An immigration-related provision tucked into a must-pass budget bill could have more of an effect on Texans than the high-profile sanctuary cities legislation that the Legislature did not pass.

THE INVASION CONTINUES AND THE CENSUS CONFIRMS IT

WAKE UP TEXANS!  SHOW UP AT THE CAPITOL AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD!

"....The five-county Austin metro area added nearly half a million residents during the past decade, according to 2010 census figures. Though the data confirmed what had long been suspected, i carried an undeniable wow factor.

....(Last week, dealing with an estimated $4 million shortfall, the school board voted to close an elementary school and cut 25 percent of its central administrative staff.)

....The city will have to build new infrastructure and provide more services, such as water and sewer lines."

Empower Texans (11/12/10)

Conservative movement, tea party and Republican leaders, along with more than 2,584 Texans, have signed a letter regarding the speakership of the Texas House. They note election day "was a clarion call for conservative leadership in the Texas House" and a "change to a more conservative Speaker is in order." [Updated 11/11/2010]

There are 130 signers to this letter representing conservative movement, tea party and Republican organizations.

As of 4pm on Nov. 11, 2010, these individuals had also added their names to the letter.

THANK YOU KELLY SHACKELFORD AT LIBERTY INSTITUTE FOR PUTTING THE HOUSE ON NOTICE REGARDING OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN RELATION TO THE SPEAKER'S RACE!

The group takes exception to Hopson letter reminding members of legislative bribery provisions, says it could have chilling effect on outside groups' legitimate right to advocate in Speaker's race

Earlier this week, House General Investigating and Ethics Committee Chairman Chuck Hopson issued a letter to his colleagues reminding them to watch out for outside groups who might run afoul of the legislative bribery or coercion of a public servant provisions during the Speaker's race.

That letter has drawn a response from the Liberty Institute who remind the members in a letter issued today that outside groups are allowed to advocate for Speaker's candidates.

Forest, a former President of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas (IRCOT), noted “For too long, our opposition has waged war on U.S. citizens with massive tax deductible donations from their supporters, large foundations and corporations, and yes -- even from our own government!...

By: Mark Cromer, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
Bad policy, millions of immigrants and bomming maternity wards are being used to radically alter the population size, charcter and culture of America.

Corruption along the U.S.-Mxican border takes many forms.

It can start as a smuggler's $50 gift to the child of a reluctant federal agent, quickly escalating to out-and-out bribes.  "Everyone does it, "theagent, now in prison, recalls telling himself.  Other times, county sheriffs greedily grab thousands from drug dealers.  In a few instances, traffickers even place members in the applicant pool for sensitive border protection jobs. 

More than 1,500 people braved triple-digit heat to take part in a July 4 “tea party” rally and picnic in Waller County Saturday afternoon.

 The event was sponsored by the Katy Tea Party Patriots.

TEA PARTY RALLY – A crowd estimated at more than 1,500 turned out Saturday for a multi-county Independence Day Tea Party Rally in Waller County sponsored by the Katy Tea Party Patriots. ....

Rebecca Forest, founder of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, said the proposed “earned citizenship” program touted by the administration was nothing more than a new name for amnesty. She also said the nation’s borders continue to be a potential conduit for terrorism.  

TOUTING IMMIGRATION REFORM – Rebecca Forest, founder of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, criticized the Obama administration’s “earned citizenship” program during the Katy Tea Party Patriot’s Independence Day Rally.

“Eight years after 9-11 and nothing has been done; our borders remain open. Sadly, a great number of our legislators have forgotten who they were elected to represent,” Forest said. ....

Governor sends letter to DHS with notice of plans

A border security proposal drafted by Gov. Rick Perry would put 600 soldiers in “reconnaissance platoons” to scour 20 remote areas for drug and immigrant smugglers, part of a call-up of 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to full-time duty.

In his latest in a series of anticrime border initiatives, Perry wrote in an April 2 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that the patrols would “provide an immediate increase in the ‘boots on the ground.'”

Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S.

Texas Governor Rick Perry addressed his concerns on the issue of Texas' Border Security Strategy at the Chamizal National Memorial and the Bridge of the Americas as a backdrop. Socoro Mayor Trini Lopez listens in to Perry's commnts. Gov. Rick Perry said he wants 1,000 troops to help guard the Texas-Mexico border, and for the U.S. to fund strong security measures to fight the Mexican drug cartels that have spread violence and fear in Mexico, including Juarez.

The state of Texas and local hospital districts spent an estimated $677 million to provide health care to illegal immigrants in a year, a new study says.

The survey, issued by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said that most of the money — $597 million — was spent by local hospital districts for the immigrants' care during the state's fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, 2006.

Lawmakers from both parties said they were not surprised by the millions spent and expressed hope that the report, required by the 2007 Legislature, will help prompt Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

AUSTIN — In a clampdown on illegal immigrants, the Texas Department of Public Safety has adopted a new policy requiring noncitizens to prove they are in this country legally before they can obtain or renew a driver's license.

Gov. Rick Perry applauded the change, which went into effect Oct. 1, as a way to strengthen the state's security.

Signaling a revival of the illegal immigration debate in the 2009 legislative session, two Republican state lawmakers have asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on a thorny subject: "sanctuary cities."

The term has been used to describe Austin, Houston and dozens of other cities across the United States that don't require police or other municipal employees to report to federal authorities people who may be in the country illegally.

DEL RIO, Texas -- This city on the Rio Grande stands virtually alone, and not just because it's in vast, desolate West Texas.

Unlike other Texas cities along the Mexican border, Del Rio actually welcomes the 15-foot-high steel wall the U.S. government wants to build against illegal immigrants.

The widow of slain Houston police officer Rodney Johnson filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the landscaper who employed Johnson's killer, as jurors continued deliberating Juan Leonardo Quintero's fate.

Quintero was convicted earlier this month of shooting Johnson seven times after he was arrested during a traffic stop.

Johnson's widow, Joslyn, said Robert Lane Camp was negligent in hiring Quintero, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

"He needs to pay for his actions," Johnson said.

McALLEN - U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar told the Texas Legislature to stay away from enacting immigration reform. "This is a federal matter," said Cuellar, D-Laredo. "If the state gets involved you're liable to have a patchwork of laws."

...And it was one of our own senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who included some words in a voice vote that pretty much killed the fence. She said, "Nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location."

Thanks to Hutchinson, the SFA has been effectively neutralized and made impotent.

Congress last night passed a giant new spending bill that undermines current plans for a U.S.-Mexico border fence, allowing the Homeland Security Department to build a single-tier barrier rather than the two-tier version that has worked in California.

.... The 2006 Secure Fence Act specifically called for "two layers of reinforced fencing" and listed five specific sections of border where it should be installed. The new spending bill removes the two-tier requirement and the list of locations.
...Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Republican who has led the charge to change the 2006 law, said she wants to give Homeland Security more flexibility and wants local officials and landowners to be consulted.
...But Rep. Peter T. King, who sponsored the Secure Fence Act, said if the goal was to give DHS flexibility, the senators have failed.

"This is either a blatant oversight or a deliberate attempt to disregard the border security of our country," the New York Republican said. "As it's currently written, the omnibus language guts the Secure Fence Act almost entirely. Quite simply, it is unacceptable."

Steve Elliott, the president of Grassfire, says he still wants to know, "Where's the fence?"

Elliott, in a telephone interview, told WND an amendment submitted by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, for the Department of Homeland Security 2008 budget would gut the already-approved Secure Fence Act, which was adopted with the promise hundreds of miles of physical fencing would help secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

But the budget bill now in a conference committee contains the Hutchinson amendment, and Elliott says it simply would drop the requirement for the security project.

...."Now, if the Hutchison amendment gets signed into law that fence is never going to be built," he said.

Elliott said the language of the amendment from Hutchison (S. Amdt. 2466) specifically would exempt the Department of Homeland Security from having to build any fence at all.

The Hutchison amendment reads, in part, " … nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location."

Recently Mexican President Calderon has been very outspoken, critical on U.S. Immigration law enforcement efforts and supports Amnesty for all illegal aliens from Mexico residing, working in this nation.

Contrary to popular belief, Mexico has very strict immigration laws which are enforced by every police agency in the country. The Bureau of Immigration can call upon any law enforcement officer to assist in their mission. Citizens from the United States traveling in Mexico without proper documents, work permits or non immigrant visas are subject to arrest as illegal aliens.

The laws regarding foreign national visitors, immigrants, non-citizens are as clear and concise in Mexico as are our own U.S. laws which are considered unenforceable by many politicians in Washington, D.C.

We need to ask ourselves whether Austin should continue to be a city that offers sanctuary, given recent events in Newark, N.J. At the very least, city leaders — including Police Chief Art Acevedo — should reexamine procedures so that we aren't harboring criminals who should be deported.

Austin police don't check the immigration status of people they stop, question or arrest. They don't ask people who report crimes whether they are in the country legally.