Will Texas go the way of Okahoma and Arizona?

Texas is notoriously friendly to Mexican immigrants, but have Mexicans finally begun to wear out their welcome in Texas? Might we be seeing in Texas a classic case of "giving them an inch, and their taking a mile"? Here's a story that suggests that at least in some Texas cities, this is the case:

Opponents of a Dallas suburb's ordinance aimed at barring illegal immigrants from renting housing asked a federal judge Monday for a temporary restraining order to block its enforcement. A group of landlords and a former city council member suing Farmers Branch over the ordinance filed for the restraining order.The ordinance would require prospective renters to obtain a city license. The city would then forward information from the license application to the federal government for verification of the person's immigration status.

Anyone who couldn't prove legal U.S. residency would be denied tenants licenses, and the city would penalize landlords who rent to people without a valid license.

Opponents say the city is trying to regulate immigration even though that is the domain of the federal government.

Here again we have the same argument that we've heard over and over from the usual suspects, and for the umteenth time, it is not just the domain of the federal government to regulate immigration. States and local governments have an immediate interest in protecting their own communities. And once again, the city of Farmer's Branch is simply trying to deny illegal immigrants access to housing, legal immigrants would not be denied this access per the new ordinance.

Also, I'd point out that Farmer's Branch is attempting to partner with the federal government in determining the immigration status of prospective renters. Undoubtedly the federal system to which these applications would be forwarded is the E-Verify system which I've written about here before. But what is it that's causing all this confusion in Texas; what is it that pits Texan against Texan, landlords against their own city governments in a state that, as I said before, is notoriously friendly to Mexican immigrants? Part of the answer may be found in this WND story:

While illegal aliens flee strict immigration enforcement policies in several states and settle in Texas, the state's budget is suffering and violent crime, soaring.

News reports indicate a flood of illegal aliens is coming from states such as Arizona and Oklahoma – where immigration crackdowns have made life more difficult for them. In the meantime, Texas' violent crime rates have taken a turn for the worse.

Now, don't get me wrong, I derive no pleasure from learning that our neighbors to the south are beginning to feel the effects of a rapidly growing illegal population which consists largely of cultural incompatibles. Texas is a large state with a large population. But no population of any size has an unlimited capacity for taking on hordes of immigrants, legal or illegal. That my state's law, which I've advocated for since it was first initiated in the Oklahoma HoR, is partially responsible for the current unrest in the state of Texas gives me no pleasure. I simply have the satisfaction of knowing that I've been predicting this very thing, this very outcome all along. I've pleaded with and warned other states before, in very plain spoken language, 'you'd better get your ducks in a row on this immigration situation, because once Oklahoma's law goes into effect our illegals are going to invade your states, causing the same kinds of problems they were causing here.'

At least one state which borders Oklahoma did recognize what was happening very quickly following the enactment of H.B. 1804. Missouri responded by writing and passing its own law which closely resembles that of Oklahoma. But like Oklahoma, Missouri is a small state with a relatively small population by comparison to Texas.

But as I've written so many times before, the preferred direction for these illegals to travel is south. The problem with that for Texas, in the short run, is that Texas, already feeling the effects of an overpopulation of illegal immigrants there, is going to incur even more of these, and all the undesirable things they bring along with them. Whereas it used to be that Texas was simply being used by Hispanics, legal and illegal, to smuggle illegal Hispanics into neighboring states like Oklahoma, the tables now have been turned.

The good news is this, Texas will soon find itself at a crossroads. Indeed, it would greatly surprise me if the Texas legislature is not currently working behind the scenes on its own law in an attempt to alleviate this growing problem before it becomes completely unmanageable. But Texans are quickly learning that there is a limit to how many immigrants they can take on. And let's be frank, most of Oklahoma's illegal Mexican population made its way here from Texas. It's only natural, then, that those who are now seeing the handwriting on the wall would make their way back through that state.

To my friends and relatives living in Texas, my sympathies are with you. My fondest hope is that the Texas legislature will act on this crisis in short order; that Texas will soon join the growing list of states in this union who have already passed, or are in the process of passing their own immigration legislation.