From the Texas House: Democratic Texas House members [have] filed an immigration resolution that could serve as a litmus test for Republican support for reforms being suggested at the national level. House Concurrent Resolution 44, which urges the U.S. Congress to “swiftly enact and fund comprehensive immigration reform that creates a road map to citizenship,” [...]
Posts under ‘La Migra’
Sidelining themselves on immigration reform
I don’t know what’s going to happen with the comprehensive immigration reform proposals that are out there now. It’s long overdue, and the political stars all seem to be aligned for it, but we said the same things about health care reform back in 2009, and look how close that came to be scuppered. In [...]
Fifth Circuit will re-hear the Farmers Branch lawsuit again
I have an uneasy feeling about this. Farmers Branch was sued four years ago after it passed an ordinance allowing the city building inspector to evict any illegal immigrant renters. Its case will now go before the full membership of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with 10 judges appointed by Republican presidents and [...]
Fifth Circuit rules against Farmers Branch
I almost missed this. A federal appeals court has upheld the ruling that struck down a Farmers Branch renters ordinance aimed at banning illegal immigrants from rental housing in the city. The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday upholds the federal government’s right to control immigration laws through the Constitution’s supremacy [...]
Jose Luis Zelaya
Jose Luis Zelaya is running for student body president at Texas A&M. He’s also an “illegal immigrant”. Here’s his story. Zelaya first started working in the streets in Honduras at age 7, washing car windows and begging on buses. His mother left for the U.S. when he was 13, unable to take the beatings from [...]
Today’s Republican Party is too radical even for Rick Perry
Mark Jones states a few facts about the Texas version of the DREAM Act that Rick Perry signed in 2001, and what it says about the Republican Party now. In 2001 the Republican Party enjoyed a narrow majority over the Democratic Party in the Texas Senate (16 to 15), and was in its last session [...]
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the GOP to fix immigration
I confess that I only glanced at this op-ed by local immigration attorney Charles Foster about how the Republican Party can lead the way on immigration reform, but thankfully Greg was there to do a little deconstruction. I just want to add that if anyone is going to wait for this to happen, I’d advise [...]
The reason why some anti-immigration legislation didn’t pass this session
According to teabagger Rebecca Frost, the problem was too many Hispanic legislators. This is what she had to say at a rally in Austin yesterday: There’s a lot of wind noise that makes it hard to hear exactly what she’s saying, but here’s a transcript, provided by the Texas Democratic Party, which presumably had someone [...]
KBH says she’ll support a weaker DREAM
Where were you in December, Senator? Weeks after a hunger strike orchestrated by college students in San Antonio failed to sway her vote on the DREAM Act, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told business leaders Tuesday that she now would work to pass a lesser version of the highly contentious bill, one that would not provide [...]
Clergy still pushing for immigration reform
Glad to see it. Just two days after President Barack Obama renewed a call for immigration reform, a group of Houston religious leaders said Thursday that despite a discouraging political climate, they see signs of change. “I feel the people are shifting,” said the Rev. Michael Rinehart, who as bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast [...]
The cost to cities of being anti-immigrant
The Center for American Progress has a new report out called The High Price of Local Immigration Enforcement that tracks how much various anti-immigrant ordinances in cities like Hazelton, PA, and Farmers Branch have cost them. Most of those costs have been related to litigation, as they have had to defend themselves against multiple lawsuits, [...]
The sanctuary scam
I’ve been thinking about Governor Perry’s designation of so-called “sanctuary cities” as an emergency item for this legislative session, and there are a few inescapable conclusions. 1. Perry is a big flaming hypocrite. I know, I know, big shock. But as the Trib has pointed out, Perry’s definition of “sanctuary city”, as was applied to [...]
Sheriffs not sold on Arizona immigration bill
Texas’ sheriffs are not very enthusiastic about being charged with enforcing federal immigration laws. Texas has 254 sheriffs, and while opinions vary about whether illegal immigration should be their problem, some Republicans are pushing measures that won’t give them a choice. More than a dozen bills targeting illegal immigration await the Legislature when it convenes [...]
Tomball declines to be like Farmers Branch
I’m stunned. Pleased, but stunned. The Tomball City Council late Tuesday defeated a proposal to make English the city’s official language and voted down another measure seeking to prohibit illegal immigrants from renting or owning property or owning or operating a business there. The council also voted to keep the city’s day laborer site open [...]
“Laugh at me, will they? Well, they laughed at Bozo the Clown, too!”
I still can’t believe that this whole “terrorist babies” thing wasn’t originally a story in The Onion. All I can say is that Debbie Riddle and Louie Gohmert, bless their hearts, are doing their very best to make The Onion’s job harder. Juanita, Eileen, The Trib, Harold Cook, and Hair Balls have more. UPDATE: Here’s [...]
FBI smacks down Riddle and Gohmert
The whole “terrorist babies” delusion is so mind-bendingly stupid that it doesn’t even belong on late night public access TV, but such is the nature of our discourse that it was featured on Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday. Thankfully, Cooper took the time to try to clean up the mess that was left in his studio [...]
More proof of my theory
That would be my theory that fifty or sixty years ago, a number of terror cells infiltrated the US and impregnated a bunch of women with babies who were groomed from birth to become utter morons who would destroy the country from within by their sheer, unbounded stupidity. It explains Louie Gohmert, and it explains [...]
No, they won’t “cross swords” over this
A few days back, I blogged about how immigration reform is supposedly going to be a wedge issue for the GOP because evangelicals and business types support it. I took issue with a statement by Bill Hammond, the president of the Texas Association of Business, who claimed that this is an issue on which they [...]
So you say you’re concerned about the effect of undocumented immigration on employment
Here’s your chance to do something about it. There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related. Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in [...]
Wasting our youth
This is just wrong. Thousands of high school graduates like Juan are discovering the dichotomy between a federal law that ensures their education and one that prevents them from using it. “I never saw myself as an immigrant,” said Juan, a toddler when his family brought him from Mexico. Like the other students in this [...]
The chiefs talk about Arizona
HPD Chief Charles McClelland was one of several police chiefs to go to Washington and talk with Attorney General Eric Holder about why Arizona’s immigration law would be harmful to them, and why the federal government needs to finish the job of comprehensive immigration reform. “The federal government should bring clarity to this issue,” McClelland [...]
Targeting Frito-Lay
I’ve talked about sporting events like the 2011 MLB All Star Game that are currently scheduled to be held in Arizona and of various ways that people who have some involvement with them have spoken out about Arizona’s “Show me your papers” law in an effort to change the law, or at least change where [...]
Who can get health care in Williamson County
This is a bad idea. Williamson County commissioners have decided to stop paying health care costs for indigent adults and children who don’t have valid Social Security cards. County Judge Dan A. Gattis said last week that he wanted to ensure that there was enough money for the residents of Williamson County who qualified for [...]
Interview with Linda Chavez-Thompson
No, I haven’t started my slate of 2010 candidate interviews yet. It’s too early for that. But I did have the opportunity to ask Linda Chavez-Thompson, the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, a few questions about immigration reform and the odious Arizona law that has us all talking about it. Here’s what she had to [...]
HGLBT Political Caucus issues resolution in favor of immigration reform
From the inbox: GLBT CAUCUS COMES OUT FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM The membership of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for a resolution (attached) making a strong statement in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. “We, as a civil rights movement, see the immigration reform movement in the same light,” said Kris Banks, Caucus president. [...]
Latinos and the GOP
Yeah, no big surprise here. Adam Bustos, a third-generation Mexican-American, has voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran for president. But he has been reconsidering his party affiliation since Arizona State Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest immigration law last month. “I’ve been thinking I might leave the party,” said Mr. Bustos, a 58-year-old Arizona [...]
Farmers Branch prepares to waste more money
It sure must be nice to have all these taxpayer dollars to spend on such frivolities. [Farmers Branch] plans to appeal a court ruling against its ordinance, which would prevent landlords from renting houses or apartments to illegal immigrants — and it hopes to serve as an example to other communities trying to deal with [...]