Texas has great concern when it comes to border security and illegal immigration, but what about the other ended extreme --- increasing legal immigration in Texas? By naturalizing more and more illegal immigrants are we fixing the problem or causing another? There will be 18,000 more applications approved for naturalization in the fiscal year and even fewer denied compared to the previous year. In 2010, the field offices for naturalization in Dallas, El Paso, Harlingen, Houston and San Antonio approved over 48,900 applications and only denied 4,610 applications. There is a definite increase in legal immigration with the USCIS often finishing the application process in less than 5 months to assure it is in the same fiscal year time frame. I think the naturalization of more immigrants may cause some uproar with unemployment effects, job opportunities lost to current Texans and a possible political shift in Texas.
However, an increase in legal immigration means they are not exempt from taxes or fees that come with being a citizen and therefore will bring more economy to the Texas government. I would rather have an increase in taxpayers that can legally contribute to society than an increase in illegal immigrants that are taking jobs without paying their dues. Jobs will be an issue whether people are legal or illegal immigrants, but if we increase the number of citizens naturalized we are increasing the Texas government income. The Texas budget could surely use the extra money accumulated from new taxpayers that are earnest to work in Texas. With this, might come a future of a minority majority and could alter the way Texas government runs today, possibly for the better. Texas certainly could use change! The benefits of increasing legal immigrants surely out ways the issues created by illegal immigrants in Texas.
A classmate, the owner of the blog Hook ‘em Freedom, discussed the issues of legal immigration in Texas. Although Texas has a strict and secured system for illegal immigrants entering our state, the approval of legal immigrants’ applications increased. This conflict affects the job opportunities for Texans, increase in unemployment rates, and accumulate the government’s budget. However, the benefits of these immigrants are bringing more economy to the government (they have to pay taxes too), increase the minority majority, and possibly shift the government’s views and effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteIt’s anticipating that Texas is gaining population from both legal and illegal immigration today. Although legal immigration is not much of an issue, the extraction of illegal immigrants is still a struggle. I don’t agree that our system is effective in protecting our state from illegal immigration because thousands of undocumented aliens enter Texas each year. It’s also been stated that we have a broken immigration system and it’s not fair or right towards Texas citizens.
Okay, about legal immigration… yes, it provides better opportunities and more diversity but the costs outweigh the benefits for our state. The issue that current Texans can’t find jobs is due to immigration taking over the job opportunities. I could care less if they provide minor benefits because we can easily provide that (such as diversity… we have enough minorities. These individuals’ reproduction, along with natural selection, will create a much greater diversity without the need of new immigrants coming to our state).
My classmate indicated that legal immigrants introduce more taxpayers, which will prevent the rise in taxes for other citizens. BUT think about, what triggers the increase in taxes? Yes, more people accessing into our state. If we didn’t have a skyrocketed population of immigrants in Texas (regardless if they’re legal or illegal), taxes wouldn’t be a problem. We would have a somewhat constant population rate from each generation, meaning that we’ll have taxes that are somewhat constant as well. Immigration activates these add-on issues; our state doesn’t need anymore problems and should focus on the existing controversies.
I don’t mind having legal immigration in our state… it’s just the huge numbers that Texas has to deal with. If our state improve the illegal immigration system and limit the approval of legal immigrations, maybe we’ll prevail before the issues become terminal and hopeless.
The blog post “Other Extreme of Immigration… Legalizing More!” written in the Hook’em Freedom Writer, discusses the issue of increasing number of applications for legal immigration and the potential impacts on the state of Texas. I feel that there are both positive and negative results of this change. On the negative side, there is the possibility of an increase in violence and drug trafficking. Additionally, there is concern over the possibility of immigrants taking jobs away from Texans. There are, however, positive attributes to an increase in legal immigration as well. For example, more workers in Texas mean an increase in the number of taxpayers in the state. This increase in revenue could help decrease the state’s deficit. The blog post favors the idea of increasing the number of legal immigrants, as do I.
ReplyDeleteA legal immigrant coming to Texas is no different than another American from a different state coming to Texas to find a job. The taxes would be the same for both individuals. The potential for both to take jobs away from Texans is the same. The only difference between the two is that of the place of origin.
I see the view of both sides on this argument, but tend to lean on the side of agreeing with the Hook’em Freedom Writer. As long as the immigrants that we legalize go through all the necessary channels of approval and are not known to be of any danger, why not let our great state grow in legal population?