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  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Arrests give glimpse into illegal immigrant workforce

    http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRe ... leid=54160

    Arrests give glimpse into illegal immigrant workforce

    By Liz Mineo / Daily News Staff
    Monday, April 18, 2005

    The recent arrests of 14 Brazilian illegal immigrants working as janitors at Boston's Logan Airport and another 57 employed by an Allston cleaning business shed light on the widespread suspicion that illegal immigrants are working in all industries, but particularly in the cleaning industry.

    In MetroWest, the arrests have alarmed the Brazilian community, one of the state's large immigrant groups that seems to have found an occupational niche in the cleaning industry.

    In the case of Logan Airport, the arrests were part of a nationwide operation to tighten security among airport employees.

    The Allston case stemmed from the arrest of Brazilian Jose Neto, who paid nearly $167,000 in bribes to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to obtain green cards for him and his wife and secure the release of several of his employees who had entered the country illegally. Neto employed 57 Brazilian illegal workers at his cleaning company in Allston. All are facing deportation.

    Hiring illegal immigrants is a common practice in the cleaning industry, which needs cheap labor and doesn't require English skills, said industry executives.

    "When we take over buildings from other contractors, we often see that 90 to 100 percent of the workers can't prove they're legally here," said Ken Foscaldo, general manager of Waltham-based AM-PM Cleaning Corp. "Because we only hire people who are eligible to work here legally, we have to tell them they should look for another job."

    Often, companies do not check documents presented by applicants or delegate that job to outside contractors. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 300 illegal immigrants working in Wal-Mart stores in 20 states in 2003, Wal-Mart managers said those immigrants were hired by outside contractors.

    AM-PM Cleaning Corp., which serves more than 200 companies in New England, recently obtained an ISO 9001 certification, which sets quality standards of operations, which includes hiring practices that meet what the law requires.

    Most companies lack resources to check the immigration status of their employees, and many do not do it despite the fines they face if they are caught hiring illegal immigrants.

    "Most companies don't scrutinize it," said Foscaldo. "In our case, we feel responsible to our clients who allow us to come into their facilities to do everything we can to make sure everything is within the law."

    Employers have trouble verifying the authenticity of documents presented by prospective employees, said Susanne Morreale Leeber, president of the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce.

    "Many times, they don't know what is true and what is not," said Leeber. "If people present a document, they take it at face value. It's only when Immigration comes in, they know it's not true."

    Of the 31 million immigrants living in the country, between 8 million to 12 million are estimated to be here illegally. And of the more than 700,000 immigrants living in Massachusetts, about 87,000 are illegals. Unofficial estimates say there are between 150,000 and 230,000 Brazilians in the state, with many, nobody knows for sure how many, illegally living and working here.

    Across the state, immigrants make up a large segment of the work force in industries such as hotels, landscaping, construction, restaurant and other services.

    "They are a group of workers we depend upon," said Leeber. "There aren't people who do the jobs they do."

    In Milford, Brazilian businesswoman Marisol Carper agrees.

    The owner of Luzo Brazil Imports on Main Street, where she does translations, sells Brazilian clothing, jewelry and products, and wires money to Brazil, Carper sees many of her fellow countrymen and women who lack English skills and legal papers having a hard time.

    "They wash dishes, they clean houses, they only want to work," said Carper, a U.S. citizen since 1993. "They're here because they didn't have any chance in Brazil. They came here because in Brazil they would die of hunger."

    ( Liz Mineo can be reached at 508-626-3825 or lmineo@cnc.com. )




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  2. #2
    Diesel's Avatar
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    Diesel

    Then if a person or persons want to live in America then do it the correct
    way, the legal way and they will find open hearts and arms. To slap citizens in the face with criminal behavior by being here illegal, and to continue to cause economic chaos is just too much and on top of it all,
    to brag about it just let you know they don't want to do right in the first
    place.

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