Border security was and is the most important issue to most Texans and now new information has emerged about a border security funding debate. During the 84th Legislative session Houston Mayoral candidate and State Representative Sylvester Turner led the effort to deny Texas Department of Public Safety $92.4 million in funding for border security equipment.
From the inbox (emphasis mine):
“Texas State Representative Tony Dale brought an amendment to the state’s budget bill (HB 1) that increased border funding for the Department of Public Safety to the tune of $92,000,000. Dale’s amendment pulled $41.5 million dollars from the General Revenue Fund and $50.9 million dollars from the Health and Human Services Commissions for Strategy.
“The Republican Caucus supported Rep. Dales’ amendment while Democrats opposed it. Representative Sylvester Turner motioned to table the amendment and it (the amendment) was defeated with the help of the entire Democrat caucus and 26 Republicans.”
Houston Mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner led the effort to defeat additional equipment funding for border security that would have a positive impact on reducing Houston’s and neighboring Katy, Baytown and Channelview’s notoriety as one of 13 Texas sanctuary cities.
Source: here
And with U.S. 59 through Rosenberg, Sugar Land and Fort Bend County—the human smuggling, drug smuggling highway leading to and through Houston—Houston voters need to ask themselves if they’ll feel safe with Sylvester Turner as their next mayor.
Neither candidate is good for public safety with regard to immigration. Bill King said “If the Republicans continue to block immigration reform, I cannot for the life of me see how they survive as a national party.”, the man all but demanding we make it easier for more illegals to gain status here. (http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/King-Stance-on-immigration-issue-could-doom-GOP-5208104.php)
He’s said worse but I’m not spending hours looking up specifics. Will either candidate withhold city services to illegals, change how police confront them, or make the slightest changes to city policies to discourage illegals from coming to Houston? The answer is “no”. Do either of them have great solutions to fix ailing city finances, solutions they can achieve without begging the state to make changes in 2017? Again, the answer is “no”, proposed changes by either of them amounting to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after the iceberg struck.
Houston is a first-world city, but over the last 18 years it has had a third-world city government. Sylvester Turner would continue this tradition of failure and fiscal irresponsibility, and take Houston further along the way to Detroit, with a detour through Chicago.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree, Kevin. While border security is a major issue at the Federal level, and a serious issue at the State level, at the local level, I’m far more concerned about getting a Mayor who will actually take care of basic functions and deal with the pension issues. While Mr. King might not have an optimum set of characteristics, the choice between him and Mr. Turner is crystal clear.
Sylvester Turner would simply continue on exactly the same path as Annise Parker and her predecessor. If you want a bankrupt city then he’s your choice. Otherwise, you need to support Mr. King.
I know that some people just love to demonize undocumented immigrants it is so easy. They are not angels, no one is, what was the gender and race of Colorado mass murderer? Should they be here of course not, but they come because people hire them that is the bottom line. How many would be in favor of a national ID and e-verify everyone for every job? How many of you would be willing to pay for that?
Houston is not a sanctuary city, as there is no policy that prohibits a policeman from asking if someone is here illegally, that is assuming that they had a legitimate reason to stop him. If the Demonizers are asking for profiling that is a big no, in my book why should I be stopped because of the way I look while a woman with sandy blond hair and blue eyes gets a bye? If you think Houston has such a policy that prohibits a police officer from asking about the legal status of a person post it.
As to some fact checking;
http://www.truthorfiction.com/illegal-aliens/
Albert, I was merely addressing the original article’s suggestion that Mr. Turner was alone in an unwillingness to change policies on immigration. Both of them are weak tea for what the city needs.
Good for Turner for killing unnecessary expenditures on a DPS assignment that is stupid beyond belief. There is no evidence that the work the DPS is doing on the border has any beneficial effect, and much evidence that it is interfering with the main role of DPS with respect to public safety across the state, where counties are losing 4 out of 5 troopers for extended periods of time.
There are no sanctuary cities in Texas. There are cities that don’t waste valuable public safety resources chasing after illegal immigrants who are not breaking any laws not related to Federal immigration statutes. I do not want HPD asking every brown skinned person they meet whether they are here legally or not. That’s an utter waste of time,
Bill King has never impressed me. He has no real platform, and has never been in a position where he had to merge and mange disparate points of view to achieve an outcome that’s generally acceptable. Turner was respected by his colleagues in the Legislature, and is known as someone who can get things done. Turner has some chance of getting legislative relief for pensions, King has zero chance.
The last time I checked, Houston was hundreds of miles from the nearest border. I for one don’t want to send scarce Houston police officers to the border to take care of what is essentially a federal responsibility. And even if we did, they would be outside their jurisdiction and wouldn’t have police powers.
Houston and every other city is limited in what services it can deny illegal immigrants due to a number of Supreme Court rulings. The basis of those rulings is always that immigration is a congressional function, not a state or local function.
As a lawyer who has to deal with immigration laws regularly, but not being an immigration lawyer, I don’t want my local authorities enforcing immigration laws willy nilly. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, some legal immigrant or US citizen is going to get busted for being an illegal immigrant and the lawsuit will make your eyes water.
I’m no fan of Sylverster Turner. But I do believe that much of the fiscal problem the city is having is based on the practice of a series of mayors and city councils that failed to fully fund the city’s three pension plans. All that does is create a huge financial iiability that term-limited council members and mayors will simply kick down the road to their successors. I’m not sure Turner has the guts to tell Houstonians that they are in for a hell of a tax increase to make up the shortfall created by his predecessors.
Bill King, when he was a Chronicle columnist, was the first person outside city government to recognize the pension funding mess. But I don’t see him doing what is necessary to fix it either.
About all that can be done now is have a four or five year expenditure plan to make up the shortfall, possibly coupled with a two-tier pension system with new employees getting a different benefit.
But we have to remember that Houston city employees, especially police and firemen, are paid substantially less than their peers in other Texas cities or even the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. They go to work for HPD and HFD for job security and the great pensions. Someone needs to ask whether we will get enough cops and firemen if we cut their overall compensation package by reducing their pensions..