It's good to see some thinking going on concerning the flood of immigration bills filed before the Texas Legislature for this year's session. In this case, "thinking" means that most of the bills are never going to see the light of day — or a vote before the legislature.

State Rep. David Swinford, chairman of the House Committee on State Affairs, said he had asked the Attorney General to decide which of the bills clearly violated either the U.S. Constitution or the Texas Constitution.

As it turns out, at least two-thirds of the bills fall within that realm, which is not surprising since most of them are aimed not at good governance, but in finding a way to pander to nativists.

At least one of the bills that Swinford said will not make it to the floor is one that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are illegal immigrants. This flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution, which says that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. There is no limitation on whether the status is "legal" or otherwise.

In fact, the attorney general's office came to the absolutely correct conclusion that immigration policy falls under federal, not state, jurisdiction, with very little states can do.

In fact, the most prudent and effective policy would be for the states to put pressure on Washington to fix the problem.

The punitive nature of some of the bills filed in the Texas Legislature makes us a bit ill — putting taxes on money wired to other coutries (that would harm all immigrants, not just illegal ones) and not allowing illegal immigrants who have lived in Texas for years to qualify for in-state tuition. Is it really our desire to develop a dumb sub-class of workers who cannot improve their lots?

We certainly don't think so.

Other proposals have senselessly tried to prevent illegal immigrants fron accessing health care, another terrible idea that could play havoc with public health.

Yes, there is a problem with immigration that needs to be solved, but it will not be done by making the lives of individual human beings worse in this nation. That will only bring harm to our nation as a whole. At least we have some legislators who understand that concept.