Illegal Immigration Watch: House Hearings on Border Security Begin Today
Members of the Arizona National Guard monitor the border via video from the Yuma Station Communictions Center Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at the Border Patrol headquarters in Yuma, Ariz.
AP: GOP to focus on immigration at unusual nationwide hearings
A Republican-led House panel planned to kick off a series of unusual hearings about immigration Wednesday, a blow to President Bush’s proposed election-year overhaul that includes a guest worker program and legal status for some who are in the country illegally.
A House subcommittee will meet at a San Diego Border Patrol station to discuss the vulnerability of the nation’s borders to terrorists. Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will host a hearing in Philadelphia about a need for foreign workers.
House GOP leaders called the unusual hearings last month after the Senate in May passed an immigration reform bill, backed by Specter, that includes a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for millions in the country illegally. A separate House-approved bill focuses only on enforcement.
President Bush today is visiting a Dunkin Donuts and extolling his guest worker and path to citizenship plans. He says he supports enforcement of the employment laws and is babbling on about the Senate bill. But……
Mr. President, listen to the House GOP – Secure the Borders First!
Democrats initially considered boycotting the hearings, but will treat them as a platform to assail an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform, said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.
“If they want to have a dog-and-pony show, that’s fine,” said Sherman, the ranking Democrat on the International Relations subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, which will host the San Diego hearing. “They have really ugly dogs and really mangy ponies.”
Coongressman Brad Sherman represents part of the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles where communities have been converted into Mexican third world barrios. Does he pander for the Latino vote? Or for cheap labor for his wealthy Westside constituents?
You betcha….
But, Sherman and the Democrats have a losing position – so please continue with your remarks.
The San Diego hearing – and another by the same panel Friday in Laredo, Texas, another border city – will likely be laden with references to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leaders.
“My mission is to investigate our border security shortcomings post-9/11,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, the panel’s chairman. “The problem is that border security has become national security.”
Republicans on the panel include Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a leading voice for a crackdown on illegal immigration, and Rep. Peter King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who broke with the White House on immigration.
The government hasn’t said whether terrorists have entered the United States through Mexico, but Royce said there are troubling signs. In February 2005, James Loy, former deputy secretary of Homeland Security, said “several al-Qaida leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry.”
In a test last year of security at points of entry, undercover investigators slipped enough radioactive material to make two small “dirty bombs” across U.S. borders in Texas and Washington state.
Royce invited seven witnesses to speak Wednesday, including two border sheriffs, a Border Patrol official and the head of a civilian border watch group. Sherman invited Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.
Republican-led House committees will hold hearings outside Washington in mid-July on making English the nation’s official language, and how enforcement of immigration laws affects American workers.
A hearing the week of Aug. 14 in Arizona will focus on costs to local and state governments “caused by an unsecured border.”
Stay tuned…….
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A US Border Patrol officer patrols the fence at the US-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona.
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Illegal Immigration Watch: Senator Arlen Specter Supports “Borders First†Immigration Policy?
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