A retired ICE agent with over a quarter-century of experience, Texas House-127 candidate Joe Montemayor provided his expertise on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform at an immigration forum hosted by the Kingwood Area Democrats.
“I feel the Republican Party has been using this issue as a means of dividing communities, so this was an opportunity to provide some daylight to the realities of the immigration issue,” said Montemayor.
The forum earned coverage in both Kingwood newspapers.
For the Observer, click here. For the Tribune, click here.
Quotes of interest from the forum:
“You hear a lot of talk about we aren’t doing enough on the border,” he said. “You will hear this from a Democrat. I am here to tell you that (Texas Sen.) Kay Bailey Hutchison went out and helped put four times as many agents along our border. Now when it came to voting for immigration reform, she disappeared, which I am not happy about. But from the law enforcement side, she did put forth the effort.”
Montemayor says the problem now is that when the government started securing the border and seizing narcotics, the drug cartels started to fight for what territory is left. He says that is the true problem at the border.
“These aren’t street thugs. We are talking about professionals when we talk about these cartels. They are very smart,” he said. “People I talk to tell me what they need is more shared intelligence … boots on the ground is great, but more intelligence is needed.”
Montemayor pointed to a recent raid in El Paso where instead of narcotics, agents found 150 bulletproof vests and ammunition that were headed south to the cartel.
“When we talk about border security, it has to go both ways,” he said.
Montemayor continues to travel across District 127 talking about solutions to the challenges facing Texas: Reform of education funding; expanding the workforce through higher education access; helping small businesses build the Texas workforce; and ensuring the safety of Texans through smart law enforcement.
