#RickPerrysTexasMiracle: illegal immigration

Yep, that's it! As I've said before about why homebuilder Bob Perry's generous donations to Texas Gov. Rick Perry being part of why Rick likes illegal immigration so much, we ....

Now seem to have some clear evidence to that end, on the jobs issue. Some VERY clear evidence.

Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).
In terms of numbers, between the second quarter of 2007, right before the recession began, and the second quarter of 2011, total employment in Texas increased by 279,000. Of this, 225,000 jobs went to immigrants (legal and illegal) who arrived in the United States in 2007 or later.
Of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas, 93 percent were not U.S. citizens. Thus government data show that more than three-fourths of net job growth in Texas were taken by newly arrived non-citizens (legal and illegal).  ...

And, what percentage of those are illegal?

Of newly arrived immigrants who took jobs in Texas since 2007, we estimate that 50 percent (113,000) were illegal immigrants. Thus, about 40 percent of all the job growth in Texas since 2007 went to newly arrived illegal immigrants and 40 percent went to newly arrived legal immigrants.

There you go. Half of new jobs in Texas went to illegal immigrants. And those are NOT just "stoop" jobs like picking onions in the Valley. They're jobs that used to pay money, like home construction work. That's you, Bob Perry.

But, it's even more than that. The study says that immigrants, including illegals, took jobs across the economy and that many have at least some college education.

And, lest Perry defenders (either Perry) claim illegals are some sort of Reagan "trickle-up stimulus," nope. The reality:

Some may argue that it was because so many immigrants arrived in Texas that there was job growth in the state. But if immigration does stimulate job growth for natives, the numbers in Texas would be expected to look very different. The unemployment rate and the employment rate show a dramatic deterioration in the Texas for the native-born that was similar to the rest of the country.

 In other words, throw out illegal immigration, and there's no "miracle" at all.

Will other GOP candidates have this info in time for the debate tonight? Speaking of, David Frum suggests this line for Mitt Romney:

At the same time, a certain wing of progressives, whether Democrats, Greens, Socialists or others, who want to largely turn a blind eye to illegal immigration need to rethink that idea. Unfortunately, I can't find the article in The Nation from about five years ago when it did that, and rightly got flamed.

“The numbers show, Governor, that your economic policy was great at creating jobs – for Mexico.”

 Couldn't have said it better myself.