Thread: Crackdown shakes North Jersey illegals, employers

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Crackdown shakes North Jersey illegals, employers
The Record

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER

The federal government's new practice of charging illegal immigrants and their employers with crimes is sending shudders through North Jersey's immigrant communities and workplaces.

Industry leaders fear that the aggressive crackdown will hit the region especially hard because of the high concentration of undocumented workers here.

"This concerns me very much," said Eugene Coppola, the owner of Meta-Lite Inc., a Clifton-based maker of tollbooths. "I don't hire workers who can't show me documents that prove they're here legally. But I don't know that all the papers people show me are good and not bogus.

"Now, though, if federal agents happen to find that a worker doesn't have proper papers, they want to prosecute me when I'm trying to comply with the law?"

Many business owners, including those who take public stances in favor of strict immigration measures, concede they hire, or have hired, illegal immigrants because they could not find authorized workers who would take their jobs. They note that even at salaries twice the minimum wage, many Americans refuse to take jobs that are physically demanding or that have come to be seen as low-status, "illegal immigrant work."

"We don't condone hiring people who are here illegally," says Deborah Dowdell, president of the New Jersey Restaurant Association. "But there aren't many people who want to do the jobs."

Dowdell said that the tougher approach by immigration authorities puts an unfair burden on employers.

"We are being placed in a position more and more often, with our employees, to be police -- police with no tools to do what we are expected to do," she said.

Federal immigration officials are not sympathetic. They say they have been far too easy on employers who have skirted immigration laws that prohibit hiring undocumented workers.

In December, the Department of Homeland Security launched the largest-ever workplace crackdown on illegal immigration when more than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states. The arrests were momentous not only for their scope, but also because feder-al officials took the rare step of lodging crimin- al charges against some five dozen workers, accusing them of committing identity theft because they possessed identity documents that belonged to others.

This was a stark departure from the typical treatment of illegal immigration as chiefly a civil violation, punishable by perhaps detention, fines, and deportation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they are simply enforcing existing laws. After the immigration agency was reorganized following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, ICE, which was created in 2003, evaluated the traditional enforcement approach and found it deficient, they say.

Numbers track the change in approach. In 1999, only 24 work-site arrests resulted in criminal charges. But in 2006, more than 700 such arrests carried criminal charges.

"We would detain, assign fines, but this wasn't effective because employers that hired illegal aliens just saw the fines as a cost of doing business," said ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi.

The widely publicized arrests have been watched closely by employers and immigrants in New Jersey, which consistently ranks near the top of states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. Studies have estimated the number of illegal immigrants to be at about a half-million. Most of that population lives and works in North Jersey, which is a magnet to undocumented workers because of its plentiful, relatively well-paying jobs, and easy access to highways, which results in a flow of contractors coming to the area to hire day laborers.

Daniel Jara, the head of the New Jersey Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says the government cannot be faulted for taking steps to enforce the immigration laws of the country. At the same time, he says, many small-business owners are left with little choice but to hire undocumented workers or go out of business.

President Bush has expressed a desire to expand guest worker visas, which would allow more foreigners to come to the United States. Proposals for a guest worker program would also create a path for foreign workers to obtain permanent U.S. residency if they meet certain criteria.

Soon after the raids in December, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged Congress to support a guest worker program to take away the temptation for employers to hire illegal workers to fill their business needs.

Waheed Khalid, who owns a gas station in Union County, said the turnover rate among workers in his industry is remarkably high -- workers last two, perhaps three, months on the job.

Khalid says he has tried in vain to find legal residents who will work for him. Asked if he has hired illegal workers, Khalid said only: "No comment."

"We want to comply, employers really do," Khalid said. "Just give us the way, the visas -- an immigration system that doesn't make it so difficult for people to get green cards or to enter legally -- and we can hire the right people, and the country can protect its borders."

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com

Standing on a corner in North Jersey you can find yourself saying " Totoe I don't think we're in America anymore" Of course even flying monkeys had more culture and class than some of whats living in this area now.

I'm glad to hear their cracking down. I'm sure alot of no-match SS# letters went out as well.

It's about time they start enforcing the law. This free for all has got to stop!

When are they going to get the hint, WE DO NOT BELIEVE THEM ANYMORE!!
If Americans aren't takeing these jobs maybe we need to get a few more people off the welfare rolls, Its hard to convince me they cannot clean hotel rooms, etc.
Does everyone have to be experienced, what happen to on the job training and then a fair wage!!Oh I see the fair wage is the problem

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

When are they going to get the hint, WE DO NOT BELIEVE THEM ANYMORE!!
If Americans aren't takeing these jobs maybe we need to get a few more people off the welfare rolls, Its hard to convince me they cannot clean hotel rooms, etc.
Does everyone have to be experienced, what happen to on the job training and then a fair wage!!Oh I see the fair wage is the problem

The economy grow more than expected and unemplyment is 4.5%. It has been 4 - 4.5% for a long time. It makes me wonder why more variation isn't in this statistic.

Let's say it is acurate. Most of the financial, talking heads on TV say 4.5% is pretty good. Everyone that wants a job has one. ( the guy saying this is always employed) Why don't we try for improvement ? Don't settle for 4 - 4.5%. Work it down to 3.5 - 4%, then 3.5%. We may never get to 0, but to consider 4% unemployed as full employment is corproate BS.

Originally Posted by magyart

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

When are they going to get the hint, WE DO NOT BELIEVE THEM ANYMORE!!
If Americans aren't takeing these jobs maybe we need to get a few more people off the welfare rolls, Its hard to convince me they cannot clean hotel rooms, etc.
Does everyone have to be experienced, what happen to on the job training and then a fair wage!!Oh I see the fair wage is the problem

The economy grow more than expected and unemplyment is 4.5%. It has been 4 - 4.5% for a long time. It makes me wonder why more variation isn't in this statistic.

Let's say it is acurate. Most of the financial, talking heads on TV say 4.5% is pretty good. Everyone that wants a job has one. ( the guy saying this is always employed) Why don't we try for improvement ? Don't settle for 4 - 4.5%. Work it down to 3.5 - 4%, then 3.5%. We may never get to 0, but to consider 4% unemployed as full employment is corproate BS.

Your right it is BS for one reason they stop counting the unemployed when they have collected their 6mo of benefits, they are dropped off the unemployment rolls and are not counted as unemployed statisics.
Which is Bull because no matter what you say it does not make them enployed, their excuse is they have no way of counting these people, maybe they could check the social service programs!! for a start.