Texans get snowed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) visited South Texas yesterday to talk with local sheriffs and residents about their massive problems with illegal immigration. The article "Sheriffs tell Cornyn of immigration problems" enumerates the various problems they have and what they want done. And, apparently they think the meeting went well. However, Cornyn's quotes from the article indicate that he's got other ideas:

"More funding is a real possibility... We'd be delighted to try to get you some of those resources... I'm here to find out what I can do to support your efforts and take that back to Congress to lead the charge to try to fix our broken border and immigration system... [at the end of the meeting:] This is not the end. This is the beginning of a good working relationship."

In isolation, those comments are almost comic. The article also includes this:

"I felt good leaving the meeting," said [Goliad County Sheriff Robert De La Garza]. "The senator looked me straight in the eye and told me he's going to help."

Yeah, some people can pull that off.

For those who aren't - dare I say it - complete rubes, Cornyn's remarks are complete BS. See, for instance "America's immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed" for a discussion of that pet phrase of the Open Borders lobby. And, if someone says something is a "real possibility", my stock answer is, "that's fine, but tell me exactly how we can make it a real possibility?"

If his intentions weren't clear enough, this bit should erase all doubts:

...Ned Miester of the Texas Farm Bureau appealed to Cornyn to not take any action that would lead to the closing of the border, saying farmers need the workers who come up from Mexico.

Meister said a Lubbock squash farmer is currently losing up to $10,000 a day because he doesn't have enough pickers to harvest his crop.

Cornyn said the solution isn't to deploy the military or to build a wall, and agreed that some immigrants "do jobs Americans are not always willing to do."

He said a balance must be struck between economic and security needs...

In other words, he's willing to allow the porous borders so someone can grow squash. And, the PDF excerpt here makes it clear that he supports illegal immigration. Previous coverage of Cornyn starts here.

Immigration2005b · Fri, 07/08/2005 - 10:42 · · Importance: 1