| Last week, as part of a series analyzing the candidates for Texas Congressional District 17 positions on the issues, Left of College Station looked at the positions of Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards and Republican challenger Bill Flores on the issue of energy. This week Left of College Station examines where each candidate stands on the issue of immigration. Even though according to a recent Gallup poll only 7% of those surveyed considered it the "most important problem facing this country," immigration has become a hot button issue and is often connected to the economy by voters.
According to Edwards' campaign site, the Congressman believes that more must be done "protect our borders from potential terrorists and to end the flood of illegal immigration, which puts a financial strain on our local schools, hospitals and communities." However, according to a recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center, that "flood of immigration" has actually dramatically decreased over the last several years. While Edwards "strongly opposes amnesty for those here illegally" he also believes "that it is impractical and would harm our economy to try to identify and deport over 12 million illegal immigrants." Edwards has a mixed voting record on immigration. He voted for the Secure Fence Act which authorized the construction fence along the US-Mexican border, and recently voted for the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Border Security which adds 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents, and 250 new Customs and Border Protection agents along the southern border. Edwards also voted for the Real ID Act set minimal security requirements for state driver licenses and identification cards, but voted against legislation that would require hospitals to provide information on undocumented immigrants seeking emergency medical care.
According to Flores' campaign site, he believes that we must control our borders and effectively police our interior to "ensure that terrorists, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and other criminals are hunted down, prosecuted, and imprisoned or deported." Flores says that he would "never support any program which grants unilateral amnesty" and while "we need to improve the path to citizenship" it is important to "focus on securing our borders, enforcing our laws, and targeting criminal illegal aliens who threaten our neighborhoods and safety." However, according to a report by the Associated Press, the top four large cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin. That same report showed that police officers are much more likely to be assaulted than Border Patrol agents. During an interview with the Star Group newspapers editorial board, Flores said the federal government should "seal the border" and then "freeze" the immigration system, and then essentially deport any criminal undocumented immigrants and "try to make a decision about what to do with the rest." Flores said that when an "illegal alien takes a job with a company, they're taking that job, they're preventing an American from taking that job" and that companies should hire "legal Americans first."
More Below the Fold... |
| According to an article in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Edwards supports the aims of the DREAM Act but doubts it could pass as a stand-alone bill, Flores is against the DREAM Act, and said that he is against the legislation because "by including a path to legalization, is asking the American people to accept amnesty and forgive lawbreaking before the federal government will even adequately secure our border," and he is opposed to the DREAM Act "because we cannot be a nation of laws that rewards lawbreakers." However the DREAM Act, which is a piece of bipartisan legislation sponsored by Republican Senator Orin Hatch and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, actually sets very specific standards for which undocumented immigrants would be eligible; including having arrived in the U.S. as minors, being of good moral character, and graduate from US high schools would then opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.
While Texas is rapidly changing demographically and Hispanics are becoming a more powerfully voting constituency, those demographics are not represented in Congressional District 17. Demographically District 17 is 18.5% Hispanic, which is above the 15.1% nationwide, but well below the 36.9% statewide. Because of the conservative nature of the district, the lack of Latino influence, it is unlikely that there would be strong support for immigrant rights or support comprehensive immigration reform among the constituents. This allows representatives and candidates to focus their rhetoric and positions on "border security" and not on real solutions to the immigration problems that our country faces that comprehensive immigration would solve. Flores has no immigration policy solutions, but the same tired rhetoric. Edwards supports some immigration policy solutions, but it is unlikely that he will support real reform.
Political and Social Thought...
to the Left of College Station |
