Houston needs to stop being a ‘sanctuary city’: What we can do to help enforce immigration laws
OVER the past few months, the temperature has risen significantly in the immigration debate. Citizens and leaders at all levels of government are working together to find long-term solutions. At a time when we are working diligently to put a stop to the flow of illegal immigration, I chose to vote against the renewal of a $100,000 federally funded contract for a day labor center in Houston’s East End. This center assists people in finding work. It is the only city-authorized, federally funded day labor site remaining in Houston. Recent studies show that at least 85 percent of people who access day labor sites are illegal immigrants — a statistic punctuated by a May 18 Houston Chronicle article that points out that 100 percent of the day laborers a reporter talked to at this North Sampson Street site were illegal. This is clearly a city issue. By funding this center, the city of Houston is supporting the process of hiring illegal immigrants. This is wrong.
I can understand where Houston City Council Member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is coming from. However, while I think that she might think her heart’s in the right place, she seems to be missing the boat on the immigration issue. Yes, we need to do something about the problem of illegal immigration. I just don’t see where it’s the responsibility of city government to spend money it doesn’t have enforcing federal immigration laws.
By voting against the day labor center, what Sekula-Gibbs is doing is in effect casting a vote to send the illegal immigrants back to loitering on public and private property throughout Houston. You see them on West Bellfort near the Southwest Freeway and in parking lots of businesses all around town. While no one would advocate for illegal immighration, the reality is that these immigrants (illegal or not) are here for a reason- there is a healthy demand for the cheap labor they are willing to provide. They mow our lawns, pick up our trash, build our house, and perform a myriad of other menial tasks most Americans won’t do. To those of you so adamantly and fervently advocating walling off the Mexican border, I would ask two questions: 1) Who’s mowing your lawn?, and 2) Why are you so fervent about walling off the Mexican border, when the Canadian border is the longest undefended border in the world? Are you really so concerned about Homeland Security, or is it simply easier to focus on the Mexican border because it’s easier to keep the Brown People out?
Meanwhile, Houston’s “sanctuary city” status is only making a bad situation worse. This is a Houston Police Department policy that City Council members have no control over, and it should be abolished. The policy, forbidding Houston police from inquiring into anyone’s immigration status, was established years ago under a previous city administration, has been reauthorized periodically and can only be rescinded by Mayor Bill White.
There is no reason that Houston’sn’t Police Officers should be responsible for, in addition to all of their other responsibilities, enforcing federal immigration laws. Yes, I understand that Houston is a “front-line” city in the battle against illegal immigration, but enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsiblity. Houston taxpayers expect their police officers to protect them and prevent crime. They do not expect, nor do they pay for, HPD to function as a de facto arm of the US Border Patrol. Frankly, HPD, as understaffed as it currently is, has enough on it’s hands without having to take on the unfunded mandate of playing junior Border Patrol officers.
Congress can help put a stop to “sanctuary cities” across the nation by denying federal funding to cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws. For example, Houston faces sanctions, including a loss of highway funds, if the 2007 federal ozone standards deadline is not met.
Similar penalties could be imposed if cities fail to comply with immigration laws. At the local level, the responsibility to revoke Houston’s “sanctuary city” policy falls squarely on the shoulders of the mayor.
Again, while this may be all well and good, I can’t help but wonder how Council Member Sekula-Gibbs proposes to pay for this. Since when is it the responsiblity of HPD to enforce federal law, and if HPD is to take on this added responsibility, shouldn’t the federal government be covering the cost? Additional enforcement efforts aren’t simply going to pay for themselves, you know….
The issue of illegal immigration is not just a federal one. It starts at our national borders but quickly spreads into cities such as Houston, where work is readily available.
As a top destination for illegal immigrants, we must do everything we can to assist in enforcing our existing immigration laws while responding to increasing demands for labor and honoring our tradition of welcoming immigrants legally.
I think we can all agree that we would prefer that all immigration be done legally, but the reality is that as long as there’s a demand for the cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants, no wall or unfunded enforcement mandate is going to keep these folks out. We can bitch and moan all we want, but it’s not going to change the reality that people will continue to risk their lives to sneak into the US because they know that even at starvation wages, they can still make significantly more than they could ever hope to at home.
Sekula-Gibbs’ ideas sound an awful lot like someone trying to stake out ideological territory on the Right wing in order to make a run for Tom DeLay’s CD22 seat. She no doubt realizes that, in order to win over the kill-‘em-all-let-God-sort-‘em-out Social Conservatives in Fort Bend County, she’s going to have to convince these folks that she can breathe fire and blame Liberals just like their fallen icon did. Pandering on immigration is certainly a good place to start.
I would certainly not disagree with the assertion that our current set of immigration laws reflect a system that is irretrievably broken. Ignoring the economic realities that bring illegal immigrants here is certainly no way to begin to fix the system, though. Yes, reasonable people want immigration to be done legally. Here in the real world, though, no matter how much we’d like things to be different, they aren’t. Building a wall, hiring more Border Patrol agents, and recruiting more vigilantes won’t change that- not until we honestly revisit our immigration laws and deal with the problems of BOTH our southern AND northern borders. Until people on both sides of the political divide can do that, all we’ll have is so much pandering and cheap, meaningless rhetoric…sort of like what Shelley Sekula-Gibbs has to offer.
