Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

David Almager

DALLAS - The buzz at the Texas State Capitol, along with tougher punishment for sex offenders, TAKS reform and HPV vaccination, includes the contentious debate occurring over several anti-immigration proposals filed this session by Republican legislators.

The dozen-plus anti-immigration bills filed to date consist of the following proposals: to end birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented parents; deny in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant children attending public colleges; and mandate greater enforcement by local police and state officers of federal immigration law violations, just to name a few.

Perhaps one of the most talked about proposals is House Bill 28, introduced by Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler. If approved, the bill would deny state benefits, including health care or public assistance health benefits, discontinue student attendance in any public school including colleges or universities, and refuse employment within state or local governments (among other provisions) to any individual born in the state whose parents are undocumented. Berman is quoted as saying, "If we do nothing ... our country will change totally. Our culture will be gone. We've been invaded without firing a shot."

HB 858 would place local law enforcement and state officers in the role of federal immigration enforcement by authorizing them to inquire about immigration status and arrest or refer the individual to federal immigration authorities.

Opponents of the bill argue that adding additional responsibilities to law enforcement officials has the potential of wasting valuable law enforcement resources which should be utilized to fight serious crime. In addition, many advocacy groups have raised concerns over the potential for an increase in racial profiling incidents by law enforcement at the state and local levels.

The constitutionality of many of the anti-immigration bills that have been filed has raised concerns among a key Republican player - David Swinford of Dumas, chair of the House State Affairs Committee. Swinford has indicated that he would seek legal guidance from the state's attorney general on several of the bills referred to his committee and deny them a hearing if they're found to be unconstitutional.

One can surmise that there will be plenty of opposition to the anti-immigration bills proposed this legislative session, including Latino legislators who accuse the anti-immigration crowd of using Latinos as a "political piñata." Opponents of anti-immigration proposals argue that passage of such divisive legislation forces immigrants deeper into hiding; violates their constitutional rights; and most importantly, are un-American.

Texas Republican legislators should take a cue from the Pete Wilson experiment of 1994. Wilson, then governor of California, pushed through Proposition 187, a ballot initiative that proposed the denial of health and education services to the children of undocumented workers. The proposition was eventually blocked by the courts.

The divisive debate over Proposition 187 assisted in ending Republican legislative rule in California as Latino voters made clear their opposition to harsh anti-immigration policies. As a result, the California Republican Party has yet and may never recover from the 1994 debate.

It's difficult to compare California politics of the 1990s with Texas politics of today, noting that California Latino voters were participating at higher rates than the general population.

However, most experts agree that the future of Texas politics has the potential to be influenced by the state's fastest growing voting block, Latinos, who today comprise approximately 21 percent of the Texas electorate.

Several young California Latino voters, after the November 2006 congressional elections, said that they voted in that election because they had been too young to do so in 1994. This may indicate that future Latino voters will be unforgetful and unforgiving.

Texas Latino voters sent a very clear message during last year's national election. They overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates, and immigration reform was at the top of the list of issues that influenced their decision.

Latino voters strongly believe that U.S. immigration policy should be reformed but that immigration policies that are mean-spirited and hurtful to families are unacceptable and against American values.

Lawmakers, beware:

The eyes of Texas Latino voters are on the 80th Legislature as the contentious immigration policy debate moves forward through the legislative process.

David Almager, a former Amarillo resident, lives in Dallas. He is a doctoral candidate at Walden University's School of Public Policy and Administration.