Whether you are arguing for or against immigration, your starting point should always be facts. You might begin by thinking about the history of immigration into Texas. The original inhabitants of Texas, some 11,000 years before the arrival of the Europeans, belonged to such tribes as the Apache, Comanche, Wichita, Coahuiltecan, and Tonkawa. The first European immigrants were the Spanish, who arrived in the sixteenth century. When Mexico became independent from Spain, Texas was part of...
Whether you are arguing for or against immigration, your starting point should always be facts. You might begin by thinking about the history of immigration into Texas. The original inhabitants of Texas, some 11,000 years before the arrival of the Europeans, belonged to such tribes as the Apache, Comanche, Wichita, Coahuiltecan, and Tonkawa. The first European immigrants were the Spanish, who arrived in the sixteenth century. When Mexico became independent from Spain, Texas was part of Mexico, and Anglo settlers, as well as the independence of Texas and its assimilation into the United States, were nineteenth-century phenomena. Thus the first problem in discussing immigration is that any inhabitant of Texas who is not a Native American is descended from immigrants, and that of these immigrants, Hispanic ones arrived considerably earlier than Anglo ones. To be logically and morally consistent, any argument concerning immigration must take into account the fact that the European immigrants, from whom both Anglos and Hispanics descended, were, after all, foreign invaders routinely guilty of rape, murder, theft, and genocide.
In looking at contemporary immigration, at good starting point is looking at economic issues. On the one side, one could argue that immigrants put a strain on public resources, especially since Texas is a low-tax state in which residents are often politically unwilling to support public services through tax revenue. On the other side, one can argue that immigrants are a major factor in the economic boom in Texas and that without their availability for low-wage jobs in industries such as agriculture and construction, the Texas economy would suffer. Most economists believe that immigration has, overall, had a positive effect on the Texas economy as most immigrants contribute more in taxes than they get back in public services (especially in the case of payroll taxes). On a civic level, though, issues such as violent people, such as drug-smugglers, can make the border seem like a war zone, disrupting the lives of local residents.
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