Our friends at KeepHB1403.com remind us that the Texas Senate missed a deadline on Saturday to pass SB1819, a bill to ban in-state tuition rates for undocumented students who meet local residency and other requirements.
According to the group, if the Senate had passed the bill by the deadline, it also needed to have gone to a Texas House committee for consideration prior to a vote by the full House. Since none of these occurred, it becomes a lot more difficult to pass a ban, but not necessarily impossible if it is attached as an amendment.
Also, SB185, which would allow immigrant status checks by local law enforcement (a racial profiling law) seems to have experienced the same situation after it was “not placed again on intent calendar” on Saturday. Could it be added as and amendment? Well, you never know. With a few days left in the Texas Lege, all eyes are on a lot of legislative battles over amendments and bills that made the deadline.
Obviously, Abbott could call a special session for any of these things, and if he doesn’t, they’ll come up again in a couple of years.
We’ll keep an eye and ear open.
Update: The DMN reports on this, too, as does the Amarillo paper. The AGN had some surprising GOP quotes, too. In fact, even Charles Perry, the senator who wrote SB185, says it is dead.
State Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, gave stronger reasons for opposing SB 185 and Senate Bill 1819, the in-state tuition bill filed by state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels.
“Let me just say that there are three problems with (SB) 185,” Estes, said. “It is absolutely important to realize that it’s the federal government’s job to enforce our immigration laws, and I worry about the burden that it puts on our local police.
“Point No. 2 is this: I feel that the bill lacks the protections for American citizens being stopped at random. American citizens, no matter what their ethnic origin, have the right to go about their daily business and not be stopped and be questioned. … Let me say this: The phrase ‘Show me your papers’ is more like Nazi Germany than it is about the U.S.A.
“The third reason is a political reason. … For the Grand Old Party, the Republican Party to be viable in the future, we have to compete for the American Hispanic vote. And nothing could alienate Hispanic Americans more than being stopped at random arbitrarily and asked their status because of the color of their skin.”
Well, OK, then!
Filed under: Texas Lege
