There has been a lot of debate surrounding our state's border security over the past few years. Recently, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed House Bill 11 into a law which has added even more fuel to the fire towards the border security debate. This bill, a massive move by lawmakers during the 84th Legislature, ramps up security measures along the border by bolstering the ranks of state police, increases threat detection technology, and further establishes intelligence operations along the Texas-Mexico border. Personally, I believe that this was the right move by Governor Abbott because it shows Texas taking initiative on an issue in which the Federal government fails to realize is actually affecting the entire country.
Why is this a good measure to take? Well, for starters, our state has a tremendous amount of illegal immigrants that are causing a myriad of issues and concerns for Texas citizens. These illegal immigrants are increasing crime rates among all of the Texas cities that they live in. They are creating an unsafe environment for our children, our families, and for ourselves. With more than 25,000 illegal immigrants continuing to come migrate across our state's border each and every month (by the way - this is an increasing number), this issue goes from a local border region issue to a state-wide issue to a national issue quite rapidly. Sure, these illegals are providing basic jobs for our communities, but they are also stealing jobs from our nation's citizens who actually contribute to the unemployment rates around the country. Lastly, many of these illegal immigrants participate in both drug trafficking and sex trafficking, both which are highly illegal and wrong. If you don't believe me, I can assure you that this is definitely happening. In the matter of fact, I-35 which runs from the Texas Border all the way up to Minnesota, is number one on the list for national highways with the most sex trafficking and drug smuggling activity. Preventing these illegals from crossing the Texas-Mexico border will increase safety levels, will serve to assist more legal citizens obtain jobs, and will also cut down on unwanted and illegal trafficking that is currently taking place.
Many who have followed the Texas Legislature's attempts to stop this ongoing threat remain opposed the signing of House Bill 11. These individuals claim that this movement will be just another failed attempt to secure our border, that it will cost the state a large amount of money (the bill is slated to cost around $310 million), and that its efforts will inevitably be useless. I can understand the legitimacy and the point that they are trying to convey in their argument - that this is all a big waste of our state's time and money. However, I strongly believe that continued action is needed on our border due to the lack of attention and action that is being given to us from a federal level.
When asked about two unsuccessful legislative proposals involving illegal immigrants in the past including in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants and the banning of sanctuary cities, Governor Abbott responded with how focused he was to solve the border issue specifically. Abbott exclaimed, "The issues exist in the first place because we have a failed federal government that has refused to address the issues to tackle those problems. Those are national, federal-based issues that we demand the United States federal government address and solve. Texas is doing what it can do by passing this border security plan."
Even if these attempts by House Bill 11 to secure the Texas-Mexico border are not the "most perfect" of solutions, I am proud of our Governor stepping up to the challenge and doing his best to secure it. I believe that it is about time that the federal government should wake up from the border security coma that it is currently in and start to help out too.
Your post “House Bill 11 - A Necessary Measure Taken by Governor Abbott” talks about Texas’ initiative to stop illegal immigration from Mexico and why Governor Abbott took the “right move” by passing the House Bill 11. This may be a correct statement, but the reasoning behind your support isn’t strong.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons you supports this bill are that “these illegal immigrants are increasing crime rates among all the Texas cities that they live in,” they are “stealing jobs,” and allegedly “many of these illegal immigrants participate in both drug trafficking and sex trafficking.” Against the first argument, with higher population comes higher crime rate. To blame the change in crime rate on immigrants specifically is a false cause. That doesn’t mean it definitely is wrong, but it isn’t a fact that the higher crime rate is because of the crime Mexicans are bringing into the U.S., the crime rate is always larger in higher populated areas. In response to the second argument, immigrants don’t steal jobs because the jobs immigrants typically work aren’t jobs that people want or are willing to do. More often than not, these are low paying service jobs that need to be done, but pay is too low to be an attractive job to average citizens, and this is the job market immigrants typically come for. Lastly, you state that drug and sex trafficking happen and many of the immigrants are involved in the system. After this accusation, you give no statistics or even a quote from a credible source saying this is true, but just suggests we take your word for it. This statistic could be completely forged with no evidence.
Of course this blog is opinion based and you has every right to believe that House Bill 11 is necessary and productive, but these arguments don’t have me convinced. This article more so makes me further the conversation by asking is the problem illegal immigration or are the immigrants not welcome?