A couple of months ago, the city of Farmers Branch [just north of Dallas] passed some bigoted ordinances that were like a slap in the face to over 37% of its population -- Hispanics. The ordinances make it a crime for landlords to rent to undocumented immigrants, make English the official language of the city and directs it's police department to enforce federal immigration laws.
Of course, the bigoted ordinances totally ignore some realities about the state of Texas. Not only were Hispanics in Texas for hundreds of years before white settlers came, but many Hispanics fought with the rebels who won Texas' independence from Mexico. You just need to look at the names of many Texas counties and cities to see the large number of Hispanic heroes in the state.
Hispanics have always been a valuable part of the population, history and culture of Texas, and they always will be. The ethnic bigotry shown by the Farmers Branch city council cannot change that fact.
The ordinances are bigoted because while they are aimed at a specific portion of our population, they really do not address the one issue which could really have a dramatic effect on illegal immigration -- the employers who take advantage of undocumented workers so they won't have to pay a decent wage.
It won't matter how many ordinances are passed or fences are built, the illegal immigration will continue as long as there are jobs for them to fill. All these ordinances will accomplish is to make life harder for all Hispanics -- even those who are citizens and legal residents.
It also is going to cost the citizens of Farmers Branch thousands of dollars to defend the silly ordinances in court. There has already been one lawsuit filed by a real estate broker and Farmers Branch resident, saying the city council violated the state's open meetings law in passing the ordinances.
Last Friday, three apartment houses joined together and filed another lawsuit against the city. They are asking a federal court to declare the rental ordinance to be unconstitutional. They are also asking the court to stop the ordinance from going into effect on January 12th.
A petition has been submitted to the city council with 1400 signatures demanding a vote on repealing the ordinances. Only 726 signatures were needed for the election to be held -- probably next May.
The ACLU and several Hispanic organizations are also considering lawsuits. Some may consider this as "piling on". I say the more the merrier. The city has embarrassed themselves, the Metroplex and the entire state of Texas. They must either withdraw the ordinances or pay the price for their bigotry.
UPDATE -- Well, that didn't take long! Today, the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have filed suit against the city of Farmers Branch. The plaintiffs are a couple of landlords, some Hispanic citizens, and some children who are U.S. citizens, but fear the ordinances will force them to seperate from their parents.
This makes three lawsuits and a repeal petition now. Looks like Farmers Branch bought themselves a lot of trouble with their bigoted ordinances.
Dear Jobsanger,
ReplyDeleteCalling an illegal alien an undocumented immigrant is like calling a burglar an uninvited house guest.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing - Albert Einstein
If the federal government wont do their job then let the local level do it for them as it is draining our economy and social services.
You apparently don’t get it, you are preaching 1 side of the story and apparently are not capable of reasoning or weighing out the pros and cons.
First of all they are illegal, they entered the country illegally and many of them stole identities to work in this country once they got here. Stolen identities is a huge problem and the victims spend hundreds of hours trying to clear their names and often are negatively affected with their credit for several years which is an additional cost to them in the form of higher interest when they seek loans.
Below are some additional interesting fact points that you apparently don’t know or failed to post.
Posted in numerous news paper articles - Illegal Aliens receiving better health care than American Citizens, A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants.
WASHINGTON – The worst forms of a drug-resistant killer tuberculosis bug, rapidly spreading throughout the world, have been gaining ground in the United States along with record legal and illegal immigration levels, alarming public-health officials over a disease once thought vanquished.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com- Hispanic Baby Boom Follows New Orleans Hurricane
December 12, 2006
Eduardo Porter -- The New York Times Media Group
The New Orleans hosiptals are financialy struggling due to high illegal birth rate.
First came the storm. Then came the workers. Now comes the baby boom. In the latest twist to the demographic transformation of New Orleans since it was swamped by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, hundreds of babies are being born to Hispanic immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, who flocked to the city to work on the reconstruction.
For those that argue they pay their taxes:
Center for Immigration Studies
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
The High Cost of Cheap Labor
Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget
Executive Summary
Among the findings:
Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.
Among the largest costs are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).
With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services.
On average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households.
Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth. Thus, greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.
If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion.
Costs increase dramatically because unskilled immigrants with legal status -- what most illegal aliens would become -- can access government programs, but still tend to make very modest tax payments.
Although legalization would increase average tax payments by 77 percent, average costs would rise by 118 percent.
The fact that legal immigrants with few years of schooling are a large fiscal drain does not mean that legal immigrants overall are a net drain -- many legal immigrants are highly skilled.
The vast majority of illegals hold jobs. Thus the fiscal deficit they create for the federal government is not the result of an unwillingness to work.
The results of this study are consistent with a 1997 study by the National Research Council, which also found that immigrants' education level is a key determinant of their fiscal impact.
I still say if you want to solve the undocumented worker problem, go after the employers who hire them. When there are no jobs for them, they will stop coming.
ReplyDeleteThe actions of Farmers Branch will not stop them. It will only make life harder for our Hispanic citizens.