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.

IMMIGRATION NEWS: CRIMINALS GET CARROT STICKS

The immigration news is that the resort-like amenities recommended for the 900-bed Houston Contract Detention Facility and all other CCA detention facilities will coddle illegal immigrant criminals with amenities like movie nights, dance classes, hanging plants and visits from their girl friends.

There’s some double-talk coming from CCA, the private detention facility contractor, about this immigration news. They claim the posh amenities will only be available “non-criminals”. Here’s the catch – when local jails find they have an illegal alien, they drop their criminal charges and ship the criminal over to ICE on the illegal immigrant charges. So he shows up as an illegal but not as a criminal. ICE officials estimate that 90% of the detainees have criminal charges.

This immigration news comes from Chris Crane, the president of the union that represents more than 7,000 ICE officers. The decision to pursue these reforms came without ICE leadership talking with the "technical experts," Crane told CNN. "These are purely input from special-interest groups," he said.

From the Houston Chronicle: “The plans are prompting protests by ICE's union leaders, who say they will jeopardize the safety of agents, guards and detainees and increase the bottom line for taxpayers. Tre Rebstock, president for Local 3332, the ICE union in Houston, likened the changes to creating “an all-inclusive resort” for immigration detainees.

CCA claims the 28 changes they propose, from a vegetable bar to free Internet service, won’t cost the taxpayer anything. That’s because the taxpayer is already shelling out an exorbitant $102 per day for each illegal in CCA custody.

Latino's are America's most dangerous tribe

Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order in the 1990s popularized the idea that conflicts between “tribes” would replace the U.S.-Soviet conflict. As Serbs killed Croatians and Quebec Francophones voted for independence, events seemed to prove Huntington’s ideas -- loyalty to tribes began replacing loyalty to nations.

Tribalism is what makes the rapid rise of the Latino population in the U.S. so dangerous. Unlike the immigrants of the 1920s and 1930s, today’s immigrant retains his loyalty to his ethnic and linguistic brothers. The examples of this trend elsewhere give us a preview of America’s problems.

The Czechoslovakia we grew up with is now two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Yugoslavia is now Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The old Soviet Union is now 15 different states.

Let’s look at today’s newspapers. “Kyrgyzstan kills are attempted genocide, say ethnic Uzbecks,” headlines the U.S. Guardian on June 16, 2010. (Kyrgyz tank in photo)  “How did Flemish separatists triumph in Belgian election?” wonders a headline from Reuters on the same day.

Couldn’t happen here? That’s just the point: it most likely to happen here. Arthur Schlesinger wrote in his 1991 Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society: “Nationalism remains after two centuries the most vital political emotion in the world — far more vital than social ideologies such a communism or fascism or even democracy. … Within nation-states, nationalism takes the form of ethnicity or tribalism.” Schlesinger warns, “The ethnic upsurge in America, far from being unique, partakes of the global fever.”

With more tribes, American has more fault lines. And the Latino population is the San Andreas of America’s tribal fault lines.

WHERE IS THE GOP PLATFORM?

I wanted to read the Texas GOP platform plank about immigration. You can read a lot of opinions about the immigration plank, but it's hard to find an exact copy of the actual platform passed by the GOP.

I called the Texas GOP office and they said to go to TexasGOP.org and look under "About the Party." Tried that with no luck. Also clicked the link called "Platform Blog" -- but that only had 2009 information.

Anyone know where I can obtain a copy of the real thing?

SLOW-MOTION INVASION

Is it just me, or does it seem like Texas is being invaded once again? I read about Mexican Navy helicopters that fly into U.S. airspace. Mexicans in uniforms point guns, including 50-caliber machine guns, at U.S. law enforcement. Mexican smugglers hurl rocks at our Border Patrol officers. More than 700,000 illegal immigrants live in Texas, and some of them claim that it's really their land in the first place.

I went to a Wal-Mart in the middle of Dallas for some chain saw oil and had to stop three employees before I found one who spoke English.

Bit by bit, it seems our sovereignty is being chipped away.

I started this blog to look into and document this invasion. If you have any information or observations that would help me, I'd appreciate it if you would add it to my blog.

Thank you.