Texas GOP Vote

On April 4, 2013, The Baker Institute hosted a Conference: Immigration Reform: A system for the 21st Century. It was a forum where U.S. immigration experts, key public policy and political figures discussed the specifics of how to revamp our current broken immigration system. Discussed were specific issues that included “the changing demographics of the nation, the state

Researchers at the University of Texas backs up what we've been saying for years: far too many construction workers in Texas are the victims of payroll fraud.

They released a study this morning in Austin called “Build a Better Texas”.

Among the study's findings:   Read more »

As the Texas Legislature begins its 2013 regular session, employers across the state are looking at proposed legislation to place tighter controls on preventing employee misclassification. Misclassification is a practice used by many unscrupulous companies where they take people who should be classified as hourly employees and instead classify them as 1099 subcontractors. This gives them an unfair competitive advantage over companies who properly classify their employees and cheats the state and taxpayers on many levels as 

It is time for Republicans in Texas to take a leadership role in solving the problem of employee misclassification and payroll fraud. During the 2011 Legislative Session there was good legislation put forward, but it did not get enough support from Republicans to move forward. These are not Democrat or Republican issues, but rather they represent principles of the rule of law and fairness. Republicans should not be tricked by some business leaders into believing this is anti-business legislation.

This article originally appeared on ConstructionCitizen.com.

Just last week, construction executive Stan Marek noted on Construction Citizen, “The labor situation in Houston is heading into the biggest crisis we have ever seen.” Marek is right and the problem is just now really starting to impact builders throughout the area.

To find out more, I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Kathryn “Toy” Wood, CEO

Originally posted on The Texas Tribune:

Tycoons in commercial construction and homebuilding — industries often pegged as harbors for undocumented workers — are pushing back against some of their own, urging state lawmakers to close a loophole that guards employers against knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.   Read more »

On January 10th, a summit called the Immigration Summit: The Cost of Savings of Implementing Immigration Reform was hosted at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The Immigration Summit was sponsored by AJC (American Jewish Committee) and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

The event was held to discuss and deliberate the undocumented labor force in our community and its impact on education, health care, security, unemployment and loss of tax revenues. The AJC and Kinder Institutes states, "By providing the facts and separating the fears and fiction associated with the immigration issue, participants can respond effectively to both the challenges and the opportunities of today's immigrant experience."   Read more »