WILL STRAUS BLOCK NEW TEXAS IMMIGRANT BILL?

Representative Leo Berman, the backer of an Arizona-type illegal immigration law, told Texas Politics that House Speaker Joe Straus has cut a deal with a small group of Republicans and all the Democrats to block his bill.

“Because he and the other ten pledged to the Democrats in the House that none of those bills will come to the floor,” Berman said.

A spokesman for Strauss denied the allegation.

A UT-Texas Tribune poll found that two thirds of registered voters support a law that requires local police to check immigration status. So Strauss is playing with political fire if he tries to kill a bill that restricts illegal Texas immigrants.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as the saying goes. Straus’s intentions will be easy to decipher: if the Texas immigrants bill reaches the House floor for a vote, it will be because he didn’t block it. If it dies in committee, you can be sure that Straus killed it.