Thread: Immigration politics get more brutal-Houston

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 56049.html




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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Rick Casey

Aug. 31, 2006, 10:29PM



Immigration politics get more brutal
By RICK CASEY


Houston businessman Norman Adams is a member of the committee that writes the Texas Republican Party's platform.

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He's against any new taxes, including Gov. Perry's new business tax.

He's against gay marriage.

He's for doing whatever it takes to stem illegal immigration at the borders.

In fact, he would like the Federal Communications Commission to set a deadline for all radio and television stations to be required to broadcast in English.

So why are some of what he calls "my right-wing conservative friends" asking him when he became a communist?

It started, he said, with a message he sent out by e-mail. County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill was supporting a petition drive to get the city of Houston to use its police to find illegal immigrants.

"I sent out a letter opposing it," said Adams, "and now they all think I'm a communist."


A capitalist argument
Actually, his opposition is based on his being a capitalist. Adams is in the insurance business, and many of his clients are in the construction industry.

"Over the years, I've come to know their problems," he said.

One of their problems, he said, is coming up with enough legal workers if all illegal immigrants are deported.

"We the people for 20 years have allowed unregulated, open immigration," he said. "The fact is that us white guys and black guys have not had enough kids to fill all the jobs, and many of our kids go to college and don't want to work in the sun hauling drywall around."

As a result, the construction industry, among others, is heavily dependent on illegal labor.

"The majority of my good right-wing conservative compadres are all screaming to put these people on a truck to the border and lock up all the employers," he said. "But we allowed the number to get so big, you could not staff a job without them. The I-10 widening project would come to a screeching halt."


Rebutting talk show hosts
So, Adams has been helping organize a local industry group to get that message to the politicians.

"Up till now, we had let the talk show hosts and others carry the load on this," he said, noting that a lot of employers have kept their heads down for fear of being raided.

Called Texans for a Sensible Immigration Policy, the group had its third organizational meeting yesterday. Adams said members include the Greater Houston Homebuilders Association and the Houston chapters of Associated General Contractors, Associated Builders and Contractors and the American Subcontractors Association.

The group has begun meeting one-on-one with key politicians.

"We've already met with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Senator John Cornyn. We'll be meeting with Congressmen Ted Poe and John Culberson," he said.

Their message will be a practical one.

Not only would mass deportation cripple key sectors of the economy, but fixing it means being able to tax it.

Right now, Adams figures, illegal immigrants working with phony Social Security numbers, along with their employers, pay about $24 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes, for which few will reap any benefits.

He estimates a similar amount in taxes is avoided by "independent contractors" who are paid in cash without any taxes being collected.

"We want to identify them, tax them and eliminate the cash operators," he said.

He figures getting those who are now in the underground economy on the tax rolls would mean at least another $24 billion. In addition, he would require a minimum 15 percent in income tax withholdings, generating, he thinks, another $48 billion or so.

Actually, those revenues likely would go up, since one of the effects of legalizing these workers would almost certainly be higher wages for those in the underground economy, who now have no legal protections.

Adams thinks this argument will make more sense to Republican lawmakers than focusing on the "rights" of foreign workers. He may be right, but another dynamic also may have an impact.

The employers that make up the organization are significant campaign contributors. What's more, the Dallas Morning News ran an article this week making similar arguments — and signed by a list that included both Houston home builder Bob Perry and San Antonio hospital bed magnate James Leininger, the two largest Republican contributors in the state.

And the politically powerful Texas Association of Business last week joined Mexican-American legislators in supporting broad-based immigration reform.

This could get brutal. Candidates who thought they could happily play to the fear and anger of grass-roots voters now have to face the business anxieties of big-time contributors who finance their campaigns.

You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.


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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Rick Casey
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 56049.html

Translation:

These businesses are making a bundle with illegal aliens while American workers pick up the tab. They don't want that gravy train to be stopped.

This is a bunch of hewey! There are studies out there showing that there would be a minimal impact on America if we sent all the illegals home.

I'm sure some unethical business will suffer and I don't care. They shouldn't be making a profit by committing crimes and they need to be shut down and put out of work. Just like the Americans they have been cheating out of jobs. Also, ligitimate business will rise up in their place. America will right the wrongs caused by a cheap illegal labor force.

Dixie

"The majority of my good right-wing conservative compadres are all screaming to put these people on a truck to the border and lock up all the employers," he said. "But we allowed the number to get so big, you could not staff a job without them. The I-10 widening project would come to a screeching halt."

Be careful how you use that word, "WE". WE didn't ask those illegal aliens to come here, YOU did. As for politicians worrying about not getting their campaign funds from businesses that employ illegal aliens, you better worry instead about all of us voters who won't vote for you, if you don't stop illegal immigration and secure our borders. All the campaign funds in the world, won't amount to a hill of beans when WE vote against YOU.