Berman’s Beef
May 8th, 2007 at 7:58 am
With a round of applause and few dissenting votes, the House passed HB 13 last night – without the tough language on illegal immigration in earlier versions. Perhaps some Republican support was initially won due to the bill’s efforts to allow local peace officers to enforce federal immigration laws (which is a bad idea for public safety). In a session where immigration legislation was predestined for failure, it may have been the only way for anti-immigrant forces to feel productive. Yet at the end of the day, the bill’s sponsors knew that most of the anti-immigrant hotheads would vote for the bill anyway.
Tyler Republican Rep. Leo Berman felt gypped, or so he said in a 12-minute personal privilege speech to the House following the bill’s passage, where he spewed out the same phony arguments against immigration as he did in the beginning of the session.
“Members, this is probably the only time you’re going to hear anyone talk about illegal aliens on the floor of this House of Representatives, because we’ve been shut out of this bill at every single turn,” Berman said. “Nearly a majority of the members on this floor consider House Bill 13 to be half a bill… because it dealt with border security, but at the same time it was silent about the 1.5 million illegal aliens in Texas that are costing your taxpayers $3.5 billion every single year.”
Berman lamented the “two dozen bills filed to deal with this problem” that had died in the State Affairs Committee, due to a decision by Chairman David Swinford (R-Dumas) to send all immigration bills to the attorney general to check their constitutionality.
He went on to condemn illegal immigration as the source of all depravity that contaminates our otherwise illustrious state. “Illegal aliens” spread diseases, jam our prisons, hurl schools and hospitals into debt, and bleed dry the taxes bestowed by our hard-working, middle-class constituents – only to cash in freely on the best benefit of all: U.S. citizenship for their children.
Berman’s rants represent a larger fear among some Texans in the face of rapid demographic changes, as the state becomes increasingly more urban and ethnic. Politicians who claim that illegal immigration is the biggest problem in Texas don’t help. (Health insurance? Nah. Education? Not even close.)
Possibly the most honest thing that Berman said was this: “Everyone or many members on this floor needs a vote on illegal aliens to take home and say we did a little bit of something about it.”
Pity the demagogue who stirs up the fear but then can’t do anything about it.
It doesn’t seem to matter to the Berman’s of the world that anti-immigration legislation doesn’t work. It drives the undocumented population deeper into the shadows, but it does not deter undocumented workers from crossing the border when there are jobs to be filled and no opportunities at home. Berman – like other ideologues stuck on the phrase “they’re not legal, they’re not legal” – wants to be able to tell their constituents that they voted against immigration, even though a vote against immigration is, essentially, meaningless.
May 9th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
[…] was responding to remarks delivered by Rep. Leo Berman on Monday night, but he was also addressing the general changes he’s seen in the House, and […]
May 28th, 2007 at 7:03 am
As in most other cases, Leo Berman is right. And we are not against immigration, we are against illegal immigration. Somehow Liberals like to paint pictures with wide, smelly brushes to get their point across,
Regardless of the truth. Look at Farmers Branch. We are tired of law breakers, masquerading as disadvantaged social security recepients.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 am
The comments by Berman sound very much like those of Adolph and his ilk. Simply take out the words “illegal Alien” and substitute it with Jews. First call them all law breakers, take away citizenship from as many kids as possible and then call them sub-human. What’s next, railroad cars illed with millions taken away from family, work and friends? Then instead of forcing them accross the border, the fear mongers want to imprison them for breaking the law. 12,000,000 in prison?
sounds way too familiar!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Re John Cook- illegal aliens as disadvantaged Social Security recipients? Is he saying that a poor elderly person, who paid Social Secuity taxes long enough to collect benefits, and who is 99.9% likely to be legal with a social secuity number, should not collect social security? How does one define that peson as an illegal alien unless the plan is to remove citizenship from anyone who is “disadvantaged”?