CORNYN TOUTS PROGRAM FOR IMMIGRANT WORKERS

LAREDO -- The federal government needs to be smarter about where to direct
resources to protect the country's borders, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Monday
after meeting behind closed doors with leaders of local federal agencies.
Cornyn, R-Texas, acknowledged more federal funding is needed for rapidly
growing border cities to combat not only terrorism, but the increased flow of
drugs and undocumented immigrants.

"Washington has simply not lived up to that responsibility," he said.

Cornyn specifically criticized the country's immigration policy and touted a
"guest worker" program that he first unveiled in July to mixed reviews.

The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003 would allow undocumented
workers to legally hold jobs in the United States for three years before having
to return to their country.

In exchange, the proposed legislation promises "blue card" holders that their
applications for permanent U.S. residency would receive priority.

In announcing the plan, Cornyn said it would bring immigrants "out of the
shadows and onto our tax rolls."

"We need to be able to distinguish from those that have a contribution to make
and those that are a threat," he said Friday inside one of the courtrooms under
construction at the new federal courts building in downtown Laredo.

"It's not as simple as building a wall," he said, adding that approach is
"pretty ludicrous."

But the former Texas attorney general said he is against open borders.

"The truth is some people who come across the border are a threat, and we need
to stop them," he said.

Laredo Border Patrol Chief John Montoya said participants at the roundtable
didn't discuss specifics, but shared some of their biggest concerns.

"It wasn't that we all came with a laundry list of things we wanted," said U.S.
District Judge George Kazen, who also met with the senator.

"He (Cornyn) didn't come down here to say: 'Tell me how much money you need.'
He came to say: 'Help me understand the problem.'"

Montoya said drug trafficking, and the violence associated with it, continue to
strain law enforcement resources.

Montoya said the Border Patrol is making more and more marijuana seizures in
the Laredo sector, which stretches from Del Rio to the southeast corner of
Zapata County.

Border Patrol agents so far this fiscal year have confiscated 300,000 pounds,
breaking the 287,000 pound record set in 1999.

The recent surge of violence in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, also was at issue.

So far this year, there have been more than 40 drug-related killings in Nuevo
Laredo, including eight police officers.

"Fortunately, it hasn't spilled over to this side," Montoya said.

Cornyn is scheduled to hold a similar roundtable discussion with federal
agencies and judicial officials in El Paso today before heading to Mexico at
the end of the week to promote his "guest worker" plan.

He was in Brownsville earlier on Monday with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., for a
Senate field hearing of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.