Thursday, November 30, 2006

Bill to deny liability protections to builders hiring illegal aliens

Dallas Blog | Will Lutz:
“Rep. David McQuade Leibowitz (D-San Antonio) has filed a bill that would prevent builders who hire illegal immigrants or use subcontractors who hire illegal immigrants from benefitting from new legislative liability protections.”
The Republican tent is fraying. It's coming apart along the seam of immigration. The business Republicans want a guest worker program. The nationalist Republicans want to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Up to now, both have supported so-called tort reform. With this bill, the nationalist Republicans are restricting who benefits from tort reform. This bill denies one benefit of tort reform, liability protection, to businesses that don't crack down on illegal immigration. Will this divide the business Republicans and nationalist Republicans? It'll be interesting to see whether anti-immigrant fervor will cost Republicans some of their support from business.

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