By Bud Kennedy
bud@star-telegram.com
Grandma can stay.
For Texas Republicans, immigration reform was as simple as those words, and now the party can dominate state elections for another generation.
"I'd start telling Hispanic voters about Republicans, and they'd say, 'I'm pro-life, too, but you want to deport my grandma,'" said Norman Adams of Houston, celebrating the Texas party's 180-degree turn away from its position of removing all illegal immigrants and slowing legal immigration.
"They can't say that anymore."
With the powerful backing of state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and unexpected support from border-control groups such as the Minutemen, Republicans voted overwhelmingly late Friday for a state platform that supports a federal guest-worker card.
"We have towns in Texas now that are 85 percent Hispanic and 65 percent Republican," said Houston delegate Temo Muniz, referring to the town of Von Ormy, near San Antonio.
"Now let's get on with debunking the myth that Hispanics only vote for Democrats."
Adams, Von Ormy Mayor Art Martinez de Vara and Houston restaurateur Brad Bailey had advocated for the change during platform committee meetings, arguing that Texas would thrive by keeping those immigrant workers who pay a penalty, carry medical insurance, decline public assistance, speak English and learn civics.
The platform still backs tighter border enforcement and denying birthright citizenship to guest workers' children, satisfying hard-liners such as the Mission chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and Houston-based U.S. Border Watch, which protests day-labor sites.
"Standing on the street yelling hasn't solved anything," said Bob Welch of U.S. Border Watch.
"Let's get something done."
A younger generation of Ron Paul delegates helped swing the outcome, siding with employers and against more enforcement spending, private prisons and "big government."
With the Texas-born Hispanic population outgrowing Anglos at a 20-to-1 rate, campaign strategists have said Republicans must win 40 percent of Hispanic voters or face the prospect of losing elections as a result.
In a December poll, more than half the state's Hispanics currently voting Republican rated the party as hostile or indifferent.
"We can't grow without workers," Adams said.
"Let's keep 'em, let's ID 'em, and let's tax 'em. Then let's get Hispanics voting Republican."
It might really be that simple.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538Twitter: @budkennedy
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