Texas, Still a Sanctuary

“Build a 40-foot fence, and you'll create a market for 45-foot ladders.” That is the subject of this Statesman editorial article, not to build fences, but to put in place barriers to make illegal immigration much more difficult. The fact of the matter is that immigration today is growing and shows few signs of slowing down. The idea that a fence will stop illegal immigration is absurd, but a legal fence, that may have helped slow the growth. 

That was the idea behind the sanctuary cities bill, which failed to pass through regular session but was brought back to life for the special session, only to die again. It would have provided law enforcement all of the legal tools necessary to ask about a person’s immigration status, and could have slowed illegal immigration. At first glance this looks like a step in the right direction; it would reduce or at least add more checkpoints in the process to keeping our borders secure. But with a deeper look, this bill had no solid ground. This bill ultimately encouraged racial profiling and inequality, two of the values that America does not pride itself on. Granted, this bill would have applied to every person within the Texas borders, but honestly, no law enforcement agent will waste their time or taxpayer dollars to pull over a big maroon pick-up truck with “Saw ‘em off” stickers on the back. So in order to enforce the proposed bill, people who appear to be illegal aliens must be the target of any action, and that would require racial profiling and unequal treatment. One place where this bill could have been equally applied is when registering for or renewing a Texas driver’s license. If the process were to ask every person for their proof of citizenship in order to receive or renew a license, it would be a much better implementation of the law. Plus it would have eliminated room for any discrimination if that was the process for every person who walked through the door, regardless of what they looked like.

The point is, whether it is legally or illegally, immigrants do not come to this country for something that we can keep securely inside of our borders. As the author said, they come to America for hope of a better life, which can never be outlawed nor kept inside of any border.

Ultimately this bill provided a lot of room for human judgment and discretion, both of which could not have been kept in tight enough control to pass this bill as a fair and ethical piece of legislation. This law had the capability to have a tremendous impact on the pace of immigration, but human involvement in the implementation of this bill ultimately led to its death. 


Direct link to article: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/legislature-takes-on-sticky-issue-1527547.html