ON THE RECORD/Border counties face immigration pressure
Recently, the immigration debate has inundated Capitol Hill and divided legislators. While the Senate proposes a temporary worker program and the opportunity for illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens, the House is pushing for more stringent border security regulations. In March, the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, a non-partisan organization representing the 24 border counties, released a study with the University of Texas at El Paso, comparing the region to the rest of the nation on income, education, housing, crime, the environment and other issues. The study found that funding healthcare, law enforcement and other programs is a major challenge for border counties. American City & County talked with David Austin, a coalition representative, about the effects of immigration on local governments, the study’s findings and the future of the region.
Q: How is immigration affecting local governments on the border with Mexico?
A: This coalition was formed in 1998 because the border counties were being inundated with costs related to immigration both legal and, most particularly, illegal. It was just the added burden of being on the border that was imposing costs to local taxpayers. The counties on the border feel that this is a federal obligation, because it stems from a lack of border enforcement and/or a broken immigration policy.
Q: What do you think about the proposed federal legislation?
A: The coalition has not yet taken a position on the legislation. One of the challenges in this coalition is that it’s consensus-based, and it illustrates just how difficult this issue is because even among the 24 border counties, there’s not yet consensus on an overall immigration policy. There’s generally widespread support for a comprehensive approach that includes some form of a guest worker program, although that is not an official position of the coalition yet.
Q: The coalition’s recent study says the border counties are “in transition.” What does that mean?
A: We are at a pivotal point in our dialogue about immigration issues, broader economic issues and our relations with our neighbors in Mexico. There needs to be a serious look at what we’re doing on the border in part because the demographics of the border are the future demographics of the rest of the nation.
Q: Are there certain issues that local governments need the most help with?
A: The counties are bearing the brunt of criminal justice costs and healthcare costs. Because most of those costs are absorbed by the local system, it becomes a local taxpayer obligation.
Q: How is the coalition helping local governments on the border?
A: We’re continuing to focus on the areas that we have specific interests in, [such as] criminal justice. We’re about to update a 2001 study [using] congressional funding. We’re going to continue to highlight the individual chapters with the media and try to develop some interest and reactions to individual subjects. As an example, the border sheriffs [have] come together, and they’ve been pressing their case, which is very much complimentary to the work we’ve already done in that area. The study reveals that the funding formulas for the law enforcement block grants do not take into consideration drug cases. Yet, drug cases are the No. 1 criminal offenses on the border. The border law enforcement agencies are having to enforce drug-related crimes, yet they’re not being compensated for it. We’ve suggested to them an issue they want to start focusing on is trying to get the funding formulas changed to reflect that.
