The View of Immigration Reform from the U.S.–Mexico Border

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12209
• Author: “Beto” O'Rourke
• Published date: 01 May 2014
• Date: 01 May 2014

Perspective

“Beto” O’Rourke is serving his f‌i rst

term in the U.S. House of Representatives,

representing the 16th District of Texas. He

serves on the House Homeland Security

and Veterans Affairs committees and has

been a leading voice on immigration reform

and campaign f‌i nance reform. Prior to his

election to Congress, he served two terms

as member of the El Paso City Council.

E-mail: david.wysong@mail.house.gov

302 Public Administration Review • May | June 2014

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 74, Iss. 3, pp. 302. © 2014 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12209. Published 2014.

This article is a US Government work and is in

the public domain in the USA.

“Beto” O’Rourke

U.S. House of Representatives

We are as close to f‌i xing our immigration

system as we have been in more than 20

years.

Which, if you’re a proponent of reform, should be a

good thing.

But it seems that the closer we get, the more divisive

the rhetoric, the more challenging the politics, and the

more devilish the details.

A chorus from the Right demands ever-more border

security and no pathway to citizenship for undocu-

mented immigrants. From the Left, it is matched by

one that insists a citizenship path is a precondition

for their support. Procedurally, the Senate has passed

a comprehensive package, while the House insists on

piecemeal measures. And in the midst of the legislative

maneuvering come all manners of proposals, serious

or otherwise.

How does one even begin to approach this issue?

For me, it starts at home.

My experience as a lifelong resident and a congres-

sional representative for El Paso, Texas, gives me a

strong understanding of immigration’s impact on our

community and our country. In El Paso, we are one-

half of the largest binational community in the world

(together with our sister city of Juarez, Mexico); a

community that is the safest in America today, in large

part because of (and not in spite of) the signif‌i cant

number of immigrants who live here; and one that

has served as an Ellis Island to Latin America for more

than 150 years.

 rough the prism of El Paso, we look at immigra-

tion reform policies and see what works and what

doesn’t.

Spend $46 billion to double the Border Patrol and

militarize one of the world’s largest peaceful borders at

a time of record-low immigration from Mexico?

You’d have to be a stranger to the border to propose

something like that. Perhaps not coincidentally, the

sponsors of that provision were from North Dakota

and Tennessee.

Design a system to get millions of undocumented

immigrants in our communities to achieve, give back,

and produce to their full potential, benef‌i ting the

United States and communities like El Paso economi-

cally, civically, and culturally?

As an El Pasoan, that inherently makes sense and meets

the three criteria that we developed in our of‌f‌i ce for any

proposal: it’s rational, humane, and f‌i scally responsible.

And when we see gaps in the current debate, I am able

to draw on my experiences and those of my constitu-

ents to propose our own solutions. I recently teamed up

with Steve Pearce, Republican of New Mexico, to of‌f er

a bill that would unite foreign-born members of U.S.-

citizen families with their relatives here by giving federal

judges discretion when it comes to technical violations

of immigration law.  is bill was inspired by a constitu-

ent of mine who stood up at a town hall in El Paso

and connected his family’s separation to the need for a

legislative remedy. Congressman Pearce and I are also

working on legislation to provide better oversight of

the current border security apparatus and to protect the

rights of those who live and work along the border.

So whether the solution is comprehensive or piecemeal,

whether it is our ideal or a f‌i rst step beyond the broken

status quo, we can draw on our experiences and our

unique perspective on the U.S.–Mexico border—home

to more than 6 million of our fellow U.S. citizens and

a safe, vibrant testament to the need for immigration

reform and the source of ideas on how to get it done.

 e View of Immigration Reform

from the U.S.–Mexico Border