Valley coalition to fight anti-immigritation proposals from economic perspective

Texas Christian conservatives not abiding by their faith

I'm glad to report that there's a concerted effort in the Valley to attempt to stave off about 50 anti-immigration bills which have been filed for this year's Texas legislature. Since hard-nosed republicans have proven that they could care less about the needs of the less fortunate, a group of social activists throughout the lower Rio Grande Valley plan to fight these proposed laws with the argument that it's bad for the economy. This is probably the best angle to take since money speaks louder than does morality to Texas conservatives.  The McAllen Monitor reports on this effort: 

  The Common Sense Immigration Reform-Rio Grande Valley Consortium — a group of social advocacy groups, university student clubs and other agencies formed in December to oppose the legislation — is collecting hundreds of the resolutions in advance of the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance’s Feb. 22 state Capitol rally against the pending legislation.

The group is opposed to more than 50 bills, including voter ID legislation, proposals that require local enforcement of federal immigration law and bills that require school districts to determine the citizenship of enrolled students. Other opposed bills would prevent the state from printing documents in Spanish, deny citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants and prohibit undocumented residents from bringing a claim in state court.

On cards handed out to supporters, the consortium says the “divisive state legislation” will harm the state economy, impose unsustainable costs on state and municipal governments and endanger public safety if families can’t trust local law enforcement. The consortium says the proposed legislation would cause an exodus of immigrant workers, threatening an available workforce supply, and could eliminate cross-border shopping and tourism.

Father Alfonso Guevera, a member of the advisory council for the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville which is also against the proposals, said the legislation would create unnecessary tensions among Hispanics. "It’s based on myths, misunderstandings and half truths,” Guevera said about bills he described as prejudicial against Hispanics. “We hope portraying it as an economic development issue will bring sanity and reason to the debate.”