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He is not opposed to all deportation. "Let's deport the felons. Let's deport the narco-traffickers. Let's deport the gang-bangers. Let's deport those who have not come here for a better life but have come here to worsen our community," he says. "But let's look at the other 98 percent. Let's provide a pathway for integration."

Curt Merlo
Curt Merlo



That's exactly what Leo Berman will be gunning for when he arrives in Austin in January—moving an entire population from one place, here, to another one, gone. In that determination, he will express his own moral values and the values of his constituents.

"Not only Texans, but also people all over the United States are just getting sick and tired of paying for people," he says. "This is the first time we've ever given benefits to illegal aliens or to any aliens who come into the United States.

"My parents are immigrants," he continues. "They came from Europe. They got zero. They got nothing. They had to make it on their own. But illegal aliens can't make it on their own."

Berman looks on deportation the same way most Texans do football—as a life-and-death competition. "The Texas Legislature meets every other year for 140 days," he explains. "We're not in session all the time. Most states around us are in session all the time."

He worries that many of these busier state legislatures are already beating Texas to the punch. "They're cutting out benefits that illegal aliens are getting with false ID cards, like a phony Social Security card or phony driver's license," he says.




"Forget the right and the wrong about the unauthorized folks in the country. Forget the moral questions about illegality," he says. "If we want to compete, if we want to stay No. 1 in this world, we've got to fix this immigration issue."

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