Lawmakers form border security working group

AUSTIN - The Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House this week formed a border security working group to get started on planning for the next regular session in 2009.

The Border Security Task Force will hold a series of town-hall style meetings in cities along the border and around the state to solicit input of Texans then develop recommendations about border security for the next Legislature, said Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, leader of the task force.

He also wants the task force to keep an eye on how the state spends more than $100 million in border-security funds the Legislature approved, most of which will go to Gov. Rick Perry’s office of Homeland Security.

Noriega had wanted the head of homeland security to be subject to a Senate confirmation, but the idea did not take hold in the Legislature.

“This allows us to monitor those commitments by the state and those developments, the implementation of the use of those dollars, what the tangible results are for Texans,” Noriega said. “We want to make sure, obviously, at the end of the day that Texans are safer.”

Noriega is a commander in the Texas National Guard who spent time manning the border in 2006 in the Laredo sector as part of Operation Jump Start. He said the “jury is out” on the effectiveness of the border-security bill that passed the Legislature, Senate Bill 11.

Senate Bill 11 created a Border Security Council, appointed by the governor, which will advise the governor on how to spend millions in homeland security funds. It does not include controversial immigration measures that were in previous versions of the bill.

Leading the MALC task force with Noriega will be Rep. Juan M. Escobar, D-Kingsville. Escobar said he thought Senate Bill 11 represented a good, bipartisan compromise, but the state can continue to make citizens safer.

Escobar, a former ranking member of the U.S. Border Patrol, cited a recent case in which alleged criminals impersonating police officers busted into a Rio Grande Valley home and demanded money, and other cases where kidnapping victims have gone missing for years or are never found.

“I believe we need to listen to the people and understand what their concerns are in order to come up with an effective legislation to proceed next session,” Escobar.

MALC is a non-partisan group of 43 lawmakers who are Latino or represent Latino constituents in the Legislature, though most of its members are Democrats.

The task force will include other lawmakers along the border, including House members from the Valley.

“This type of committee is a first in our state,” said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, chairman of MALC. “It will allow MALC to study the border security issue and research new ways to protect the citizens of Texas and our national security while maintaining the Latino community’s civil rights as a top priority.”