http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/su ... 394962.htm

Posted on Tue, Dec. 13, 2005

EDITORIAL

Addicted to Illegal Immigrants?

Undocumented workers draw residents' ire but are important part of economy


Some readers would like to see our communities cleared of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Such feelings grow more intense when an undocumented worker is in a wreck where residents are hurt or killed. Just last weekend in Myrtle Beach, a car driven by a man whom police confirmed to lack a green card collided with a car driven by a student on her way to the Coastal Carolina University fall graduation ceremony at the Convention Center.

Her father's letter about the wreck appears on today's editorial page.

Certainly, the record shows that the folks who lack driver's licenses and drive uninsured cars on local roads aren't all undocumented Hispanics. But their involvement in crashes invariably evokes questions on why they're even here.

There's a good answer for that, as a report in Sunday's Money section of The Sun News makes clear. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that roughly 36,000 illegal immigrants now live in South Carolina, with their population swelling daily. A good many of them live in Horry and Georgetown counties - attracted here by the availability of jobs, especially construction jobs but also jobs in landscaping, cooking and house and hotel cleaning.

The conventional wisdom is they take jobs U.S. citizens and legal immigrants don't want. This seems true until you consider that if the local employers who hire illegal immigrants offered higher wages, they probably could attract a legal - or mostly legal - work force.

But such a custom would drive up the cost of home building, landscaping services, hotel and restaurant meals, cleaning services and accommodations. Most of us understand this, even if we don't like it, because the "savings" from employers' use of low-cost labor gets passed on to us.

Not for nothing does Berkley White, president of the Horry-Georgetown Homebuilders Association, deem illegal workers critical to the local economy. He states: "To have them in this area when the construction in both residential and commercial are at all-time highs right now - the work could not be completed without them being here."

His views no doubt will disturb readers who believe in strict enforcement of federal immigration law - which, among other things, requires employers to ascertain whether prospective workers are in the country legally, and bars them from hiring illegal immigrants. But it's hard to fault a contractor for subcontracting out framing, concrete work, roofing and siding to crews that may - or may not - include undocumented workers. Driven by the expectations of buyers, including price expectations, contractors need such work done in a timely, efficient and competent manner. White is merely telling it as it is.

Unless we're prepared to undergo the pain of reinventing our regional economies to do without illegal workers, it's not realistic to believe that illegal workers can or should be expunged from our communities. The best solution appears to be a guest worker program of the sort that President Bush advocates - so that workers can be documented and live "above ground" lives while they're in the country. Among other advantages, such a program is our best hope that workers who cause trouble on our roads can be held accountable.