Evidence That The Feds Are Doing The Job?
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the federal government is taking care of business on the illegal immigration front, to the tune of more than one million non-citizens leaving the United States in the last calendar year alone. That number represents an 11 percent drop in the illegal immigrant population, and if this trend holds then the total illegal immigrant population will be cut in half in five years.
And in a related story, the City of Farmers Branch is still up in arms.
The catalysts in all this appears to be the Department of Homeland Security, who has put a greater emphasis on immigration enforcement by keeping a closer eye on the hiring practices of American businesses. But not all of the departing immigrants are being forced out. Many are also leaving on their own, citing the national recession and the feeling that the major league baseball season is too long as their primary reasons why.
Now, the interesting thing in my eyes is the dynamic this creates with other recent news stories on the immigration enforcement topic. Take for example the court overturning of Farmers Branch’s city ordinance against landowners who rent to non-citizens and the injunction placed on portions of the Oklahoma plan. Both were cases where a judge said that state and local governments had over-stepped their authority. And now we can add to that another story that says that the true authority on the matter is handling the issue in a productive manner.
Anyone else feeling the air start to deflate out of that state enforcement against illegal immigration balloon? Or is it just me?
And that is what I see this story creating for those in Texas who want the state to take on a much bigger role in immigration enforcement…a double edged sword. Obviously the news of an 11 percent reduction in illegal immigration population is good news to them since reducing the number of illegal citizens is the end goal. But for those hoping to get a reform package out of the Legislature, this report is likely to be detrimental to that cause.
Think about how much harder this report makes finding 76 House members and 16 Senators to agree that enforcement at the state level is an emergency issue of which Texas needs to go outside of its bounds to address. Honestly, how does Leo Berman expect to pass an enforcement bill next session when Mr. Anchia takes to the back mike with this report in hand and slaps him around with it by offering the opinion that the feds have enforcement under control?
I don’t know how Mr. Berman will hold up in that situation. But rest assured that we will find out because there’s no way this report stops his crusade.
One Response to “Evidence That The Feds Are Doing The Job?”
By el_longhorn on Aug 4, 2008
I am all for the “enforcement is working” argument if it keeps all the anti-immigrant legislation bottled up in committee, but I really don’t think that is what’s happening. Immigration is, first and foremost, an economic phenomenon. Immigrants are disproportionately employed in sectors of the economy that are not doing well - construction and landscaping, in particular. Also, immigrants are very sensitive to these economic changes - if the market is not doing well, better to go back to Mexico and wait for the recovery than continue to pay the high cost of living in the US and eat up the family savings. When the housing market picks up again and the US economy gets some life, they will be back. A good job making good money is a powerful motivator.
Also, where did those CIS numbers come from? Their annual survey of illegal immigrant households? That 12 million illegal immigrants number was spouted off by some expert (with little evidence backing him up), picked up by the media, and has now been repeated so much it is considered the gospel truth. Reality is we don’t know how many illegal immigrants are here, much less how many have left over the last year.