« Quote of the Day for Thursday, January 10, 2008 | Main | Quote of the Day for Friday, January 11, 2008 »
January 10, 2008
"Dust Bowl" Immigration Legislation in Oklahoma
Oklahoma is already feeling the economic effects of immigration-related legislation passed last year, even though some provisions of the law have yet to take effect. USA Today reports:
. . . "I've already had customers who came in here and told me they've fired employees because they didn't know if they were here legally," says Tim Wagner, an owner of Cocina De Mino, a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City. He predicts industries such as agriculture will face worker shortages.
Widespread reports of vanishing employees and schoolchildren suggest thousands of illegal immigrants have left Oklahoma for neighboring states or their native countries. Cotton gins, hotels and home builders have lost workers. Restaurant and grocery store owners complain of fewer customers.
Some businesses and lawmakers are warning that the economic effects will hit consumers hard. Having a smaller pool of workers for certain jobs will cause delays and create competition among employers, leading them to raise wages and prices, Davis and others say.
Republican state Rep. Shane Jett, who opposed 1804, offers a more dire prediction. Without changes, the law "will be the single most destructive economic disaster since the Dust Bowl," he says. . . .
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.heritagetidbits.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/3298
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)