Bob Ray Sanders a seasons journalist of over 40 years wrote a commentary in the Fort Worth Star Telegram titled Anti-immigration sentiments play into redistricting efforts. Sanders compares the voting rights of slaves to those of illegal immigrants. He states that “Making the intellectual link between slavery and illegal immigration isn't hard” And stresses that Texans are only trying to repress minority groups. The main argument presented in this commentary is if illegal immigrants should be counted when deciding the correct number of seats in Congress Texas should receive. He also states that since the Constitution does not specify only counting legal citizens that people who are non citizens of the state of Texas should also be considered as long as they exist within Texas.
I disagree with Sanders when he says that a link between slavery and illegal immigrants is one that can be envisioned with ease. Slavery refers to captive workers of the south that were recognized as property not as humans with rights. On the other hand illegal immigrants are widely viewed as human beings with rights and who even hold the right to vote just not in this country based on their level of citizenship. Since these people are unable to vote in this country to represent them in Congress would be contradicting the fact that they are unable to vote. And for that matter if Texas is to count every person physically present in the state where do we draw the line for who is counted? With this rationale we would include people visiting Texas from other states and countries since we are not placing regulations on which people are count.
