As the battlefront for illegal immigration, Texas is currently taking extreme measures to guard its borders and weed out illegal immigrants currently residing in the state. However, if Texas was ever to be completely successful in removing all these immigrants, an important question comes into mind in that who will replace the workforce that Texans ran out of town?
Obviously, America is the land of opportunity and with the current unemployment rate, the thought of an insufficient workforce seems unlikely. However, removing a proven workforce in favor of an inexperience and even possibly unwilling new work force will have a detrimental effect on the Texas economy. According to the article, "How much did illegal immigrants contribute to Texas’ economic boom?" from the Washington Post, illegal and legal immigrants make up 20% of the Texas workforce. In fact, the immigrant's positive effect on the economy is more apparent by the numbers reported by the Texas comptroller. The Washington Post article states, "Texas state comptroller, a Republican, released a study showing that illegal immigrants produced more in state revenues than they received in state services in the previous year: “Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received."" Giovanni Perri, an economist at the University of California, Davis, found in his research that ilegal and legal immigrants have a short term negative impact on the economy but a positive long term impact."Immigration unambiguously improves employment, productivity, and income” for native workers as well and shows no evidence of depressing wages," said Perri.
Let me make myself clear, I am in no way in support of illegal immigration. I believe that there is a due process that all Texas citizens are entitled to. Citizens and permanent residents who pay taxes and contribute to the well being of the state deserve to benefit from the services that the state provides.
However, the statistic numbers stated earlier in my post cannot be denied. The benefits from the current immigrant workforce is greater than the negative impact. Thus my goal here is to propose an idea that can increase the benefits that the state receives from immigrant workers while keeping the amount of services provided (cost) by the state at its current level or even possibly lowering the cost.
I recommend that when Texas identifies a person as an illegal immigrant, that Texas evaluates the person's current status and grants he or she a work permit based on their productivity and contribution to the Texas economy. I also advise that Texas revise some of its work permit renewal rules. As of right now, a person with a permit cannot simply renew their permit but must go through the initial process all over again and pay all the fees required. For me, this is a very short sighted tax that can uproot a hardworking legal family that contributes positively to the economy. There is even a ban on applicants requesting an unskilled (labor, low-wage jobs) worker permit. Though these "unskilled" jobs are not "difficult", who and how many people in America are willing to do these "unskilled" jobs?
Overall, Texas should continue its war on illegal immigration but it must not slash and burn all in its sight. Extreme measures like the Arizon immigration laws should be considered with caution. We must be calm and collective and fair to the immigrant workers that exhibit the same great hard working Texas spirit that Texans have. The word Texas means friends and we should always be willing to accept new friends who are willing to do their part and pull their weight. I feel that Texas can always use productive workers to help our economy grow. The war on illegal immigration should be against those who promote violence, drugs, and laziness. Those who are here illegally and provide no positive contribution to society while devouring the resources that Texas' communities work hard to provide should be deported. I only request that we take a closer examination to differentiate those who affect us negatively from those that affect us positively.
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