New Arizona & Oklahoma laws working -- Texas losing

Illegal immigrants are flowing into Texas across its long borders. But they aren't just swimming across the Rio Grande from Mexico or making dangerous treks through the rugged desert.

Instead, a new rush of illegal immigrants are driving down Interstate 35 from Oklahoma or heading east to Texas from Arizona to flee tough new anti-illegal immigrant laws in those and other states.

Though few numbers are available because illegal residents are difficult to track, community activists say immigrants have arrived in Houston and Dallas in recent months, and they expect hundreds more families to relocate to the Bayou City soon.

''They're really tightening the screws," said Mario Ortiz, an undocumented Mexican worker who came to Houston after leaving Phoenix last year. ''There have been a lot coming — it could be 100 a day."

The growing exodus is the result of dozens of new state and local laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration. The two toughest measures are in Oklahoma and Arizona.

The Oklahoma statute, which took effect in November, makes it a crime to transport, harbor or hire illegal immigrants. Effective Jan. 1, the Arizona law suspends the business license of employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. On a second offense, the license is revoked.

''It's a wave that's happening across the United States," said Nelson Reyes, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Houston, which has helped immigrants who recently relocated in Houston from Virginia and South Carolina. ''There is a migration, within the United States, to the states and cities more receptive to the reality of the undocumented immigrant."

So far, results of the new laws have been dramatic.

No restrictive laws here

In Oklahoma, one builder estimated that 30 percent of the Hispanic work force left Tulsa. Reports out of Arizona indicate that several restaurants have closed in Phoenix because of a shortage of workers, and vacancies at apartment complexes are increasing, in part because of departing immigrants.

 

Experts predict immigrants will flock to Houston and other cities in Texas because of the state's reputation as a welcoming destination.  [ARGH.......]

The construction industry in Texas has largely weathered a national housing slump, they note, adding there is a long tradition of relying on skilled labor from Latin America.

And so far, Texas has not passed any statewide law targeting the employment of undocumented workers. [YEP - we're wide open]

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 1.6 million illegal immigrants were in Texas in 2006.

''Texas is still very much an entrepreneurial place, where you can find your place in this economy," said James Hollifield, a Southern Methodist University professor and migration expert. ''It's not an immigrant's paradise, but if you work hard and keep your head down you can get ahead."

Mayra Figueroa, director of American For Everyone, a Houston nonprofit that advocates for labor rights of immigrants, [WHAT RIGHTS?] said the strict laws in other states are pushing immigrants to Houston. 

''There were a lot of people moving from Houston to Oklahoma, and now they're coming back because they are not able to work," said Figueroa, adding that many of them are Central American refugees. ''I can say hundreds of families are coming to cities like Houston, because of the law."

But the influx of undocumented workers into Texas is not welcomed by everyone. Critics say illegal immigrants are taxing government resources, such as hospital emergency rooms and public schools.

''That is not good," Larry Youngblood, leader of the Houston chapter of the Texas Border Volunteers, said about the new wave of immigrants. ''We've got about 400,000 to 450,000 in Houston already. And obviously they're not all day laborers — not all are criminals — but we don't need more."

''We have to assume they'll bring some wives and kids with them, so therefore our schools will be re-inundated. And traffic will be worse, too."

Labor up, income down

Some of the new residents are working as day laborers in Houston including Oscar Jeovani Fernandez, a 36-year-old Honduran native who left Oklahoma.

 

He said he is lucky now if he can work two or three days and earn $150 a week — a far cry from his steady job pulling down $600 a week hanging wallboard for a home builder near Tulsa.

''I was working there in September, but they passed a law that allows the local police to act like immigration agents," Fernandez said. ''I came here 25 days after they passed the law — I wasn't going to let them experiment on me."

Ortiz, a native of southern Mexico, said he left Phoenix eight months ago working 60 to 70 hours a week as a nursery worker.

Immigration agents raided his job site, but he evaded arrest.

Now, he's standing on Houston street corners. He said that in a good week he can pick up two or three days of yardwork. He barely earns enough, after paying his rent and food bills, to send money home to his wife and son in Tabasco state.

''Here, they let you work. Over there, they won't. There is a lot of racism, but here there isn't — it's better," Ortiz said of Houston. ''They welcome you here in Texas, because here, they don't do anything to you."  [You think the word's out to the illegals?]

Enrique Hubbard, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, said a dozen Mexican families from Okahoma have applied for consular documents listing their new residences in the Dallas area. He expects more to arrive because jobs are available in North Texas.

''There is opportunity in construction in the housing market in Dallas, so they will move here," he said. ''Perception is very important, and a lot of people see this negative attitude growing so they say, 'Let's look for another place,' particularly if they have relatives and contacts in another place."

Taking their leave

The flight from Oklahoma began the month before the new law known as House Bill 1804 took effect, business leaders in Oklahoma say. In Tulsa, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has estimated that 15,000 to 25,000 illegal immigrants have left the area.

 

''Thirty percent of our Hispanic labor force left Tulsa — it was a huge hit, and it was almost overnight," said Greg Simmons, owner of Simmons Homes, Tulsa's largest home builder.

Based on his conversations with subcontractors, Simmons said they went to Texas and Kansas or returned to Mexico.

Jose Alfonso, pastor of the Cornerstone Hispanic Church in Tulsa, said 15 percent of the congregation's 425 members have left for Texas or California.

''It's been a very difficult situation for our church and the Hispanic community," said Alfonso, whose church is one of several who are challenging the law in federal court.

Business leaders say local police in Tulsa have mounted a campaign to target immigrants and have deported many after they were arrested for minor traffic offenses.

''I think we swung the pendulum too far; we're hurting people, the immigrant families, and we're going to hurt the economy," said Mike Means, executive vice president of the Oklahoma State Homebuilders Association, [Poor babies -- try making your $$ legally]  which has 3,600 members across the state.

'A tremendous impact'

The effect of the new law can be seen in the many signs advertising rental property vacated by departing immigrants, said David Castillo, the executive director of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

 

''There's been a tremendous impact in Oklahoma City," Castillo said. "We've had several companies close shop and leave the state. Banks have called us and say they're closing 30 accounts per week." [And I hope you can't locate them and they default on their credit card debt!!]

As the implications of laws in other states play out, Hubbard, the Mexican consul from Dallas, doubts many immigrants will go back to Mexico.

'I think they will relocate. They will at least give it one more try," Hubbard said. ''It's very difficult to cross the border, and expensive, too."  [Why don't we let them go back without penalty --- what are we going to do if we catch them?  Deport them?  So.....]

james.pinkerton@chron.com

While a growing number of police agencies across the country have received federal training to enforce immigration laws, Houston's police chief maintained a strong stance Thursday against joining this trend.

At least 28 state, county and local law enforcement departments have taken training to make immigration arrests and process illegal immigrants for deportation. More than 70 others are on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement waiting list for training.

But Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt made it clear Thursday that his department won't be taking on ICE duties any time soon. Hurtt said enforcing immigration law in Houston would tie up officers and add long delays to police response times.  [Maybe many of the police calls are due to crimes committed by illegals?]

"Local police don't want to be immigration officers, they want to be able to enforce (local) laws," Hurtt told a state legislative committee.

Hurtt was the lead-off witness in a Thursday morning hearing by the Texas Border Security Task Force that focused on terrorism, illegal immigration and port and border security.

The chief told the task force, chaired by Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega, that Houston is not a sanctuary city, [Saying it doesn't make it so!!]  and he cited cooperative agreements the department has with ICE and the Justice Department. ICE agents are allowed into county and city jail facilities to question non-citizens who are arrested.

As he left the hearing, Hurtt said police don't know the actual number of illegal immigrants in Houston or the Harris County area but said estimates range from 250,000 to 500,000.

"That's a major city in itself," Hurtt said. "If we had to enforce immigration laws the response time to emergency calls — which now we have around five-minute response time — could possibly go, with our present resources, go to 30 or 45 minutes [Talk about pulling a number out of the air -- what's the basis for this exaggerated estimate? -- AND, a huge part of the problem is that the HPD is way understaffed -- how about solving that?]. And I don't think that's acceptable to citizens of Houston." He added that the longer response time would put people at risk.

No time for training

The ICE training program is known as 287 (g) for the section of a 1996 immigration law that created it. The program has trained state police in Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, and sheriff's departments in California's Los Angeles and Orange counties and in Maricopa County, Ariz., which is similar in size to Harris County.

 

The number of law enforcement departments receiving the ICE training in 2007 was a fivefold increase over the previous year. Hurtt, however, said Houston can't spare the time for officers to receive the five-week training.

"If you're going to train all your officers that means they're going to be off the streets for a certain period of time for training," he said after the hearing. "Again, that's an additional burden on the city, as well as the citizens. We just think it's a federal responsibility, and we're asking them to step up to the plate."

Louise Whiteford, president of the Houston-based Texans for Immigration Reform, said Hurtt is following "the same old party line."

"It's political, it would take a stand on immigration and they would rather not address that," she said. "There would be repercussions from people about enforcing immigration law."

Whiteford said trained immigration officers could take criminal immigrants off Houston's streets, which could relieve HPD's workload.

"Some of the police have told me they'd like to have the training, and they'd be willing to pay to go get it," she said.

Houston's position is in sharp contrast to a number of cities and states that have passed laws contending with illegal immigration. In 2007, legislatures across the country introduced 1,500 immigration-related bills, and 244 became law in 46 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures' Web site.

Hurtt said police departments have few resources to spare for immigration enforcement. He said a Clinton administration program that helped fund placing 80,000 to 100,000 officers on America's streets "is all but dried up."

Sheriff's office agrees

Meanwhile, a top Harris County law official expressed a similar view of the pitfalls of immigration enforcement.

 

Major Juan Jorge of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, who spoke before the task force Thursday, said afterward that local immigration enforcement could "darn near cripple" his department.

"It probably could lessen your response time by 10, 15, or 20 percent," Jorge said.

He questioned how deputies could enforce immigration without racial profiling.

"I don't think we have the time to do that. Any arrest is very time-consuming, especially when we have a limited amount of people on patrol," he said. "Anytime you do something like that, it takes people off the street and that keeps you from answering calls."

Jorge asked how officers would determine who to question about their citizenship  [Hey -- how about questioning everyone -- then you can't be accused of profiling!?!?].

"Again, how do you know they are or not?" he said. "Are you going to ask everyone who looks Hispanic? Am I going to get asked everytime someone sees me on the street, 'Are you legal?' "

james.pinkerton@chron.com

Can we choose, too?

Is Harold Hurtt serious? (Please see "Police chief defends his immigration law stance / Hurtt says HPD won't train to help ICE enforce federal policy," Page One, Friday.) So officers only want to enforce local laws? He doesn't believe it is the Houston Police Department's job (or desire) to enforce federal laws? Does that mean Houstonians are free to violate RICO, engage in human trafficking or other such federal crimes? If HPD can pick and choose the laws it wishes to enforce, then why can't its citizens pick and choose the laws they wish to obey?

Houston is in desperate need of a real chief of police.

Don't tie up police

Thank goodness we have a police chief who is aware of his priorities, protecting the lives and property of Houstonians rather than stopping and questioning immigrants whose only crime is crossing the border illegally, but who have not committed a crime in Houston.

We need our limited number of police officers to be able to respond to our cry for help as soon as possible, rather than be tied up going to Immigration and Customs Enforcement school for four to five weeks, or stopping and questioning persons just because they are brown-skinned or speak with an accent, but have committed no crime.

He's covering mayor

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt is obviously fronting for Mayor Bill White, who is under increasing pressure to rebut Houston's sanctuary city label. By refusing federally provided immigration enforcement training for the Houston Police Department, he and the mayor are confirming Houston's label and, worse, encouraging even more illegal immi-gration here. With 250,000 to a half-million illegals here already, saying that Houston is not a sanctuary city is insulting to one's intelligence.

To use response times as an excuse is so lame as to be ludicrous. While HPD response times to shootings, vehicular accidents, robberies, etc., are important, they are after the incidents and are, not as a rule, urgent as, say, an ambulance/EMT call.

Houston needs a mayor and a police chief who have can-do attitudes and honor their oaths of office to uphold the laws, not just some that are convenient. May God forbid that we as a country suffer another major attack by terrorists who are traced to illegal entry across our southern borders.

Part of the problem

Chief Harold Hurtt is one of the chief reasons that one of our chief problems (illegal immigration) goes unsolved.

Granted, the Houston Police Department is no panacea for all the problems with immigration enforcement, but its cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would go a long way toward a solution.