Thread: Jobs Are There for Immigrant Workers (gag!)

http://delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 80339/1006


Jobs are there for immigrant workers

By PATRICIA V. RIVERA
The News Journal
05/08/2006


In the heart of Sussex County's largest concentration of undocumented immigrants, Georgetown Police Chief William Topping deals with residents who use multiple identities to avoid arrest. He frowns on it but understands the role that undocumented immigrants play in the state's economy.

"I tell everyone I talk to, whether they like hearing it or not, that if illegal immigrants had to leave, many industries would be badly hit and it may take a while for them to recover," Topping said. "I know I wouldn't want to work at Perdue and do the jobs immigrants do."

Undocumented immigrants have become the backbone of several segments of the economy in Sussex County and, slowly, across the state. They hold jobs in construction, the poultry industry and at restaurants and hotels.

Federal immigration reform passed in 1986 did little to solve the problem of undocumented workers. Instead, it created a thriving black market in fraudulent documents and false identities.

No one knows how many undocumented workers toil in Delaware. Figures range from the U.S. Census Bureau's count of between 13,500 and 17,500, to the Pew Hispanic Center's estimate of about 35,000.

Despite their impact on the economy, Delaware's Department of Labor does not have statistics on the immigrants and where they work. "This is not part of any survey that we conduct or any databases that we maintain," said Ed Simon, director of the Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information.

Employers feel uneasy even talking about any relation they may have with undocumented immigrant workers or the fact that such laborers exist in large numbers. Experts call the relationship between immigrants and employers a marriage of convenience.

Carol Everhart, executive director of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, said the resorts have come to rely on the help from Eastern European students who fill jobs waiting on tourists. They have special visas to work here during the summer.

Latin American immigrants don't play such a large role, she said at first. Then she thought about the kitchen help at restaurants, maids at hotels and construction workers.

"I guess, as I think about it, we do have more of them, even though they may not be as visible to the public," she said. "They're not illegal, though. The businesses here don't hire illegal immigrants."

Immigration officials said most employers adhere to the letter of the law and require proof of residence or permission to work. The documents, however, aren't always legitimate.

"You never get to choose whose identity you'll assume," said Marcos, a 39-year-old construction laborer from Guatemala who didn't want his last name used for fear of arrest. "You don't worry too much about it, either. Employers just want a Social Security number that matches the name on the driver's license."

The jobs are there

Immigrant advocates argue that the large numbers of undocumented immigrants wouldn't come to Delaware or the United States if jobs weren't plentiful.

Immigrants from Latin America have built good reputations, said Sister Madeline Welch, a Wilmington immigration lawyer and founder of Immigrants Council of Delaware. "Everyone says they're the best workers and businesses need their help."

Nationally, undocumented immigrants make up around 5 percent of the U.S. work force, according to the nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center.

Brian McGlinchey, Delaware's governmental affairs director for the Laborers' International Union, said the union supports putting undocumented workers on a path to citizenship.

"Organized labor welcomes immigrants and is comprised of immigrants," he said. "We want to have the opportunity to bring them into the union to increase their skills and earnings."

Undocumented workers don't receive compensation for injuries on the job, McGlinchey said, and they receive only a fraction of the prevailing wage.

"In our industry we're competing literally against guys who are being picked up off street corners," he said. As they have elsewhere, day laborers have started to wait along street corners in Delaware cities, including the Hilltop neighborhood of Wilmington.

Under a U.S. House proposal known as HR 4437, people who hire undocumented workers -- even on a street corner in Hilltop -- could be fined as much as $7,500 for a first offense. That bill energized the nation's Hispanic population and led to opposition marches, walkouts and boycotts across the country.

The Rev. Rene Knight of the United Methodist Church in Georgetown moved quickly to mobilize and educate individuals and businesses about the legislation's potential impact.

"This bill could hurt not just the immigrants but anyone who comes in contact with them, starting with their employers," he said.

The Delmarva poultry industry could take a huge hit. The state's three largest poultry processing plants wrote to lawmakers urging them to reject the proposal. They submitted translated copies of those letters to Spanish-language papers.

Michael W. Tirrell, a vice president at the Selbyville-based poultry company Mountaire Farms Inc., wrote that although his company "employs only documented workers," it needs "a timely, effective verification system and a reasonable guest worker program to help us."

Allen Family Foods, a Seaford-based poultry processor with 3,000 employees, published a letter with a similar tone, noting that the bill does nothing to address the lack of workers in the United States.

"If not for the foreign workers, agriculture and food processing industries ... could not operate," the company said.

Chicken could cost more

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, called that reasoning a myth.

Companies with no access to cheap labor find ways to stay open. In Europe, he said, poultry companies are more automated because unskilled laborers are harder to find. "The chicken breast may cost a little more, but it can be done."

Or companies could raise their pay and choose from a large pool of American workers who would do the same work for more money, he said.

In a study released last month, the Washington-based Center for American Progress reported that while enough unemployed native workers exist to replace undocumented workers, there is a severe mismatch between their skills.

"We find that if the undocumented were removed from the labor force, there would be a shortfall of nearly 2.5 million low-skill workers," wrote the author, economics professor David Jaeger of the College of William & Mary. "This would be a major shock to the economy, and the industries that employ large numbers of undocumented workers would potentially face shortages of workers."

Rather than reducing its reliance on immigrant workers, Jaeger concluded, the nation may need to expand the numbers to keep pace with the demands of the economy.

But some Americans feel immigrants are a threat to their jobs. A survey released last month by the Pew Hispanic Center found that nearly a quarter of black respondents said they had lost a job to an immigrant or knew someone who had. Less than a fifth of white respondents said that. The study didn't distinguish between undocumented and legal immigrants.

More than one in three black Americans surveyed said they felt that immigrants take away jobs Americans want, compared with one in four whites.

But the survey also found black Americans more supportive than whites of permitting undocumented immigrants to attend schools and receive social services.

Stiffer penalties

The House proposal, ushered through by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., would increase the criminal penalty for illegal entry from a misdemeanor to a felony. Unlike Senate bills that expand guest worker and visa programs to accommodate undocumented workers, the House bill increases the penalty for a pattern of hiring undocumented workers from $3,000 to $50,000.

The Center for American Progress put the cost associated with arresting, detaining, prosecuting and removing the country's 11 million unauthorized residents at $206 billion to $230 billion over five years -- even though no congressional leader is proposing mass deportations.

That might not be necessary, said Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, because many may be induced to leave by the sheer threat of enforcement. "Making it as hard as possible for them to have a normal life here," he said, could speed the process.

Since joining the Georgetown police force 10 years ago, Topping has worked hard to convince undocumented immigrants that the police department is not an immigration office and that police couldn't deport people.

And he wouldn't be comfortable backing up immigration agents on a regular basis.

He hired a victim services coordinator and several Spanish-speaking officers to reach out to immigrants.

"We need to deal with the reality," he said, "and that's that they're not going away."

Contact Patricia V. Rivera at 856-7373 or privera@delawareonline.com.

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While many points in this article anger me, what I find it particularly reprehensible is the "look the other way" stance taken by Georgetown Police Chief William Topping.

Hey Topping, any luck apprehending the Perdue employee (and/or his wife) that murdered a fellow employee last December? Nah, didn't think so...

Thats some of the Problem with law enforcement officials. They believe that they can or should decide when to enforce laws and when not to. Who its good for and who its not good for. Now to me the basic word is very important. (LAW ENFORCEMENT). Now if the top cops across the country decided which laws to enforce then why shouldnt thier lower ranking officers. It could get real ugly real fast when our top cops across the country Start to act and enforce the Laws like Mexican Police officers. Out here in Vegas Our top cop seams to be under that new bread of enforcement rulls. Back many years ago when this city had a history its officers straddled the fence on enforcement. Now the Top Cop is doing it again with Illegal Alien enforcement. He is worried about Drugs and increased crime but of course any American citizen Knows that ONLY Legal American Citizens and Legal Immigrants commit Crime. Not those Illegal Aliens that have broken Local/state and federal Laws just being here working and living. Naw, Not Them!!!!

We're becoming a lawlessness society...pick and choose what laws to break and who we will use some laws against!

Plus, it's all about money...unions want dues, business wants cheap labor, and the government wants votes and money.

Any American citizen that has an illegal doing housework, laundry, lawnwork, etc...is just as bad as the above!


Unless America gets back to the laws we already have, I see no hope for much of anything!

Why are we supposed to feel sorry for these businesses because they hired all these illegal aliens, and would suffer if the illegals had to leave??

I live in Maryland... and I am about 30 minutes away from Sussex County Delaware. And Delaware is over run with illegal aliens. They are everywhere!!!!

The only reason certain industries would suffer if they were to leave, is because businesses have hired so many illegals they are totally dependent on them.

It's almost like they are saying because so many ppl have broken the illegal immigration laws, we are are just suppose to ignore it.

Too bad average the American Citizen just can't avoid paying their taxes, and have the IRS just ignore that too.

Maybe I am cold hearted,, but I do not feel sorry for the businesses, nor do I feel sorry for the Adult illegals crossing the borders risking their lives to break the law.... they are all breaking the laws, and we are taught early on in life, that if you break the law,you suffer the consiquences.

Seems to me Congress, this President, and law enforcement have all forgotten the law and have turned a blind eye.... when it comes to illegal aliens, and those who hire them.

"We need to deal with the reality," he said, "and that's that they're not going away."

Yeah, and that's not the only thing that "they're not" going to do.
"They're not going away" and they're not going to suddenly cease being a drain on every social service program available through our federal, state and local governments.
They're not going to stop infiltrating middle class American neighborhoods, living 20 or more per household.
They're not going to stop raising these dumb, uneducated street punks that are everywhere these days. (I had 5 or 6 try to rob me in Miami a couple of years ago so I have a REAL BAD ATTITUDE towards these scum.)
They're not going to stop coming here and they're not going to be satisfied until their underclass have surpassed our American middleclass.