Craddick blamed for immigration bills' failure

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau

Article Launched: 02/12/2008 02:03:30 AM MST

AUSTIN - The Republican Texas House leader is to blame for the failure of proposals that would have helped keep undocumented immigrants out of Texas, state Rep. Pat Haggerty said Monday.

"It's another example of (House Speaker) Tom Craddick listening to 40 rich people around ... Texas and leaving us so far behind the eight ball," Haggerty said.

Lawmakers filed about two dozen proposals in 2007 that aimed to make life in Texas harder for undocumented immigrants. Haggerty said Craddick ensured the failure of those bills because they would have made business more expensive for his financial backers who rely on cheap labor.

A Craddick spokesman said the allegations were "completely false" and "a fabrication." The leader of the House committee that oversaw immigration bills said Craddick had no role in the bills' demise.

"I was never asked by the speaker to do one thing or another," said state Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, chairman of the State Affairs Committee.

Undocumented immigrants in local schools and hospitals, Haggerty said, are burdening El Paso taxpayers.