Thread: Immigration bill a concern for construction employers

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Immigration bill a concern for construction employers
Triangle Business Journal - March 10, 2006by Aletha Hart
CHARLOTTE - Immigration-reform legislation that recently worked its way through the U.S. House of Representatives could have major impact on North Carolina's construction industry.

Concerned construction officials say the measures could then have unintended effects on the local economy.

The House passed the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act, commonly referred to as the Sensenbrenner-King bill, on Dec. 16. Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill has not been scheduled for hearings.

The legislation calls for greater border security, policing of the American work place and penalties for employers that hire undocumented workers.

It doesn't include a guest-worker program that contractors say could allow construction to keep up with demand for labor in a booming economy.

"We support a guest-worker registry program," says Stephen Gennett, president of Carolinas Associated General Contractors. Gennett says restrictive reform without a viable guest-worker program could affect more than just the illegal immigrants of the area.

"One of the regular challenges of our organization is to convince parents and their children that the construction industry is a good career choice. There's a shortage of skilled construction workers and will be for the foreseeable future. Immigrant workers are vital for our industry ... ," Gennett says.

The national AGC estimates the construction industry will need to attract 200,000 workers a year for the next decade to meet demand. The group says foreign-born labor will play a key role in filling those jobs.

A key issue is language in the House bill that tags any relative, employer, co-worker or friend of an illegal immigrant as an "alien smuggler." An employer could be charged with smuggling even if it did not know that an employee was undocumented.

The national AGC says the bill's penalties against employers that hire undocumented workers and requirements to verify their legal status are a concern. A recent AGC statement notes the bill calls for employers to check the papers of not only new hires, but also current employees and the potentially could involve former employees.

Under the bill, the legal charge against undocumented immigrants would rise from an immigration violation to an aggravated felony.

Gennett says there's a common but false impression the construction industry deliberately hires illegal immigrants to cut labor costs. The industry has to adhere to the law when hiring workers just like all sectors of the economy. Punishing employers for not recognizing false documentation is not reasonable, he says.

"We would like to see immigration reform that is comprehensive, not just building a big fence across the border," says Alan Gordon, a Charlotte immigration attorney and chairman of a Charlotte-based immigration study commission. "The fact is that immigrant workers are critically important to the construction industry and many of them are legal."

Immigrants are productive, good workers and the majority are documented, Gennett says. "There are, of course, people who are illegal but from what our people tell us, most of their employees have proper documents."

Jeff Gordon, assistant special agent-in-charge for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Charlotte, disagrees with that view.

"I have had reports that construction companies purposefully hire undocumented workers," says Gordon, who declines comment on the pending legislation. "The reports are usually unactionable because the information usually comes from an anonymous source. But do we do work-site enforcement and purposefully go to specific construction companies? Yes."

But do we do work-site enforcement and purposefully go to specific construction companies? Yes."

Since when? There was an article here in the past few days in which an ICE agent said they only check work-sites dealing with national security.

DO THEY OR DON'T THEY?????????????????????/

I don't know if they do or they don't but if the construction companies are worried, maybe they might want to try hiring American workers for a decent wage.

A neighbor does excavating work. Most of the time he can't find work here so he travels. A couple of years ago he went to Mass. to work on that HOLE (road)....he told my husband that he was told he HAD to hire Mexicans!

I don't know who told him that, but he also returned from there without getting full pay.

Maybe my brothers, who have worked in construction all their lives, will be able to make the wages they used to earn(before the invasion). It's just stupid to believe that Americans do not want to do construction work. My husband CHOSE to ba a carpenter, nothing else even interested him. Nowadays, he spends most of his time REPAIRING the work on houses that ILLEGALS have screwed up. They come here and CLAIM to be experienced carpenters, brick masons, etc. but in truth, they know very little. My husband says that the cheap contractors who want the cheap labor actually end up paying MORE to hire him to fix what the cheap illegals messed up. I don't understand why they just don't hire QUALITY AMERICANS to do a HIGH QUALITY job, then again, I know the reason....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$

I just sent them a letter. Let me know if they print it.

Will do, Pinetrawsguys!

Sure, they need illegal aliens in order to keep racking up record profits after record profits like KB Home has been doing recently. The "booming economy" they talk about is an illusion, supported by deficit spending that cannot last.
Actually it is a population boom created by illegal immigration.

Tell you what construction companies. The population and economy of Mexico/Central America will be "booming" soon, you should move your operations there.

TimBinh wrote:

Tell you what construction companies. The population and economy of Mexico/Central America will be "booming" soon, you should move your operations there.

Good idea, TimBinh!

Yeah, and the south's cotton industry was concerned with the emancipation proclamation too.