Debbie Riddle

Debbie Riddle Responds To Houston Chronicle Editorial

// August 10th, 2010 // Uncategorized

HOUSTON – Representative Debbie Riddle (R – District 150) has issued the following response to the Houston Chronicle regarding an editorial run this weekend:

“Eyes Front” in Sundays editorial 8/8/10, should have been “Eyes Closed.” The Houston Chronicle not only has their own eyes shut on the illegal immigration and voter fraud issues but it wants the Texas Legislature to do the same. It is not surprising the Chronicle would take an open-border stance and tell only half the truth to make their case.

The Chronicle claims securing our ballot box should NOT be a priority because the issue “log-jammed the session, derailing high priority legislation.” Truth be told it was the stall tactics by the democrats that shut down the legislative process for five days. Rather than have an up-or-down vote on a ballot security measure supported by almost 70 percent of Texans the democrats killed most of the major legislation before the House and forced a special session.

Not only does the Chronicle not chastise the democrats for hijacking the session, it endorses dropping ballot security and border security issues so we won’t have more bad behavior from the democrats. Their logic would stop the Texas legislature from any consideration of border security and/or ballot security.

The Chronicle in their wisdom states “The ultimate solution to the illegal presence of more than 10 million illegals will come from the halls of Congress and not the state capitols.”

More sound logic prevailed in 2005. That year crime along the border was skyrocketing, though crime in the rest of Texas was dropping. Operation Linebacker

was initiated and funded by Texas that same year and supplemented federal efforts at the border. Almost immediately the decreases in crime ranged from 25 percent up to 75 percent from area to area.

As the state program expanded crime decreased by 65 percent along the entire border and the presence of illegals was cut almost by half by late 2007. The follow up to Linebacker was Operation Border Star which caused another 60 percent drop in violent crime along the border, mostly due to increased funding to local law enforcement agencies. Note that these operations came from Austin – not Washington D.C.

According to the Texas Border Security Council, the most effective tool in this highly successful program was the increase in patrol presence. This is pure common horse sense! The more officers you have with authority to arrest the people breaking the law, then fewer people beak the law. We learned that concept in kindergarten with the dreaded hall monitors! Even the Chronicle admits that enforcement of our immigration laws decreases the presence of illegals!

Okay, this is the deal: this session we must fully secure the border. After 9/11 all political posturing and political correctness must stop. Dirty bombs can now be made, put in a suit case, carried across our border to a city like Houston, detonated killing up to a million people. The lives of our fellow Texans, even you and your family may depend on the courage of the Texas legislature to make sure the safety and security of the people of Texas is well established, and that can only happen with a fully secured border.