texas

texas: Page 1

Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Mexico offers "help" after Hurricane Harvey. What they really mean. - 08/28/17

After Hurricane Harvey has caused widespread devastation in Texas and Houston, the Mexican government has offered to "help" (link):

Ex-Village Voice CEO Michael Lacey charged with pimping (Backpage.com) - 10/06/16

Former Village Voice Media CEO Michael Lacey left to form Backpage dot com. an online site similar to Craigslist. He and others have now been charged with pimping-related charges [1]:

California wins out against Texas' corporate socialism (Sriracha) - 05/29/14

Don't tell the Tea Parties movement, but Texas is a hotbed of socialism. Specifically, corporate socialism.

Jeh Johnson's empty pledge to keep unaccompanied children from coming here illegally - 05/18/14

Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson is engaged in the policy equivalent of doublespeak: he claims he wants unaccompanied children not to enter the U.S. illegally, but at the same time his other policies encourage a mad rush for the border.

Even Washington Monthly (somewhat) admits the "challenges" of massive low-skilled immigration (Texas, Phillip Longman) - 03/03/14

A rare moment of clarity on mass immigration comes from Washington Monthly as senior editor Phillip Longman (also linked to the New America Foundation offers "Oops: The Texas Miracle That Isn’t" ( peekURL.com/zRPFqc5 ).

Cowardly fake patriot Bill Whittle "jokes" that Texans should shoot Californians - 01/13/14

On the video below rightwing commentator Bill Whittle - occasionally affiliated with Pajamas Media - "jokes" that Texans should shoot Californians who move to that state. He spoke at an event featuring Ted Cruz, who's seated in front row center.

Chart: how Texas compares with other states on various metrics (Rick Perry, Texas on the Brink) - 10/06/13

According to Texas governor Rick Perry and many fiscal conservatives, Texas is a great example of conservative principles in action. For instance (link): [Perry said] the very "future of the nation" depended on a blunt conversation about which course was best: California's "big government, protectionist, nanny state" or Texas' "limited-government, unsubsidized, freedom state."

Bill Richardson: "I don't think [Ted Cruz] should be defined as a Hispanic" - 05/06/13

The video below has former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson saying that Texas senator Ted Cruz shouldn't be a considered a real Hispanic. Transcript, bolding added:

Jerry Patterson draws completely wrong lesson from Texas history (Land Commissioner, immigration) - 12/14/12

Jerry Patterson is a Republican, the Land Commissioner of Texas, a likely candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and involved with the "Texas solution" to immigration. He's currently touring Texas promoting massive immigration and a guest worker program.

Do red states give more to charity than blue states? - 08/20/12

Reuters says, "[r]ed states give more money to charity than blue states, according to a new study" (link, [1]). Just one problem: that's not true. In fact, blue states gave over twice as much in dollar terms than red (depending on the blue/red definition).

Ted Cruz keeps saying the same things on immigration (attrition, amnesty) - 07/27/12

In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, an ambassador visited an outpost for a few days, schmoozing with the locals. After he'd left, an official went to the leader of the outpost and said (paraphrasing), "we analyzed the ambassador's remarks, and he said absolutely nothing all the time he was here."

Does Ted Cruz support amnesty? Part 1 (Texas, Senate, David Dewhurst) - 07/12/12

Ted Cruz is running against David Dewhurst for U.S. Senate in Texas, and one recent poll shows Cruz ahead by 9 points (link). Cruz is a Tea Parties candidate, and if asked he'll say he opposes "amnesty". In fact, he says he's opposed to "amnesty" so much, I'm a little suspicious he doth protest too much.

Texas 2012 GOP platform goes "liberal" on immigration (IRCOT, Koch) - 06/09/12

The Texas GOP has passed their 2012 platform, and it includes an immigration plank that some will present as somewhat "liberal" or "lenient".

Full text: Texas in-state tuition for illegal aliens law (Rick Perry, Texas Education Code 54.052 j) - 10/02/11

As most people know by now, Rick Perry signed into law a Texas bill that lets illegal aliens get college educations in Texas at the in-state rate. What many might not know is that the bill he signed lets illegal aliens deprive some citizens of college. For an explanation, see the DREAM Act page; that's mostly about the national bill but the same process applies.

Most new Texas jobs went to immigrants, legal and illegal (Rick Perry; who to blame; what to do) - 09/22/11

A new study (link) shows that most of the new jobs created in Texas - Rick Perry's "Texas Miracle" - went to immigrants and not native-born workers. And, about half of those immigrants who got jobs are illegal aliens. This is somewhat bad news for Rick Perry, despite the fact that he's only partly responsible. Below I'll tell you who should bear most of the responsibility and what you can do about this.

Texas Teaparty groups pressure Rick Perry on immigration (sanctuary cities) - 09/19/11

A few days ago, a coalition of tea party and conservative groups came out against an anti-illegal immigration bill. Now, for fair and balanced coverage, there's this (link): Tea Party activists are promising to hold Rick Perry's feet to the fire over illegal immigration.

CIS: Immigrants use welfare at higher rate than natives - 04/06/11

Some of the findings of a new study from the Center for Immigration Studies ("Welfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children: A Look at Cash, Medicaid, Housing, and Food Programs", link) include: # In 2009 (based on data collected in 2010), 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children. # Immigrant households’ use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid. Their use of cash and housing programs tends to...

Interior Dep't environmental regulations hampering Border Patrol (Rob Bishop, HR 5016) - 09/08/10

From this: ...migrants and drug smugglers (marijuana, mainly) are attracted to parts of Arizona for a specific reason. On these federal lands, environmental regulations prevent the Border Patrol from doing its job. That's what the mainstream media won't report... [On the video below], (Rep. Rob Bishop) makes this simple point. The U.S. side of the 1,950-mile border with Mexico is about 60 percent private land and 40 percent federal. "Almost all" of the migrants and drug smugglers come across federal lands, protected by stringent "wilderness" designations or endangered species rules. The...

Michigan, eight other states file brief in support of Arizona immigration law - 07/15/10

From this: States have the authority to enforce immigration laws and protect their borders, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday in a legal brief on behalf of nine states supporting Arizona's immigration law. Cox, one of five Republicans running for Michigan governor, said Michigan is the lead state backing Arizona in federal court and is joined by Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands... "By lawsuit, rather than by legislation, the federal government seeks to negate this preexisting...

Claim: under 50,000 troops and $3 billion a year would secure the border (Rep. John Carter) - 06/19/10

Rep. John Carter of Texas offers a long article about secure the border (for real) here. Bottom line: Taking all the data into consideration, a deployment of somewhere between 25-to-50,000 troops would secure our 2,000 mile southern border immediately. Cost estimates range around $3 billion per year, a small fraction of the current $78 billion taxpayer cost of illegal immigration, even after counting tax payments by illegal workers. These manpower numbers are well within the range of similar current deployments. 28,000 U.S. troops are helping guard South Korea’s 151-mile border with North...

Hundreds of possibly terrorism-linked Somalis crossed the border illegally - 05/27/10

From this: The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com. The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a "large-scale smuggling enterprise" responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal...

Texas: almost 60% of public school children are poor; half Hispanic; more non-English fluent - 01/03/10

Ericka Mellon of the Houston Chronicle offers this: Almost six out of 10 Texas public schoolchildren hail from low-income families, marking a troubling spike in poverty over the last decade, a new state report finds. The increase coincides with a significant jump in the number of Hispanic students, while fewer Anglo students were enrolled last year than 10 years ago, according to the study by the Texas Education Agency. Schools also are educating many more children whose primary language is not English... ...Last year, Hispanics made up nearly 48 percent of the enrollment, followed by whites...

Ohio, Illinois, NY, NJ, Penn to lose political power due to massive immigration (House seats; also: IA, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO) - 11/19/09

According to a new study (americasvoiceonline.org/pages/the_new_constituents), due to massive immigration particularly by Latinos, the results of the 2010 Census - used to apportion congressional districts - will result in the following changes (chart from the HuffPost article discussed here): States gaining House seats: Texas (+4), Arizona (+2), Florida (+1), Georgia (+1), Nevada (+1), Oregon (+1), South Carolina (+1), and Utah (+1). States losing House seats: Ohio (-2), Illinois (-1), Iowa (-1), Louisiana (-1), Massachusetts (-1), Michigan (-1), Minnesota (-1), Missouri (-1), New Jersey (-1...

Jordanian accused in Dallas skyscraper bomb plant is illegal alien; student visa or border? - 09/25/09

From this: [Hosam Maher Husein Smadi], a Jordanian national, was arrested Thursday after federal officials said he placed what he believed to be an explosives-laden truck in a parking garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place tower in Dallas. He was charges with trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction and faces up to life in prison if convicted. ...In Jordan, Smadi's father insisted his son is innocent. He said Smadi and his brother, Hussein, 18, came to the United States in 2007 on a student visa. U.S. immigration authorities did not comment on Smadi's status, citing confidentiality...

El Paso: visitors waved through border, little or no screening, just like normal day - 04/28/09

The Associated Press offers this report from El Paso, Texas: U.S. airport officials and border agents waved people through Monday with little or no additional screening for Mexico’s deadly swine flu - a far more muted reaction than the extreme caution elsewhere around the world. At the main pedestrian border crossing between El Paso and Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, a handful of people wore protective masks and officials handed out a swine flu flier. But there were no extra screenings for swine flu, and it mostly looked like a typical day at the border. Faced with a new and unforeseen threat,...

Johanna Neuman /LAT "speechless" about Asian name normalization to avoid confusion - 04/09/09

Johanna Neuman of the Los Angeles Times offers "As Obama tackles immigration, Texas legislator suggests immigrants Americanize names" (link).

Dallas School District laid off Americans while seeking H-1B workers (DISD) - 03/30/09

From this: About 50 [Texas] companies, along with [the Dallas Independent School District], applied for H-1B visas for jobs in Texas last year and then announced layoffs of thousands of workers in the state, a Dallas Morning News review of government databases shows... DISD had the most filings of any North Texas entity, with 380 requests for H-1B visas and five for permanent visas... "We're obviously trying to find more bilingual teachers to help us with our population," said school district spokesman Jon Dahlander. Students with limited English proficiency now number 53,785 in DISD, or 34...

Most literate cities of 2008: NYC at #24, L.A. at #56 - 12/26/08

The "America's Most Literate Cities 2008" list has been released by Central Connecticut State University: link. Things like this generally fall into the FWIW/"for entertainment purposes only" category due to the varying definitions of "literate" and so forth. And, some sections of a given city are more "literate" than others, and some cities may be more cohesively "literate" vs certain others which only have a few islands of "literate-ness" scattered about.

Barack Obama: "I ended up loving Texas!... It is fun to be in Fargo" (Jeff Zeleny/NYT) - 07/09/08

The exact motivations for the Jeff Zeleny/New York Times article "As America Learns About Obama, He Returns the Favor" [1] aren't clear. I don't know whether he thinks he's doing him a favor, or whether his bosses have realized that BHO needs more experience before being selected for something and are trying to get him to withdraw from the race. However, in the recount of his travels across the U.S.

Hundreds arrested at Pilgrim's Pride plants (immigration raids, identity theft) - 04/16/08

Hundreds of illegal aliens and presumably others were arrested today at Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plants in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and West Virginia (link). The company participated in the E-Verify program and cooperated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The arrests were for identity theft and document fraud in addition to being illegal aliens and/or criminal aliens.

Trans-Texas Corridor to extend south into Mexico - 09/10/07

From this: Official Mexican government reports reveal Mexico has entered discussions with the state of Texas and top officials in the Bush administration to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico, with a plan to connect through Monterrey to the deep-water Mexican ports on the Pacific, including Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas.

Firm Advises Cintra in First Privatization of Toll Road in Texas - 09/02/07

link Firm Advises Cintra in First Privatization of Toll Road in Texas

WTF: ADL's "No Place for Hate" campaign - 05/12/07

Via this we learn that the Anti-Defamation League has been conducting a "No Place for Hate" campaign in New England with the Massachusetts Municipal Association since 1999 [1]. Cities in New England and elsewhere can join the program ([2][3][4]), and, as long as they conduct three events designed to show they're free of hate and that they respect diversity, they get a nifty sign that they can attach to a post (not provided) at the entrance to their town. Of course, as the second link above shows, the ADL has a rather flexible definition of "hate", with one required to support illegal...

Elizabeth Villafranca - 04/02/07

Activist in Farmers Branch, Texas President of the Farmers Branch office of League of United Latin American Citizens

Immigrants rally for rights, unity - 04/02/07

Dallas Morning News/Dianne Solis,Stella Chavez, Katherine Leal Unmuth (contributed)/[[April 2, 2007]]/ link

Commerce chief defends raids - 03/31/07

Dallas Morning News/Dianne Solis/[[March 22, 2007]]/ link Subtitle: Drain on labor force illustrates need for legalized path, he says Describes the same press conference as Secretary calls for reform

Texas Employers for Immigration Reform - 03/31/07

Site: txeir.org Association of Texas companies and groups calling for immigration "reform" (a massive amnesty) and a "guest" worker program. Chairman is Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business in Austin (Secretary calls for reform). Commerce chief defends raids Secretary calls for reform

Secretary calls for reform - 03/31/07

Star Telegram/Patrick McGee/[[March 22, 2007]]/ link Describes the same press conference as Commerce chief defends raids The U.S. secretary of commerce (Carlos Gutierrez) joined forces with a group of Texas businessmen Wednesday to amplify their call for immigration reform that would bring more foreign workers to the U.S.

Immigration Crackdown: 1,200 Undocumented Workers Detained Across U.S. - 02/24/07

Democracy Now/[[April 21st, 2006]]/ link Jorge Mujica, one of the lead organizers for the March 10 protest in Chicago that drew up to 300,000 people. A former journalist and union organizer, Mujica has worked for La Raza, Univision, and Telemundo, and has been involved in union organizing in both the US and in Mexico. ...JORGE MUJICA: Thank you very much.

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