#LeaveImmigrantsAlone: Alexa Mier, April Alexander, Hayder Al-lami, Summer Thomas

Jinnell Killingsworth

Texas Gov. 2306

March 22, 2017

Our Interview with Amy Fischer

On March 3rd 2017, Summer Thomas conducted an interview with the Policy Director of

Raices, a well-known immigration interest group, Amy Fischer. We were hoping to interview

Bob Hall seeing as how hes the author of Senate Bill 108, but unfortunately his staff was not

cooperative. However, Ms. Fischer was just as helpful to us. As soon as Summer introduced

herself to Ms. Fischer she was more than happy to answer our questions. Since she is the Policy

Director for Raices she spends a lot of time researching bills that deal with immigration ergo she

already knew of our bill. She also knows a lot about other policies and laws concerning

undocumented immigrants. Summer questioned her about the impact the bill would have on

undocumented immigrants and Texans as well. We all were on the same page as far as Ms.

Fischers stance against Senate Bill.

As we all know our current President, Donald Trump, has shown his true colors and how

he feels about undocumented immigrants, especially Hispanics. He is in fact building a wall to

keep them out specifically. While our group was discussing our bill, Summer had expressed how

Senator Bob Halls bill was proposed as a way to get in good favor with President Trump.

Perhaps Senator Hall is looking to move up in the Legislature. Of course, he is! We were very

surprised when Ms. Fischer repeated the same theory as Summer. Her exact words were, The

bill is obviously inspired by the xenophobic rhetorics spewing out of the Trump White House
and the Texas Legislator. Summer simply nodded her head in agreement, not wanting to

interrupt Ms. Fischer, as she finished answer the question. That certainly surprised us, because

having two different people who have never had a conversation with each other repeat the same

ideology is astonishing. It truly speaks to what Senator Halls intentions are with this bill. Ms.

Fischer was very insightful about this topic. Not only was she stealing the words right out of our

mouths. She was also teaching us things that we did not know. There is already an immigration

law that punishes undocumented people for entering. It is called Illegal Entry says Ms. Fischer.

We did not know that there is an actual law that already disciplines undocumented immigrants. If

this is so, then why does Texas need another bill that practically does the same as the Illegal

Entry law?

Ms. Fischer was more than helpful. Because of her deep understanding she passed on

knowledge to us that we could incorporate into our research, and further explain why we, just

like Amy and the people of Raices, we adamantly oppose this bill. The interview went well. Ms.

Fischer answered every one of the questions that Summer asked her. She did not stray away the

topic at all. We could tell that she is very passionate what she does, and that made interviewing

her feel like less of an assignment.

Ultimately, the interview was great. We could not have said it any better than Amy

Fischer did. The arguments that she made will aid us when it comes to making our website. We

definitely learned a few things from her and now we have more things to conduct research on

and further expand our knowledge. Though we did not plan on interviewing her in the end we are

happy we did. We do not think Senator Hall would have been able to answer our questions as

well as Ms. Fischer did. He most likely would have avoided our questions when that would not

have helped us with our project.