House panel meets at U.S.-Mexico border

LAREDO, Texas -- A Republican-led House panel met at the Mexican border Friday in an unusual field hearing that the chairman said he hopes will push the Senate to focus on enforcing immigration law.

"It's elementary that to defend ourselves against our determined and resourceful enemies, our border must be secure," said Rep. Ed Royce, the California Republican who chairs the International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation.

House GOP leaders called the series of hearings last month after the Senate approved a guest worker program and a possible path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Royce said he favors the path of the House, which approved a bill focusing on enforcement, with no provision for illegal immigrants or future guest workers.

Royce said he wanted the out-of-Washington hearings so the immigration debate would not be kept secret from the public. Democrats participated, but denounced them as political theater.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the hearings were political, not practical.

"Congress needs to get back to work in Washington to reach a compromise agreement on comprehensive border security and immigration reform legislation," Reyes said.

Reynaldo Garza, acting Border Patrol chief of the Laredo sector testified Friday that he worries about possible links between drug cartels and terrorists.

"Yes, there is an opportunity for them to infuse these types of persons that would do America harm into these" organizations, Garza said.

Garza said high-tech tools such as remote video systems and ground sensor equipment are critical in securing the border.

Sheriff Rick Flores of Webb County, which includes Laredo, described what he called "high risk" border infiltrations, noting that many arrests involve non-Mexicans.

"What needs to be made clear is that our pleas for help are based largely ... on the federal government's failure to meet its responsibilities," he said.

Also this week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who backs the Senate bill, held a hearing in Philadelphia on the issue featuring New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg testified Thursday that the economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse.

Republican-led House committees will hold hearings outside Washington later this month on making English the nation's official language, and how enforcement of immigration laws affects American workers.

A hearing the week of Aug. 14 in Arizona will focus on costs to local and state governments "caused by an unsecured border."