Thread: TX: GOP legislators to revive debate on immigration

TX: GOP legislators to revive debate on immigration
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 04/22/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_9008707?s ... st_emailed

AUSTIN -- After multiple failures last year to clamp down on illegal immigration in Texas, conservative Republican legislators said Monday they would try again next year."We need to start moving forward, not just sitting back," said state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van.

At a meeting of the Texas House State Affairs Committee, several Republican lawmakers said they would revive state immigration enforcement proposals that died in 2007.

But immigration lawyers with experience in El Paso-area lawsuits said enforcing federal immigration laws at the state and local level could make communities more dangerous and result in more lawsuits against police.

"It decreases the ability of police to fight crime and protect local residents," said David Urias, attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF.

Last year, Texas lawmakers filed dozens of immigration-related bills. Among other things, the proposals would have required local officers to enforce federal immigration laws, imposed fees on money wired to Mexico and Latin America and eliminated a law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas universities.

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, proposed one of the most restrictive anti-immigration bills. It would have eliminated most citizenship rights for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.

"Illegal aliens," he said, are burdening Texas public schools, hospitals and prisons.

Berman and other lawmakers were upset that lawmakers did not pass the bills last year.

Berman said he would file anti-immigration bills again when legislators convene in 2009, including proposals to challenge birth-right citizenship, to punish employers who hire undocumented workers and to require state and local officers to enforce immigration laws.

"The federal government can never resolve this problem," Berman said.

"We, here in Texas, blew our opportunity to address this issue and protect our citizens," said state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. "We didn't do our job."

But several local police chiefs, including former El Paso chief Richard Wiles, told lawmakers last year that requiring departments to take on federal immigration enforcement would be unfair, expensive and counterproductive.

MALDEF attorney Urias worked on a recently settled lawsuit against the Otero County sheriff involving officers who allegedly attempted to enforce immigration laws.

When local officers become immigration agents, he said, immigrants, both legal and illegal, hesitate to report crimes for fear that their friends, family or neighbors could be deported. That, Urias said, makes the community more dangerous for everyone because officers cannot track down violent criminals.

"Effective law enforcement in any community requires the trust and cooperation of that community," he said.

Kathleen Walker, an El Paso immigration lawyer and president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the committee they should tread cautiously when approaching complex immigration law.

After the El Paso County Sheriff's Office settled a civil rights lawsuit over its use of checkpoints that some believed were used to ask for immigration documents, Walker provided training to deputies.

"We're talking constitutional principles today and the preservation of those principles," she said. "We have to be cautious how we treat foreign nationals in this country."

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com;512-479-6606.

OK Texas check out who the ones were that worked against any bill getting through this year , get rid of all that are up for re-election...time to send a message!