Critique of: New Texas Immigration Law Proposed

                The blog post, “New Texas Immigration Law Proposed,” by Angie Avila, is about House Bill 2012. House Bill 2012 proposes to make it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for any job except, what they call “housework.”  Avila believes this bill is unfair to American citizens because the unemployment rate is so high, and illegal immigrants are taking all the jobs. I disagree with this statement. In my opinion, unemployed American citizens do not want to work at the jobs the illegal immigrants are “taking.” Most of the immigrants work construction or in the custodial industry and get paid minimum wage or less if under the table. I believe that illegal immigrants are taking the jobs that Americans do not want to do. I am on unemployment, and I make more money form unemployment benefits, than I would working as a janitor!

                Avila also states that House Bill 2012 would “allow others to look down on Latinos and only think of them for minor labor work.”  I feel like immigrant Latinos are already looked down upon only for minor labor work. For the most part, illegal immigrants usually know very little, if not any, English and cannot work in jobs that require communication. If a Latino is an American citizen, like me, then they would not have to worry about getting a normal job, however there is still racism around the workplace that will probably never go away. Sometimes I feel like people are surprised when I do not have an accent or speak any Spanish. I do, however, agree that the HB2012 will make Latinos being looked down even worse. As Avila put it, “the employer knows that they need that job, and if the employee complains [about harassment], they can replace them with another illegal immigrant right away.

                Avila is concerned about Americanized illegal immigrants who have been in this country for years. She states, “There are also the illegal immigrants who have lived in America most of their life, who have studied here, grown up with the same values as Americans and this bill would completely limit them to do house work since it would be very risky and illegal for someone to hire them.” That I do agree on 100%. There are illegal immigrants who came over here many years ago, and do not have any family in Mexico or do not know anyone in Mexico. This bill would affect them very negatively!

                Immigration is a huge problem in Texas, and if the bill is going to make it illegal for the hiring of illegal immigrants it should make it illegal for all jobs. However, I would propose that the illegal immigrants, that are here now, be made American citizens. Of course there would be certain parameters set to make them eligible for citizenship. Something like, showing proof of residency in America for a certain amount of years, or showing that they have been paying their taxes (even though some have fake SSN’s). Although this is not the perfect plain, it is a lot better than HB2012.