By:  Olivo                                                        H.R. No. 178







R E S O L U T I O N

	WHEREAS, Texas's number one trading partner is Mexico; the 

Texas economy; the Texas economy outperformed the national economy 

during the 1990s due mainly in part to the state's exports to 

Mexico; 44 percent of Texas' total exports are made to Mexico and 

approximately one out of every 10 manufacturing jobs in Texas is 

tied to trade with Mexico; and

	WHEREAS, border communities in Texas rely heavily on tourism 

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

their economies and the state economy; and

	WHEREAS, estimates in 2002 by the Bank of Mexico figured that 

Mexican visitors to the U.S.-Mexico border region accounted for 

$3.6 billion in annual sales in the United States; and

	WHEREAS, nearly 80 percent of all United States trade with 

Mexico, approximately $230 billion in goods, travels over Texas 

highways; trade between the two countries has grown from $81.5 

billion in 1993 to $232 billion in 2002; and

	WHEREAS, nearly 80 percent of all NAFTA related traffic 

between the United States and Mexico enters through Texas ports of 

entry; since 1993 two-way commerce between Texas and Mexico has 

increased from $100 billion and $235 billion; Texas has exported to 

Mexico more than $272 billion in exports in the last seven years, 

and in 2002 those exports accounted for six percent of the gross 

state product and have added $19.8 billion in earnings and 745,500 

jobs to the Texas economy; and

	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, Minuteman patrols could impede the traffic and 

negatively affect both tourism and trade along the border and 

adversely affect international goodwill between Texas and Mexico; 

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, 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, United States Border Patrol officials said their job 

was complicated when some of the Minutemen patrol members actions 

set off motion detectors in Arizona 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 polarize 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"; U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary 

Michael Chertoff said, "The enforcement of the law is a job for 

professionals"; 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.