http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_3980770

Article Launched: 6/25/2006 11:01 PM



Why illegal immigration has spun out of control.

Long Beach Press Telegram

If an illegal immigrant really wants to get an above-the-table job in this country, all he needs is a few thousand dollars to hire a coyote to bring him here, another couple hundred for a phony Social Security card, chump change for a phony green card and the names and addresses of companies that are hiring.

By law, those companies don't have to look too closely at the immigrant's documents, and even if the worker's Social Security numbers don't match official records, it usually doesn't mean termination. Often, the actual hiring is done by illegals who are managers in big contracting firms.

Even if the INS sweeps through a work site, such as the agency did recently in Minneapolis, employers probably won't be fined or jailed, according to a Page 1 story in the New York Times this week. The headline read "Here Illegally, Working Hard and Paying Taxes."

Building-maintenance contractors knowingly hire hundreds of thousands of people who are here illegally, pay them decent wages, offer them benefits and take deductions for Social Security and state and federal taxes. Unions whose membership was decimated when illegals started taking janitorial jobs from legal workers, are targeting those illegals for membership. Their contracts forbid employers from giving names and addresses to immigration officers, and even mandate that the employer notify the union when officers arrive at a workplace.

In other words, by using loopholes in the law, companies hire contractors to hire illegals, knowing full well they are illegals but shifting the blame from themselves; unions recruit them to fatten their treasuries; and the workers establish identities of sorts that link them to legal residence.

The coyotes are being paid, the document forgers are getting rich, and illegal workers are getting paychecks for work formerly done by higher-paid workers. And everyone - wink, wink - is shocked - shocked - that the problem has spun out of control.

Don't you suppose that all the hot air artists in Washington understand what's going on? Would it be so difficult to enforce laws already on the books? Does it really matter, as long as our floors are getting mopped?

How can we expect immigrants to respect our laws when the people who employ them don't?