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Another group of people who are affected by America’s housing crisis and are possibly the most defenseless are illegal immigrants. Immigrants are the easiest targets when it comes to occupying a property. In many situations, undocumented immigrants are intimidated by landlords and flounder about complaining or even asking questions. They fear that complaining or asserting their legal rights will only jeopardize them being reported to immigration authorities by their landlord. Therefor, they are required to live in unstable conditions or pay high deposits. Francisco Sanchez (2019), who lives in California argues “When I applied for my current apartment the landlord saw that I was undocumented they charged me three months rent, a security deposit and first month rent was also required. I had no choice but to pay it” (para. 5).
Unfortunately, this is a common situation that many immigrants face when renting or purchasing homes. In many cases, immigrants are not able to find homes due to not having valid social security number or valid identification, and then are forced to live in the unpleasant area of town. Recently a bill was passed in Texas that allowed criminal penalties for harboring illegal immigrants. This law was intended to target human smuggling but it also caused a great deal of controversy due to the fact that many landlords’ tenants were in fact illegal immigrants. This gave fear to landlords and aid groups who provide shelter to immigrants. The state of Texas was sued by MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) in favor of two landlords who feared being prosecuted under this law. A Dallas News reporter (2017) detailed in his report “At that hearing, Texas public safety officials said the state ‘would not investigate, file criminal charges, or otherwise engage in enforcement activity’ against plaintiffs for ‘harboring’ immigrants who were in the country illegally. They argued that the provision was clear in targeting only human smugglers” (Barragan, para. 7).
In this situation it worked out for the plaintiff and their tenants whom were illegal immigrants, however, this is just another example of the hardships many immigrants face. In addition to them having housing issues, they also face injustice on the job. Immigrants encounter a convolution of obstacles when looking for a job. As a result, they often settle for domestic work, food services, construction, agriculture, or hard labor work. Many employers are aware that their workers are undocumented immigrants so they often use that to their advantage and pay them below minimum wage and on top of that, they pay them under the table. Immigrants refuse to stand up for themselves and their rights because they fear being deported. According to The State Demographer (2015), the state of Texas has an estimated amount of 1.7 million undocumented immigrants. The minimum wage in Texas has not risen since the year of 2009 and is still at the federal level of $7.25 an hour. The fact that the minimum wage has not changed in Ten years is a urgent issue in Texas. In addition to this, employers are paying their workers below this amount which intensifies the economic gap that we are facing here in Texas.
The people of Texas have not received a pay increase since 2009 meanwhile the cost of living keeps going up. It is a unfair dilemma. Raising the minimum wage would be the key solution to expand our economy and reconstruct the inflation in the United States. Texas State Representative Ron Reynold has introduced a new bill to increase the minimum wage in Texas to $15 which is more than double the current minimum wage. According to The Houston Chronicle (2019) “Raising the minimum wage in Texas to $15 an hour will put more money into the pockets of hard-working Texans and it is a critical step in creating an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few” (Reynolds, para. 3). If this bill gets approved, it will go into effect on September 1, 2019. This is just a small step toward fixing the housing crisis here in America.
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