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Immigration Change
Our borders are national and therefore immigration law and enforcement is primarily a federal responsibility.  Individual states as the closest neighbors along the US border have special interests of their own. Passage of recent  Arizona laws have brought attention to a continuing array of unproductive proposed resolutions.

Texas  is not likely to copycat Arizona, or any other border state, at least according to Governor Rick Perry who said “ I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas.” This position upholds the state’s long-held tradition of rejecting harsh anti-immigrant policies. “Texas has a rich history with Mexico, our largest trading partner, and we share more than 1,200 miles of border, more than any other state,” Perry said recently. (1)

Border Security a priority for Texas
Governor Perry emphasizes  border security as a primary focus of his leadership. Border security efforts have been robust in the past 15 years – fortification of the U.S.-Mexico border aimed at stemming illegal entry has included a 500 percent increase in Border Patrol equipped with improved mobility, communications and technology.  Current efforts for the Texas border are already underway to implement the recommendation of the Government Accountability Office that 5,000 new officers  are needed, in addition to $5 billion in infrastructure and technology to secure the ports of entry.  Voices from the border areas are also recommending improved southbound inspection facilities, increased southbound inspection personnel, and life-saving interoperable communications as essential aspects of security.(2) “As the debate on immigration reform intensifies, the focus must remain on border security and the federal government’s failure to adequately protect our borders. Securing our border is a federal responsibility, but it is a Texas problem, and it must be addressed before comprehensive immigration reform is discussed.”(3)

In related actions this spring, Phase 1 of the  Spillover Violence Contingency Plan was initiated. At the governor’s direction, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), in coordination with local and federal law enforcement along the Texas-Mexico border, has implemented critical elements of the state’s spillover violence contingency plan.  These steps include increased surveillance of border activity by state and local law enforcement, the Texas Border Security Operations Center, and the Joint Operational and Intelligence Centers to ensure the timely sharing of intelligence information; increased ground, air and maritime patrol presence; and increased intensity of day and night DPS helicopter patrol operations along the Rio Grande River, as well as National Guard helicopters to support aviation missions. Additional resources ready for rapid deployment have been placed on standby, including DPS SWAT Teams and Trooper Strike Teams, as well as Ranger Recon Teams prepared to reposition based on threat.(4)

Time for Immigration Reform
This is not a time for security efforts alone. We have to speak about all the issues that impact security and reform.  There are two overwhelming consensus ideas regarding immigration – 1. the current U.S. immigration system is broken and  2. the jurisdiction for cultural, economic and law enforcement interests are shared formally and informally between the state and federal authorities.

What is meant by “broken”?

• Our immigration system cannot adequately tell us who is here, for how long and why.
• Processes for allowing temporary workers to come and go in and out of the US are inadequate and insecure.
• Families, even those with the best of intentions, bear undue hardship because of inconsistencies in law and policy.
• The system has no dependable set of incentives. Good behavior and dutiful attention are not necessarily rewarded. Deception and  noncompliance are not necessarily punished.
• Even the legal process for applying for entry, entering the US and obtaining citizenship is burdensome, expensive, risky and convoluted.  People seeking to navigate the system in good faith can be easily manipulated by unscrupulous actors.

Unlawful acts are not all equal
Like all other aspects of US law, the application of justice in immigration means that there are levels of distinctions for various infractions of the law. As is commonly invoked  – whether talking about traffic violations or community crimes -  “ let the punishment fit the crime.” Likewise, a foundation of past US immigration law has been that immigration violations in and of themselves are not necessarily criminal acts. Coming and living (even illegally) in the US historically has not been treated as equal to a crime that damages, property or persons. In matters of migration, like in other areas of the law, multiple distinctions of civil and criminal violations are maintained.  Visa overstays for example, are not prosecuted in the same way as smuggling violations. Claiming “one punishment for all” is not as tenable in policy as it is in rhetoric.

Piecemeal solutions for border issues have been proposed, at both federal and state levels, but often they are either only temporary fixes or substantially inadequate. These efforts, sometimes encompassing elements of merit, still are found wanting  – shutting off the border, building a fence, training local law enforcement as immigration officers (“287.g”) , military installation, technology have still resulted in inadequate changes to handle immigration for work and security adequately. States, like Texas, that share a border with Mexico have cultural, economic and law enforcement interests that are often expressed in lawful and productive relationships.

The Arizona law is a misdirected attempt at a partial fix. It will require local and state law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, making it a crime for them to lack registration documents. The law also makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally.  “I fully recognize and support a state’s right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas,” Perry said in a written statement.”For example, some aspects of the law turn law enforcement officers into immigration officials by requiring them to determine immigration status during any lawful contact with a suspected alien, taking them away from their existing law enforcement duties, which are critical to keeping citizens safe.” (5)   Progress along the Texas border is attributed to the focus  on law enforcement infrastructure, security, articulation of law enforcement jurisdiction , vulnerabilities of southbound and northbound border traffic , and any shift away from these strategic and hard won balances would certainly promote chaos, distrust and cross-agency confusion.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform
It is entirely possible to protect our borders while establishing a viable, humane, and realistic immigration system, one that is consistent with our American values and increases national security while protecting the livelihood of Americans. Given the frustration felt by many state efforts, support comprehensive immigration reform legislation is building. Most discussions include  the following elements:

• Border enforcement and protection initiatives that are consistent with humanitarian values while allowing the authorities to enforce the law and implement American immigration policy;
• Reforms in our family-based immigration system that reduce the waiting time for separated families to be safely reunited and maintain the constitutionally guaranteed rights of birthright citizenship and the ability of immigrants to earn naturalization;
• An opportunity for all immigrant workers and their families already in the U.S. to come out of the shadows and pursue the option of an earned path towards permanent legal status and citizenship upon satisfaction of specific criteria;
• A viable guest worker program that creates legal avenues for workers and their families to enter our country and work in a safe, legal, and orderly manner with their rights and due process fully protected and provides an option for workers to gain permanent status independent of an employer sponsor; and
• A framework to examine and ascertain solutions to the root causes of migration, such as economic disparities between sending and receiving nations.

Immigration is a defining feature of America’s history and will continue to be an important issue for America’s future but we need changes to our immigration system to address numerous problems. Many immigrants have applied legitimately for the right to live in this country with their family members, but must wait for many years for final approval due to backlogs in the system. Undocumented children are raised here but are unable to attend college or work legally.  Individuals are risking their lives and literally dying to come to the United States.  Families face inhumane waits of up to twenty years to lawfully reunify with family members. We have a growing black market characterized by widespread use of false documents, increasingly violent smuggling cartels, and exploitation of undocumented workers.

What needs to be fixed?
A comprehensive approach to immigration reform is required to address the complex and outmoded immigration system that currently exists.  There are an inadequate number of visas for employers to hire the foreign workers necessary for jobs that they cannot find native-born Americans to fill.  The shortage of legal, documented agricultural and other workers in Texas and the U.S. has become a growing crisis.  There is discussion regarding proposed legislation to provide short-term relief for this labor shortage through a one-time earned adjustment of status, or increasing the number of visas allowed from Mexico; and longer-term relief through major reform of the H-2A guest worker program. Although a challenging task, the effective implementation of a 2 stage earned legal status program is a viable adjustment that would create an incentive for employer accountability. With an eye for the national security interest of the U.S, policy makers stress that it is vital to know who is working in food production and to have an effective means of monitoring these essential workers, and this legislation potentially provides that capability.

Current law has created numerous barriers for legitimate refugees abroad and seekers of asylum in the U.S. to receive the protection they deserve.  Additionally, approximately eleven million “undocumented” immigrants currently live in the United States,(6)  and more than three million U.S. citizen children live in families headed by an undocumented immigrant.(7)

Because many immigrants do not currently have a means by which to receive lawful status in the United States, they go undetected by living in the shadows.  If they could apply for current lawful status, they would be much more likely to come forward, and the government could better target the small number of potential criminals and terrorists. There is no need to  condone any violations of the law, such as living in the United States illegally, but to recognize that our complex and inadequate immigration system has made it nearly impossible for many of the hard-working people that our country needs, to enter or remain in the country legally and/or reunite with family members.

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(1) Texas Gov: Arizona Immigration Law ‘Not Right’ for Texas, Associated Press , April 29, 2010.
(2) Testimony of Monica Weisberg-Stewart Chairman of the Texas Border Coalition Committee on Immigration and Land Ports of Entry Before the Joint Meeting of the Texas House Committee on Border and Intergovernmental Affairs and the Texas House Committee on Public Safety April 29, 2010.
(3) Texas Gov: Arizona Immigration Law ‘Not Right’ for Texas, Associated Press , April 29, 2010.
(4) Gov. Perry Orders Activation of 1st Phase, Spillover Violence Contingency Plan, March 16 2010
(5) Texas Gov: Arizona Immigration Law ‘Not Right’ for Texas, Associated Press, April 29, 2010.
(6) http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/44.pdf, stating that as of March 2005, there were nearly 11 million undocumented individuals in the U.S.
(7) http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/46.pdf

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