Border security hot issue in Texas governor race By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- Kinky Friedman has said that if he was elected governor of Texas, he would make the Mexican government pay for the costs of illegal immigration in Texas or face what he called the "Israeli discount."
"We should be as ruthless as they are with the southern border," said the independent gubernatorial candidate, author and musician.
The heated national debate over border security and immigration is also a major issue among Texas candidates for the state's top job as they rev up their campaigns in the 60 days remaining before the Nov. 7 election.
During the past several months, GOP Gov. Rick Perry has implemented several border security initiatives and extolled their success side by side with border county sheriffs and state security officials. But each of his three main opponents -- Friedman, Democrat Chris Bell and independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn -- said Perry's measures were too little too late and were all done in the name of political expediency.
"The situation is not getting better, and it shouldn't, because it's been neglected for political reasons," Friedman said.
He said he supports groups such as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps because they draw attention to problems on the border.
Asked about his own strategy for securing the border, Friedman said, "I'm not sure. I don't have a plan."
He said he would appoint people who care about the state to develop a plan based on his motto: "Remember the Alamo."
Border safety has deteriorated, Friedman said, because politicians are too afraid to offend Hispanics and get tough on the Mexican government.
"I would tell them (Mexican government officials) to step up to the plate and pay their fair share of the cost illegals are costing the state of Texas," he said. "If they don't do that, then I want the border on the nightly news every night."
Friedman said he agrees with Perry that the border must be secured before changes in immigration law are considered.
Congress is now at loggerheads over how much to increase border security and whether those plans should also include measures that allow more documented immigrant workers in the country.
"If we can't draw a line, call it a border and protect it, then we might as well not be here at all," Friedman said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, a former congressman from Houston, said he agrees that border security must improve. Unlike the other candidates, though, he said security could only happen if immigration laws were also tackled.
He said the call for more fencing in some border areas makes sense, as does the placing of National Guard soldiers on the border as a stopgap measure while more U.S. Border Patrol agents are trained.
He said, however, that a plan Perry announced this summer to spend $5 million to put video cameras on private land along the border and stream the video over the Internet encourages vigilantism.
"I don't think we need to be turning private citizens into immigrant hunters," Bell said.
He added that plans such as Perry's Operation Rio Grande, for which the governor allotted about $10 million in the past year to state and local law enforcement, are not reducing illegal border traffic.
"The flow of immigrants across the border has continued in large numbers," he said. "I don't think it makes a lot of sense to turn local officials into border patrol agents."
If elected, Bell said, he would lobby Congress to pass comprehensive legislation on border security and immigration.
"If we had been enforcing laws against hiring undocumented workers, then we probably wouldn't be having this national discussion," he said
He said he would also work with federal legislators to create a plan that would use billions in payroll taxes from unidentified undocumented immigrants to repay border states for social service costs incurred by undocumented immigrants.
Independent candidate Strayhorn, who won her current office running as a Republican, said that she is "adamantly against" illegal immigration and that she would put all necessary resources into securing the Texas-Mexico border.
"We have got to secure our border, our ports and our infrastructure," she said.
She emphasized that she would work closely with local law enforcement officials to determine what resources are needed to increase border security, she and called the $10 million Perry has given border sheriffs "paltry."
Asked about her plan for securing the border, Strayhorn said: "I'm rolling out all of my Texas first agenda, but let me tell you: Whatever it takes."
Strayhorn said one of the first things she would do if elected is eliminate a Texas law that allows undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition at public universities if they attended public schools for three years and can prove they are working to become citizens. "We cannot be giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants," she said.
Last year, Strayhorn told a Houston Republican group that Texas had a responsibility to provide education and health care for immigrants, legal or otherwise.
"I sympathize with those coming over who want to put a roof over their heads," she said, according to an August 2005 Associated Press report.
Responding to questions about whether that statement was consistent with her current plan to eliminate the in-state tuition law, Strayhorn repeated: "I am adamantly against illegal immigration."
Perry spokesman Robert Black called the border security ideas Strayhorn and Bell promoted non-plans.
Responding to Friedman's suggestion that Texas should treat its border as Israel does, Black said: "Wow. That kind of rhetoric is irresponsible. It's not real. It's cartoon rhetoric."
He said Perry, who became governor in 2000, has been working for more than a year and a half to increase border security. The efforts, he said, were not political but based on reports from Steve McCraw, whom Perry appointed Texas homeland security director, which indicated the border was a serious security threat.
Black said operations along the border in Del Rio, Laredo and El Paso -- where local officials report crime reduced between 45 and 70 percent -- are effective and a model Washington should follow.
Web cameras on the border, he said, will act as an expanded neighborhood watch program.
"There is no reason why Texans should not be allowed to help secure the border," he said.
Perry continues to press congressional leaders and the Bush administration to pony up for border security efforts, Black said. Until that happens, he said, Perry would push state legislators to approve an additional $100 million for city police, county sheriffs and state law enforcement to increase security operations.
He said Perry believes that programs providing for more documented migrant workers in the U.S. will only work after Congress has improved border security.
"The safety of Texans is paramount," he said.