Is Perry’s Texas Miracle a boon for illegal workers?

Dallas Morning News ^ | 09/23/2011 | Gabriel Escobar

[TexGrill]

As if Rick Perry already wasn’t getting enough flak from his right flank on immigration….

An analysis of the governor’s much touted job creation in Texas concludes that almost all the new employment in our fair state went to foreigners. Worse still for Perry, many of these are said to have gone to illegal immigrants.

Hard to make a campaign slogan out of that one.

The analysis was done by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors strict controls on immigration and, by default, is not in Perry’s corner. But don’t use its position on immigration to undermine the numbers offered. This is a serious outfit with solid research, even if it is agenda-driven.

Of all the jobs created since 2007–this would be the Texas Miracle–about 225,000 went to foreigners, according to Steven A. Camarota, the center’s longtime director of research. For those counting at home, that means eight out of every ten jobs went to immigrants, with and without documents.

Hiring legal immigrants when there is so much unemployment among the natives is its own sensitive issue, but we’ll leave that aside for now. It is the fact that such a high number went to illegal immigrants–about 40 percent of all the jobs created in Texas–that is fueling the fire on the blogs.

[TexGrill]

Global business tip

[CharlesWayneCT]

There is nothing a state Governor can do about this.

A good business environment leads to job expansion. But you can’t control what people are hired by the business at the state level. The FEDS enforce immigration policy.

If Texas was NOT creating jobs, then these illegals and immigrants would be replacing americans, driving up american unemployment. So it’s still a “good thing”.

I imagine the reporter discussing this is actually thrilled about immigrants and illegals, but hopes the article hurts Perry with his base. But the base is not idiots.