Thread: Mexican leaders meet in Midland to talk about jobs

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 90472.html

Dec. 9, 2006, 8:16PM
Mexican leaders meet in Midland to talk about jobs
Oil patch has work for people from Chihuahua


By BOB CAMPBELL
Midland Reporter-telegram

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MIDLAND — Arid West Texas is a hard sell to many Americans who could fill its manifold job openings, but it is nirvana to people in the Mexican state of Chihuahua who seek temporary work visas.

A dozen leaders from the Chihuahuan cities of Aldama, Ojinaga and Coyame visited Midland recently and said their 20 citizens who were finishing 10-month visas at Big Dog Drilling want to return when 75 come in February to work for Big Dog and Endeavor Energy.

"They are able to save a lot of money, and they have been working freely and not hiding from anybody," said Ciudad Aldama Mayor Jesus Jose Ruiz Fernandez.


'A win-win situation'
Ciudad Ojinaga Mayor Jorge Montoya Lujan said the program "is a win-win situation because we can supply the need you have."

The mayors hope to send more than 2,000 for the Permian Basin's oil and gas, construction and restaurant industries in early 2008, including women to work at a Fort Stockton dairy.

They said applicants must have some acquaintance with English, and drug users and those with criminal records are not sent.

Aldama and Ojinaga each has about 20,000 citizens and Coyame 5,000.

Just having met with the Big Dog rig hands, they said their men "were very happy" with the experience and eager to work as much overtime as possible.


'They gave 150 percent'
"It depends on them, and they gave 150 percent," Ruiz Fernandez said.

Ojinaga work force development official Ingeniero Isidro Olivas said connecting Chihuahua and the Texas oil patch makes sense because 90 percent of the 70,000 to 80,000 Hispanics who live here have Chihuahuan relatives.

Importing foreign workers is a complex process requiring expert help, said Endeavor Energy Risk Manager Alicia Harris, who previously worked in immigration for the French oil and gas company Perenco.

Assisted by the Austin law firm of Tindall & Foster, Endeavor recruiters have met applicants in the cities of Chihuahua, Juarez, Ojinaga and Aldama in preparation for getting 30 of the next wave's 75 employees.

"We need hands for workover rigs and drilling rigs," Harris said.


66,000 ceiling
Tindall & Foster's Andrew Thorley said the main limitation is the annual 66,000 worker ceiling of the U.S. Labor Departments H-2B visa program.

"We do plenty of it because a lot of employers would like to have the type of labor that is just not available when the economy is good," Thorley said.

He explained that studies are done to show the visitors will not take jobs Americans want, and each worker is reviewed by the Texas Workforce Commission, Labor Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of Homeland Security.

They get health care insurance but do not earn Social Security benefits or become eligible for citizenship.

Children born to women guest workers also do not become U.S. citizens, he said.

Children born to women guest workers also do not become U.S. citizens, he said.

Is this true ? I think it is questionable.

UB

Children born to women guest workers also do not become U.S. citizens, he said

I don't believe it!! Everybody else does, even when born on airplanes....why would this be any different?

texas workforce commission had better make sure the jobs are offered to US citizens FIRST before giving it asway to mexicans