Posted on 06/29/2011 1:24:42 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
State Rep. Sergio Muñoz said the defeat of the sanctuary cities bill was a 'great victory' for Hispanics.
AUSTIN, June 29 - While state Republican leaders were blaming themselves for the demise of the so-called sanctuary cities bill, Hispanic legislators were rejoicing.
“Latino citizens who faced racial profiling and discrimination under this bill can breathe a sigh of relief,” said state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio. “This bill would have done little to curb undocumented immigration, but it would have forced a sizeable portion of the Texas population to prove their citizenship, perhaps time and again, just because of the color of their skin.”
State Rep. Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco, agreed.
“The sanctuary cities bill was a flagrant discriminatory attack on anybody of Latino descent and our community knew it,” Martinez said. “Whoever looks like us… we were going to be questioned by the police. Somebody who is blonde with blue eyes would not have been questioned.”
The sanctuary cities bill died with Senate Republicans blaming House Republicans for its demise and House Republicans and Gov. Rick Perry blaming Senate Republicans.
“The death of the sanctuary cities bill was a big victory for us,” Martinez added. “We did not need to be discussing it. In fact it is a scandal it was ever made an emergency item. We had more important issues to deal with, such as creating more jobs, providing a good education for our children and better health care for the sick and the elderly. Immigration is a federal issue. For the governor to ask the legislature to interfere was pure electioneering to whip the racist element within the Republican Party. It was totally divisive.”
Under the sanctuary cities legislation, municipalities would no longer be able to instruct their law enforcement officers not to ask the immigration status of those they lawfully detain or arrest. Currently, police chiefs do not want their officers asking immigration status questions because this is supposed to be the job of federal agencies. Besides, police chiefs testified, if the law was passed, immigrants would not confide with the police when they witness a crime for fear of being deported. Thus, community policing would be weakened.
“The law enforcement community deserves a lot of praise for the defeat of the sanctuary cities legislation,” said state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen. “They came forward and said it was not acceptable to them. We already do a lot as a state to arrest and deport criminals. When they are booked into jail their status is checked. We did not need the sanctuary cities bill. It was a political measure, not a policy measure.”
Sanctuary cities legislation was made a legislative priority by Gov. Rick Perry at the start of the 82nd legislative session. It passed the Texas House with ease. There are 101 Republicans in the House and they all voted for the sanctuary cities bill, including the five Hispanic Republicans. All the Democrats in the House voted against the measure. The bill died in the Senate because the Democrats, using a blocking bill, were able to stop it.
So, Perry added sanctuary cities to the call for the special session and this time Senate Democrats did not have a blocking bill to stop it. SB 9, authored by state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, passed the Senate on a party line vote. However, it never gained traction in the House, despite the Republican super majority.
“The will has to be there from the leadership. It was not there,” said state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, a big supporter of the sanctuary cities legislation.
Berman introduced his own version of the sanctuary cities bill but it never made it out of committee. Asked if Texas Republicans would ever get a better opportunity to pass immigration reform they like, Berman said, perhaps. He said he did not subscribe to the view that this was their best ever opportunity, given that sanctuary cities legislation was deemed an emergency item and given the fact that the GOP had a super majority in the House. Berman said Republicans had five Hispanics in the House who supported the sanctuary cities bill and that number was likely to grow in the future.
“The Hispanic Republicans are truly conservative. They know that something has to be done about immigration. The biggest shock Democrats had this session was seeing a Hispanic conservative at the front mic looking and sounding like other Republicans. The Democrats sat there with their mouths wide open. They could not believe this.”
Berman said it stands to reason the number of Hispanic Republicans will grow. “They are pro life, pro family, they are frugal, and they are very patriotic. The only difference right now is that for some reason many American Hispanics support illegal Hispanics,” Berman said.
State Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, said early in the session that the sanctuary cities legislation was the one bill his community was really focused on. Alonzo praised Univision and Telemundo, and the Spanish language media for keeping their focus on the bill all session.
“While I am very pleased we defeated the sanctuary cities legislation we can never let our guard down. We have to be ready in case it rears its ugly head again in the future. I urge our communities across Texas to stand up and participate in the electoral process. That is the only way we can defeat these types of bills,” Alonzo said.
Alonzo recounted that his father had been deported to Mexico in the 1930s even though he was born in Ohio. He said his father had to sneak back into the United States and hide from the authorities for years. Only later was he able to prove he had every right to live here.
“Knowing what my dad and aunts went through, I cannot forget their struggles. This anti-immigrant legislation can happen at any time. We have to be vigilant,” Alonzo said.
State Rep. Sergio Muñoz, D-Mission, said the defeat of the sanctuary cities bill was a “great victory” for Hispanics. “The legislation was highly discriminatory towards the Hispanic, Latino community. It was going to have a negative impact on business, which is why so many business leaders opposed it,” Muñoz said.
Yeah a great Victory for the scumbag Haters of White America!
That's a huge red flag "his community." An outright admission by hyphenated separatists that they live in the Third World they're building on US soil.
Illegals only look like they're mowing loans, pumping gas, flipping hamburgers----they have been busy building a Third World on American soil. And they had a lot of help---co-conspirators undermining US ntl security.
Laws? What laws? If you're illegal, you got to pick and choose the laws that apply to you.
Illegals are a national security threat----- conspiring to tear down democracy---and the hellholes they escaped from are helping them. .....colluding to form voting blocs that will pressure vote-crazed legislators to start the foreign aid gravy train to their beloved homelands.
===============================================
Why is it illegal lawbreakers have all these countries .... and a succession of US presidents ..... defending their "rights?" And "real citizens" do not have anyone.....even our own govt......protecting Americans' rights?
REFERENCE News reports say Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru are conspiring to collude with The Anti-Defamation League, The American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and several other civil and immigrant rights groups to infringe on US sovereignty to make laws as we see fit. The co-conspirators filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Georgia's law and are now asking a judge to halt the measure pending the outcome of their case (which Ga courts agreed to)...and vote-crazed Obama is in on the collusion.
What is revealing is how fast and hard the illegals are working to recreate those very same hellholes right here.
.
Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.
Odd, when the Aryan Nation says this it’s a bad thing.
Even though Governor Perry placed it in the special session, neither he nor the supermajority of Republicans were going to go against the wishes of those two big supporters.
Sickening.
"If not now, WHEN, if not us, WHO"
” What is revealing is how fast and hard the illegals are working to recreate those very same hellholes right here. “
Exactly!
Texan, that’s exactly what I was going to bring up. I heard this on Michael Berry’s radio show. Butts and Perry (of Perry Homes) made some phone calls. These fat cats with deep pockets are exactly what we need to get rid of. I’d be glad to join any boycott of these two. I’ll never set foot in an HEB again and I can only hope Perry goes bankrupt...:)......(we already have a house)....:). They’re both using illegals or else those threats wouldn’t have been made and this bill would have been passed. Perhaps we need to rid ourselves of those, ahem, Republicans that talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to re-election. I’m so po’d I can’t stand it!!
Ping!
So tell me again why Rick Perry should be the nominee?
Pathetic.
True Grit: After 10 Years, Texas Couple Wins $58M in Home Defects Case
CLEARLY - if Rick Perry WANTED this bill to become law, it would have. In fact, it would have passed during the regular session. In fact, Perry could call another special session, and yet another, and another, until it passed...just as he did when he wanted to impose the business tax on us (which he did succeed at).
We here in Texas may think we have a weak governor, but that’s not true when he OWNS the majority party and has them do all of his dirty work, so that he doesn’t have to deal with Sanctuary Cities or TSA Groping bills, as he runs for US President.
Rick Perry = ownt. That really is all anyone needs to know about him.
Thus, what hath Rick Perry wrought?
Anyone want to bet that these donors give money to those Dim congressmen?
You can blame Perry all you want but, this issue is nation wide.
Plus when you’ve got an Admin saying, “the border is safer than it’s ever been”...??
” So tell me again why Rick Perry should be the nominee? “
Yeah ;-)
He will never get my vote.
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