Annise Parker on Immigration

Establish Hispanic Heritage Awards & Hispanic Advisory Board

Report illegals to ICE, but don't look for illegals

Mayor Annise Parker has a clear opinion on the "sanctuary city" charge: "Houston is not a sanctuary city. If you break a law in Houston, we will arrest you, we will take you to jail, and, if you're in this country illegally, we will turn you over to the appropriate federal agency, generally ICE. We will do it day and day after day, and we have been doing it for a very long time. What we don't do is divert our police officers to stop people on the street and inquire about immigration status. That's a waste of resources."

We can't deport or arrest more than 12 million people

Of course, it doesn't. Even the U.S. House of Representatives finally realized that--after watching hundreds of thousands of Hispanics march in the street. They pulled that provision out of a bill they had already passed.

Saner voices rule the Senate. They seem to favor a plan that includes a $1,000 fine and a pathway to full citizenship. Lost in this discussion is the fact that our immigration laws already make it a felony to enter the country illegally for the second time. We have been unable and unwilling to enforce it.

By the time you read this, Congress may have finally reached agreement. We obviously can't deport or arrest more than 12 million people, many of whom are students from all over the world who stayed after visas expired.

What was the majority of our congressional representatives thinking (and I use that word lightly) by passing a bill to make 12 million illegal immigrants felons? Prisons are bursting at the seams.

Long-term solution is Latin American economic development

Where is the U.S. economic plan for our southern and Caribbean neighbors? If citizens of other nations had better jobs at home, so many of them wouldn't be coming here in waves. The United States is a rich country, but it can absorb only so many undocumented workers, especially now that we are losing jobs to India and China and when so many of the undocumented seek unskilled jobs. We need rational immigration and foreign economic policy as well as reasonable border security to fight terrorism and drug trafficking--not hysteria.

Undocumented workers pay FICA but don't collect benefits

Rational facts: Undocumented immigrants pay:
• Sales tax
• Social Security tax (often using phony numbers, creating a windfall for Social Security
• Property tax

They receive:
• Services such as schools and health care
• Social Security? Think again. Many will never collect it because wages reported under phony numbers do not match a real living person ($58 million in unmatched wages in 2002 alone).