On the heels of last month's primary election defeats for establishment Republicans in Texas, the state party's biennial convention has toughened its platform's immigration plank.
Over the weekend, the Republican Party of Texas removed from its platform support for the "Texas Solution," an amnesty/guestworker scheme cooked up by cheap-labor interests. It had been adopted at the previous convention, two years ago, through parliamentary chicanery. The new plank, adopted with a decisive majority through a proper roll-call vote, rejects amnesty, "including the granting of legal status to persons in the country illegally. The "Texas Solution" had been sold with the usual "it's not amnesty" dodge because it would legalize the illegal population with guestworker visas rather than green cards.
While the new plank has vague language about "the legal movement of people to fill jobs at all skill levels," its specifics relate to tightening immigration security, plus ending in-state tuition for illegal aliens, prohibiting sanctuary cities, ensuring that police can check the legal status of arrestees, and even ending the egregious Visa Lottery.
It also includes this clear populist call:
In addition, with 92 million Americans not working, the labor force at 36-year low and a lethargic economy, the United States of America can ill-afford a guest worker program designed to depress wages.
Republican positions have a lot that should appeal to big business: lower and simpler taxation, streamlined and predictable regulation, tort reform, right to work, and more. But corporate lobbyists need to understand that the list does not include open-borders immigration.