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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    CBS4 Examines Employers Of Illegal Immigrants

    http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_ ... 01538.html


    Jul 19, 2006 9:32 pm US/Mountain

    CBS4 Examines Employers Of Illegal Immigrants
    Tough Question: Can employers be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants?


    Alan Gionet
    Reporting

    (CBS4) DENVER One of the hottest issues in Colorado is immigration reform and lawmakers recently focused on employers. They approved a plan to require employers to verify legal status of their employees.

    Many undocumented workers gather on certain street corners looking for work for the day.

    "How many, how many do you need?" a day laborer yelled at a passing car on a popular Denver street corner. The driver of the car could be a potential employer

    CBS4 asked the workers why they came to the land of the free and every one of them gave a similar answer.

    "Here, almost everyone gets work," said one of the immigrants.

    On a recent, hot July morning, a man hired by CBS4 went undercover on the street at Colfax and Dayton and found that it's a day-by-day job search for the people waiting to hear from employers.

    "You're on the street, this is the street, sometimes they don't pay," one of the men told the man. "It's screwed up."

    The pay normally varies from $6 per hour to as high as $10 per hour. The workers said some days they work and aren't paid, but said their employers never ask them if their documented.

    The undercover assistant asked a day laborer if employers asked for documents.

    "No, you are on your own here and they don't ask for a thing," the man answered.

    Statistics from the National Association of Homebuilders indicated 24 percent of the workers in Colorado's construction industry are immigrants, but didn't indicate how many of those may be in the country illegally.

    CBS4 spoke with some people who said illegal immigrants now make up a far bigger percentage of the construction industry.

    "Who cares? They're here," said Skip Guarini, a construction business owner. "They're building our houses. You're not going to build the houses without them."

    Guarini runs a business that teaches Latinos and other workers construction safety. He believes the law has been ignored for decades and homebuilders have come to rely on undocumented workers, making them a part of the foundation of the industry.

    "If illegal labor went away in Colorado completely, you're housing market would most likely collapse within 30 to 60 days," Guarini said.

    He believes illegal immigration isn't the fault of the laborers or employer.

    “If they are here illegally they are here illegally because we chose not to enforce the law, we chose not to close the borders off,” Guarini said.

    The issue of what to do about employers is hotter than ever in Congress. It's far from settled at the federal level and many people, including Representative Tom Tancredo, believe the time has come to get tough.

    "What I want to see is you absolutely have to go after the employer," Tancredo said.

    Can employers be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants? While many people CBS4 talked to said no. The government said yes.

    In 2005, immigration enforcement said it arrested nearly 400 employers on criminal charges and compared it to 25 criminal arrests in 2002.

    The government said its Web based "system verification program" is being used to check workers on 400 job sites in Denver. Companies can check identifications like social security cards or permanent resident cards without a cost.

    Donna El-Hehiawy with Western Summit Constructors in Denver said there's no excuse for employers not using the program.

    "I pop it into the system, it really takes minutes," El-Hehiawy said.

    In the meantime, workers continue on the job sites while laborers wait on the streets and a tough problem to solve remains a part of every day life.

    Additional Resources



    For more information, visit U.S. Citzenship and Immigration Services, Verification Information System Web site.
    https://www.vis-dhs.com/


    .pdf file of fact sheet on Employment Verification Program

    http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_file_201124445
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  2. #2
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    I guess you could call it an unbiased news report. But how come everybody in Denver ignores the fact that the mayor - Hickenlooper hires illegals in his restaurant and supports them.

    Check out the following link

    http://www.cairco.org/sanctuary/el_centro.html

    in which the Minutement catch Hickenlooper at El Centro (an illegal alien hiring hall).

    The link is on the right:

    Denver's illegal alien hiring hall (Dec, 2005).

    It's one interesting video.

  3. #3
    MW
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    "If illegal labor went away in Colorado completely, you're housing market would most likely collapse within 30 to 60 days," Guarini said.
    I hope people don't really believe such misinformation! Perhaps we wouldn't need some many houses if we weren't ignoring our illegal immigrant problem. Anyway, Americans will do the work for a fair wage.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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  4. #4
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    You know, the idiot making that statement just WISHES it was true.

    Never was, never will be.

    It's the same stupid argument that was used with black in the south.

    "If we don't have slave labor, we won't be able to pick the cotton".

    Horse puky!

  5. #5
    Senior Member lsmith1338's Avatar
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    Why don't they arrest these employers instead of listening to their weak excuses that the industry would collapse. These employers do not pay taxes or anything on these workers and pay them sub-standard wages to line their own pockets. If they cannot hire these workers they will have to pay standard wages, pay taxes on employees and comply with the employment laws which is what they should have been doing all along. They just took advantage of the fact that our government was not enforcing these laws.
    Freedom isn't free... Don't forget the men who died and gave that right to all of us....
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  6. #6
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lsmith1338
    Why don't they arrest these employers instead of listening to their weak excuses that the industry would collapse. These employers do not pay taxes or anything on these workers and pay them sub-standard wages to line their own pockets. If they cannot hire these workers they will have to pay standard wages, pay taxes on employees and comply with the employment laws which is what they should have been doing all along. They just took advantage of the fact that our government was not enforcing these laws.
    Because too many people in congress listen to the "economic experts" they hire telling them that business is the "sacred cow".

  7. #7
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    The truth about cheap labor

    Isn't cheap labor what the whole immigration issue is about? Business's don't want to pay a decent wage, consumers don't want expensive produce.

    Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs but the bottom line is cheap labor is a myth, a farce, a lie.

    Take for example, an illegal who sneaks in here with his wife and five children, takes a job at a lower wage. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, but when he files income tax he gets an earned income credit of $3,200 free, qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent, qualifies for food stamps, free health care, children get free breakfasts and lunches at school, which requires bilingual teachers and books, gets relief on high energy bills. If they become aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. When that happens they can qualify for Medicare. All this at the taxpayers' expense.

    Not a worry about car insurance, life insurance or homeowners insurance. Taxpayers provide Spanish-language signs, bulletins and printed material. He cannot be fired, harassed or sued. He and his family receive the equivalent of $20 to $30 an hour in benefits. Working Americans are lucky to have $5 or $6 an hour left after paying their bills and his. We also pay for increased crime and trash cleanup.

    Cheap labor? Yeah, right. Work hard and pay your taxes, 12 million illegal aliens are counting on you!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  8. #8
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    Who built them before? I live in a 1950s bungalow and it's better made than the cr*p being built today. Lath and plaster walls- try finding that today.

    How many of the slapped together overpriced boxes will be standing 50 years from now?

    The home buyers are paying top price for cut rate work.

  9. #9
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    S - Welcome to our forum.

    Like you, I live in an old house (cabin built around 1925). There was addition put on in the mid '70s.

    When we had a horrific snowfall a couple of years ago (5.5 Ft in my location), it was the roof on the new additiona that gave me the problems, so I slept on the couch in the living room for 6 days (while we had no power).

    Never once did that old roof creak, groan, or cause me worry. While the "new addition" roof over my bedroom started to bow under the weight of the snow.

    Cheap labor usually produces cheap work. No quality there!!!

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