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Alfonso Torres stopped by a downtown Brownsville soup kitchen Tuesday for a free meal.

He admits he is in the United States illegally.

The Matamoros man said he, his wife and three children, ages 21, 16 and 14, swam across the Rio Grand near Brownsville 8 months ago.

"We are looking for a better life,” Torres said. “You know how things are in Mexico. That's why we risked crossing the river and came here."

If proposed House Bill 12, passes through the Texas Senate, it would allow local law enforcement agencies and even utility companies to question people on their immigration status.

Torres would be fair game for deportation at any time.

"It's wrong,” Torres said. “We come here to work and to provide something better for our families. I came here to work not to cause trouble."

Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia said Brownsville has always dealt with illegal immigrants. U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agents already visit the city jail to pick-up illegals that have been detained or arrested.

Garcia favors the initiative, but don’t expect to see officers tracking down illegals.

"That's not going to be our priority,” Garcia said. “Our priority is still going to be answering calls for service and those emergency calls that are necessary to address. This is something that's going to be secondary or third."

Garcia said if the bill becomes law, he will not discourage his officers from inquiring about immigration status, but won’t require it either.

"The stigma here, is that every illegal immigrant, every person that is here illegally, is being tagged as criminal,” Garcia said. “And that's not the case."

Garcia said his 245 officers will adapt to the measure if it becomes law, but he just hopes that people will not stop reporting crimes for fear of deportation.

"We definitely don’t want victims of crimes to shy away from law enforcement just because of immigration status,” Garcia said. “(If they do), then that's going to put us in a position that we're not going to be able to gauge criminal activity in our community."

Torres said he has no plans of returning to Mexico; even if that means staying clear of police.