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In Texas, State Senator Juan Hinojosa “Torpedoed” Anti-Immigration Legislation (For Now)

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texas statehouseAnother nasty anti-immigrant piece of state legislation may be dead. This time, it’s in Texas. From the Austin American-Statesman:

A Senate committee on Wednesday torpedoed at least for now the biggest immigration bill of the session.

In a move that surprised just about everyone following the issue, state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, took all of the language of House Bill 12 , the so-called Sanctuary Cities Bill, and replaced it during a committee hearing with the words of Senate Bill 9, a large homeland security bill.

“The purpose was to kill sanctuary cities,” Hinojosa said later. “Not a bad move.”

The committee left the bill pending.

The controversial House bill, by Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, had very little support in the Senate, Hinojosa and other senators said.

Major police departments opposed it, saying it would force them to become immigration officers and reduce their ability to fight crime.

And Hispanic Texans worried that they would be profiled and discriminated against, Hinojosa added.

The Texas legislature meets every two years for 140 days. The session will end on May 30, 2011, so there’s stil time for the anti-immigrant forces to push through a version of this bill. Advocates remain concerned — and vigilant. But it is fun to see one of the good guys use the process to thwart bad legislation.