Two Sides of the Border Wall
April 28th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
A five-hour hearing on the border wall conducted by members of Congress at UT Brownsville today illustrated why we have a logjam in Congress over any kind of meaningful immigration reform.
The 7-person congressional panel featured a number of chairmen including U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva a Democrat from Arizona, and U.S. Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, a Democrat from Guam. The majority of the members were Democrats with the exception of soon to be ex-U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter a Republican from California and the architect of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 legislation and soon to be ex-U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado. Both Tancredo and Hunter are former presidential candidates who ran on an anti-immigration platform but failed to make a dent against Sen. John McCain, who holds a more moderate position on the subject.
Democrats on the panel seemed to agree the United States needed comprehensive immigration reform and that segments of a border wall would not solve U.S. immigration woes. Tancredo and Hunter repeatedly tried to argue that a border wall would significantly help stop illegal immigration. Hunter, especially seemed fixated on the double layered border fence in San Diego. He offered statistics that border arrests are down in San Diego but didn’t cite sources for them. Hunter’s district borders Tijuana in Baja California. Hunter painted a picture of apocalyptic lawlessness: hundreds of rapes, murders and “massive tons of cocaine being injected into the veins of American children” before the wall had been built.
But, people in Brownsville didn’t want to hear about San Diego. They wanted the congressional leaders to understand the uniqueness of the border culture in Texas.
The lecture hall was packed with border landowners, university students and business leaders from the border region. No supporters of the wall appeared to be present. “I would say that our community is united in opposition against the wall,” said Brownsville County Commissioner John Wood as he scanned the audience.
That opposition was evident in numerous testimonies from business people, landowners and academics including Dr. Juliet Garcia, President of the University of Texas at Brownsville. Dr. Garcia’s testimony illustrated the heavy handedness of Homeland Security and the short sightedness in trying to construct a wall through her campus by December 31, 2008. Garcia said that DHS’ plan was to leave an opening in the 18-foot fence that would funnel illegal activity to that point. That point however, would be right next to the library and campus classrooms. It would also be the same entrance that students would use to enter the university’s golf course.
The audience laughed in disbelief at DHS’ plan. “I could not sign the (DHS) waiver because it is my responsibility to protect the safety of our students,” she said.
Some of the more interesting testimony came from Ned Norris, chair of the Tohono O’odham tribe in Arizona. Norris said that much damage had already been done to ancestral burial grounds and the tribe’s sovereignty by Homeland Security’s heavy handed tactics. So far, DHS has already constructed vehicle barriers throughout the Tohono O’odham ancestral lands which range from the Arizona border near Tucson south into Mexico. Norris said subcontractors hired by Boeing, who is in charge of building the wall had ignored federal archaeological laws and destroyed burial grounds. “Imagine heavy machinery driving over your family graveyard,” he said. Norris said Homeland Security had never consulted with them on border security issues. “Their attitude is that we are federal land and they are the federal government and they can do whatever the hell they want.” Norris said that Secretary Michael Chertoff had avoided several invitations made by the tribe to visit. He also dodged them during several visits to Washington D.C.
‘We are tired of being tour guides for Congress,” said a frustrated Norris. “Probably the only visit we’d like to have right now is Chertoff, but he won’t come. He goes to the border to the East and the West of us but he never comes to out land.”
Every witness who testified before the panel said that Homeland Security had never consulted with them before suing them for access to their land to build the wall.These witnesses included local leaders, landowners, the Catholic Diocese, the UT Brownsville campus, the Texas Produce Association which represents hundreds of farmers and the Tohono O’odham tribe. Hunter and Tancredo did not seem to see a problem in Homeland Security’s tactics, however.
At the and of the day, Hunter said it was a successful hearing. “Well you thought you didn’t get your day in court, now you’ve gotten to talk about your issues,” he said.
But those testifying weren’t there just to go through the motions. They want action and they feel their day in court has yet to come.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Illegal Immigration Costs Texans tax payers Nearly $4.7 Billion a Year, why we should continue paying to subsidize illegal cheap labor for the greedy corporations and business? Today is your chance to vote out of office the corrupt politicians that promoted sanctuary for illegal aliens and vote no for any programs that will benefit illegal aliens. Our property taxes are high because we have to pay for the education of illegal aliens and the children’s of illegal aliens. Enough is enough we can stop this invasion of illegal aliens, we must take responsibility for the future of our communities. Build the fence and vote our of office all the politicians that are pro illegal immgration and sactuary to illegal aliens.
In Texas, mass illegal immigration is draining at least $4.65 billion a year out of state coffers, finds a new FAIR report, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Texans. The Texas cost study, authored by Jack Martin, FAIR’s special projects director, is the latest in a series of reports conducted by FAIR about the impact of mass illegal immigration on individual states. Other recent studies have analyzed costs in California and Arizona.
Looking only at the expenses for education, health care and incarceration, FAIR estimates that the state’s 1.5 million illegal aliens cost Texas about $4.65 billion a year, or about $725 per native-headed household. Using a 1994 study published by the Urban Institute as a baseline, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Texans looks at Census Bureau and other data to estimate the explosive growth in the size and cost of illegal immigration in the nation’s second most populous state.
Among the report’s key findings are:
• Texas spends more than $4 billion a year to provide K-12 education for the children of illegal aliens.
• These children account for nearly 12 percent of the total K-12 school population.
• Taxpayer-funded medical outlays for health care provided to the state’s illegal alien population amount to about $520 million a year.
• The uncompensated cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in Texas’s state and county prisons amounts to at least $150 million a year.
If all of the other programs and services used by illegal aliens were accounted for as well, the cost to Texas would be significantly higher, finds the report. Should President Bush’s plan to allow millions of illegal aliens become “guest workers,” and bring additional family members to join them, these basic costs can also be expected to increase significantly
April 30th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The figures that Duncan Hunter tossed out, and those of FAIR cited by Juan Reynoso in his comment, are complete fabrications. Hunter does not mention that in fiscal year 2007 the Border Patrol reported a 7% increase in crossings in the San Diego sector. In the same period there was a 34% decrease in the Rio Grande Valley, bringing crossings to a 15 year low, and in the Del Rio sector they saw a 46% decrease. Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio have never had walls, while San Diego has the biggest and most fortified walls of any part of the border. The Border Patrol was very proud of these statistics, and Chertoff held a press conference in November to crow about the Border Patrol’s success. One would think that Rep. Hunter would have been paying attention to the news. He could read the press release on the Border Patrol website if he needs to catch up: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/archives/2007_news_releases/112007/11072007_5.xml
So even if you believe the absurd allegation that fully 12% of the children in Texas schools are in the country illegally, the wall will not stop more people from entering the country. Hunter and Tancredo like it because it makes a cool backdrop, and when they were running for president no one listened to a word that they said except when they railed against undocumented immigrants.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Will you people in Brownsville and the rest of Texas please finally get serious about enforcing our national immigrations law for the sake of all of us? I have been concerned about it ever since I’ve been of voting age and I am 55 years old. Please- I know you’ve grown used to it because you see so much of it on a daily basis, but it really is a serious problem even way up here in Oregon. Illegals are not just the grubby little farm workers taking jobs that Americans supposedly don’t want anymore, we see them in all phases of commerce and industry now; construction manufacturing and even high tech. Please, stop the madness!