Texas Immigration Lawyer Blog

Texas State Rep. Berman Son of Immigrants Leads Charge Against Undocumented

Texas Tribune by Reeve Hamilton

Last session, [75-year old state Rep. Leo Berman's, R-Tyler] bills — like the one restricting illegal immigrants to certain geographical regions or another denying them access to higher education — failed to gain traction in the roughly evenly divided House. But with this session’s Republican supermajority, it could very well be the session of Leo.

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He has filed his own version of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, as well as bills mandating that employers verify employees’ legal status electronically, making English the state’s official language and eliminating birthright citizenship — an issue he hopes provokes a lawsuit he can take all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Another bill would add an 8 percent surcharge on money wired back to Latin America, which he would earmark for hospitals providing free health care to illegal immigrants — who Berman says are bringing in drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, polio, plague and leprosy. 

(According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the only incident of plague in Texas in the last decade was in 2006, and it was contracted during a hunting trip in New Mexico. The most recent case of polio in Texas, contracted during an individual’s travels abroad, was in 1995.)

“We want to make things not uncomfortable, but do things in such a way that they’re going to self-deport,” Berman said.

A first-generation American, Berman knows the significance of immigration in the country’s history. His parents came through Ellis Island in the 1920s — his father from Latvia and his mother from Poland. They learned English, opened a business and flourished. “That was a long time ago,” Berman said. “Now, we have no Ellis Island. We just have a wide-open southern border where people are climbing through the fence, and they are illegal aliens.”

Berman’s stance puts him uncharacteristically at odds with members of the state’s conservative business community, like Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond, who believes immigration reform is a federal matter. “I think most of what’s being proposed is unconstitutional,” Hammond said. “The Constitution is pretty clear that immigration is a federal matter. I hold Rep. Berman in very high regard and consider him a friend, and as friends will do from time to time, we disagree in this area.”

Berman’s immigration bills, and their heightened chances of moving this session, are one factor that led state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who is as liberal as Berman is conservative, to call this “the most racist session of the Texas Legislature in a quarter of a century.” Not since the mid-20th century, Burnam said, has the state seen so much legislation focused at subjugating a community of color. “All of this legislation is really directed that way,” he said. “Everybody knows it. They can pretend like it’s not, but it is.”

See also, Texas Tribune article by Ross Ramsey about immigration and the growing Texas hispanic population.

Poll: 57% Oppose Amending 14th Amendment Birthright Citizenship

Pew Research Center

Conservatives in Congress and several state legislatures have proposed legislation to stop granting U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants, though many legal scholars say this will require a constitutional amendment. The poll finds that a 57% majority of the public opposes such a constitutional amendment, while 39% favor it. This balance of opinion is essentially unchanged from last year or 2006, when 42% favored changing the constitution and 54% opposed doing so.

Opposition to a constitutional amendment is particularly strong among Hispanics (73%) and people younger than 30 (also 73%). About half of whites (52%) oppose such a change (vs. 43% who favor it), and seniors are divided (45% in favor, 48% opposed).

There also is a sizeable partisan split on the question, with Republicans about evenly split (47% in favor, 49% opposed) and Democrats mostly opposed (66%, vs. 32% in favor). Independents divide in about the same way as the public overall (56% oppose changing the constitution, 39% are in favor).

The strongest level of support for amending the constitution is among Tea Party supporters, 57% of whom favor changing the constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship (38% oppose such a change).

 

Texas Immigration Bill: Hire An Undocumented, Go to Jail — But Maids Are OK

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar

The latest bill addressing illegal immigration and the hiring of undocumented workers in Texas would broaden the scope of employers subject to scrutiny — and extend the penalties for violators to include possible jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. Exempt from the proposed rule? People who hire undocumented workers as domestic helpers in their family homes. 

House Bill 1202, authored by state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, would make it a state jail felony to knowingly hire undocumented workers in Texas. The bill would punish those who “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” hire or contract with an "unauthorized alien", or with someone who knowingly subcontracts with an undocumented worker. The maximum fine is $10,000, and guilty parties could face a stint in prison of 180 days to two years. (Riddle has also filed HB 17, legislation that would make being in the state illegally a trespassing offense.)

There are exemptions in HB 1202, however, including one that could make the proposal more acceptable to House Republicans concerned with the federal electronic employment verification system known as E-Verify. While several Republicans have filed bills mandating the use of E-Verify, others suggest it has proven flaws and could potentially act as a deterrent to otherwise capable and legal applicants. Riddle's bill doesn't specify E-Verify and says employers have an out if they make a concerted effort to verify status in any manner "that is more likely than not to produce a correct and reliable result."

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There is also an exception for domestic help. People who hire or contract with someone for work “exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence" are off the hook.

Poll: Texans Want Tough Immigration Laws and change to Birthright Citizenship

Texas Tribune 

Texas voters are willing to end automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.

The poll also found them willing to crack down on immigration in a number of other ways — punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, taking in-state tuition away from immigrants' children, opposing a path to citizenship for immigrants who are currently in the country illegally and cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities.

The poll revealed splits by political party but also a wide divide on some issues between voters of different races, illustrating the political perils of taking strong positions on some immigration questions.

"It continues to be a dangerous area … where we see the greatest difference between Hispanic and other voters," says pollster Jim Henson, who teaches government and runs the Texas Politics Project at UT.

Texans say they would change the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to those born on U.S. soil whether their parents are here legally or not. It was a narrow majority — only 53 percent — but only 37 percent would oppose that change. Republicans strongly favor that change; Democrats oppose it. And the racial divide is large, with 63 percent of whites in favor, while only 32 percent of blacks and 34 percent of Hispanics favor a change.

Hundreds of Texans Protest Proposed Immigration Bills

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar, Justin Dehn and Thanh Tan

Hundreds of Texans descended on the state Capitol on Tuesday to draw attention to what they say are dozens of bills that, if passed, would hinder economic development, stymie education and — above all — encourage racial profiling in the Lone Star State.

Some marched and waved signs supporting the United Farm Workers. Others, while cloaked in Texas and U.S. flags, proclaimed that “Texas Can Do Better Than Arizona.” The immigrants’ rights advocates, former military personnel, lawmakers and students — from seemingly every rural and urban sector of the state — rallied and proclaimed that bills like HB 17 and HB 22 would serve only to increase insecurity and distrust within immigrant communities, hinder Texas’ future workforce from being competitive and lead to an increase in crime. The bills, by State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, would make it a Class B misdemeanor to be in the country without proper documentation, and mandate that school districts report the immigration status of their students. Riddle has also filed HB 1202, which would make it a state jail felony to knowingly and “recklessly” hire an unauthorized worker.

Details of deadly assault on ICE agents emerge

Houston Chronicle By DANE SCHILLER, DUDLEY ALTHAUS and SUSAN CARROLL

MEXICO CITY — In his final moments, colleagues said, U.S. federal agent Jaime Zapata struggled to fight off his Mexican killers as they attempted to yank him from the armored embassy Suburban he was driving.

Zapata and Victor Avila, a fellow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, had been forced off the road Tuesday afternoon by two carloads of gunmen as they traveled the busy toll expressway connecting Mexico's heartland to the South Texas border.

They hoped to reason with the gunmen - as many as 15 of them in fatigues - who surrounded the vehicle, U.S. officials said.

Zapata died trying. He was shot three times.

Immigration authorities at odds on local participation in Secure Communities

Washington Post by Shankar Vedantam

Even as federal immigration officials were telling Arlington County, San Francisco and other jurisdictions that they could not opt out of a controversial immigration enforcement program, they were telling other municipalities that they could, according to internal Department of Homeland Security documents.

The documents, released as a result of a lawsuit against DHS by opponents of the program, reveal an agency at odds over how to handle criticism of Secure Communities, the Obama administration's signature immigration enforcement program, without running afoul of constitutional limits on what the federal government can demand of local jurisdictions.

The program sends fingerprints gathered by local law enforcement agencies to the FBI and then through a federal immigration database to identify undocumented immigrants. About 1,049 jurisdictions in 39 states participate, including many in Maryland and Virginia.

House to Vote on 3 Immigration Related Amendments

AILA Action Alert

The House of Representatives is set to consider 3 immigration-related amendments to the Contintuing Resolution - a must pass bill! Call today to:

• OPPOSE 2 proposed prohibitions of DOJ funds to sue AZ over SB1070!
• OPPOSE an attempt to defund the Diversity Visa Program!

Rethinking the birthright battle

Washington Times by Roger Clegg

Twisting the Constitution isn’t the conservative way

Excellent Commentary on the 14th Amendment and the attacks being made on birthright citizenship and whether children born to undocumented parents are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S.

March 2011 Visa Bulletin: more family category retrogression, little forward movement

March 2011 Visa Bulletin

All of the Family 2A (spouses and unmarried children under 21 of legal permanent residents) moved backward 1 year to January 1, 2007 EXCEPT Mexico which moved forward to January 1, 2006. The Bulletin states:

D. RETROGRESSION OF FAMILY PREFERENCE CUT-OFF DATES

Continued heavy applicant demand for numbers in the Family F2A preference category has required the retrogression of the Worldwide, China-mainland born, Dominican Republic, India, and Philippines cut-off dates for the month of March. Should the current and recent retrogressions have the intended impact to slow demand for numbers, it is anticipated that these cut-off could begin to move forward slowly in the coming months.

Further retrogressions cannot be ruled out should demand continue at the current levels for some categories and countries.

Other Family categories stayed the same or moved less than 1 month with the exception of

• 2B (children over 21 of LPRs) from Dominican Republic moved forward 4 years to January 1, 2001.
• Philippine child categories (1, 2B, 3) all moved forward by 2-3 months.