Thread: Immigration debate: US hooked on illegal labor

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Immigration debate: US hooked on illegal labor

Mon Dec 5, 2005 11:51 AM ET



By Bernd Debusmann

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An increasingly heated debate over U.S. immigration policy is highlighting the country's deep dependence on illegal workers whose departure, many experts say, would cripple much of the U.S. economy.

Estimates of the number of foreigners in the United States illegally vary from 8.7 million (the U.S. Census Bureau) to 20 million (Bear Stearns, the investment company). The most widely used number is 11 million, by the Pew Hispanic Center and based on the 2000 census.

The biggest group of undocumented foreigners is from Mexico, whose 1,951-mile border with the United States remains porous despite stepped-up surveillance and the use of high-tech equipment to detect people attempting to sneak across.

There are so many Latin Americans working on post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction projects that the city worst affected by the storm is becoming known as La Nueva Orleans.

Here is a simple test of the prevalence of illegal foreign workers, many from Mexico and Central America, in the United States: Walk up to construction sites in many states with large Latino populations and shout: "Corranle, ahi viene la migra!"

That means "Run, the 'migra' is coming," Chances are, many workers will sprint away to avoid "la migra," Spanish shorthand for the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Undocumented workers are also common in restaurants, lettuce fields and vineyards, meat-packing plants, slaughterhouses, hotel laundry rooms and nursing homes.

"The United States is simply hooked on cheap, illegal workers," according to a Bear Stearns report on the "underground labor force." It added: "Illegal immigration has been America's way of competing with the low-wage (labor) forces of Asia and Latin America..."

HOT-BUTTON ISSUE

Immigration stirs as much passion among Americans as gun control and abortion. The one point on which almost everyone involved in the debate agrees is that the present system is broken.

On one side are those who back sealing the entire U.S.-Mexican border with a steel fence and deporting illegal immigrants already in the country. On the other are those who argue that the flow of people across borders should be as free as that of goods, information, services and capital.

There are five separate proposals on immigration reform before Congress, including a guest worker plan by President George W. Bush. It would allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal status for up to six years, after which they would have to return home and reapply for a work visa after a year.

It is open to conjecture how many takers there would be for such an offer. "This (Bush) plan is based on flawed assumptions. Experience shows there's nothing more permanent than a temporary worker," said Mark Kirkorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates restricting immigration.

Illegal workers, many of whom risked their lives and spent thousands of dollars to cross the border, tend to suspect officialdom. "Why would anyone go and tell the government they have no papers?" asked Roxana, a 27-year-old house-cleaner in Washington. "Why would one come out into the open?"

"The whole debate is hollow," said Gregory Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the New America Foundation. "The problem is that neither the American public nor the government will admit their dependence on a labor force that is heavily undocumented."

VISA QUOTAS

That dependence stems in part from U.S. visa regulations that largely shut out low-skilled workers from legal work. Last year, the government issued 1,525 permanent immigrant visas to low-skilled applicants.

Of the 16 categories of visas for temporary immigrants, only two are for employment requiring little or no formal training. One covers agricultural workers and the other is capped at 66,000 per year, a quota already exhausted for 2006.

That contrasts with 3.7 million job openings in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over a million were in construction and service industries, supporting the argument that there are many jobs Americans will not do.

"This is not a matter of jobs not taken because wages are low," said Laura Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, which calls for an increase in immigration quotas. "There are thousands of open jobs that pay $15 an hour or more."

Some employers resent the widely held view that low cost is the main incentive to hiring illegal workers.

"I hire Hispanics because they are more motivated and more reliable," said Steve Bell, who owns an Iowa landscaping business. "I started out with Americans but found their work ethic lacking. The bottom line for me is that low-skilled Americans are generally unemployable."

Here is a simple test of the prevalence of illegal foreign workers, many from Mexico and Central America, in the United States: Walk up to construction sites in many states with large Latino populations and shout: "Corranle, ahi viene la migra!"

That means "Run, the 'migra' is coming," Chances are, many workers will sprint away to avoid "la migra," Spanish shorthand for the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

I think that this is a great idea!!! Everyone--start going to the construction sites and yelling this out!! Talk about disrupting the businesses that hire illegals!! They wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Their capability to produce on time would be shot!! They couldn't complain about it because they're breaking the law anyway. Maybe crying wolf isn't such a bad thing after all!! Thoughts?