Photo by Bulent Yusef/Flickr (Creative Commons)
A detail from a mural in London, June 2006
An anti-illegal immigration bill introduced recently in Texas proposing tough state sanctions against employers who hire unauthorized workers makes an exception: It’s okay to hire an undocumented maid, gardener, or other employee “for the purpose of obtaining labor or other work to be performed exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence.”
Since its introduction late last month, its sponsor state Rep. Debbie Riddle, who is known for having a particularly tough-on-immigration stance (and perhaps best for the term “terror babies”), has received a fair amount of criticism and perhaps an equal share of ridicule, while others have praised her for being realistic.
After all, as evidenced by the undocumented housekeeper scandal that helped derail the campaign of California gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman last fall, few Americans are immune from the underground economy. The proposed Texas law threatens to punish employers with up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine, so including those who hire domestic help as offenders could mean a lot of Texans in hot water, no doubt a few politicos among them.
Several blogs have posted takes on Riddle’s bill, HB 2012. The Latino Politics Blog hinted at a much-criticized “in their place” element that some detractors see in the bill:
So what does this tell you about the Longhorn State? Well, it tells me a few things: 1) it is recognized that undocumented people take some jobs that regular Americans, even unemployed Americans, won’t take and 2) Texas legislators expect those sin papeles to do the menial work while the state’s senators at the federal level rejected the passionate pleas of DREAM Act youth who could contribute above the manual labor wage level and pay into the system with better paying jobs and taxes.
