Posted on 07/04/2006 10:55:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Dueling immigration hearings Wednesday in San Diego will present opposite portrayals of illegal border-crossers: Congressional testimony will center on terrorists and criminals, while immigrant testimonials will beg compassion for illegal immigrants.
Border-area law enforcement officials are likely to testify in the congressional hearing Wednesday that terrorists, drug cartels and gangsters are crossing the porous southern border in increasing numbers to harm Americans. Most witnesses have given similar statements to Congress before.
A later counter-hearing by human-rights activists at a San Diego public park will offer testimonials about how immigration enforcement policy is costing the lives of people who are determined to come and work illegally in the United States.
The congressional session is the first in a series of unusual "field hearings" by House Republicans who support greater restrictions on illegal immigration.
By stressing the dangers of an unsecured border, they are building a case for putting border security ahead of reforms proposed in a compromise Senate bill, such as an expanded guest-worker program and legalizing half the nation's 11.1 million illegal immigrants.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other critics of the House enforcement-only immigration bill, H.R. 4437, have described the hearings as a stall tactic to prevent the competing Senate bill from being passed before the November elections.
"They are sham hearings," said Vicente Rodriguez, a member of the Riverside-based pro-immigrant National Alliance for Human Rights. "Everything that is going to be said has been said before."
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, chairman of the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation hearing, will oversee the hearing on "Border Vulnerabilities and International Terrorism" at a Border Patrol station in Imperial Beach. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
"The Border Patrol is not able to do its job, and I'll present the reasons why," said Andy Ramirez, head of the Friends of the Border Patrol, who is to testify at the congressional hearing.
He wants the Department of Homeland Security to spend more money and personnel on border security.
Ramirez said he hoped members of Congress at the hearing, "come away with this not being just a stall tactic or a dog and pony show. I hope they go back to Washington, D.C., knowing they need to do something, starting with looking at the DHS and fixing the problem."
House Hearing
The witnesses scheduled at the Imperial Beach hearing have previously testified to Congress about the dangers of an unsecured border. They include:
A Texas county sheriff, Rick Flores, who has talked about the escalating level of violence on the border, and about allegations that terrorists, possibly from al Qaeda, might already have slipped into the country.
Missouri law professor Kris Kobach, who has testified in Congress that the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang, which started in Los Angeles and whose members are from El Salvador and Honduras, has more than 10,000 members in 33 states active in theft, drug and gun trafficking and immigrant smuggling.
Kobach wants the government to seize gang members' assets and prosecute them as career criminals, rather than deport them. Once deported, they often return, he said.
T.J. Bonner, head of the union representing Border Patrol agents, who says that armed Mexican soldiers, or men dressed as soldiers, have crossed the border hundreds of times. He has called for the United States to post military personnel close by to respond.
Counter Hearing
Outside the morning congressional hearing, immigration-rights advocates will demonstrate to bring attention to the estimated 4,000 people who have died trying to cross illegally into the United States.
Tightened enforcement at legal entryways and in San Diego in recent years has pushed illegal immigrants east, where they try risky mountain and desert crossings in Arizona.
About 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, hours after the Congressional hearing closes, an "Immigrants Tribunal" will let people talk about the human consequences of border enforcement.
The American Friends Service Committee, along with individuals and groups that call themselves the Human Rights Committees of San Diego, organized the counter-hearing.
They are expected to present stories of separated families and of relatives who died attempting desert crossings into the United States. The intent is to present a more sympathetic picture of what illegal immigrants endure.
Danny Morales, of Riverside, plans to attend both hearings. He said he is skeptical of the terrorist stories.
"I have not seen any real facts that any terrorist has crossed from Mexico. All you see are poor migrants that cross the Sonora desert that come here to work," Morales said. "It's using scare tactics to scare the American people."
No problem, have them stay home.
"What do the mothers of anchor babies do if they have to leave the US"?
Phyllis Schlafly: "The are free to take their children with them, of course".
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