Thread: PA: Illegal immigration not just a border issue

Illegal immigration not just a border issue
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, July 7, 2007


Rich Stanizzo says it's a mistake to think that illegal immigration -- a hot-button issue in border states and the nation's capital -- isn't a big deal in Pittsburgh.
"We are having a problem with illegal aliens working in the area, (and) we're running into more and more and more of them every day," said Stanizzo, business manager for Pittsburgh Building & Construction Trades Council. "They're not taxpayers. They are breaking the law when they come into this country ... and they're taking jobs away from Americans."

Stanizzo wants federal officials to pay more attention to illegal immigration. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. is actively monitoring the issue, said Mike Manko, Zappala's spokesman.

Experts say the effect of illegal immigrant labor on Western Pennsylvania is tough to quantify.

Nationwide, Hispanic workers -- many foreign-born or newly arrived in the United States -- filled two of every three new construction jobs in 2006, even as the housing market endured a slump, a Pew Hispanic Center report said. Even though Hispanics made up less than 14 percent of last year's work force, they accounted for nearly 37 percent of employment growth.
Foreign-born Hispanic immigrants are not all illegal immigrants, said Gabriel Escobar, the center's associate director. About half of the estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States -- many, but not all, of whom are Hispanic -- received visas but overstayed the period of time they were granted.

Other figures paint a different picture. About 80 percent of Mexicans who immigrated to the United States since 2000 are here illegally, Escobar said. One of every 20 American workers is undocumented, and the Pew Hispanic Center estimates 125,000 to 175,000 illegal immigrants live in Pennsylvania.

Census officials stress those figures might be wrong.

"There's no way for us to break (illegal immigrant figures) out of international migration," said Greg Harper, a U.S. Census Bureau demographer. "If the population is undocumented, you really don't have a handle on it. ... It's an educated guess."

Jack Shea, president of Allegheny County Labor Council, worries that Americans are losing jobs to immigrants, as they did when companies shipped jobs out of U.S. cities after Congress passed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"There's no doubt about it. It's a problem," he said. "It's underground. They're working under the table. They're not paying taxes. And that's all affecting you and I."

Others doubt American workers are posing a real threat to their well-being.

"Most of the positions that are taken by undocumented people (are taken because) they have special skills for those jobs or they're taking unskilled jobs we don't have a glut of people applying for," said Linda Theophilus, a Lutheran minister involved in the group Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants.

Theophilus thinks there are other reasons union leaders and local economists might be paying attention to immigration.

"We have a strong identity as a working-class, immigrant city," she said. "So, these issues affect our identity."

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburght ... 16107.html

I mean no disrespect to her,but what does that lady-Linda Theofilus-mean"they have special skills" most of the illegals are not even HS graduates nor can they read/speak english.So what is it they can do better than an educated American?and"jobs that there isn't a glut of people applying for" I think alot of people just don't even try for some of these jobs because they know they'll be given to illegals.
Thanks for letting me vent.
PS-I am very thankful for the people in this article trying to help save American jobs for American workers.