Difficulty Hearing

Republican-led immigration hearings strive to dictate, not listen.
by Evan George

This week, Republicans held another wave of congressional field hearings on immigration, including one in San Diego on Monday, Aug. 14, designed to galvanize support for tougher enforcement, even as public opinion across California and nationwide sways toward more comprehensive reform.

In Los Angeles, a counter-hearing Monday held by leading Democrats and progressive activists sought to balance the focus by detailing the irreplaceable role they say immigrants play in L.A. “The one-sided hearings being organized by House Republicans serve to derail genuine debate on real solutions to immigration reform,” said Eun Sook Lee, executive director of a Korean American group that is part of the We Are America Coalition.

The Republican-led congressional hearings-23 in 13 states throughout August-come eight months after the House passed its immigration bill and three months after a more lenient bill was passed in the Senate, leaving critics on both sides of the immigration debate wondering, ‘Why now’?

“They’ve got it backwards,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) who traveled to San Diego for Monday’s meeting, the second in which he’s participated. “Typically, you do your hearings before you pass your bills, because the hearings inform your work and your policy-making.”

Republicans would be hard-pressed to argue that these public and tax payer-funded meetings are informing much of their actual work. Instead, the hearings have been used nationally as media events and campaign stops for Republican incumbents eager to appear tough on immigration before the 2006 congressional elections.

A July 5 field hearing effectively shut down the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station for hours-an ironic twist for a conference that House Republicans said would allow police enforcement to discuss the challenges they face in securing the border-as the media circus disabled the station from normal operations.

At Monday’s hearing in San Diego, a small group of anti-immigration activists gathered outside for the now-customary flag waving, but the enthusiasm seemed lagging, even among the red, white and blue crowd. “I think it’s getting repetitive,” Minuteman Neil Turned of Carlsbad told the North County Times. “It’s time to get something done.”

The hearing was to focus on the impact of illegal immigration on public services. Panelists included a customs officer, the San Diego sheriff, the president of a local hospital and San Diego County officials. But whereas earlier hearings have drawn a dozen or more congressional representatives, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) was the only Republican presented. Becerra presented the Democratic opposition to reform that focuses primarily on keeping immigrants from crossing the border.

According to a recent statewide poll, 70 percent of Californians favor a more comprehensive immigration overhaul similar to one passed in the Senate this May-one that includes a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, not just border enforcement. A national survey released two weeks ago found that 71 percent of U.S. voters also side with the comprehensive-reform approach.

“San Diego County may be the gateway to Mexico, but my taxpayers in the County of San Diego are the doormat,” said county Supervisor Bill Horn.

Horn also told the panel that the San Diego Board of Supervisors had commissioned a study on the cost of illegal immigration, however, later in the proceedings he corrected that his office had merely authorized county employees to investigate the cost of such an investigation. Meanwhile, other witnesses said immigration drains the county’s coffers. San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender testified that in 2005 alone, the county lost nearly $500,000 as a result of protests related to the immigration debate.

Critics of the Republican-organized hearings have called them costly stalling measures.

“These are official hearings, so these are tax payers’ dollars that are being used,” said Becerra. “So regardless what the ulterior motives might be, it is important that the official record reflects facts, not myths.”   LAA