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An honest, illegal day's work
About 7,800 to 12,700 undocumented workers are estimated to live in the Corpus Christi area

By Sarah Viren Caller-Times
April 23, 2006


More than a dozen men wait with the rising sun near a bus stop close to the Crosstown Expressway. They shift in place, clutching Styrofoam cups of coffee, or sit with heads bowed over street curbs.

Many are homeless. Others come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico. All are looking for a day's work.

Their labor negotiations take place through the rolled-down windows of rumbling diesel trucks. Payment is almost always in cash.

Rarely do these workers talk about documentation. And rarely do their potential employers ask.

"They just say, 'Do you want to work?' " and we say 'What do you pay?' " one man said. He refused to give his name, saying he doesn't want the police to hassle him.

Between 11 million and 12 million people work illegally in the United States, according to a 2005 study by the Pew Hispanic Center. The Corpus Christi metropolitan region likely employs between 7,800 and 12,700 of these workers. That estimate is based on the most recent census data on local employee numbers and the national Pew estimates. There are no studies of undocumented workers specific to Corpus Christi.

At the bus stop, day laborers say they get jobs from homeowners and construction foremen; they dig ditches, build walls and plant flowers.

Nationally, undocumented workers cluster in a handful of industries: 23 percent of all dishwashers are undocumented and 17 percent of those who prepare food. Statistically, meat packers and homebuilders also hire more workers without proper documentation.

Both Congress and President Bush have advocated changing the country's immigration system, which critics argue keeps wages low and taxes the nation's social services. But lawmakers have yet to find a solution that has the support of these workers, the businesses that employ them, and the vocal contingent that wants them all to leave. The Senate will readdress the issue this week.

Meanwhile, all the talk of change has stirred up protests throughout the country. On May 1, immigrant advocates are calling for "A Day Without an Immigrant," a daylong boycott at schools and workplaces. Some locals plan to participate in the walkout, and advocates in the city are organizing a march that evening to rally support for immigration reform.

Hamid Beladi, an economics professor at University of Texas' College of Business, said no one knows what would happen if the country suddenly lost all its undocumented workers. But he bets the economic impact would be bad.

"Just suppose, for a moment, that all those people who work in agriculture or in construction cannot work anymore," he said. "You are talking about 11 (million) or 12 million people. So that basically creates a vacuum in labor supply and those are the type of jobs that the native residents do not want to do."

Home sweet home

In the shadowed light of a half-built house, Roman Ortiz Jr. watches as his employees smooth insulation between a wall's wooden frame. Two men are on site, finishing off a job that will earn them about $75 apiece. Both men, Ortiz said, are legal workers, with documentation to prove it.

But they labor in an industry - construction - where at least 14 percent are in this country illegally, according to the Pew statistics. Locally, that would be an estimated 1,760 workers.

Of all jobs, insulation employs the highest percentage of undocumented workers: 36 according to the Pew study.

Ortiz, who runs his family's business, Professional Insulators, said he only takes legal workers. But the statistic doesn't surprise him.

Insulation work is long, hot and, worst of all, itchy. New workers often don't sleep well for their first three weeks on the job, he said. The fiberglass tickles your respiratory system; it digs into your forearms, face and legs. Although his employees work for commission, Ortiz said, lots of insulation companies contract work out, paying by the square footage, the hour or the day.

"They do the work that no one else wants to do," he said. "If there weren't undocumented workers I don't think half of Corpus Christi would be built right now."

He pointed to a house going up nearby, where a dozen men are working carpentry.

"With a frame crew, there are probably 10 people at the job and probably one has documents and that's the guy handing out the checks," he said.

Nueces County has a slightly higher percentage of undocumented workers than the nation, but is lower than the state average, according to 2003 estimates from Texas demographer Steve Murdock as well as Work-Force 1, U.S. Census, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Local economics professor Jim Lee, with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said certain factors in the local economy attract undocumented workers.

"They are heavily concentrated in construction and the restaurant business, and we have a relatively large construction industry in Corpus Christi and we have proportionally more restaurants than other cities," he said.

Work for hire

Not everyone sees Corpus Christi as a hotbed for undocumented workers. Many argue that the city's smaller population and proximity to the border make the area unattractive for those trying to avoid deportation.

"We learned 25, 30 years ago that you can't," said businessman Jerry Kane. "Given the fact that you are this close to the border, one would be an idiot to hire undocumented workers."

Kane oversees the area's only meat packing plant. It's the fifth largest of its kind in the country, and employs nearly 1,000 people, he said. Although the meat processing industry is staffed by an estimated 27 percent undocumented workers, Kane said none of those come from his shop.

"That 27 percent is in the breadbasket of Iowa and Nebraska where they feel more safe in terms of being hired," he said.

Terry Carter, president of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, agrees that illegal immigration is less of an issue in Corpus Christi. He said he hasn't heard a peep from local business owners regarding the topic, despite the raging national debate.

"I think the businesses in the Coastal Bend are doing everything they can to comply with federal law," he said.

The likelihood that Corpus Christi employers will face prosecution has been low. Officials with the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, say they don't know of a workplace immigration investigation in this area since they took over enforcement in 2003. Before that, when the Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service oversaw enforcement at workplaces, the last local investigation was 1998.

Louisa Desin, a spokeswoman for ICE, said immigration officials are investigating a case in the Corpus Christi area now, but wouldn't give details until it is finished. In a raid throughout 26 states Tuesday, the agency arrested more than 1,000 immigrants and seven managers from wood products plants. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters afterwards that the bust was the start of a crackdown on illegal hiring.

Federal figures show the number of workplace investigations have declined since 1997. Associated arrests went from 17,554 that year to 445 in 2003, according to ICE data. Desin said the focus of her agency is on employer violations at "critical infrastructure" sites such as power plants and airports.

Staying hidden

Alba Silvas still remembers the white and yellow outfit she wore to cross the border. She was just 10 years old.

"My mother had bought us new clothes because she wanted us to fit in," said Silvas, who now manages the city's Work Source center on Staples Street, where others go to find jobs.

Like millions in this country, Silvas had her roots in an illegal trip. She, her mother and two brothers took a bus from Mexico to the United States on July 4, 1984. They said they were going to visit her father, who was working illegally in the Houston area, but they never went back. Silvas' mother got jobs at coin laundries and restaurant kitchens, working below minimum wage. Her father was a carpenter.

The family is luckier than many. Eventually they saved money and got an attorney. They applied for amnesty, got documentation, and obtained legal status.

These days, Silvas helps others find jobs. But she said she never sees people like her parents. They are too afraid to walk through the doors of Work Source, she said. Her agency requires Social Security cards and picture ID.

"That happens by word of mouth from employer to employer, job-seeker to job-seeker," she said. "They say, that restaurant owner over there will take you, but only pay you $3."

But she knows the workers are out there. She sees them at the construction site, and thinks of her father. She watches the protests on the news, and remembers her mother's stories about being a secret, being afraid.

"I didn't know when I was a little girl what the purpose was for us coming to the U.S., but my mother did and that was to have a better life," she said. "I just keep thinking, I wouldn't have done it, but she says, 'No, you would have done the same thing for your children.' "

Contact Sarah Viren at 886-4316 or virens@ caller.com

PROFESSION BREAKDOWN
Professions that employ some of the highest percentage of undocumented workers. Of all the workers in each profession, this percentage is the number who are undocumented:


Butchers and other meat, poultry and fish processing workers: 27%

Pressers, textile, garment and related materials: 26%

Dishwashers: 23%

Maids and housekeeping cleaners: 23%

Computer hardware engineers: 20%

Parking lot attendants: 19%

Sewing machine operators: 18%

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers: 15%
Source: Pew Hispanic Center data from March 2005