CBP and ICE. We cannot afford to delay the $20 million CBP needs to modernize its database used to identify potential criminals at the ports of entry or the $50 million for Operation Stonegarden to reimburse state and local law enforcement for their participation in border actions.

“The 9-11 terrorists entered the United States through ports of entry. Most undocumented aliens enter the United States through ports of entry. Most of the illegal drugs entering the United States come through ports of entry. No border wall will solve those problems.

“Illegal border crossing arrests at the Texas-Mexico border have been falling for more than three years, without a wall, a great tribute to the deterrence of our Border Patrol and CBP officers. Arrests this year along the southern border are likely to be way below half the nearly 1.6 million during the peak of 2000.

“In their headlong rush to achieve an arbitrary deadline to erect an ineffective wall, the Bush Administration chose to abandon our nation’s laws and commit us to preserving our environment, our culture, our history and our religious liberties. We can’t afford to go down that path – a path that waives all laws – again.

“The Chertoff waivers will affect the natural movement of animal species, including the larger mammals that are on the threatened or endangered species lists, and cause irreparable harm to the unique eco- and bio-systems located along the Rio Grande River. They provided carte blanche for the destruction of cultural and religious artifacts that are irreplaceable to our heritage.

“The avoidance and mitigation of these damages is not an inconvenience to the government. They are essential elements of our national fabric, guaranteed to the people of the United States under Articles I and II of the Constitution. We demand that Congress require the enforcement of our commitment to being a nation of laws. We support repeal of the unconstitutional waiver authority and urge the repeal of the Secure Fence Act in favor of measures that will provide our region with real security.

“The Texas Border Coalition wants to finish the job of securing the border by enacting immigration reform. We support an earned legalization program for the undocumented people who are in the U.S. today. We need an effective guest worker program to prevent the immigration policy and political failures from repeating themselves in another general. We need more than a bill that balances the ideological and political continuums in Congress and the nation. We need policies that balance supply and demand, that provide circularity and stability in demographic and economic change for our hemisphere and that will guarantee our economic and national security for years to come.”

http://www.riograndeguardian.com/columns3_story.asp?story_no=16