79S20252 CLE-D



By:  Chavez                                                       H.R. No. 68 







R E S O L U T I O N

	WHEREAS, The Minuteman Project is a group of volunteer 

civilians who have set up a patrol to monitor a portion of the 

United States border with Mexico for illegal immigration; during 

April 2005, a few hundred volunteers conducted 24-hour patrols of a 

portion of the Arizona border; and

	WHEREAS, The Minuteman Project plans to begin patrols along 

the Rio Grande in South Texas starting in October 2005, despite the 

expressed reservations of both United States and Texas government 

officials and agencies and various representatives from Texas 

border communities; and

	WHEREAS, Border communities in Texas rely heavily on tourism 

and commerce and the free flow of legal cross-border traffic to help 

support their economies; Minuteman patrols could impede the traffic 

and negatively affect both tourism and trade along the border; and

	WHEREAS, While the Arizona patrols took place along a stretch 

of the border that consists of open, mostly uninhabited desert 

land, much of the area along the South Texas border is privately 

owned and some of it is urbanized; an earlier effort to stop illegal 

immigration on private South Texas ranches in 2003 led to an assault 

charge against the landowner's representative and a civil lawsuit 

and settlement; and

	WHEREAS, During the Minuteman patrols in Arizona in April, 

United States Border Patrol officials said their job was 

complicated when some of the patrol members set off motion 

detectors that had been installed to detect illegal immigration; 

members of law enforcement have said that their jobs, already 

dangerous because of illegal immigration and drug trafficking, are 

made more difficult and dangerous by civilian patrols; and

	WHEREAS, The presence of Minuteman Project chapters in 18 

states, including states far from Mexico such as Maine, Minnesota, 

Tennessee, and Utah, are viewed by many Hispanic Americans as 

evidence that the group's intent is to terrorize Hispanic 

communities and stereotype all Hispanics as illegal; and

	WHEREAS, Efforts to establish a Texas chapter of the 

Minuteman Project were highlighted by the recent resignation of the 

Texas project leader, who cited members' racism and hatred as 

reasons for his resignation; national project leaders responded 

that the resignation would not have any effect on planned actions in 

Texas this October; and

	WHEREAS, President George W. Bush has stated his opposition 

to the Minuteman civilian patrols, saying, "I'm against vigilantes 

in the United States of America, I'm for enforcing the law in a 

rational way"; Commissioner Robert C. Bonner of the United States 

Customs and Border Protection agency stated that the United States 

Border Patrol is best qualified and trained to handle border 

control issues and that civilian patrols could cause not only 

illegal migrants but also American citizens to be harmed; now, 

therefore, be it

	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 

Legislature, 2nd Called Session, hereby urge Governor Rick Perry to 

oppose the plans of the Minuteman Project to come to Texas and to 

ask Minuteman Project representatives not to begin patrols of the 

Texas border with Mexico; and, be it further

	RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the Texas House of 

Representatives forward an official copy of this resolution to the 

governor of the State of Texas.