Taking Aim at Immigration in Texas

[joe mac]

Taking Aim at Immigration in Texas

In control of every statewide office, Republicans are
targeting illegal immigrants by proposing to cut their
benefits and even deny citizenship to their U.S.-born
children

By CATHY BOOTH THOMAS/DALLAS

With the Democrats in charge in Washington,
conservatives in Texas are wasting no time on a pity
party. Republicans, after all, are still in the
majority here, controlling every statewide office and
the Legislature as well as the top courts. To press
that advantage, conservatives plan to put their
imprint next year on a variety of issues ranging from
abortion to school vouchers. Their biggest push by
far, however, will be passage of a host of bills
dealing with illegal immigrants, including one that
just might challenge the 14th Amendment, which defines
citizenship and requires states to provide civil
rights to anyone born on U.S. soil.


The opening salvo in the fight was made this week by
Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas which is nearly 40%
Hispanic. Despite protests in the streets and threats
of lawsuits and boycotts, the city council voted to
make English the official language and fine landlords
who rent to illegal immigrants. In Austin, meanwhile,
Republicans began trooping into the state Capitol with
stacks of bills aimed at cutting off benefits to
illegal aliens, taxing their remittances south of the
border, and requiring proof of citizenship at the
voting booth. The harshest bill would deny welfare and
other benefits even to the U.S.-born children of
illegal aliens — rights supposedly given them under
the 14th Amendment. Latino groups, who were only
recently being wooed by Republican candidates, were
left aghast at the onslaught, calling it "a hate
campaign" against immigrants and "anti-human being" to
boot.


John Colyandro, director of the Texas Conservative
Coalition, told TIME that he expects "quite a bit of
legislation" on illegal immigration to pop up in 2007
— and not just in Texas. "Because Congress did not
pass a comprehensive reform bill on immigration, more
and more states are going to step in like Arizona," he
says. Arizona voters last month passed measures
denying illegal immigrants access to state-subsidized
benefits like child care as well as the right to bail
and punitive damages in lawsuits. In the Texas
Legislature, Colyandro expects a broad array of
legislation targeting benefits to illegals, as well as
voter verification of citizenship, employer sanctions
for hiring illegal aliens, and additional funding for
border security. He says the two extremes of the
current immigration debate — deporting all illegals or
granting amnesty to all — are "unworkable and frankly
intolerable." He adds: "Somewhere between the two are
workable solutions and that's where our focus will be
in the Texas Legislature in January."


Just how far are conservatives willing to go? Far,
according to a bill pre-filled this week by Republican
state Rep. Leo Berman, who serves a onservative
constituency in the east Texas town of Tyler, "the
rose capital of the nation." Under Berman's bill,
children born in Texas to illegal aliens would be
denied state unemployment or public assistance
benefits like food stamps as well as professional
licenses. In Texas alone, he argues, there are an
estimated two million illegal aliens whose U.S.-born
children get these benefits, which go largely
un-reimbursed by the federal government. "This is
costing us a fortune," Berman argues. Although he had
to back down on plans to deny education and health
care (the feds require it), the central tenet of his
bill remains: to challenge the automatic birthright of
citizenship given to children of illegal aliens — all
the way up to the Supreme Court, if necessary.


How could Texas deny benefits to U.S. citizens, even
if they were born to illegals? Berman notes that the
14th Amendment was a late edition to the constitution,
written after the Civil War to assure citizenship for
the children of slaves. The courts later extended the
amendment to include the children of illegal
immigrants. But times have changed, he says. "There
are 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. who have
benefits that most U.S. citizens don't have," says
Berman. "One of the most lucrative benefits is that
pregnant illegal aliens can give birth in a U.S.
hospital free of charge and be rewarded with
citizenship while breaking the most basic of U.S.
laws." To pay for all that free hospital care, he
wants to tax all money transferred south of the border
by individuals at 8 % (citizens could apply for
reimbursement). The fee could raise $240 million a
year, he estimates.


The larger issue for both Berman and Colyandro is
carrying on with the conservative agenda now that
Washington is in Democratic hands. "The American
people expressed extreme disappointment in the
Republican Congress but they certainly did not make a
turn to the left," argues Colyandro, pointing to
conservative-oriented ballot issues on property
rights, gay marriage and quota elimination that
survived even as the South Dakota abortion ban went
down in defeat. In Texas, three new abortion bills
have already been filed, including one that would
immediately invalidate state law permitting abortions
if Roe v. Wade were overturned by the U.S. Supreme
Court. "The Republicans didn't fare badly in Texas so
we have to preserve the Republican and conservative
message," says Berman. "We'll be carrying the banner,
probably for most of the U.S."

Hispanics in Texas plan to challenge the Farmers
Branch ordinance in the courts and will battle bills
like Berman's on every front. "This is a dark time for
Latinos," says Rosa Rosales, a San Antonio resident
and newly elected president of the League of United
Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "Can you imagine
blaming children, trying to deny them medical care?"
LULAC's former president, Hector Flores, who lives in
the Dallas area, claims such conservative measures are
"DOA on arrival" with the winds of change blowing
through Washington. "These odious types of ordinances
target Hispanics because of our growth. It is a hate
campaign. That's not the American dream that we
learned about in school," says Flores. What's need
instead, he says, is comprehensive immigration reform
to regulate the flow of people, not just from Mexico
but other countries. "Bottom line: this is up to
federal government not the state legislature."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/prin...560643,00.html

Friday, Nov. 17, 2006

[joe mac]

if you get a chance
google "arizona proposition 300"

it denies childcare to american citizens based on their parents status which is quite disgusting

[I AM EL-NINO]

Your quite disgusting.
And your crazy if you think only conservatives are involved with dealings in ILLEGAL ALIENS!

[joe mac]

Originally Posted by I AM EL-NINO

Your quite disgusting.
And your crazy if you think only conservatives are involved with dealings in ILLEGAL ALIENS!

i just posted an article, relax