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Bills targeting illegal immigration likely to fuel clashes in Legislature
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Enrique Rangel
Lubbock Online
November 19, 2008
AUSTIN – Many of the divisive issues that triggered tension and nasty verbal fights in the last legislative session apparently will make a return appearance next year.
For starters, on Monday Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, introduced a series of bills aimed at putting the brakes on illegal immigration in Texas, including one that would make English the official language in the state. And though a good number of legislators and legal analysts don’t think Berman’s bills will go anywhere, all sides agree that the proposed legislation is likely to trigger nasty legislative fights.
If that happens, Panhandle and South Plains legislators could be dragged into the political melees, just like last session.
“I am confident that they will get through the House this time,” Berman said of the bills he filed Monday. The ones he filed last year never saw the light of day last because they were killed by Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, the panel the bills were sent to for preliminary hearings.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
A committee chairman has the power to kill bills he or she does not like, and Swinford said he killed Berman’s bills because if they had passed in the Legislature, they could have not survived court challenges and the state of Texas would have been stuck with millions of dollars in legal fees for defending them.
Berman is uncertain whether his bills can pass in the Senate because the upper chamber requires two-thirds of its 31 members to agree on bringing a bill to the floor, and supporters of the bill, most or all of them Republican, do not have a two-thirds majority.
Nonetheless, he filed his bills because like millions of Texans, he is frustrated that the federal government has done little to stop illegal immigration, Berman said.
“If it is a federal issue, why hasn’t the government dealt with it?” he asked.
“Illegal aliens are costing our state millions of dollars,” he said. “At Parkland Hospital in Dallas, 70 percent of all births are to illegal aliens, and we have 25,000 illegal aliens in jail that are costing the government $39 million. It’s the largest unfunded mandate in our state.”
His English-only bill would require that all state government agencies deal with English only, he said. His bill is similar to measures that Arizona, California and other states have passed in recent years, he said.
In addition to the English-only bill, Berman filed a measure that would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, another that would require employers to verify whether an immigrant worker is in the country illegally, and several others.
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November 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
The actors will follow the script, but everyone knows they’re waiting on the NAU vote, which will pass by a margin of 2. I can see the pillow fights now on the house and senate floors, fakers showing their outrage that it passed. Shrugging their shoulders, appearing on the msm ranting and raving about how this could happen to the former u.s. Demanding some action be taken. Yeah right. Collecting a fat paycheck for selling the us down the river. I emailed a congressman about the nau,chemtrails, and flouride today so I’ll probably not be around much longer. Tragic accident, you see. Right after I committed suicide.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Now if there is going to be North American Union, opening the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, and Canada, what the hell are they worried about illegals for? They haven’t done anything about it in the past, why would they start now?? This is just stupid
November 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
When you come here LEGALLY from another country…NO PROBLEM!!! Illegally…PROBLEM!!! It’s that fuckin’ simple!!! My spouse came here from asia, taught herself ENGLISH,paid her own college tuition, and agrees wholeheartedly on ENGLISH ONLY!!! It’s just practical, why ENABLE people not to learn our language in the U.S.A.????? “All ‘HAIL’ Thermal Expansion!!!”
November 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Its good to see that one of our agents are looking after us.
A suggestion I will keep giving to more and more people.
The ‘doers’ of the world respect, at least relatively speaking, solutions versus mere disagreement. If you dont like X then propose Y, dont just yell about X being bad. To that end, when you see someone promoting Y then fund them! Writing your senator or rep and saying you wont vote for them is worthless. They do not care. What will get peoples attention is if you write them everytime they propose good legislation, or advance a just idea and attach your reciept for 10 dollars, 20 dollars, or whatever each time you write them. If waves of people did this often enough that would get their attention. Money talks.
Vice versa, when someone does something you do not like, fund their opponents, and then send them that receipt. Pass this idea on.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
US open the door for everybody. Stop arguing.
Evil
November 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I can only imagine the US fluctuating from one extreme to the other.
Right now, we’re completely open,
Two terms down (if the world gets that far), we’ll be ancient China, blocking everyone from leaving or entering.
did you notice that the sign is on Mind of Mencia?
November 19th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
80% of the coccain and 50% of the herion come through mexico that is why the boaders are open the banker/drug laundering gov. media complex has put the “war on drugs” down the memeory hole. 1/3 of federal prison population is illegeal you want it you pay for it. poverty breeds poverty and the mexican gov is exporting their poverty giving their poor maps and gps systems and telling them what hospitals to go to give birth. more americans are killed by drunk driving illegals then in iraq where’s the outrage. why should only mexicans make up our immigrant population that’s racist against africans, asians, europeans, and any other group that would like to come here in exchange for only having to learn English
November 20th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Here to suck the last breathe of an already dead corpse. We’ll see how many folks really want to be here shortly.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Number 5, open the door to what? We already had our beloved corporations sell and ship all of the jobs to other countries! What do you think is left here other than government handouts and drugs and really angry citizens? Evil, yeah, a lot of it in high places and you can just lay off and get out if you’re an illegal. What part of illegal, as in “illegal alien”, don’t you understand?
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
its a damn difficult sitation. i agree with both opposing sides. there should be some kind of system to allow those who want to come to this country from a foreign state allowence ONLY if they can contribute to the country POSITIVELY with skills and education. i was born in Mexico and my family immigrated here when i was 3. i know its a profound priviledge to live in the USA that should NEVER be taken for granted. and because of that i want to give back, i want to contribute to this great country, which is my country. but these damn idiots who come over here and just cause trouble with b/s gangs and crime wasting such a grand opportunity to make a better life piss me off. they give people like my family and I a bad name and give the rest of society a misconception of who we really are.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
another thing i do agree with. is that if you come to this country you MUST ASSIMILATE. Learn the Language, Learn the Culture, Learn the History. Im Mexican myself and for example am completely anti-spanish television because it just blocks it just stuns the develpment of pursuing learning the English tongue. ive seen it first hand being 1st generation American, how those of the old generation just get too comfortable with the ways of the old and dont bother learning the native langauge of this country. what the hell did we come here for?? for a better life. to leave that old way of life and start a better new. why are we still living and thinking like we did in the old country?? when i see someone waving a Mexican flag. i think sh*t why dont you go back there if you loved it so much. Mexico is @#$%’t UP. fuck Mexico’s government. im not saying the people. but the SYSTEM. which forces us to risk our lives to escape that country under all costs. its a hard situation.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Is language really the problem? In this day in age the State Department and CIA all lament the fact that there are not enough multi-lingual people in the U.S. to meet national security needs. We need more people to learn Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Farsi, Arabic etc. etc. Without those foreign language media outlets the languages that we need would fall by the wayside.
In terms of getting rid of all the Spanish stations, have you not seen how many commercials selling one English product or another come out. So yes Spanish Speakers do know what that learning English is important. I teach adult English at night and I get about 20 people who really want to know, and yes most can get by with it.
Please no more knee-jerk reactions that making English the official language, which unofficially it already is here in American and around the world, is what we need. English is Earthlish and believe me, this language will not go extinct anywhere.
Now that we are at it, why not get rid of French in Louisiana, or German in Pennsylvannia, or that Dutch dialect spoken by the Amish. Why is the target always Spanish!
November 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Без преувеличения можно сказать, что пост тему раскрыл на все 100.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
How can somebody who is supposed to be smart enough to be a representative can actually be so darn dumb to present a bill holding english only as languaje, as soon as I read that I started laughing loudly !!!
” ja ja ja que pendejo!!!”
has this man ever noticed how many hundreds of thousands of hispanics we have in Texas that they are not only legally living here but that they were actually born here? just look to any southern town, does this man even knows this state, then??
has he ever notice how many companies like HEB, WAL-MART, FIESTA, JC PENNEY, TARGET and so many others spend millions a year in spanish advertisement ?
I can see that in his fantasies we will have so many companies, from wal-mart to the corner store giving up on zillions of dollars on profits just because a german-shepperd dumb ass doesnt like brown people, YEAH ALL RIGHT !!