80th Legislature: Anti-Immigrant Legislation Opposed By TAB

The Texas Association of Business has joined a coalition of Latino and other legislators who oppose the numerous anti-immigrant bills currently before the Texas Legislature.

Of course, that doesn’t make legislators like Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) happy at all:

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, author of the birthright legislation, said he is disappointed that the TAB has injected itself into the fight. He said the only issue that TAB should have concerned itself with was employer sanctions.

Berman said Hispanics who are U.S. citizens should be concerned that undocumented immigrants may be improperly obtaining citizenship for children.

While I’m not at all interested in looking a gifthorse in the mouth, it is interesting that TAB, a normally radically conservative organization, has come out against anti-immigration legislation. Of course, it isn’t totally surprising, since they represent business interests and businesses could be hurt significantly by many of the measures.

In addition, following TAB’s pronouncement on all immigration legislation, State Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas), has pulled a measure that would have penalized employers who hired illegal immigrants, one of the bills that sparked the group’s ire:

State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, said he’d filed House Bill 351 to impose sanctions on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. He said it was “in response” to bills that put sanctions on immigrants.

“As a symbol of our solidarity and cooperation, I’m withdrawing HB 351,” Anchia said.

I think, of course, that most people saw Anchia’s legislation as I did: a counter that designed for bargaining purposes tthat would have stopped the other anti-immigration legislation dead in its tracks because it would have been something that even pro-business Republicans would have had a hard time voting for.

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