Blood Pressure Alert!!!!!

Craddick blamed for immigration bills' failure
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 02/12/2008 02:03:30 AM MST

AUSTIN - The Republican Texas House leader is to blame for the failure of proposals that would have helped keep undocumented immigrants out of Texas, state Rep. Pat Haggerty said Monday.

"It's another example of (House Speaker) Tom Craddick listening to 40 rich people around ... Texas and leaving us so far behind the eight ball," Haggerty said.

Lawmakers filed about two dozen proposals in 2007 that aimed to make life in Texas harder for undocumented immigrants. Haggerty said Craddick ensured the failure of those bills because they would have made business more expensive for his financial backers who rely on cheap labor.

A Craddick spokesman said the allegations were "completely false" and "a fabrication." The leader of the House committee that oversaw immigration bills said Craddick had no role in the bills' demise.

"I was never asked by the speaker to do one thing or another," said state Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, chairman of the State Affairs Committee.

Undocumented immigrants in local schools and hospitals, Haggerty said, are burdening El Paso taxpayers.

Alice Scherotter, 84, lives on the West Side and said voters in the area are angry about paying more taxes because of undocumented immigrants using government services.

"I have seen the change, I have seen what has been happening to this country and we're going down the tube," she said.

Craddick has become a central character in the House District 78 race between Haggerty and his Republican
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opponent Dee Margo.

Haggerty, who is challenging Craddick's leadership, charges that Margo is a puppet for the speaker who has advocated policies that are bad for El Paso. Margo has said he would be beholden to no one but El Paso voters.

Margo said Haggerty's claims that Craddick killed immigration bills are another example of the incumbent, "always looking for some scapegoat for his inability to properly represent El Paso."


http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_8237781

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Capitol Office
Room CAP 2W.13
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
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(432) 684-4864 Fax

email:
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