Border key in Texas campaigns

BYLINE: Juan Castillo AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

From a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande, standing next to one of the omnipresent cactus patches that dot the rugged frontier, Gov. Rick Perry says: "If Washington won't protect our border, Texas will."

In the scene from his first campaign television ad broadcast earlier this year, Perry touted state funding for a borderwide crime control effort and for "increasing patrols and using technology to stop terrorists" from entering Texas.

Last month, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn raised the terrorism specter, warning that state refineries, pipelines and ports are highly vulnerable to al Qaeda-style attacks.

With varying nuances, most of the gubernatorial candidates are calling for steps to fortify the border. In doing so, they have joined a growing number of candidates across the country - for everything from governor to city council - making border security a focal point of their campaigns.

Amid fears that the U.S. is losing control of its borders, the politically charged immigration issue and national security concerns have merged to compel most candidates to talk tough about border security.

"I think everybody wants to see order on the border," said Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Chris Bell, who also advocates giving some illegal immigrants the chance to earn citizenship. "The debate is about how to accomplish that."

It was once unheard of for state and local politicians to wade into border security and immigration policy. At least since the late 1800s, those have been federal responsibilities, a principle upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal officers are the gatekeepers at ports of entry and enforce immigration laws in the workplace. It's Congress's job to set immigration policy.

Perry and the governors of Arizona, California and New Mexico underscored that point in August when they accused Congress of abdicating its duty by not overhauling the nation's immigration laws.

But in the absence of congressional agreement on how to deal with the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants - about 1.5 million in Texas - state and local governments are feeling the pressure and offering their own legal remedies. They say illegal immigrants are straining the budgets of hospital emergency rooms, public schools and law enforcement.

"The states are looking at what parameters they have to act," said Ann Morse with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This year state legislators across the country have introduced about 550 pieces of legislation addressing illegal immigration, Morse said. In a typical year, there are 50 to 100.

In the meantime, amid a roiling debate, national security and gaining control of the border are ensnarled in - some say they now dictate - calls for immigration reforms.

Some question the approach.

"Lumping together terrorists and what are really economically driven migrants, even though they're breaking the law, is not really a constructive policy approach and won't effectively address either of those concerns," said Deborah Meyers, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

Political observers expect that a strong stance on border security will resonate with voters, particularly conservatives, in November.

But in injecting the threat of terrorism into strategies for dealing with Texas' other border ills, Perry and Strayhorn turned it up at least a notch.

Some observers find such talk suspect. They don't dispute that Texas has trouble on its border but argue that it stems not from terrorists but from illegal immigration, human and drug smuggling, and violence between warring Mexican drug cartels, all longstanding issues along the 1,254-mile frontier with Mexico.

Perry's Homeland Security director, Steve McCraw, says the terrorism threat is real, citing federal security officials' warnings that terrorists could exploit established organized crime and smuggling networks to enter the country. McCraw says his own state risk assessment conducted more than a year ago reached the same conclusion.

At a congressional hearing in Laredo last summer, local and federal officers went so far as to say that terrorists could try entering the country disguised as Mexican illegal immigrants. A Border Patrol official, however, testified that there was no evidence to suggest current terrorist activity or links between criminal gangs and terrorist groups.

Any realistic discussion must consider the possibility that terrorists could take advantage of weaknesses in the immigration system, Meyers says. But she's not aware of a documented instance of terrorists having attempted to enter the United States without authorization through the U.S.-Mexico border. Moreover, she thinks it's the least likely path a terrorist would use.

"There are many more vulnerabilities in our immigration system that I think would be easier for terrorists to utilize other than risking their lives by crossing the Arizona desert or by putting their lives in the hands of a smuggler," Meyers said.

Perry often says that it is pointless to address immigration reform if the border isn't secure first.

Through initiatives like Operation Rio Grande and Operation Linebacker, first launched late in 2005 in response to deadly drug trafficking violence in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Perry has steered millions in state and federal money to border sheriffs for overtime patrols, and dispatched Department of Public Safety officers and other state employees and resources to the border.

McCraw claims the state-led operations have reduced crime by 40 to 85 percent at various points along the border. He rejects critics' assertions that the reductions are only temporary and that gangs merely move elsewhere in the face of a heavy police presence.

For Perry, emphasizing border security is a necessary campaign strategy, says Jerry Polinard, a political scientist at the University of Texas-Pan American.

"We know from all the polling that these issues, perhaps more than any other set of issues are galvanizing the Republican base," Polinard said. If Perry is able to convince Republicans that he's the border security candidate, it won't matter that Bell, Strayhorn and independent Kinky Friedman also take strong stands, said Polinard. "The conservative Republican base will stay home with (Perry) and the party."

Bell finds Perry's record on border security lacking and claims the governor became engaged in the debate only because "his pollster told him he had to be."

Absent comprehensive federal immigration reform, states are in their familiar position of dealing with the fallout and offering their own solutions.

As of August, states have enacted 79 bills this year addressing illegal immigration.

Texas is not among them, but members of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus say they expect a flurry of immigration-related proposals during the 2007 session.

Perry has said he will ask the Legislature for $100 million to continue his border security efforts.

On the federal side, a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act passed in 1996 allows state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration law after receiving federal training.

And earlier this month, President Bush signed legislation to build 700 new miles of border fencing, including about 300 miles in Texas. But the legislation didn't include money to fully build the wall, and some in Washington doubt it will ever go up.

No one in the governor's race advocates sealing the nearly 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border with a fence, an idea that gained traction this year despite critics' assertions that a barrier won't stop illegal immigration. Among opponents' major arguments: As many as 6 million of the 12 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States entered legally through a port of entry, not by sneaking across. By overstaying visas or border crossing cards, they became illegal immigrants.

"Really, what you've got to do is to dry (illegal immigration) up with the employers," Friedman said.

Bell, the former U.S. congressman from Houston who like Friedman advocates stricter enforcement of workplace laws, thinks that at least with regard to illegal immigration, border state governors might have greater sway trying to move the debate forward in Washington.

"It's limited, what the states can do," Bell said.

jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635

On statesman.com: Find more coverage of the guber- natorial race and others at statesman.com/texaselections.