Dollars for Deportees

The Chron has an informative article on the economic impact of mass deportations here locally.  Commentary has been talking about this for a few months. I see it every weekday and most Saturdays in my own neighborhood. See this from the Chron:

While the brunt of those direct costs would be born by the federal government, a mass deportation would undoubtedly send shock waves through the economy in the Houston area, which is believed to be home to nearly 600,000 immigrants living here illegally, and leave over 300,000 children without at least one of their parents

Here’s how Trump’s plans for mass deportations would affect the Houston economy.

Immigrants living in the Houston area illegally made up about 10% of all workers in 2019, according to the Migration Policy Institute, but are significantly over-represented in certain industries, such as construction.

The Houston area construction industry is believed to be employing over 100,000 immigrants living here illegally, comprising nearly one-third of the industry’s total workforce, according to a recent AIC report published in partnership with several Houston and Texas trade groups. Immigrants of all legal statuses together make up over half the area’s construction workers. 

And this:

The 1.8 million immigrants living in Texas illegally contributed roughly $4.9 billion in state and local taxes in 2022, the most revenue collected in any state besides California, according to a recent report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

In the Houston area, those 577,000 immigrants paid about $1.46 billion in state and local taxes, according to ITEP researchers. Those contributions, for perspective, are equivalent to 20% of this year’s Houston city budget, and greater than the $1 billion bond that taxpayers will pay off over the next 25 to 30 years in the agreement reached with the firefighters’ union earlier this summer.  

Here is the entire read: Trump’s mass deportations could hurt Houston economy.

I am sure there are a number of Trump voters who utilize laborers who could be deported. The featured photo is from earlier this year and is the house across the street from me. Laborers are still working away there this morning and guess what, they are all Latino.

They are an integral force of our economy here in H-Town. What a joke.

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Congrats to Harris County Judge Hidalgo. See this from the Chron:

No vows, no rings — just friends and a good dinner marked a ‘paper wedding’ between Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and attorney David James at the historic River Oaks Garden Club this week.

In a sparkly white dress with a bow, Hidalgo is seen holding hands with James under a leaf-vine arch at the garden club, in a picture she posted on her X account Wednesday afternoon.

Now, the couple is officially married in the state of Texas, with a more-traditional destination wedding planned abroad at an undisclosed location on Dec. 1. 

Here is the entire read: Lina Hidalgo shares about ‘paper wedding’ at River Oaks Garden Club.

I wish her and her hubby the best.

On a related note, I wonder which GOPers are thinking about running against her. I think she will be tough to beat in 2026. Stay tuned.

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More changes could be coming to MLB. It is hard to keep up. See this from CNN:

Major League Baseball (MLB) will test the use of robot umpires as part of a challenge system during Spring training next year, with the aim of implementing the system in the 2026 regular season.

The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will be trialed at 13 ballparks hosting 19 teams in 2025 to allow players to experience the new technology as the league works out how best to implement it, according to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

“I think we will have a Spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all Major League players to see what the challenge system will look like,” Manfred said on Wednesday at the league’s owners meetings.

“It won’t be in every single ballpark, but we actually have a plan where every team will get meaningful exposure to that.”

He also said that there are ongoing conversations between the MLB and the Umpires Association in relation to the new technology, with their collective bargaining agreement set to expire on December 1 this year, per the Associated Press.

“We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well,” Manfred said.

Although Manfred admitted that he “would be interested” in bringing in the ABS challenge system for the 2026 regular season, the commissioner added that the players’ experience with it will go a long way in deciding when it will be implemented.

“It depends on how the test goes,” Manfred said. “From my perspective, there are two sides to that test: it’s what do clubs think about it and what do the players think about it? We’re going to have to sort through both of those.”

Through the new system, human umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams have a limited number of challenges with which they can appeal on-field decisions. Teams retain the challenge if they are successful.

I am guessing one day they will do away with umpires. Not anytime soon, but one day they will.

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