Thread: Editorial:"Immigrant-bashing" bills are back in Le

I guess its obvious which side of the issue this paper is on
Editorials


Immigrant-bashing bills are back in Legislature
Measures aim at punishing immigrants and appeasing Texas' nativist sentiments

Do we really want to beat around this bush again? Apparently so. More than a dozen bills have been filed in this session of the Texas Legislature that fall into the immigrant-bashing category. Many of them are returns from the 2007 session where they had been thoughtfully consigned to the legislative graveyard.

But several of the measures are back. One would challenge the automatic American citizenship given those born in Texas. One would punish employers for hiring unauthorized workers. One would require public schools to maintain records on students' immigration status. Another would impose a fee on money wire transfers to Mexico and Latin America. Another would prohibit parole for illegal immigrants and still another would create a state criminal trespassing charge for illegal immigrants that would be enforced by local police.

Several of the proposals are similar to ones introduced in the last session but failed to make it out of committee because they were considered unconstitutional.

"I think in some ways, they follow an old pattern. A lot of bills will be introduced," Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law, told the Associated Press. "And they will be introduced again for the same political motivation by the same cast of characters. The issue is: 'Is it more likely that they'll get passed this time?' "

The declining economy could make bills dealing employers who use unauthorized workers easier to endorse, Chishti said. Several states have approved such laws. Mississippi will require employers to use the federal online database E-Verify. The state also made it a felony for unauthorized workers to accept or perform work and would allow legal U.S. residents to sue if they were laid off and replaced by illegal workers. Employers in Arizona must verify the work eligibility of new hires using E-Verify and face penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Cases that challenge the constitutionality of similar laws elsewhere are pending before federal courts.

The numbers of illegal immigrants are thought to be declining because of the economic downturn, but that hasn't reduced the political pressure to do something. But this pressure properly belongs to Congress, not the Texas Legislature. Enforcing the nation's immigration laws is a national responsibility. Trying to solve the problem on a statewide piecemeal basis -- with Mississippi enacting one set of laws and Texas another -- is untenable and counter-productive, if not unconstitutional.

Even though more than a dozen anti-immigrant bills were considered in the last session of the Texas Legislature, Texas has so far managed to avoid getting entangled in the no-win politics of immigration, unlike other states with large Hispanic populations, such as California and Arizona.

Legislative proposals to strip the citizenship of newborns, to impose a state fee on money transfers to Mexico and Central America, to charge illegal immigrants with criminal trespassing -- are all constitutionally questionable and all represent the worst kind of political posturing. This is legislation not intended to endure and benefit society, but to mollify nativist, jingoist political supporters. The bills are not only punitive and mean-spirited, but ultimately beside the point. They will do Texas no good -- neither in dealing with the real issue of illegal immigration nor in improving relations with our southern neighbor with which the state has so much history in common.

The Texas Legislature has enough problems to deal with. Getting entangling in the knotty subject of immigration reform is something for Washington -- not Austin. Yes, the country has long had a problem with illegal immigration but this is not the way to deal with it. Leave it alone.
http://www.caller.com/news/2009/jan/08/ ... gislature/

Illegals and their advocates have been "bashing" the American people out of our tax dollars to support them for long enough.....it is time for us to "bash" the illegals back to the fullest extend of our laws!

Another would impose a fee on money wire transfers to Mexico and Latin America

Why isn't this money taxed?
While us American taxpayers are being taxed until we are paying not only our share we also have to pay enough to cover these illegals free education,social services, healh care.
Seems the illegals must be doing allright to have money to send home.
This is free money our government could use.