ILLEGALS MOVING FROM TOUGH ENFORCMENT STATES to TEXAS

Illegal Aliens Moving to Texas in Wake of Tough Oklahoma Law
A Texas-based television station reported last week that experts believe that as many as one million illegal aliens have moved to Texas from neighboring states as those states “toughen up on immigration.” (NBCDFW, November 17, 2009).

The report highlighted the neighboring state of Oklahoma, which in 2007 began implementing enforcement-oriented legislation. This legislation:

Made it a felony for any person to transport, harbor, or shelter an alien in reckless disregard for their illegal immigration status;
Required the state to deny any public benefits to illegal aliens in the country – including driver’s licenses – that the state is not required by federal law to provide;
Gave state police the power to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for driving under the influence or for commission of a felony;
Required state police to detain illegal aliens and transfer them to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and
Required public employers in Oklahoma to use the E-Verify system to electronically determine the work authorization status of their employees. (HB 1804 Summary; CNN, November 5, 2007; See also FAIR’s Legislative Update, November 5, 2007).
The fact that illegal aliens are leaving Oklahoma for states with more lax approaches to immigration enforcement reaffirms the enforcement strategy that FAIR has advocated on the national level for years: attrition through enforcement. (See FAIR’s Attrition through Enforcement page for more analysis).