http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/su ... 831706.htm

Posted on Fri, Jun. 16, 2006

STOP WORK AND THEY'LL STOP COMING
Greedy builders keep illegal immigrants on job

By Elizabeth Johnston


I am sick over the whole immigration ordeal. I have written our congressman [Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Brown] and received a generic letter in return that didn't even touch on the subject I wrote to him about. Then I called Washington, D.C., and was told the congressman is aware of the problem I wrote about, like it's nothing.

We have large construction companies in Horry County that will hire one green card holder; he will have two to four illegal aliens working under him.

This green card holder is not a subcontractor; he is employed by the construction company. He gets paid by the construction company, and gets paid well. When he cashes his paycheck, he pays his "crew" from the check he receives from that company.

When I hear that illegal aliens are doing jobs Americans won't do, it makes me sick. Americans will do many of these jobs, but not as "ghost workers" dependent on the crew chief for cash at the end of the week.

What has happened to our laws? How about fining businesses for hiring personnel without the proper identification? How about a fine so severe that the company would not want to be caught using these practices? Why not have a hot line in each state for people to call if a company is hiring illegally? Why not have a task force available to investigate companies with questionable hiring practices?

If you put a stop to the jobs, the illegal aliens will stop coming. The root of the problem is that large companies have found cheap labor that cannot complain, and they are not going to stop hiring the illegal aliens unless they are forced to.

These large companies are getting three to five employees for the price of one who is well-paid. Companies that do not engage in such practices cannot compete. As a result, hardworking legal residents are finding it harder and harder to obtain work.

The only winner I see is the large construction companies whose owners already have exorbitant incomes.


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The writer lives in Aynor.