http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 288962.htm

Posted on Wed, Nov. 30, 2005

Immigrant plan meets doubt
Industry watchers say if Mecklenburg shut out firms that hire illegal aliens, it would backfire
MIKE DRUMMOND
mdrummond@charlotteobserver.com

Although well-intentioned, a plan to prohibit Mecklenburg County from contracting with companies that hire illegal immigrants would backfire, say those in industry and academia.

The proposal from three Mecklenburg commissioners comes amid mounting national debate over tougher immigration laws, and after several local incidents of illegal aliens involved in drunken driving accidents.

Yet the plan to deny contracts to companies that hire undocumented workers would drive up labor costs and increase the time it takes to finish projects, said Tony Plath, associate professor of finance at UNC Charlotte.

Overhead costs could rise if employers had to take additional time to verify work status. The labor pool, particularly for certain unskilled construction and landscaping jobs, could shrink, Plath noted.

"It's well-intentioned," he said. "But the problem is, our borders are porous. I don't think that's a county issue -- that's a federal issue."

At next week's board meeting, Republican commissioners Bill James, Dan Bishop and Jim Puckett will push their plan to discourage illegal immigrants from settling here, including denying county services.

To win county work, businesses would bear greater responsibility for verifying employee work status, said Puckett, who owns an industrial paint company.

Federal law requires employers to check the work status of prospective employees. But green cards, Social Security cards and other forms of identification can be forged.

Moreover, anti-discrimination laws prohibit companies from asking about national origin.

"Most people don't know they have illegal workers working for them," said Allen Gray, a staff coordinator for Carolinas Associated General Contractors, a construction trade association.

"Some of these documents are so well-forged you can't catch them."

Puckett wonders whether some businesses are doing enough to catch illegal aliens. He also said an employer's compliance with immigration law should be a factor when it comes to awarding public contracts.

The "only way to eliminate the lure for illegal aliens is to eliminate the lure of jobs," he said. The proposal "piggybacks nicely" with existing federal law, he said, and he doubts taking extra steps to verify immigrant status would be overly burdensome for business.

"It's not our intent for this to become a witch hunt," he added. He said he hopes to rely on whistle-blowers, competitors and the general public to alert the county to illegal immigrant hiring.

An estimated 11 million people are in the country illegally. More than half of the Carolinas' estimated 330,000 illegal immigrants hold jobs -- even though it's against the law for employers to knowingly hire them.

This week President Bush proposed a get-tough immigration plan, including beefed-up border patrols and swifter deportation.

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-Charlotte, called for raising fines to $10,000 from $250 per illegal worker, and giving local law agencies a cut as an incentive to crack down. In the Carolinas, no employer has been fined in at least two years, an Observer report found this summer.

The county contracts with hundreds of companies, from AAA Parking to human resources firm Zoe Consulting.

Immigrant labor is highly visible in the construction and landscaping industries.

Todd Isaacs is a project superintendent for FN Thompson, among a half-dozen or so construction companies that contract with the county. He philosophically supports a tougher county stance on illegal immigrants.

But he said such a plan "would probably add a lot more time to get things done."

Meanwhile, N.C. Department of Labor officials suspect illegal immigrants can be found on construction sites throughout the state -- but don't care. The department's prime directive is workplace safety.

"We just want to make sure no one dies," said department spokeswoman Delores Quesenberry.

"We don't want our name tied to anything with immigration. We don't like our name even associated with it."

She and others acknowledged that it's common for Hispanic construction workers to flee when Labor inspectors show up for surprise safety checks.

Such incidents are not unique to Hispanics. Department spokeswoman Heather Crews says that an entire crew -- whites, Hispanics, blacks, you name it -- vanished from a residential construction site in Raleigh once when a safety inspector showed up.