Thread: Illegals' presence deepens health concerns in food industry

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Illegals' presence deepens health concerns in food industry
The Business Journal of Phoenix - May 26, 2006
by Mike Sunnucks

Public health worries about illegal immigrants are reaching beyond hospitals and emergency rooms and could hit home in the restaurant and food-service sectors.

Undocumented immigrants are prevalent in the food-service industry, filling lower-paying, labor-intensive jobs such as bus boys, waiters, cooks, meat-cutters and food handlers.

That raises public health concerns among some lawmakers, including Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth and medical experts, because undocumented migrant workers often come from countries and regions with higher communicable disease rates.

Studies by the National Institutes of Health and articles in various medical journals point to higher rates of tuberculosis, malaria, blood disorders and other diseases in Mexican border regions and other Third World countries than in the U.S., where some of these diseases are rare or nonexistent.

Some cities in other states, including Massachusetts, have started cracking down on restaurants that hire illegals, citing not only violation of federal employment laws, but also public health protections.

There are about 12.5 million restaurant workers in the U.S and more than 200,000 food-service and restaurant workers in Arizona, according to industry associations.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates there are 1.6 million foreign-born and immigrant workers in the food service and restaurant sectors nationally.

"They are a substantial portion of our work force," said Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant & Hospitality Association.

David Ludwig, environmental health manager at the Maricopa County Department of Environmental Services, said the restaurant industry is required to train all of its workers on health code rules and practices after they are on the job 30 days, but the sector struggles with high turnover.

The county agency, which regulates and inspects restaurants and food-service operations, does not track the relationship between immigration status and health code violations.

Restaurants periodically are inspected by county health officials to make sure they are abiding by food handling and safety regulations. Violations often include having unlicensed workers and food managers, evidence of rodents or insects and operations without proper permits.

Ludwig said food-service safety and regulations classes are given in English, Spanish and a number of other languages. The key is for immigrants and other workers to be adequately trained and for restaurants to have licensed managers on the premises to make sure new workers follow health code rules and don't show up to work when they are sick.

The county agency also cracks down on unlicensed mobile food carts often operated in Latino neighborhoods by Hispanic entrepreneurs, some undocumented workers and some U.S. citizens, Ludwig said.

"Our goal is to keep the public safe," he said.

Chucri said restaurants are required to follow basic training rules and regulations, but some go beyond those and conduct background checks on workers and managers and help Spanish-speaking employees improve their English. A few restaurants also require medical background checks and physicals, he said.

The state group and the National Restaurant Association work with chains and individual eateries on training and food safety issues.

Immigration hawks argue the answer to the public health worries is to better control the Mexican border.

"Since illegal aliens are not screened as legal immigrants are, they can walk in with all manner of dangerous contagious diseases, including drug-resistant tuberculosis, which can cost up to $1 million to treat, Chagas, acute hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted diseases," said Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth, a Republican advocate of stricter border controls.

"Many of these diseases are reaching alarming proportions in the rest of the world, especially tuberculosis. Continued illegal immigration risks the reintroduction of diseases we eradicated long ago," said Hayworth.

Those on the other side of the issue counter the public health argument is a way of fear-mongering the immigration issue and that undocumented workers are hard-working and take lower-paying jobs shunned by others.

"Referring to undocumented workers, even obtusely, as dirty and disease-ridden reminds me of stereotypes of years past, when African Americans were considered dirty and disease-ridden, and later, when Irish Americans were considered as such," said state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix.

"Classifying a group of people with these negative stereotypes takes us farther from solutions and unity, and leads us into more problems and strife," she said.

Get connected

Arizona Restaurant & Hospitality Association: www.azrestaurant.org.

If only Americans understood this serious problem, they'd open their eyes to the larger picture

I don't even eat out anymore. The only place I go is this little sandwich shop owned by this older lady who hires high school kids and you can actually watch them make the sandwiches. Any other meal I make at home which has been a tradition long lost in America. I was reading this article in the newspaper the other day that was talking about how American families are so busy that that have to go out to eat. Then it also mentioned that since every American family feels they are too busy to make a meal at home they end up waiting 45 minutes to an hour for a table. This brings me to wonder, who can't make a homemade meal in an hour?

This is not steriotyping (said in a very loud voice).

It is no coindicence that diseases that this country had largely eliminated are showing up again and in the very communities that illegal aliens are concentrated. This is a fact, it is not fear mongering, again it is a fact.

It is also a fact that Mexico is a 3rd world country that has these disease issues and the United States does not, or should I say did not, until amazingly we started having increase in diseases not seen in this country in years until there was a massive influx of illegal aliens from Mexico.

I just want to slap some people up side the head and hopefully knock some sense into them.

againstillegals - we do not go out either. Not because we would not like to, cannot afford it. We have a busy house. My daughter who is only 6 is a very busy bee but eating is at home. It is a rare treat for us to go out, although I am thinking I might not want to treat myself to a helping of drug resistant tuberculosis or anything else.

The public in general is finally realizing the risk of eating at restaurants. Undocumented employee means that no testing and screening of infectious diseases has been performed. This is not about stereotyping, it is about the facts. People are tired of getting sick while eating at restaurants.
But don't listen to us, just look at the drop in business at restaurants across the nation. Growing numbers of us are staying healthy and saving money by eating at home. We can serve breakfast, lunch, and diner for less than the amount of the average tip at many restaurants.