Texas HB 1202- Another Piece of Legislation with no Penalties for Businesses that Hire Illegal Immigrants
Caryn Freeman 4:39PM EST
Just two years out from the 2012 Presidential election federal lawmakers are still avoiding the issue of how to handle the burden of illegal immigration in the US. As more and more states are forced to take up the issue on their own we continue to see more and more toothless legislation with vague descriptions of what penalties would be for those who hire illegal immigrants.
Section 40.02 article (a) in Texas HB 1202 states "A person commits an offense if the person
intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:
(1) employs an unauthorized alien;
(2) contracts for the performance of labor or other
work with an unauthorized alien; or
(3) contracts or subcontracts for the performance of
labor or other work with another person the actor knows will employ
or contract with an unauthorized alien to perform labor or other
work under the contract or subcontract."
"Intentionally, knowingly, recklessly" that gives a lot of wiggle room for employers who continue to play dumb and claim to have no knowledge that their non-English speaking employees could be undocumented workers. Both sides of the isle hide behind the talking point that "we must go after those who hire these workers" but would rather circumvent the law. We elect lawmakers that create new laws so when they ignore the law the new law can be interpreted by-way of creating no penalty for their ignoring the rule of law in the first place. Welcome to the new American Democracy.
How we have come to a place where our lawmakers are no longer required to recognize current law and have found loopholes, just as these employers have. I'm not quite sure. By proposing new ineffective legislation, then saying later "it's the law I know it doesn't work so we need new legislation." Sounds like these lawmakers don't want to get off the taypayer money train and will do whatever it takes to continue to live on tax payer dollars while producing nothing that actually benefits the taypayer. Our system of government has become an industry that writes meaningless law so they can keep their jobs of writing more meaning less legislation.
I'm beginning to get confused myself. What is not confusing is that tax payers are beginning to wake up and ask where their tax dollars are going. We bailed out the banks in 2008 and we bail out our "lawmakers" every week with our income taxes. We take they hit pay their salaries & they produce nothing. Welcome to the new American regime. Sounds like a lot of double talk to me. I think it much more cost effective to by invisible ink hand them out in Congress and state legislatures. We can support the green initiative by using less paper while saving tax payer dollars and once the ink dries Congress can begin writing new legislation.