Thread: TX: House panel chair to kill immigration bills

House panel chair to kill immigration bills

Legislature: 40 may languish, stifling efforts to restrict illegal residents


11:26 PM CDT on Tuesday, March 27, 2007
By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News
kbrooks@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – A powerful House committee chairman plans to kill dozens of immigration-related bills, saying he doesn't want legislators to waste time debating proposals that are divisive, unconstitutional or have the potential to induce long court battles.

"Good try, but we aren't in the immigration business," said David Swinford, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee.

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Mr. Swinford, R-Dumas, said this week that he would let about 40 bills, such as one that would challenge the citizenship status of children born to illegal-immigrant parents, languish in his committee. He asked Attorney General Greg Abbott's office to review the measures first to determine whether they violate the U.S. or state constitutions or federal law.

Their impending death puts the brakes on a movement in the state Capitol to restrict or punish illegal immigrants and their children. Proponents said that they were disappointed and that lawmakers should have a chance to debate the issues.

Still alive – so far – are bills that would make illegal immigrants pay out-of-state tuition rates at state colleges; resolutions demanding that the federal government crack down on illegal immigration; and a bill that would require local police to ask people they contact about their citizenship status. Mr. Swinford declined to identify all of the bills he wants to squash.

"It's not exactly progressive," committee member Jessica Farrar, a Houston Democrat, said of Mr. Swinford's decision. "He still wants to use police as immigration agents. We should not divert state resources to do the job of the federal government."

Testimony today
The decision comes as a long list of witnesses prepares to testify today on immigration before a joint meeting of Mr. Swinford's committee and the House Border and International Affairs Committee.

Rep. Leo Berman, a main sponsor of bills to restrict the rights of illegal immigrants in Texas, said he was disappointed and surprised that the campaign-season rhetoric about cracking down on illegal immigration was abandoned after lawmakers won re-election.

"I'm the only one who's not pulling back," said Mr. Berman, R-Tyler. "It's ridiculous that we can't talk about this in committee or on the floor of the House. ... Divisive bills are what Legislatures do."

His bill challenging birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants has been blasted by Gov. Rick Perry and pro-immigrant groups as punishing children for their parents' actions. But some House Republicans and grassroots conservatives see it as a way to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Berman or other lawmakers could try to revive such proposals by offering them as amendments to other legislation before the full House. But the chamber allows only related items to be considered, and House Speaker Tom Craddick keeps tight control of such parliamentary rulings. He has said the House should not spend a lot of time on what is largely a federal matter.

And Mr. Berman said he doubted such an effort would succeed.

After historic protests against anti-immigration proposals across the nation last year, several lawmakers ran on platforms that included reining in illegal immigration. The state GOP included restrictions in its platform that immigrant advocates decried as inhumane and divisive – including a wall along the border with Mexico.

Texans consistently say in polls that they don't think illegal immigrants should have access to public services such as health care. They are more receptive to allowing immigration as part of a guest-worker program.

One of Mr. Perry's key campaign promises was getting the Legislature to approve $100 million for beefing up border security – although he shunned proposals such as a border wall and taking away access to state-funded health care, calling them divisive and unnecessary. Mr. Perry also signed the law giving illegal immigrants the right to pay lower state resident tuition rates.

Now, other efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants appear to be faltering.

Mr. Abbott's office told Mr. Swinford last week that most of the bills go against "either state law or federal law, or the state constitution or the federal constitution," the chairman said.

Avoiding a fight
Mr. Swinford refuses to put the House through a bitter fight in a losing battle, he said – particularly after a statue bill that passed his committee unexpectedly sparked an emotional, racially tinged two-hour debate in the House last week.

"On purpose, I'm not putting anything down here that just tears the House apart ... and that we'd just lose on appeal," he said.

The only way an unconstitutional bill would be allowed out of his committee, he said, is if Mr. Abbott "wants to use one of them as a court case" – but Mr. Abbott hasn't indicated that he wants to, Mr. Swinford said.

"If he does, I'm going to ask him, 'Do you want to spend your budget' " to fight appeals, Mr. Swinford said. "Because we're not going to fund it. That's five years" of litigation.

Mr. Swinford has taken criticism for how he plans to run today's hearing, too.

Some lawmakers have questioned why he and Rep. Tracy King, the Batesville Democrat who runs the border committee, didn't grant a request to testify by some residents of Farmers Branch, where voters will consider a ban on the rental of apartments to most illegal immigrants – a measure that Mr. Swinford said he has been advised is also unconstitutional.

"We're obviously disappointed the chairman decided not to have them as part of the invited testimony," said Fort Worth Democratic Rep. Lon Burnam, a member of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, which submitted the names of Farmers Branch residents who wanted to testify about the debate roiling their town.

"The situation in Farmers Branch is symptomatic of a problem statewide, and we should have heard from the people that are directly involved in that."

Mr. King and Mr. Swinford said that they recognized Farmers Branch is a lightning rod but that they had to prioritize members' requests and get a cross-section of opinions on the issue.

Included on the list of invited witnesses are city officials from border towns such as McAllen and El Paso, Mexican consulate officials, a bank president from Laredo, elected officials, immigration advocates, groups opposing illegal immigration and judges.

Mr. Swinford's involvement in the immigration issue is due to his chairmanship of the committee hearing the bills – but it's not a new issue to the 15-year House veteran or to his Panhandle district.

His Panhandle district includes portions of Packing House Alley, which includes Swift & Co.'s sprawling meat plant in Cactus. Generations of blue-collar workers have found employment in the Cactus meat plant, where jobs are dirty and dangerous but unionized.

That plant was one of six Swift sites hit in December by the largest enforcement action ever against a single employer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. About 300 workers were apprehended at the Swift site.

Staff writer Dianne Solís in Dallas contributed to this report.

WHICH ONES WILL SURVIVE?

House State Affairs Committee Chairman David Swinford plans to kill numerous bills designed to crack down on illegal immigration. He didn't specify which bills, but here's a look at a few of the measures he wants to squash and some he intends to send on to the full House:

ALIVE

• A bill to require police to ask about citizenship status.

• A bill to require proof of legal residence to pay in-state tuition.

• Resolutions urging the federal government to tackle illegal immigration.

DEAD

• A bill designed to test the "birthright citizenship" principle, under which all children born in the U.S. are citizens, even if their parents are illegal immigrants.

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