wvgazette.com

July 26, 2005
Edward Peeks

Corporate America profiting on illegals

U.S. businesses are finding more than cheap labor in illegal immigrants, the subject of a furor kicked up recently by Mexican President Vicente Fox, who said immigrants do work in this country that not even blacks will do.

Understandably, his comment sparked protests, particularly among African-Americans. He expressed regret but offered no apology.

I noted at the time in this space that there was hardly any mention at all during the flap that businesses employ illegal immigrants with impunity, thumbing their nose at the law.

But there’s more to the question than breaking immigration laws and the use of cheap labor. The July 18 issue of BusinessWeek lets it all hang out in a cover story: “Embracing Illegals.�

“Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 million undocumented immigrants,� the magazine says, looking at this group of consumers as “an untapped engine of growth.�

West Virginia isn’t among states heavily tapping this source of economic power; California and Texas are, by virtue of their proximity to Mexico. Undocumented immigrants settle mostly in these and other border states.

But the movement is moving into Appalachia, the South and East despite growing clamor for stricter enforcement of immigration laws on the books. Anti-immigration voices rise for a mixed bag of reasons in a country made mostly by immigrants.

“Yet all the while, farms, hotels, restaurants, small manufacturers and other employers have continued to hire the undocumented with little regard to the federal laws intended to stop them,� BusinessWeek says.

With undocumented labor, suffice it to say, goes documented consumption by immigrants of food, clothing and shelter â€â€