Thread: TX: Illegals in Candyland

Illegals in Candyland

April 17th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Though the most outrageous and ambitious immigration bills were doomed before they were even filed, another, more subtle group chip away at immigrants’ rights on a local level. To appease the GOP base some of the worst of this type of legislation received a hearing this past Monday. The House State Affairs committee heard a ban on city day labor centers, a higher penalty for government contractors employing undocumented workers, a requirement that local law enforcement officers verify the immigration status of anyone who is detained, even for a traffic violation, and a resolution directing the attorney general to sue the federal government for money Texas spends in dealing with illegal immigration.

The bills’ supporters and authors employ emotional arguments to make their case – the kind of scapegoating of immigrants that has taken place for more than a century. The first witness – Sue Richardson of Texans for Responsible Government, who somehow got included in the group of neutral resource witnesses – used a giant jar of jelly beans to show that immigrants are bad for America. (What would Ronald Reagan think?) The candy represented the 408 billion people in the world who are “deserving of our compassion”, i.e. poorer than us. Each time a million jelly beans make their way to our tiny glass, they grow exponentially (because jelly beans and poor people, as we all know, reproduce like rabbits), and do everything from drink up all our water to occupy our spaces on the beach.

Crazy lady diatribes aside, it was Van Republican Rep. Dan Flynn who pestered witnesses testifying against the bills with a steady stream of meaningless questions:

You do believe in a sovereign nation, don’t you?
If the federal government gave our local people that authority [to verify immigration status], you would agree with that, wouldn’t you?
We have sovereign borders. Don’t we have a responsibility to our citizenry to take care of that?

Flynn’s biggest beef with witnesses was the use of the term “undocumented”.

You keep using this term undocumented, these are the illegals that we’re talking about, right?… But if a person comes into the country and they don’t have the proper documentation, that would be illegal. That’s what they would call me if I went to another country… It’s still a violation of the law. That would be illegal… This isn’t a discussion we need to get into right now, but you just keep referring to undocumented, and most of the people that I deal with and I talk to, if someone is here legally, they understand that, but if they’re not here legally, they consider them illegal… You either come into the country legally, or you’re here and you’re not here legally, and that being the case, you would be illegal.

Flynn’s key word: illegal. MALDEF legislative staff attorney Luis Figueroa pointed out that such immigration is a violation of civil rather than criminal law, and that the legal term most widely used by immigration attorneys (and INS, said Houston Democrat Rep. Jessica Farrar) is undocumented.

All terms aside, Flynn would have you believe that illegal immigration has “become one of the most important, maybe the most important issue in the lives of most Texans and most United States citizens.”

Flynn’s rants represent a larger tendency to fixate on the “illegality” of some immigrants’ presence in the United States, rather than think practically about the issue. So much for responsible government. The “breaking the law” approach underscores the fears of how these newcomers could change America. No one, after all, spends so much time condemning the lawbreakers who are late filing their federal income taxes or who jaywalk.

Emotions aside, here are some of the practical issues these bills run into, according to opponents.

House Bill 2998: Requiring local law enforcement to verify immigration status would interfere with the police’s ability to, you know, investigate crime and protect people. “The effect [of HB 2998] is that you have undocumented victims of crime, domestic violence victims… who will not trust the police, who will not come forward and report domestic violence, who will not come forward and report a rape, who will not come forward as a witness to a crime they saw, that involved U.S. citizens or other folks, because they’ve heard that if you get pulled over in a traffic stop, the police only care about whether or not you’re undocumented,” said Rebecca Bernhardt of the ACLU of Texas.

House Bill 904: Day labor centers provide an organized way to match employers and laborers without disrupting public safety. Frank Turner, who testified in representation of the city of Plano, said before the city created a day labor center, day laborers would congregate in a haphazard fashion, disrupting traffic and bothering property owners. The centers help all day laborers, whether citizens, legal immigrants or otherwise, as well as the employers that rely on them. The bill, as it stands, would prohibit local governments from operating day labor centers that facilitate the employment of unlawful immigrants. “It’s not our role to enforce immigration laws,” Turner said.

House Bill 127: The bill requires state agencies to report the cost of services and benefits provided to unlawful immigrants. The author submitted a committee substitute, which opponents say is a marked improvement to the original bill, because it allows state agencies to use statistical methods to calculate costs rather than having to inquire into the immigration status of each person. Figueroa warned that similar legislation passed in Colorado ended up costing the state $2 million to enforce the law and resulted in no savings. “We find that they’re not eligible for these services, so they’re not costing the state very much,” he said. An amendment was already added to the House budget bill, requiring hospitals to report how much uncompensated care they provide to undocumented immigrants.

If these anti-immigrant bills make an unlikely trip to the House floor, representatives of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus will be ready to attach employer sanction amendments with the hopes of getting the bills killed.

http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=272

MALDEF legislative staff attorney Luis Figueroa

I understand this guy went on and on about how safe the Marticula was and that it could be used to obtain a driver's license. It's got a holigram, it's got a photo, it's got a this and it's got a that.

All I have to say is yea, it's an impressive piece of plastic, with a lot of bells and whistles but it ain't verifiable. Remember, even Mexico's banks wont accept it.

Dixie

Hmmm. No author. Clearly, a very brave soul. Once again, claims we are anti-immigrant. Whatever!

Ive missed the subtleties of civil vs. criminal up to now. What are the difference in the case of illegal aliens?

I just got used to the fact that local police only prosecute laws they choose...

Originally Posted by Dixie

MALDEF legislative staff attorney Luis Figueroa

I understand this guy went on and on about how safe the Marticula was and that it could be used to obtain a driver's license. It's got a holigram, it's got a photo, it's got a this and it's got a that.

All I have to say is yea, it's an impressive piece of plastic, with a lot of bells and whistles but it ain't verifiable. Remember, even Mexico's banks wont accept it.

Dixie

Right Mexico's banks won't accept it.
What really get's me is that these folks are demanding American driver's licenses without being here legally; and we're supposed to accept a foreign governments documents?
I don't care if it's the best id ever and completely fraud free, the US has a duty to regulate those who cross it's borders, that means they have to apply and receive AMERICAN documentation. I don't care what country they are from.

Crazy lady diatribes aside, it was Van Republican Rep. Dan Flynn who pestered witnesses testifying against the bills with a steady stream of meaningless questions:

You do believe in a sovereign nation, don’t you?
If the federal government gave our local people that authority [to verify immigration status], you would agree with that, wouldn’t you?
We have sovereign borders. Don’t we have a responsibility to our citizenry to take care of that?

MEANINGLESS???

Sovereignty?
Responsibility to Citizens?

Are you freaking insane?