Texas Immigration: At the Border or After the Border?

There has been a lot of commotion in recent days in Texas following Arizona’s “get-tough immigration law” which requires all immigrants to carry with them their immigration documents, and gives police the authority to ask for documents from anyone who “is considered suspicious.” This has caused several demonstrations in Texas cities, protesting this law and making sure Texas Governor Rick Perry understands that there are a large number of people who would not support this in Texas. Possibly feeling the pressure of these demonstrations, Perry recently stated, through a spokesman, that this law would “not be the right direction for Texas.”

At the same time, a common issue facing Texans today is the threat of violence and illegal immigrants spilling from Mexico across the US-Mexican border into Texas. Gov. Perry has recently been lobbying for federal financing from Washington to make improvements along the Texas-Mexico border in order to minimize the effects of the illegal immigration, and following meetings in Washington this last week, Perry left with “a real good feeling.”

So, from bits of information gathered from the comments and actions of Gov. Perry, it could be seen that Perry believes that stopping the flow of illegal immigration at the border will have the highest impact (or at least the most ethical impact) on illegal immigration and that hassling “suspicious” people in Texas cities would not be as effective or as ethical.

Agreeing with Gov. Perry, it seems that if illegal immigrants are able to find their way safely across the border, it would require too many exceptions to American’s freedoms to allow for nearly unwarranted questioning of people’s immigration documents. This would also leave out the possibility of criminal practices of police officials using this law to harass people based solely on the individual officer’s opinion. In a recent article in the San Antonio Express News, this dilemma of an officer’s judgment as to who is considered suspicious and who is not is discussed. Along with Perry, I too think that it is important for Texans, as well as Americans, to address the problem of illegal immigration into the United States at the border and not after the border. This prevents any civil liberties being threatened or potential harassment, and allows officials to focus resources and finances into one project, as opposed to spending resources on things such as suits that could arise from laws similar to Arizona’s.

In conclusion, Governor Perry and Texas citizens should steer clear of laws such as Arizona’s that potentially infiltrate innocent Texas citizen’s lives, and spend all efforts better securing the border (if that is considered a top priority to Texas citizens). Acknowledging that the violence spilling from Mexico into Texas is a legitimate problem facing Texans today, I do believe that this would be greatly reduced if efforts are concentrated on the border, and this in turn, I believe, would ease Texan’s fear of illegal immigrants in general, therefore, making any “get-tough immigration law” unnecessary.