Business on the Border
Arizona gets tough on employers to solve its immigration problem.

By Terry Greene Sterling | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 28, 2007 | Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET Dec 28, 2007

Eighteen years ago, when John Eisenhower opened his Scottsdale, Ariz., tree care business, he vowed to honor a 1986 federal law that prohibited hiring undocumented immigrants. The former Christian missionary named his company Integrity Tree Service Inc., but his decision not to hire undocumented workers quickly put him at a financial disadvantage. He chose to abide by the law, but his competitors hired undocumented immigrants for substandard wages and "made big money riding the backs of illegals," says Eisenhower, now 53. He survived by building a devoted clientele. Today his six to eight Latino and Anglo employees enjoy benefits and paid vacations, and his manual laborers earn up to three times the hourly rate that some companies pay their illegal workforce.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/82283/page/1

Go the the link above for the rest of the story. It's a good read.