It used to be that Arizona was a destination of choice for members of the illegal Mexican diaspora. That might not be the case anymore. Here’s an AP article published on My Fox Houston (KRIV Fox 26):

HOUSTON — Illegal immigrants are coming into Texas, but not from where one might think.

The rush is coming from Arizona, Oklahoma and other states — places that have recently passed tough new anti-illegal immigrant laws.

The two toughest measures are in Arizona and Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma statute, which took effect in November, makes it a crime to transport, harbor or hire illegal immigrants. Effective Jan. 1, the Arizona law suspends the business license of employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. On a second offense, the license is revoked.

Anecdotal information seems to indicate that illegal immigrants are leaving these states in growing numbers.

“They’re really tightening the screws,” said Mario Ortiz, an undocumented Mexican worker who came to Houston after leaving Phoenix last year. “There have been a lot coming — it could be 100 a day.”

In Tulsa, Okla., the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has estimated that 15,000 to 25,000 illegal immigrants have left the area. One builder estimated that 30 percent of the Hispanic work force left Tulsa.

“There’s been a tremendous impact in Oklahoma City,” said David Castillo, the executive director of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve had several companies close shop and leave the state. Banks have called us and say they’re closing 30 accounts per week.”

Enrique Hubbard, Mexico’s consul general in Dallas, said a dozen Mexican families from Oklahoma have applied for consular documents listing their new homes in the Dallas area. He expects more to arrive because jobs are available in north Texas.

Now here’s a bit of information that isn’t quite so anecdotal. I spent a few weeks in the summer of 2006 working for an outfit in Pampa, Texas called West Texas Landscape. I was hired with a friend to install irrigation systems on a very large ranch (90,000 acres?) 30 miles from Pampa. The ranch is called Mesa Vista, and is owned by the notorious T. Boone Pickens. West Texas Landscape sent 11 or 12 fully loaded 16-passenger vans out to Mesa Vista 6 days a week to keep the property properly landscaped. On its Web site, West Texas Landscape claims to have over 200 employees, so that sounds about right.

At any rate, among the 170 or so employees that van-pooled out to the ranch each day, you’d be hard pressed to find more than 1 or 2 out of 10 who could speak more than perfunctory inglés. Generally, if you wanted to communicate with one of these landscapers, you had to find one of their supervisors to translate for you, and the supervisor’s English wasn’t guaranteed to be great, either.

My buddy Jody was a manager for the company and was in fairly tight with the owner, so I asked how many of those guys were illegals. Jody said none of them were, but he said it a little too quickly and a little too forcefully for me to believe him.

Most of them were illegals. I’m sure of it.

And hey, if north Texas wants them, north Texas can have them. I’m good with it, as long as they leave my home state (Arizona) and leave more jobs open for American citizens.

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