Monday, November 29, 2010

Texas Should Reject An Anti-immigration Law

After I heard rumors that Texas might implement an anti-immigration law, I started to research about the topic. The Texas state representative, Debbie Riddle, introduced HB 17 law and it is similar to the anti-immigration law in Arizona (SB 1070). The HB 17 is shorter and will make police officers stop suspect people to see if they are undocumented aliens, based on the officer’s own judgment. If a suspect does not have proper documentation to prove his or her status in this country, he or she will be detained and will be reported to the INS. This type of identification procedure is not going to work because the police officer does not have a proper training or have a clue how to differentiate between a documented immigrant and undocumented immigrant. They also don’t have a good system to store documentation. This law, I believe, will mostly affect the Hispanic community because they are the largest immigrant group in the U.S. Texas is known for its pro-business policies that attracts a lot of entrepreneurs and benefits the state and provides jobs for many Texans. The Hispanic community is the leading community of entrepreneurs in the U.S. and HB 17 will drive away these entrepreneurs because they are going to feel discriminated against with this type of law that persecutes their community. The last thing that Texas needs at this moment is to harm businesses.
Some people believe that undocumented immigrants come to the U.S just to take advantage of the benefits that the government offers but this is not true. These immigrants spend a lot of money buying groceries and clothing for their families. Texas relies on state sales taxes and these immigrants pay taxes every time they purchase something and that benefits the state’s economy.

My family and I had the privilege to obtain our resident cards via my mom’s family, but that is not the case for other immigrants. The main reason documented or undocumented immigrants come to the U.S is for better opportunities for them and their children. They are hard workers, persevering and self starters. Also most of the undocumented immigrants respect the law and try to stay out of trouble to keep their family united.

I am against a law that will discriminate against immigrants and will affect the Texan economy. In the state and in the country we need an immigration reform that promotes legalization for the thousands of hard working immigrants that are committed to respect the laws of this country and will contribute to the success for the U.S.

3 comments:

  1. My school colleague has stated Texas should not pass a new immigration law that will probably be introduced in the next legislative session, because law enforcement officers are not trained to recognize a documented from an undocumented alien. However the state and cities do not want to constantly be pulled into court for violating someone’s constitutional rights. I’m sure if this law is past they will get the training to properly handle the situation.

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  3. Immigration, one of the biggest issues of Texas. One of my classmate article was about Texas rejecting an Anti-immigrant law. She is completely against this Anti-immigrant law, and debates saying that this law is going to affect Texas economy. She has talked about the HB 17 law which is followed by Arizona. The police authorities don’t have specific idea or training which will help them to differentiate between document and undocumented immigrants. I believe it is not a legit procedure to do so.
    Now talking about immigrants, let me ask you why do we think people move to U.S.? The answer is simple they want a better and secure life for them and their families. Let me remind you all also that people think that these undocumented people take all the government benefits which is not true. These undocumented immigrants work hard in for living. As Texas depends on sales tax and property tax, these immigrants are benefiting the state by their expense. And as we all have the warning of upcoming budget shortfall, we definitely don’t want to hurt our economy.
    Overall, from this article I can conclude that we need to revise old immigration law, and legalize these undocumented hardworking immigrants, and let them work legally which definitely helps the country economy.

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