By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - With nearly 2 million illegal
immigrants and a 1,200-mile border with Mexico, Texas has more at stake
than most states in the renewed push to overhaul the nation's
immigration system.
Yet so far, Gov. Rick Perry and Republicans who control the Legislature have been sitting this debate out.
They're not resurrecting dozens of contentious
immigration bills that roiled the statehouse in 2011. They're not making
the rounds on TV and radio to talk about President Barack Obama's plan
for legalizing immigrants. They're not even saying the word
"immigration."
When Perry delivered his State of the State
recently - his first since his failed presidential run - glaringly
absent in the 37-minute speech was any mention of the issue at all.
The silence speaks to the sudden political shift in
immigration since last fall's presidential election, in which Hispanics
voted Democratic by a nearly 3-to-1 margin and created a powerful
incentive for Republicans to change their approach to this growing
ethnic group.
In Congress, Republicans have softened their
opposition to accommodating immigrants, and a bipartisan group of Senate
negotiators unveiled a bill framework that includes a pathway to
citizenship for those already in the U.S. so long as border security is
beefed up.
But in Texas, the party has been left speechless in
the Capitol. GOP leaders find themselves caught between traditional
supporters, who feel swamped by illegal immigrants and want tough
action, and a surging Hispanic population. Minorities accounted for
nearly nine out of every 10 new Texas residents in the past decade, and
the demographic shift could soon transform the politics in a state where
Democrats haven't won a statewide office since 1994.
"There's not nearly as much energy around it as
there was," says Republican state Rep. John Zerwas, acknowledging the
collapse of hard-line immigration proposals such as his to require state
agencies to compile the costs related to illegal immigrants. "I think
you're seeing that at the national level, and probably a good bit of
that is trickling down to the state level."
Similar pivots are under way in other Republican
statehouses, but perhaps nowhere is the change more evident than in
Texas because of how much rhetoric the issue has traditionally received
here.
Texas Republicans regularly used illegal
immigration as a campaign cudgel against Democrats like Obama and as a
rallying point for fed-up conservatives while trying to reach out to
legal Hispanic residents as the party best aligned with their values.
Only two years ago in his State of the State
address, Perry called for punishing "sanctuary cities" that bar police
officers from asking detainees about their immigration status.
There's no talk of such measures now.
"You want an answer? That tried and that failed,"
said Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri. "Responsible
leadership is now focusing on things that have a chance to get passed."
Immigration isn't an easy subject to ignore in Texas, though.
About 16 percent of the illegal immigrants in the
United States live in the state, according to a Department of Homeland
Security report in 2012, and immigration leaves an outsize footprint on
the state's infrastructure.
When a district judge ruled this week that Texas'
system for paying for public schools was unconstitutional, he sided with
arguments that state funding hasn't kept pace with rising numbers of
students needing extra instruction to learn English. The ruling may
force the Legislature to overhaul school finance by the summer.
So red-hot was immigration for Texas Republicans in
the last legislative session that state Rep. Debbie Riddle camped
outside the clerk's office to make sure her bills targeting illegal
immigrants were filed first. About 50 bills related to immigration were
filed in all. This time, Riddle, who once famously warned of immigrant
mothers in the U.S. giving birth to "terror babies" who would grow up to
attack the country as unsuspecting citizens, has not submitted any
immigration proposals.
Perry talked tough about illegal immigration in his
race for president, making his demand for more federal "boots on the
ground" on the border all but a campaign slogan. But other Republican
candidates talked even tougher. Perry wound up being criticized for his
support of a 2001 state law that allowed tuition breaks for the children
of illegals.
State demographers have predicted that Hispanics
will make up a plurality of Texans by 2020, and then become the majority
between 10 and 20 years later. In the last governor's race, the
Republican nominee, Perry, won less than 40 of the Hispanic vote,
according to exit polls.
Last summer, the Texas GOP softened on immigration
at the party's annual convention, acknowledging that mass deportation
isn't possible and calling for common ground. Six months later, some
far-right Republicans are seething that immigration has dropped off the
party's radar.
"Establishment Republicans are trying to brand a
different message," said Maria Martinez, executive director of the
Immigration and Reform Coalition of Texas that backed "sanctuary city"
proposals in 2011.
Texas could still wind up with a say on the new
immigration plan. The Senate immigration plan would create a commission
of lawmakers and border-state community leaders to assess when adequate
border security measures have been completed.
Freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who
previously served in the Texas House, doubts his home state would let
that happen.
"I don't think that Rick Perry and (Arizona Gov.)
Jan Brewer will ever say the border is secure," Castro said. With
conservatives angry about the issue, "they know they risk a primary
challenge if they come out and say the border is secure."
Copyright 2013 The
Associated Press modified.
