PRESENCE OF TEXAS DPS PATROLS IN BORDER TOWNS TERRIFYING LONGTIME RESIDENTS

Mexican-looking drivers that have lived in border towns for years are being pulled over for very minor traffic infractions to weed out illegals

The Associated Press reports that longtime residents of Texas border towns are afraid to venture out of their homes, or to take their children to the doctor, for fear of getting pulled over by DPS units that are stopping Mexican-looking people on very minor traffic infractions in an effort to weed out illegals.

According to the AP:

About 50 people gathered Thursday at the San Juan offices of La Union del Pueblo Entero, a labor advocacy group. A woman took the microphone and asked the crowd how many of them were worried about the intensified DPS patrols. Nearly everyone in the room raised their hand.

Among them was Isabel Barbosa, of La Joya, who said she was riding in a car with her mother and four siblings last month when a state trooper pulled them over, saying her mother had crossed the white line on the shoulder of the road.

Barbosa, 21, said her mother was initially told she would receive only a warning. But she was taken into custody after a Border Patrol agent arrived and determined she was in the country illegally. She was deported the next day after living in the U.S. for 18 years, leaving behind a sick husband and five children, the youngest of whom is 3.

"People are afraid to go out even to the store. They can't take their children even to the clinics. They can't do anything," Barbosa said.

While I agree that we need to do something about the illegal immigration problem, I do not believe the DPS harassment of longtime residents, even if in this country illegally, is really necessary. What they did to Barbosa’s mother is downright disgusting.

Those DPS tactics are not going to make the tiniest dent in the problem of 11 million –the actual number is probably closer to 20 million – people being in this country illegally. The real purpose of those DPS units is not to stop Mexicans from crossing the Rio Grande, but to show that Rick Perry is tough on immigration if the Texas governor tries again for the Republican presidential nomination.

When DPS hassles residents like Barbosa’s mother, they’re not stopping vans jammed full of Mexicans who just crossed the border. All they’re doing is harassing the people of Texas border towns who have been leading productive lives in this country for many years, holding down jobs, paying their taxes and raising families.