79R1882 CLE-D

By:  Chavez                                                     H.C.R. No. 13 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Canadian travelers to the United States may stay in 
this country for up to six months, while Mexican visitors only 
recently gained the right to a 30-day stay with a laser visa under 
an expansion of the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status 
Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program, which previously limited 
such stays to 72-hours and no more than 25 miles inside the U.S. 
border; and
	WHEREAS, Aside from adversely affecting international 
goodwill between the United States and its neighbors to the north 
and south by the disparate treatment of their citizens, this 
disparity also has a negative impact on the economic stability of 
the U.S.-Mexico border; and
	WHEREAS, If Mexican tourists, businesspersons, and other 
short-term travelers received the same opportunities to visit and 
do business in the United States as their Canadian counterparts, it 
would facilitate business between the United States and Mexico, 
boosting the U.S. and Texas economies; and
	WHEREAS, El Paso and other Texas border communities that 
directly benefit from cross-border travel may expect a dramatic 
increase in local economic development if the length of stay for 
Mexican nationals with laser visas is extended from 30 days to six 
months; and
	WHEREAS, Local community leaders attending a recent 
gathering of the U.S. Hispanic Chambers of Commerce were assured by 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson 
that the Bush Administration supports treating all international 
guests equally; and
	WHEREAS, U.S. Senator John Cornyn and U.S. Representative 
Ruben Hinojosa, both of Texas, introduced legislation in the 108th 
Congress (S.1908 and H.R. 3488, respectively) to allow Mexican 
nationals currently admissible under laser visa border crossing 
regulations to enter the United States as six-month nonimmigrant 
visitors; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to 
support parity for Mexican visitors to the United States by 
enacting legislation that would allow them the same six-month 
length of stay afforded to Canadian travelers; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.