Study Finds Immigrants Have a Big Economic Impact on Texas

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By Alexandra HartFebruary 24, 2017 2:39 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Just how big of an impact do immigrants have on the economy? That’s what a study from Wallethub aimed to find out.

“We looked at the economic impact of immigration by state, between 18 different indicators. That ranged from the median household income of the foreign born population to actual jobs generated by immigrant owned businesses. And really saw between the workforce, socioeconomic contributions, innovation and education, just how immigrants impact each state.” says Wallethub’s Jill Gonzalez.

The study found that the Lone Star State was pretty high on the list.

“Texas ranked 15th, so a pretty big impact in Texas, and that just boils down to the percentage of the workforce that is foreign-born right now. It’s up around 22 percent, that’s actually the 7th highest number in the country. And when we look strictly at foreign-born business owners, that’s about 20 percent of all business owners, again, 7th highest in the country. So you see that a lot of jobs are generated by that.” Gonzales says.

States with the biggest immigrant impact were California, New Jersey and New York, while South Dakota, Kentucky and Mississippi saw the least impact.




A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas may once again enforce a 2015 law that criminalizes ‘harboring” or concealing unauthorized immigrants. The law was part of a broad border security bill from the state legislature.

Two landlords, a homeless shelter and a legal aid organization originally sued to block the law. They feared they could be at risk of prosecution for housing unauthorized immigrants.

Senior US district judge David Alan Ezra blocked the anti-harboring provision 10 months ago. He said that it placed too many Texans at risk of jail time, though officials say it was only meant to apply to human traffickers and smugglers.

On Thursday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Ezra’s ruling and dismissed the lawsuit. The three-judge panel said the groups that sued “cannot demonstrate a credible threat of prosecution.” The court also ruled that the provision didn’t apply to those renting or providing shelter to undocumented immigrants.




Vince Young wants to “Make Vince Great Again.” And he also wants to own the rights to that phrase.

The admittedly-formerly-great quarterback who led the Texas Longhorns to a national championship in 2005 is mounting a comeback campaign after a less-than stellar NFL career. And now, he’s got the slogan to match.

The Austin American Statesman’s Hook em dot com reports that Young applied to trademark the catchphrase last week. He also recently hired high-profile sports agent Leigh Steinberg to represent him.

Young played his last NFL game in 2011, and announced his retirement in 2014. Since then, he’s returned to the 40 Acres, to work for the University of Texas.