Berman has introduced many anti-immigrant bills in the Texas legislature -- most of them unconstitutional and so radical that even many of his Republican cohorts don't want to be associated with them. He has introduced bills that would deny birthright citizenship, force immigrants to live in designated areas of the state, deny immigrants access to higher education, and make English the state's official language (even though Spanish was spoken in Texas hundreds of years before English).
Now he has introduced a new bill aimed at Hispanics in general. His bill would put an 8% tax on any money order sent to Mexico or any other Latin American nation. He shows his anti-Hispanic bias by excluding Canada, Europe, Asia or African nations from the new tax on money orders -- it would only apply to the Latin American nations. Immigrants, legal or not, from all other nations would not be included (meaning this is strictly an anti-Hispanic bill and not an anti-immigrant bill). His bill would allow a citizen to get his/her tax refunded after he/she proved citizenship in Texas.
Berman says his new bill would produce about $60 million a year for the state. He wants the money designated to agencies that provide for indigent care. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said it would be very expensive for her department, both to collect the tax, audit businesses supposed to collect it, and to verify citizenship and refund money to citizens. In other words there would be little, if any, positive revenue from the new Hispanic tax.
When asked why he was targeting the Latin American countries with his new tax, he came up with a couple of reasons. He claimed that Hispanic immigrants are bringing many illnesses to this country like polio and plague. He also said that 99% of those receiving indigent care are Hispanics. Both of these charges are not just bogus, but also ridiculous.
The fact is that the last case of polio in Texas was in 1995 (about 16 years ago) and was contracted by a citizen who traveled abroad. The only incident of plague in the last 10 years was contracted on a hunting trip to New Mexico in 2006. Outside of Berman's bigoted brain there is absolutely no evidence that Hispanic immigrants pose any kind of health danger in Texas (or any other state).
As for the other charge, that is patently ridiculous on its face, but let's examine it anyway. According to the latest census, the population of Texas breaks down this way:
White (non-Hispanic)...............11,397,345
Hispanic...............9,460,921
African-American...............2,886,825
Asian...............948,426
Also according to the census, the following percentages of each group are identified as living in poverty (which would be a requirement for receiving indigent care) -- Whites (9.4%), African-Americans (25.8%), Hispanics (25.3%), and Asians (12.5%). Assuming these figures are roughly the same for the state of Texas, then the following figures would qualify for indigent care:
White...............1,071,350 (24.75%)
Hispanic...............2,393,613 (55.30%)
African-American...............744,800 (17.21%)
Asian...............118,553 (2.74%)
Total...............4,328,316 (100%)
As you can see, the most that Hispanics could make up in the indigent care facilities is slightly more than 55% -- a long way from the 99% residing only in Berman's bigoted (but obviously small) brain.
This is a stupid tax to begin with (since it would cost as much to collect as it would raise), and is obviously a bigoted one. If the new tax is passed it should apply to all money orders -- not just the ones sent to Latin America. But this tax should never see the light of day. Hopefully, the Legislature will see that it doesn't even get out of committee -- like most of Berman's other silly bills.
