Rep. Clay Higgins Says Border Crisis Is ‘Disintegration of Law and Order’

First responder and paramedic Carley Morgan holds a sign protesting Mexican drug cartels at a press conference on the border crisis in Phoenix on Jan. 26, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

On March 13, 2023, Maria “Coke” Tambunga, 73, and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Emelia Tambunga, died when their vehicle was hit by a pickup involved in a high-speed chase carrying 11 illegal immigrants.

David J. Bier, associate director for immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said the tragedy doesn’t represent how immigrants affect communities, but didn’t differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants. According to Bier, immigrants account for far less crime than U.S. citizens.

“They are less than one-half as likely [as citizens] to be incarcerated. Immigrants want to help; let them do it legally,” Mr. Bier said, again not clarifying the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. Mr. Bier was testifying at a July 26 joint hearing by the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.

Todd Bensman, a senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said Mr. Bier’s data comes from comparative studies that he called “bogus.” Mr. Bensman said officials don’t know the full extent of the problem.

He believes crime by illegal immigrants shouldn’t exist at all.

Texas National Guard troops watch over illegal immigrants in El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023. (Andres Leighton/AP Photo)

“One hundred percent of all crimes by illegals are preventable because they should have been deported,” Mr. Bensman said.

Mr. Bensman outlined the problem, as he sees it, in written testimony. He noted that Texas is the only state that records the immigration status of individuals arrested for violent crimes.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety website, between June 1, 2011, and June 30, 2023, more than 282,000 illegal immigrants were charged with over 480,000 crimes. These include 899 homicide charges, 1,019 kidnapping charges, 6,079 sexual assault charges, 7,032 other sex crime charges, and 5,744 weapons charges.

“What the Texas data show is that hundreds of dead people should be alive, thousands of sexual assault and sexual offense victims should never have suffered the trauma, and tens of thousands of assault charges involving victims would not have been hurt,” Mr. Bensman’s testimony reads.

Mr. Bier said the Texas numbers don’t tell the whole story. In his testimony, he wrote that immigrants often work with law enforcement, many becoming law enforcement officers, but didn’t clarify if he was talking about legal or illegal immigrants.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 8, 2022. (Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)

Mr. Bier recounted several stories of illegal immigrants who helped prevent a crime.

“An unauthorized immigrant acting as a convenience store nightwatchman stopped a burglary in Texas.

Another in New Mexico chased down a child abductor, returning a 6-year-old girl to her parents. About 100,000 [illegal] immigrants have obtained legal status through cooperation with law enforcement over the last decade,” Mr. Bier wrote.

He told the hearing that Mexican drug cartels get involved when immigrants can’t find a legal way into the country. Very often, when illegal immigrants are involved in crime, there are U.S. citizens there too. This was the case with the wreck that killed Ms. Tambunga and her granddaughter.

The driver of the truck that hit them was a U.S. citizen.

Immigration Reform Needed

Mr. Bier said streamlining the asylum and parole processes has been shown to reduce the number of illegal crossings. He pointed to programs involving immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti. Parole programs set up in response to conditions in their home countries reduced the number of illegal immigrants arrested from those countries.

In addition, he said the legal immigration process, in general, is cumbersome and time-consuming, and that streamlining the process would discourage illegal immigration.

“If our policies tell them the only way to enter is to enter illegally, that’s what’s going to happen. That’s a policy choice,” Mr. Bier said.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the purpose of the hearing was to discuss security along the border, not immigration policy. Mr. Higgins pointed out that there is a legal immigration process.

He said the fact that it takes a long time is irrelevant and that the same applies to American citizens who go through the court system.

Land of Law and Order

“We don’t barge into a courtroom and demand that our case be heard first,” Mr. Higgins said. “What we face on our border is the disintegration of law and order. I choose not to be a part of a better-managed decline of our nation.”

Ms. Tambunga did not directly address the question of illegal immigration, except to tell the hearing, “How big a monster the border crisis has become.”

Elissa Tambunga is the daughter of Maria Tambunga and mother to Emelia. She said her main concern is the safety of communities that see tragedies like the one that claimed her mother and daughter.

Ms. Tambunga said her congressman, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), introduced the Emi-Coke Accountability Act of 2023. The Act would set up an alert system to tell people when a high-speed chase is occurring in their area.

She said this is an essential first step in addressing safety and the border crisis. The next step, she said, is to hold Congress accountable.

“I will be the voice of the communities that need it most,” she said.