Hispanic Heritage Month

It’s Hispanic Heritage month. It’s that odd month-long celebration that takes the last half of September and the first half of October.

I think most folks in Parker County pay little attention to it, but anywhere you stand in Parker County as far as the eye can see was once Spain and then Mexico.

Most people think of Illegal Hispanic immigrants as a burden on the Texas economy, but numerous studies by the Texas Comptroller’s office and other institutions including the Rice University Baker Institute show that to be completely false. These studies show that illegal immigrants contribute $17 billion to Texas’ gross domestic product.

The last study by the Comptroller’s Office in 2006 showed undocumented immigrants generated $1.58 billion in state revenue. There hasn’t been much impetus by the legislature to do another study because they didn’t get the answer they were expecting.

One study showed that 1.9 million undocumented workers contributed $4.9 billion in state and local taxes in recent years.

If every illegal alien could be deported to Mexico tomorrow, the Texas economy would collapse.

Home builders in the Aledo area rely on this skilled labor.

The reason these people enter illegally is mostly because legal immigration is limited.

What we need to do us find more public policies to allow for legal immigration.

99% just want to work as did our forefathers.

We need to consider the facts and not the false rhetoric about illegal immigration.