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 Business News | August 2006 
Path to Become Citizens Backed
 John Moritz - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
| | "Read my lips: We are not for amnesty" |
Austin, TX - The state's largest business lobby and the Democrat-dominated Mexican American Legislative Caucus joined forces Wednesday to embrace a plan that would encourage citizenship for undocumented workers who steer clear of trouble and take steps to assimilate into American culture.
The head of the Texas Association of Business, a conservative organization representing 140,000 employers, said the state and national economies depend on work provided by millions of illegal immigrants.
'Many Texas businesses depend on immigrant workers to stay open,' said Bill Hammond, the association's president. 'And we need to create a way for these workers to enter the U.S. legally.'
Hammond made the remarks at a news conference in the Capitol flanked by six Democratic lawmakers whose districts contain sizable Latino populations. It came as Republican Gov. Rick Perry was preparing to host the annual Border Governors Conference, which opens today in Austin with the chief executives of 10 U.S. and Mexican states that share international borders.
Experts estimate that about 12 million people are in the U.S. illegally. And Congress is divided over whether any overhaul of the nation's immigration policies should focus largely on enforcement measures or whether undocumented workers should have a chance to earn citizenship.
State Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat and a member of the Mexican American caucus, which has 41 Democrats and two Republicans, praised the business group for shunning much of the harsh anti-immigrant talk that he said has dominated the overhaul debate.
'Read my lips: We are not for amnesty,' Anchia said. 'This group is not for amnesty. ... We want to give [undocumented workers] a path to citizenship.'
The path would include staying out of further legal trouble, learning English and U.S. civics, and paying fines and back taxes, both organizations said. Both also said any effort to build a Brownsville-to-Tijuana border wall, as some have suggested, would be impractical and shortsighted.
Such a barrier, Hammond said, 'would be viewed by many in this state and many in Mexico as an insult. It would be the wrong message to send.'
Hammond also said Congress should create a system that would enable employers to readily determine whether a job applicant's proof of work eligibility is legitimate.
Perry, who has dispatched National Guard troops to help law enforcement officials along the Texas-Mexico border, said he expects immigration to dominate discussions at the two-day governors conference.
Although he said he had no quarrel with the proposals endorsed by the legislative caucus and the business lobby, he insisted that the top priority should be border security.
Perry renewed his call for the federal government to send more border security resources to the states and said he plans to ask lawmakers next year to allocate $100 million to support ongoing state initiatives along the Rio Grande. |
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