Dewhurst pushes immigration reform

HARLINGEN — Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Tuesday told community leaders that the proposed “superhighway” that would stretch from Mexico to Canada lagged among state projects.

“That’s not on their priority list,” Dewhurst said about the Texas Department of Transportation after a question about the status of the project at a joint meeting of the city’s three Rotary clubs at the Harlingen Elks Lodge.

“We’re going to leave that up to TxDOT,” Dewhurst said.

The Rio Grande Valley remains Texas’ only urban area without an interstate highway system, another resident told Dewhurst.

“It’s certainly not by way of design,” Dewhurst said of plans to develop the proposed Interstate 69 project.

After years of planning, 1,800 miles of superhighway was proposed to run from Port Huron, Mich., just south of Ontario, Canada, and across eight states before splitting into branches to feed the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo.

Calling border security a major challenge, Dewhurst called for work visas for undocumented immigrants.

The program would document undocumented immigrants to protect the country from terrorists, he said.

“We must know who’s here,” he said. “There’s a real threat. Terrorists — we know they’re crossed the southern border.”

But the program would not hand out citizenship papers, he said.

“I’m not saying citizenship. Stand in line. Don’t cut in line,” he said. “We’ve all come from some place else. I don’t have any beef with anyone who came here to improve their families. But it’s time to start fixing the border. You’ve got to secure the border — north and south. It’s not just about the Mexican border.”

Along the border, task forces made up of local law enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol agents and the Drug Enforcement Administration have cut the flow of illegal drugs and human smuggling by about 60 percent, Dewhurst said.

“The answer is people,” he said. “We’ve got to secure the border.”

Since he took office in 2003 he’s made the border region a priority, Dewhurst said.

“I’ve always tried to concentrate on the entire border area Â… from jobs to education,” he said. “I think education is the key to the door of opportunity. The future of Texas is being forged every day in our classrooms.”

In the Valley, the unemployment rate dropped from about 12 percent to as low as 5.1 percent since 2003, he said.

“Our economy’s better,” he said.

Dewhurst said he’s also put a focus on health issues that plague Hispanics such as diabetes and Hepatitis C.