Texas Political Culture and Immigration essay part 2
Texas Political Culture and Immigration essay part 1
Texas immigration policies, especially in regard to undocumented immigrants are strict but not as strict as they are in Arizona, for example. Nevertheless, the impact of the traditionalistic and individualistic political culture on immigration policies is obvious. At this point, it is possible to refer to some legislative bills which were and were not introduced in Texas in 2008 and 2009. The 2008 bill 81 (R) -HB 233 that aimed at the creation of an advisory committee to establish and recommend qualifications for certain health care translators and interpreters passed (Payan, 2013). The 2009 bill 81(R) – HB 266 that regulated the provision of benefits and services to, and the verification of the employment status of, immigrants and to enforcing laws relating to immigrants; providing civil and criminal penalties did not pass (Payan, 2013). Similarly, the 2009 bill 81 (R) – HB 4482 that required a lawful presence in the United States for receipt of state educational benefits and to the determination of resident status of students by public institutions of higher education as well as the 2009 bill 81 (R) – SB 1677 that regulated immigration assistance services and provided civil and criminal penalties did not pass too (Payan, 2013). Also, it is worth mentioning the 81 (R) – SB 2568 concerning the prohibition against the knowing employment of persons not lawfully present in the United States and the suspension of licenses held by certain employers for the knowing employment of those persons, that also did not pass (Payan, 2013) that gives implications that the position of undocumented immigrant employees in Texas may be under a threat since the failure of introducing the aforementioned bill limits opportunity of employment. The aforementioned bills that failed and passed reveal quite strict attitude of legislators and politicians of Texas to the illegal immigration. They do not want to expand rights and opportunities of undocumented immigrants to obtain wider access to education and health care services. In addition, legislators attempt to raise barriers for the access of undocumented immigrants to Texas labor market. At any rate, the bill 81 (R) – SB 2568 that did not pass could have enhance employment opportunities of undocumented immigrants
Today, Texas faces a profound immigration crisis, which ultimate manifestation is the immigrant children crises as illegal immigrant children flood into the state. Illegal immigrant children “have surrendered themselves to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on the belief they will be allowed to stay in the country, and officials have struggled to house the children amid a staggering backlog of immigration cases” (Cohen, et al., 2014, 12). In such a way, in face of the emerging flow of undocumented immigrant children, Texas turns out to confront the problem on its own because the federal government has failed to prevent and resolve the crisis, while the state was traditionally oriented on the development of its immigration policies using the federal legislation as the legal framework with a strong use of the Constitutional power of the state to develop its own legislation and enforce its immigration policies.
Moreover, undocumented immigrants have the limited access to legal services as human rights activists, who have recently attended one of three operating detention centers in Texas, point out. They “raised concerns that families aren’t being given necessary access to legal services and that conditions are beginning to take a toll on detained children” (Sakuma, 2014, 3). This is another evidence of the inclination of Texas to the traditionalistic and individualistic political culture because Texans view undocumented immigrants as violators of the existing legal norms and, more important, as a threat to the existing social order because they misbalance the state labor market, education and health care system, requiring wider support which is provided for them from the part of the federal government, especially in the field of education and health care services.
Instead, the local authorities attempt to raise barriers on the way of immigrant to Texas, although those barriers are not as strict as is the case of Arizona, for example. The Senator Comyn in a collaboration with the Representative Cuellar have a plan to introduce legislation Thursday to repeal the 2008 deportation hearing law, but the introduction of the law may limit consistently the access of illegal immigrant children to the US and, therefore, Texas, on the pretext of protections for children who come to the United States because of concerns about drug or sex trafficking (Cohen, et al., 2014). This proposition implies the tightening immigrant legislation that will prevent undocumented immigrant children of the wider legal protection of their rights.
At the same time, the development of Texas political culture raises the problem of conflict between different trends or political cultures. In this regard, the policy concerning immigration reveals the full extent to which political cultures in Texas come into clashes. Moreover, the position of political leaders of Texas is likely to become even stricter in regard to immigration policies, as “Patrick—and like-minded new state GOP leaders like Senator Ted Cruz—are steering Texas Republicans sharply rightward on immigration issues” (Brownstein, 2014, 2). Moreover, “Patrick ousted incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a GOP primary this year, mostly behind promises to toughen enforcement at the Mexican border and to repeal the policy of providing in-state public college tuition to young people brought to the U.S. illegally—a plan that the outgoing Gov. Perry signed and still defends” (Brownstein, 2014, 2). In fact, such a situation in the political life of Texas and preferences of local voters show that politicians standing on the traditionalistic and individualistic ground are still very popular in Texas and can gain the wide support due to the prevalence of the traditionalistic and individualistic culture in Texas.
At the same time, as Texan politicians enter the federal politics they extrapolate their political culture on their policies at the federal level. However, at the federal level, political culture is more diverse and the opposition from the part of other political cultures, which remain under-represented in Texas, is very strong. As a result, politicians from Texas are often perceived as highly conservative in the federal politics. At the same time, Texas politicians do not accept political cultures different from their own that leads to conflicts and tension between politicians at the federal level.
Conclusion
Thus, I have shown Texas is a state with a strong traditionalistic and individualistic political culture. The state provides extensive support for the conservative Republican Party and the Presidential election returns within the last thirty years have proved this fact clearly. In addition, current immigration policies and legal initiatives also show that the state government’s and legislators attempts to protect the traditional lifestyle and individual initiative of the state population and raise barriers on the way to the illegal immigration by preventing the access of undocumented immigrants to the state, to the local labor market and limiting their opportunities to access education and health care services in Texas. In such a way, Texas political culture is different from some of other states in the US. At the same time, Texas political culture has a strong impact on the federal politics because Texas politicians represent the conservative part of the US society and personify traditional American values. As a result, they often come into clashes with more liberal politicians from other states, when they operate at the federal level, where they attempt to implement the same principles of political culture they used to implement in Texas.
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...