However, Houston, we have a problem!  The strict laws of those two states are pushing more illegal aliens into Texas!  See this report:

Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona, Oklahoma for Texas (YES IT WORKS)

myfoxhouston.com ^ | 021308 | AP

Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 3:27:11 AM by VU4G10

HOUSTON — Illegal immigrants are coming into Texas, but not from where one might think. The rush is coming from Arizona, Oklahoma and other states — places that have recently passed tough new anti-illegal immigrant laws.

The two toughest measures are in Arizona and Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma statute, which took effect in November, makes it a crime to transport, harbor or hire illegal immigrants. Effective Jan. 1, the Arizona law suspends the business license of employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. On a second offense, the license is revoked.

Anecdotal information seems to indicate that illegal immigrants are leaving these states in growing numbers.

“They’re really tightening the screws,” said Mario Ortiz, an undocumented Mexican worker who came to Houston after leaving Phoenix last year. “There have been a lot coming — it could be 100 a day.”

In Tulsa, Okla., the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has estimated that 15,000 to 25,000 illegal immigrants have left the area. One builder estimated that 30 percent of the Hispanic work force left Tulsa.

“There’s been a tremendous impact in Oklahoma City,” said David Castillo, the executive director of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve had several companies close shop and leave the state. Banks have called us and say they’re closing 30 accounts per week.”

Enrique Hubbard, Mexico’s consul general in Dallas, said a dozen Mexican families from Oklahoma have applied for consular documents listing their new homes in the Dallas area. He expects more to arrive because jobs are available in north Texas.

Texas’ reputation as a welcoming destination has experts predicting more immigrants will come to Houston and other cities in the state. Texas has not passed any statewide law targeting the employment of undocumented workers.

“Texas is still very much an entrepreneurial place, where you can find your place in this economy,” said James Hollifield, a Southern Methodist University professor and migration expert. “It’s not an immigrant’s paradise, but if you work hard and keep your head down you can get ahead.”

Ortiz, a native of southern Mexican state of Tabasco, said he left Phoenix eight months ago working 60 to 70 hours a week as a nursery worker. While now he can only pick up two to three days a week of yardwork and barely earns enough to send back to his family, he prefers to be in Texas.

“Here, they let you work. Over there, they won’t. There is a lot of racism, but here there isn’t — it’s better,” Ortiz said of Houston.

Now Texas, and that means the Texas Legislature, has a decision to make.  Do we welcome these criminals, and the cost they represent to the taxpayer, or do we deal with them by making Texas a less hospitable environment?

Mario Ortiz (in the article above) is probably a fine man.  He wants to work.  He has a family to feed.  Who can blame him for breaking a law that impedes his ability to work for a living and to help his family in Mexico get ahead?  Certainly not me.  As a matter of fact, if I were in his position, I’d be doing exactly what Mario is doing.  Can’t blame him for the problem.  Indeed, Mario Ortiz is not really the problem.  We’ve had Mexican nationals coming to Texas to work for 150 years, and those who work have been among our pioneers — they have helped build Texas.  They bring a work ethic that Americans would do well to emulate, but we won’t.  We need hard workers, period.

The problem is Mario’s wife, and his relatives, many of whom come to live the easy life of getting government benefits.  When they come to work hard, they are an asset, and we should see what we can do to make it easier for hard-working foreigners to get jobs,  But when they come for the benefits, then they are a net drain on the taxpayer, they are an anchor to fiscal health, and the fact is, they are a blight on society.  Being idle and subsidized, they have little to do except get into trouble.

The solution is not to arrest Mario for wanting to work.  Nor is it to penalize those who hire Mario.

The solution is to turn off the valves of welfare and government entitlements, period!!!  Now, frankly, I think that should apply to all foreigners who got here legally, as well as illegally.  Benefits (“entitlements”) should go to citizens only, in my opinion, but I’m willing to compromise and focus first on illegal aliens.  They should get no welfare, no WIC, no Aid to Dependent Children, no free access to government schools, no free lunches, no free vaccinations, no free medical treatment, no free nada!!!

You turn off the Welfare Valves, and where will those welfare addicts go?  In reality, many of them will deport themselves, once the freebies are ended.  Many will go home.  The hard-working ones will just keep on working hard at their jobs.  They are paying their way.  But the leeches will go somewhere else.  And it looks like it won’t be Oklahoma or Arizona!  So maybe they’ll go to California.  Or New York.  Or some other state whose insane policies of welfare will cause them to be a magnet to the sponges who think we owe them a living because they come from a poor country.

ACTION:  Please drop a note to your State Rep and State Senator, and ask them to DO THEIR JOB (for a change) and to deal with this problem using common sense in Texas — TURN OFF THE WELFARE VALVES!

© Daniel D. New, Permission to copy, with credits, is hereby granted.-