Thread: Illegals making it to Massachusetts flock to hiring sites

http://news.bostonherald.com

Illegals making it in Massachusetts: Immigrants flock to Hub’s roadside hiring sites

By Casey Ross/ Special Investigation
Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Updated: 03:26 AM EST

A growing shadow work force of illegal immigrants, many of them soliciting daily jobs at unregulated street-corner bazaars, is illicitly fueling the Massachusetts economy in plain view of law enforcement authorities who have failed to launch any kind of crackdown.

A Herald surveillance of hiring sites in Somerville, Chelsea and Allston found that immigrant workers - many of them admittedly illegal - are being trucked to work sites in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, often to labor in hazardous jobs such as demolition, painting and general construction.

The persistence of the day laborer sites at a time when passions are high over immigration angers activists for separate reasons.

Foes of illegal aliens rage about the loss of American jobs and absence of law enforcement action. Immigrant advocates decry what they see as worsening exploitation and rising death and injury rates among the foreign-born laborers.

“People are working countless hours and toiling in absolutely horrific conditions,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.

State Rep. Marie Parente (D-Milton), while sharing that concern, said compassion ought to be reserved for Massachusetts roofers and landscapers who can’t find work. “This underground work force is undermining the American worker, who is never going to be able to earn a fair wage,” she said.

Despite the argument, one thing is clear: Day laborer sites across Massachusetts are commonplace, unmonitored and unregulated.

At one site along McGrath-O’Brien Highway in Somerville, a Herald reporter watched 50 laborers congregate daily on three recent mornings to seek work.Between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., the workers got into trucks and vans whose license plates were traced to general contractors, cleaning companies, house painters, flooring installers and others.

Interviews with numerous day laborers revealed that many are undocumented and that most rarely know their work destinations before a contractor’s van arrives to pick them up for the day.

“Some don’t speak English and they don’t have their papers,” said one 22-year-old laborer at the site who only gave a first name of Adilson. “The contractors sometimes don’t pay, but what can we do?”

One caravan seen at the Somerville site was followed by a Herald reporter and photographer to an apartment complex under construction in Cranston, R.I.

The general contractor on the site, Plumb House Inc. of Milford, declined to answer questions about the legality of the workers, what they were hired to do and whether they worked for Plumb House or a subcontractor.

The Somerville site, along with others in Allston, Chelsea and East Boston, have failed to draw any municipal, state or federal law enforcement crackdown despite the presence of illegals and the fears of unsafe working conditions.

“The federal agencies are completely lacking in sufficient resources to go after companies that exploit these workers,” said Goldstein-Gelb, whose organization estimates it would take the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration 124 years to inspect every work site under its jurisdiction in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, deaths of foreign-born workers have soared to a 13-year high across the state. A report released last week by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health indicated that 22 immigrant workers died in 2005, a more than fourfold increase from 2000, when just 5 were killed.

Officials with the federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a nationwide campaign two weeks ago to criminally punish employers who hire illegal immigrants. The agency has asked for 178 new agents in its budget request.

“ICE’s approach is that we’re trying to prioritize our work and go after the worst of the worst,” said Matthew Etre, acting special agent in charge of investigations in New England. “We don’t conduct sweeps. We conduct intelligence-based operations to identify the criminal elements.”


cross@bostonherald.com.

I saw this artice today and was going to post it, thanks W. We MA citizens will be writing and calling our state reps and senators to protest any state monies to fund these illegal hiring sites and to arrest these people as they are illegal. I notice the comment from ICE that they are going after the biggest employers and not focusing or dealing with the smaller ones. That is crap.

Well, if ICE Detains any of them. They could always put them up at the Kennedy compound. Until deportation

Yes I should have suggested that to teddy when I sent him the article along with my comments.

No wonder nothing is done to enforce those laws in that state.
Teddy.. the Illegal Alien Lover won't allow such a law to be enforced

Let the people of MA get a snoot full of the illegals and see how long Kennedy is in office.

We already do have a large population of illegals in MA, we are in the same boat as the rest of the country. Our politicians do not enforce the laws, we have murders, rapes, robberies, etc. As far as Teddy is concerned he is a state senator, we are looking into how to get him out of office.

I live in Colorado, but I'm curious, when is Kennedy up for reelection?

I see Ted's son is trying hard to follow in his dad's footsteps.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-25637.html

What else is new for the Kennedy family, and whenever something happens they say "do you know who I am?", LOL

My favorite one is about Ted Kennedy "when I got back MaryJo and the car were gone"