The Lege gets set to tackle another “emergency”.
Top state lawmakers filed the latest legislation Wednesday to prohibit so-called sanctuary city policies, saying local governmental bodies would risk losing state grant money if they prohibit enforcement of state or federal immigration laws.
“We just want to make sure that if someone is lawfully detained that there’s not a prohibition against law enforcement officers asking about their immigration status,” said Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, who filed the legislation with Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton. “We need a consistent statewide policy.”
If you need any evidence that this is a “solution” to a non-existent problem, consider this.
Williams, Senate Transportation and Homeland Security chairman, said he did not know how many cities would have to change their policies if the bill became law.
If you can’t name a single example of the type of problem your legislation is designed to fix, it’s a pretty good indication that your legislation isn’t going to actually fix anything.
The bills in question are HB12 and SB11. I don’t expect the Senate Democratic caucus to become like Republicans in the US Senate and band together to block anything and everything, nor do I want them to. But for petty partisan stuff like this that serves no purpose and may have all kinds of harmful effects, I see no reason to play along. These bills deserve ignominious deaths. Texas Politics and the Trib have more.
Silliness.
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Thought you might find this interesting.
Utah’s Alternative To AZ Copycat Bill Would Generate Over $30 Million
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/17/utah-immigration-bill-robles/
If the D.P.S. and the city of Houston have basically the same policy there is no such thing as a sanctuary city. This is just political pandering to the right wing base. Maybe we can get to important issues after all of the non-emergency emergency legislation is finished.