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O’DONNELL, TEXAS
Migrant laborers Oversight often absent for facilities for workers By JEREMY SCHWARTZ AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN Photo by Autumn Driscoll | AP file
The E-Verify system, which is needed to confirm that new hires are legal citizens. Former Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in December 2014 mandating the use of E-Verify for state agencies. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a separate E-Verify bill months later.
Law to operate under honor system By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
After former Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in December 2014 mandating the use of E-Verify for state agencies, some lawmakers noted the directive lacked a mechanism to ensure compliance. But more than nine months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a separate E-Verify bill, some of those gaps still exist. Perry’s order required state agencies under the purview of the governor’s office, along with any contractors and subcontractors those agencies hired, to use E-Verify to ensure all potential new hires were legally eligible to work in the United States. The federal E-Verify system screens for undocumented workers by comparing the information that applicants submit to an employer with records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. But Perry’s directive didn’t assign a state agency to ensure compliance or prescribe penalties for agencies or contractors that don’t use the system. While the new law, Senate bill 374 by state Sen. Charles Schwertner, RGeorgetown, expands the requirement to all state agencies, it also doesn’t spell out any penalties for agencies that don’t comply. And it doesn’t assign anyone to make sure the law is being followed. While SB 374 directed the Texas Workforce Commission to implement the bill’s provisions, a spokesperson for the agency said that doesn’t put the commission in charge of enforcement. “There is no provision in this law for TWC to enforce, monitor or report or track other agencies’ compliance,” said spokesperson Lisa Givens. “We have provided ongoing technical assistance when requested.” There’s hasn’t been an indication that agencies weren’t already cooperating with Perry’s 2014 order, which was noted during debate on the bill last year. But while Texas, whose GOP lawmakers often focus their re-election campaigns on prom-
O’DONNELL, Texas — The farmworkers arrived in the spring of 2013 to harvest green chiles for $8 an hour and the promise of temporary housing in a building near the fields. But when they showed up at the farm just south of Van Horn, operated by AJK Enterprises, workers said they had no alternative but to live in nearby shipping containers that lacked screens or ventilaPhoto by Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman | AP tion, to shower with a bucket of cold water and to urinate A young boy plays in the families kitchen as his little brother sleeps on and defecate in the brush. the bed in the one room space of the Airport Motel in Plainview, Texas. Some workers slept “in their cars or outside on the boards Under state law, facilities in- the harvest from place to place laid on top of car tires,” ac- tended to house migrant farm- — must be inspected and licording to a lawsuit filed workers — defined as agricul- censed, ensuring they meet a against the farm’s operators tural laborers who leave their minimum standard of cleanliand settled last year. primary residence to follow ness and safety.
The law is supposed to protect workers and their families — many with limited command of English and little time or money to file complaints or find alternative housing — from being exploited by employers or farm labor contractors who might force them to live in filth and squalor. Yet a four-month Austin American-Statesman investigation has revealed that in Texas many housing facilities elude the reach of the state’s limited inspection effort. Even when state regulators have received reports of deplorable conditions, and inspectors verify deficiencies — as they eventually did at the Van Horn chile farm — they don’t
See LABORERS PAGE 10A
ZAPATA COUNTY FAIR
ZAPATA LIONS CLUB DONATION
Courtesy photo
The Zapata County Lions recently helped a participating kid’s project by giving back over $1,000 in add-ons toward their projects and to give them thanks for all their hard work.
See E-VERIFY PAGE 10A
BORDERING ON INSECURITY
Deportation of criminals By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
Photo by Martin do Nascimento | Texas Tribune
A guard inside the Webb County Jail in Laredo, Texas on Nov. 5, 2015
In a slight deviation from what’s been common at the Texas Capitol this year, a Democratic senator pressed a Republican sheriff Wednesday on why her jail has released undocumented immigrants from custody. Usually the Democrats play defense, but during a subcommittee hearing on border security, state Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, noted that Republican Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau’s jail has declined 11 requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold inmates for possible deportation.
Citing a January Texas Tribune story, Garcia noted that Bexar County’s figure is a distant second to Travis County’s 72 in the number of detainers that weren’t honored, according to the data received. But Bexar’s number is higher than the figures for more than 30 other jails in Texas. "Without getting into specifics on factual cases, just give me a couple of scenarios on when you would decline a detainer,” Garcia asked. “Maybe just a couple of examples.” Pamerleau said she couldn’t comment on the number because she didn’t have the information in front of her. “I don’t have the specif-
ics on that,” she said. Garcia, a progressive Democrat who opposes stricter state-based immigration enforcement, appeared to want to make two main points. One was to note that Bexar’s jail, run by a Republican, had let more inmates out than the Dallas County Jail, whose sheriff, Democrat Lupe Valdez, caused a statewide controversy last year when she said she would limit her cooperation with ICE. But Garcia said she also wanted to drive the point home that the figures don’t always paint a complete picture. “If we’re really going to look at both sides of the issue we need to look at all of
it,” she said as she was leaving the Capitol. “I think the numbers are probably skewed, I think there is a lot of reason, probably something administrative why they do that. But if they are declining them I think it’s important for us to know why. I personally don’t believe anybody would decline just because they want to.” Pamerleau declined to comment on the 11-inmate figure outside of the hearing room but did say that her department was behind technologically and upgrades could help streamline some issues in her jail. “For Bexar County in
See DEPORT PAGE 10A