Is U.S. willing to pay for fewer illegals?
By Tim Kalich
Editor



Saturday, August 30, 2008 7:27 PM CDT

Howard Industries claims it did not wittingly hire illegal aliens.

Maybe so. There is evidence, apparently, that at least eight of the 595 plant workers detained last week in the biggest single immigration raid in U.S. history were using fictitious names and documentation.

Still, it strains credulity to think that Howard, one of the state’s largest employers, was completely oblivious to the huge percentage of its workforce -- as many as 15 percent -- that may have been on their payroll illegally.

Chances are more likely that their managers -- appreciative of the productivity and cooperative attitude of their immigrant workers -- didn’t worry a whole lot about distinguishing between those who were in the country legally and those who were not. Maybe they didn’t go out of their way to hire illegals, but also maybe they didn’t worry too much about ferreting them out either.

If it turns out that Howard was negligent in screening their hires or actively solicited illegal workers as a way to hold down its operating costs, the company should be punished with steep fines and possible prosecution of their executives -- that’s if the nation is really serious about curbing illegal immigration.

If you want to stop the tide of illegals, the only way is to reduce the size of the lure that draws them. That means making an example out of the corporate offenders.

The nation can round up hundreds of illegals in an immigration sweep, but there will be hundreds more ready to take their place in a week or two. As long as farmers, food processors, construction companies and manufacturers will give them jobs, the workers will keep coming from outside our nation’s borders.

Who can blame the illegal newcomers? They face economic deprivation in their home countries, where wages are a fraction of even minimum-wage jobs in the United States and where working conditions are hostile and often dangerous. They are looking for a better life for themselves and their families, just as immigrants to the United States always have. Their crime is simply that they don’t follow the rules to get here.

Even still, it’s not an easy life for illegals. They endure harsh traveling conditions, often get ripped off by those who smuggle them in and usually wind up in the least desirable, lowest paid jobs. They get taken advantage of by landlords who know their tenants aren’t going to file complaints with the government about their living conditions. They pay taxes but don’t access many of the benefits for fear of being detected. They are forever looking over their shoulders to see if immigration authorities are onto them. And they have to overcome the handicap of living in a country where they don’t speak the language and are often treated with disrespect.

It was a little pathetic, if news reports are accurate, that some American-born workers at the Laurel plant were applauding when the immigrants were rounded up.

If anyone deserves derision, it’s not the illegal workers. It’s the U.S. employers and their customers who have created the demand for the illegals’ services.

As much as Americans want to complain about illegal immigration in the abstract, it’s doubtful that they really understand the consequences of stopping it.

Without illegal labor, fruits and vegetables would be more expensive at the supermarket. Farmers in California, Florida and elsewhere would have to pay higher wages for legal residents to do this kind of back-breaking seasonal labor — that is, if they could find enough U.S. workers willing to do so. Chances are, without illegals, a lot of produce would rot in the fields because there wouldn’t be enough hands to pick it.

Without illegals, the costs of housing and other construction would rise. So would the cost of keeping lawns manicured in most of the nation’s ritzier neighborhoods.

Chances are also good that at least some manufacturers would take another look at the viability of staying in the United States.

Following the raid at Howard Industries, some righteous indignation surfaced over the $31.5 million in state incentives approved by the Legislature in 2002 to help the company add about 2,000 jobs. Presumably lawmakers didn’t mean to fund hires from Latin America.

It must also be noted, however, that for at least a decade, Mississippi has fretted over the number of manufacturers who have moved their operations to Mexico or overseas.

What’s worse, having a plant pull up stakes and go where the cheap labor is, or tolerating a certain level of illegal hires as long as the predominance of jobs are filled by native workers?

That’s the type of question this nation must ask itself if it really intends to do more than just blow steam over illegal immigrants and ridicule them.
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