This Little Issue Called Immigration
March 28th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Looks like the immigration debate officially starts today. A joint hearing of the House State Affairs and Border and International Affairs Committees is scheduled for 1 p.m. No bills are up for discussion, instead the goal is to give everyone “a pretty balanced view of the immigration and homeland security debate,” said Eagle Pass Democrat Tracy King, who chairs the border committee. King was appearing at a press briefing this morning with Republican David Swinford, who chairs State Affairs, and will lead the hearing.
The witness list that they released was something else: more than three dozens experts from many different fields relating to immigration policy. Some of the names include U.S. Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Steve McCraw, the governor’s director of homeland security; a number of law enforcement officials from both sides of the border; several immigrant-rights and immigrant-aid organizations; as well as religious and business leaders. You can watch it all live from your computer on the capitol’s video feed. (Today’s video is here; archives for later readers here.)
As for immigration policy itself, and the bills that might actually see the light of a committee hearing, Rep. Swinford reiterated this morning that only bills on issues that pertain specifically to Texas will get a hearing. Any bill that would likely violate federal or state law, the federal or state consitution, or federal court rulings has already been marked by the attorney general’s office, Swinford said, and he won’t hear any legislation that will find itself in court within a couple years. (Rep. Leo Berman’s bill to deny benefits to children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. was one of those bills, he said.) This was not unexpected. The Lege announced early this session that it was ceding debate on immigration to the feds, which you can read about in detail in our latest issue.
What was more surprising were two measure Swinford expected to hit the floor this session. The first is a non-binding and thus easily ignored resolution that would have Texas call out the federal government for not securing the border and not taking immigration seriously, among other issues. “They have failed on many instances,” Swinford said.
He also predicted that a bill challenging the law that gives in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools — a law the governor strongly supports — will make it to the floor.
Both of those debates promise to get heated, but they’re weeks away. Today’s we get the background.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
[…] a press briefing this morning, House State Affairs Chairman Rep. David Swinford said he expected a bill rescinding […]