Thread: Hammond: Arizona-style immigration laws would hurt Texas

Hammond: Arizona-style immigration laws would hurt Texas
Bill Hammond, Special Contributor
Published: 6:41 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Texans have every right to be frustrated with the federal government's failure to fix our nation's broken immigration system, but enacting Arizona-style laws would only make matters worse.

The business community opposes Arizona-style legislation and other copycat measures in Texas. We are concerned such laws would increase the deficit, cost Texas jobs and impose an unfunded mandate on local law enforcement while diverting anti-crime resources.

Texas Employers for Immigration Reform (TEIR), a coalition of businesses, trade associations and individual employers, believes that Texas, along with the rest of America, needs comprehensive reform at the federal level to fix the nation's broken immigration system once and for all.

TEIR wants a fair, orderly and controlled system of border security, immigration and workplace enforcement that provides workers with the legal ability to contribute to our state's economic success. We have encouraged debate in Washington because we believe our nation can only succeed in reforming our immigration laws through federal action.

Unfortunately, some Texas lawmakers don't see it that way. They have attempted to raise their public profiles with a slew of ill-conceived anti-immigrant bills, the most egregious of which punishes employers who hire illegal workers. At the least, those lawmakers might have considered that the E-verify federal database is unworkable.

As a 2007 U.S. Department of Homeland Security study shows, 10 percent of all naturalized U.S. citizens have errors in their files that would make them ineligible to work. Requiring businesses to use the unreliable E-verify system would burden employers in an already difficult economy and would make it harder, not easier, to create the jobs in Texans.

Less than a year after Arizona passed its immigration law, the state's tourism industry is scrambling to mitigate the damage to the state and local economies. It has lost sporting events, conventions, conferences and meetings to other states at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. A recent economic study estimates $141 million in lost spending as of November 2010. And the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association reported that 19 meetings had been canceled because of the law, costing $6 million in lost revenue to the state.

The City of Phoenix has estimated that boycotts could cost the city $90 million in hotel and convention business over five years, not including incidental spending in local restaurants and shops.

In July, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer allocated $250,000 to help repair the state's image because its "brand has been beaten up," and "there is a sense that (Arizona) has fallen to the bottom, maybe as far as the South in the 1960s," according to business leaders.

Arizona-style immigration laws would overload county jails, courts and budgets and would not provide for training or technology needed for enforcement. It would require Texas law enforcement officials to ask about immigration status during any lawful stop or detention when they have "reasonable suspicion" the person hviolated immigration laws. The Arizona law does not define "reasonable suspicion."

Legal immigrants who do not carry their papers with them at all times would be charged with a crime and held in jail until their status could be certified. Many people with pending legal status do not have documentation and cannot obtain any despite the fact immigration officials know they are here.

Police would be forced to hold suspects in custody until immigration status has been verified. Many police agencies in Texas do not have the capability to determine legal status, so they would have to contact immigration officials. Immigration officials, because of their many other duties, do not have time to verify a person's legal status. That means legal immigrants could sit in jail for days.

Top law enforcement officials in Arizona have opposed the law, including the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, noting that fear of police will diminish the public's willingness to report crimes and assist with the investigations; that erodes the ability to protect the community.

That's no way to do immigration reform. The best way — in fact, the only way — is for Congress to enact a sensible, balanced approach that secures our borders, toughens sanctions on those who willingly violate the law, and provides businesses with the labor force they need to produce and deliver their goods to market.

We hope that wiser heads will prevail in Austin and that lawmakers will reject Arizona-type legislation because it is bad for Texas.

Hammond is president of the Texas Association 
of Business and a board member of Texas 
Employers for Immigration Reform.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/hammon ... ss_opinion

as a Texan, TEIR does not speak for me.

immigration reform?? NO WAY. how about just enforce the laws already on the books

And as a Future Texan he won't speak for me either!

It can't hurt Texas any more than swarms of illegal aliens are hurting it. now can it? So let's do what we were promised over 20 years ago, ENFORCE THE DAMN LAWS WE ALREADY HAVE!! NOW!!!