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I gave testimony on Jan. 26 via Zoom on House Bill 200 at the House Judiciary hearing. HB 200 prevents Montana cities from becoming sanctuary jurisdictions. Such jurisdictions prevent cooperation between federal immigration officials and local law enforcement.

The AP news story today (Jan. 27) misrepresented supporters of this bill by saying proponents voiced negative views of immigrants thus failing to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. All discussion at this hearing was related to illegal immigration and there was no discussion of legal immigrants here with visas or green cards.

What AP is really saying and without proof, is that those against illegal immigration are anti-immigrant. This is a political judgment and certainly not objective news.

To see what else is happening in Gallatin County subscribe to the online paper.

Continued here:
Letter to the editor: Supporters of HB 200 aren't anti-immigrant - The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Shkumbin Lala, aged 22, was arrested after a police raid at a property on Rock Street, Burngreave, Sheffield, revealed a cannabis growing operation in the property, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

James Gould, prosecuting, told the hearing on February 3: Despite knocking on the door no one answered so entry was forced. As officers ran up the stairs the defendant was seen to exit an attic window and leave on the roof.

Lala was directed back to the property and arrested, according to Mr Gould, and the defendant claimed he had been in Sheffield a matter of weeks and the plants were not his but he was responsible for watering them.

Mr Gould added the cellar, attic and two bedrooms had been converted to cultivate cannabis and police found 147 plants with an estimated potential street value of 80,000.

Lala, who had an Albanian interpreter, initially told police he had agreed to pay 17,000 to enter the UK illegally in October 2019, he still owed 15,000 and he had worked in London in the construction industry but that stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The defendant, who has no previous convictions, told police he was paid to look after the plants and he had been told he would receive 25 per cent of profits from their sale.

Lala, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to producing the class B controlled drugs after the raid on August 5 last year.

Ayman Khokhar, defending, told the court Lala finally accepted he had willingly entered the county illegally after he made an agreement with people in Belgium despite a Home Office investigation having been launched into whether he had been trafficked or a modern slavery victim.

Mr Khokhar said: His end of the bargain was to work as a gardener to cannabis plants in residential properties.

He added Lala will be subject to immigration proceedings and it is unlikely he will remain in the UK after his sentence.

Judge Sarah Wright sentenced Lala to 30 months of custody.

Read the original here:
Illegal immigrant is jailed after he was caught with 80,000 worth of cannabis plants at a Sheffield house - The Star

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Two freshman Republican state representatives want to stop undocumented immigrants from being able to pay in-state tuition at Texas public universities, they announced Friday. Immigrant advocacy groups immediately criticized the plan as insensitive and dehumanizing.

State Reps. Jeff Cason of Bedford and Bryan Slaton of Royse City said the bill they are co-authoring will allow colleges to determine a students residency status and decide if they then qualify for in-state tuition.

In 2001, Texas became the first state to allow undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition. There have been multiple attempts to repeal the law since then, but each has failed in the Republican-dominated Legislature. Most recently in 2019, state Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, filed a similar measure, but it did not make it past the House Higher Education Committee, which was chaired by a Democrat.

The 2021 committee chairs have not been appointed yet. That could determine whether such a bill will advance to the full chamber this year.

Texans tax dollars should not be used to reward and encourage illegal immigration to our state and nation, Cason said in a statement.

Juan Manuel Guzman, state and local advocacy strategist for United We Dream, said if a bill like this were to pass in Texas, it would be devastating for immigrant youth who want to go to school and improve their chances in life, as well as their families.

Guzman said the rhetoric Republican lawmakers often use in reference to undocumented immigrants can be very divisive and dehumanizing. Even with in-state tuition, Guzman said, the pathway to higher education for undocumented students is extremely difficult because they do not have access to all the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that other students have.

Why would you end a policy that works? Why would you stop young people from going to school? Guzman said. [The policy has] been a blessing for a lot of undocumented students, just the possibility of having a first shot and going to school.

Cason and Slaton did not respond to requests for comment.

If the bill were to become law, it would make tuition prices unaffordable for many students. Out-of-state tuition rates are typically three times higher than in-state rates, on average.

In his statement, Cason called in-state tuition rates for undocumented students handouts from the Legislature that frustrate Texans whose property taxes are rising. Property taxes do help fund community college districts. But voters typically approve the creation of such districts.

In Texas, property taxes dont subsidize four-year public universities. And property taxes also do not go to the state government, so they are not a revenue stream that lawmakers can directly tap when writing the state budget.

Under current state law, undocumented students who have lived in Texas for at least three years, graduated from a Texas high school and pledged to apply for legal status as soon as possible are eligible to pay in-state tuition rates.

In a statement, Slaton said the GOP-controlled Legislature shouldnt allow taxpayer-funded magnets for undocumented residents to exist while ignoring issues like property tax relief. But that comment comes after Slatons party successfully championed a landmark property tax reform bill in 2019 that limited when local governments can increase tax collections without voter approval and demystified the property appraisal and tax processes.

Fatima Menendez, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said access to higher education is not a reward, but it does allow the state to reap the rewards of an educated workforce. Any attempts to take that access away will harm the states economy and well-being, Menendez said.

Increasing access to higher education improves the earning potential of each student and allows each student to contribute more to our states economy, Menendez said in an email. Avenues that allow for more students to access an affordable post-secondary education are crucial to Texas meeting its objective of having sixty percent of Texans ages 25-34 earn a certificate or degree by 2030.

As of February 2019, the income of college graduates who benefited from the current law totaled $19.7 billion, and without these graduates, Texas would lose hundreds of millions in wage earnings in just one year, according to research by New American Economy. If the bill becomes law, many undocumented students will not be able to graduate.

Original post:
Texas lawmakers want to block in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants - The Texas Tribune

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi denied House Democrats requests to include amnesty for illegal immigrants who served as essential workers during the pandemic in President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

President Biden proposed comprehensive immigration reform, which includes protections for frontline immigrant workers, separate from his Covid relief plan, and we expect that to therefore have separate consideration, a House Democratic leadership aide told Politico.

Pelosis brisk response follows a letter from 100 Democratic representatives urging the speaker and other House leaders to consider slipping in a faster path to citizenship for the more than 5 million Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status recipients, and undocumented immigrants who have helped keep Americans healthy and safe during the pandemic and are critical for our economic recovery.

As we continue to confront a public health and economic catastrophe that will soon have claimed the lives of more than 450,000 Americans [and] exacerbated deep racial, gender, and economic inequities, it is vital that we include protections for immigrant workers to secure the health of our nation and lay the foundation for a robust and dynamic economic recovery, the letter from the Hispanic Caucus read.

Just a month before the Hispanic Caucuss letter, hundreds of progressive immigration organizations issued a similar plea to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, asking the congressional leaders to offer permanent protection and a path to citizenship to all undocumented essential workers and delivering this provision to the presidents desk for his signature.

Last year, House Democrats recognized the important contributions and sacrifices of undocumented essential workers by including in both versions of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act a provision offering temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to these individuals. The 117th Congress can and must do better, the letter stated.

Pelosis reluctance to include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant essential workers, though, is not to be confused with a lack of eagerness to pass sweeping immigration reform. Since day one, the Biden administration, in conjunction with top congressional Democrats, has promised to reverse the Trump administrations actions and make it easier for undocumented migrants to take advantage of benefits reserved for U.S. citizens.

In addition to the new presidentssix executive orders concerning Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the addition of illegal immigrants in U.S. Census totals, immediate cessation of construction on the southern border wall, and the suggestion to replace the word alien with noncitizen in U.S. immigration laws, members in the blue chambers of Congress have begun to workshop legislation focused on carrying out Bidens goal to offer amnesty to approximately 11 million illegal immigrants.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

Read this article:
Dems Tried To Use COVID Relief Bill To Pass Amnesty For Illegal Aliens - The Federalist

Austin, TX, 35 seconds ago For a hopeful student from Lawton, Oklahoma, attending Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas about an hour away would cost about a thousand bucks more per year than the rate paid by non-citizens who graduated from high school in Texas. Two Republican lawmakers want to see that changed.

State Rep. Jeff Cason (R-Bedford) has filed a bill to end in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Freshman colleague Rep. Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City) plans to help Cason carry the proposal, now beginning its fourth life after similar ideas languished in committees of the last three legislative sessions.

The bill would strike out a swath of current law that counts anybody who has graduated from high school after three years of living in Texas as an official resident in the eyes of public colleges. In its place, Cason has written an alternative method to determine resident status.

A person who is not authorized under federal statute to be present in the United States may not be considered a resident of this state for purposes of this title, the bill text reads.

Cason framed his legislation as a fiscal issue.

Texans tax dollars should not be used to reward and encourage illegal immigration to our state and nation. As Texas taxpayers are seeing their property taxes rise, they are rightfully even more frustrated to find out that the Texas legislature has seen fit to give handouts to illegal immigrants. This must end now, Cason stated in a press release.

The proposal has been a regular phoenix for the grassroots wing of the Texas GOP for years. Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) filed the same bill in the last legislature, where it died under the committee chairmanship of Rep. Chris Turner (D-Arlington). Then-Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Frisco) filed it in 2017, following in the footsteps of Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) the session before. Sticklands bill died under a Republican committee chair: Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana).

The fates of these past attempts may spell doom for the bill this session in light of Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelans (R-Beaumont) promise to grant some committee chairs to Democrats. Cason and Slaton were the only two members of the Texas House to vote against granting him the speakership.

Last session in Higher Education, legislation prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer subsidized tuition rates never received a vote, Slaton wrote in a December letter to Phelan asking him not to appoint any Democratic chairman to committees that would oversee GOP priorities.

Furthermore, Democrats were given unilateral control of the Public Health Committee which allowed them to kill legislation that would ban abortion when a childs heartbeat can be detected We hope you decide to reform how Republican Speakers have operated in the past when they have declared a significant portion of our Republican Partys agenda dead the day committee assignments come out.

Coincidentally, the bill may cross paths with a different conservative effort in Casons neighboring county aimed not at illegal immigration but at high tuition costs.

A conservative student group has sued the University of North Texas in an effort to change the same law in the Texas Education Code that the bill targets. Because the Education Code considers illegal aliens to be residents under the right conditions, the student group argues that Texas is offering them a benefit unavailable to American citizens from other states. The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation has aided the case, pending in the Denton County court system, in the hopes that a win could lead to the end of out-of-state tuition in Texas.

More here:
Two Lawmakers Look to End Lower Tuition for Illegal Immigrants - The Texan