Thread: Guatemalan faces uncertainties SOB STORY

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JULIO CORTEZ julio.cortez@scripps.com

Guatemalan faces uncertainties in Martin County job market
By LILY LADEIRA
lily.ladeira@scripps.com
February 11, 2007

Reporter Lily Ladeira and photographer Julio Cortez spent several days following Guatemalan Carlos Hernandez to chronicle what life is like for day laborers in Martin County.

STUART — Guatemalan Carlos Hernandez spent an arduous 22 days finding his way to Stuart for the chance to work as a day laborer and live in a dark and unkempt duplex with two other roommates, battered furnishings and an old Fisher TV.

His life has been lonely and uncertain, but Hernandez has few regrets — except he is away from his family.

"I heard you could earn more. That's why I came here," Hernandez said in Spanish. He has been in Stuart for two years.

Many of the men who wait for day jobs — such as landscaping and painting work — at the Iglesia Bautista church in Port Salerno and in other places in Martin County have similar stories of why they braved the trip to a country where they can't speak the language, can't legally work and now barely make enough to support themselves.

Like 30-year-old Hernandez, who has a sixth-grade education, some want to make enough money to send home to their families. These days, Hernandez manages to work only once or twice a week, but every now and then he'll get picked up for a job for several consecutive days and earn as much as $10 an hour, he said.

In Jacaltenango, a small town surrounded by the Sierra Madre mountains, Hernandez made about 40 Guatemalan quetzals a day as a carpenter, the equivalent of $5. The money wasn't enough to sustain his wife and two children in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.

In Guatemala, the average agricultural worker in 2002 made about $3.52 a day and a service worker made $3.85 a day, according to most recent statistics available from the Federation of International Trade Associations.

Nowadays, Hernandez wakes up early and arrives at the church, where he drinks coffee and eats the occasional watered-down rice pudding pastors Angel Izquierdo and Jody Davis provide.

One crisp day last month, Hernandez watched as about 20 men swarmed a pickup truck when it stopped in the church parking lot to retrieve a few workers.

Hernandez wasn't picked for that job but was selected an hour later by a local landscaper who needed mangroves cut in Sewall's Point. Hernandez worked for six hours using a rusty hand saw to cut through thick mangroves while he precariously balanced on top of them. The landscaper paid him $60 for six hours of work and bought him a sandwich and water.

The landscape business owner, who has endured recent robberies and is struggling to stay in business, said day laborers provide cheaper labor. The employer spoke to The Stuart News on the condition of anonymity.

"Last year and this year are the worst years we've had. I'm hoping the business will pick up," the landscaper said. "The government is trying to make it so tough on us — it's a $3,000 fine for me if they catch us with any illegals. Unfortunately, you have to (hire laborers) in this business — landscaping and work such as this."

The laborers are cheaper for the employer because he pays them lower wages and doesn't have to pay workers' compensation insurance, Social Security or other benefits for them, or a fee to a day labor agency, the landscaper said. Employers, however, are subject to civil and criminal penalties and can be fined up to $11,000 per illegal immigrant by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents if they are caught.

But the employer said it is hard to find American workers who will work for the low wages he pays day laborers.

Employers who claim legal workers won't take those jobs are making excuses, Florida Atlantic University Political Science Professor Marshall DeRosa said.

"That's an alibi. Nobody wants to pick tomatoes — well, nobody wants to pick them for three bucks an hour," he said.

When it comes to any employer hiring illegal immigrants, the employers do an injustice by not offering decent working conditions, often abusing the workers by paying them less than the minimum wage, DeRosa said.

"It would only cost $14 to $20 extra per household a year (to buy products on the market) to pay agricultural workers what they are entitled ... a decent wage with benefits — which is not much," DeRosa said. "What employers are doing is shifting the burden onto the taxpayers."

There are ramifications for taxpayers because the workers aren't paying taxes but still use such services as emergency medical care and public education, DeRosa said.

DeRosa predicts such abuses one day will catch up to employers when immigrant workers decide to file a class-action suit against them.

Still, despite the low wages and constant uncertainty of his life, Hernandez and other day laborers continue to struggle to make a living in the U.S.

Hernandez's life wasn't so tough when he first arrived in Stuart, even though he had to pay the coyote — an illegal transporter — who helped him cross Mexico and the U.S. border for $7,000. Paying that debt took more than a year because the coyote also charged high interest, Hernandez said. Coyotes have been known to charge 15 percent to 20 percent interest.

At times, Hernandez made enough to pay off $800 a month, and sometimes he sent as much as $500 back home to help his family.

That was when Hernandez had steady income from construction jobs. Because of the housing market's slowdown, he has been forced to seek day work for the past four months, earning only enough to pay $200 for rent and food for himself. Sending money home hasn't been an option.

"It's difficult living here because I am alone, without my family," he said. "Life is better over there, but the problem is there is no money. ... I'm just going to rough it out here."

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PATTERNS SINCE THE 1980S

1980s: 1.8 million, 180,000 per year

1990-1994: 2.0 million, 400,000 per year

1995-1999: 2.9 million, 575,000 per year

2000-2005: 4.4 million, 850,000 per year

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

2002: 700,000 illegal immigrants in Florida

Total unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2005: An estimated 11.5 million to 12 million.

FLORIDA POPULATION ESTIMATES

Here is a look at some statistics about Florida's population from the 2004 Census Bureau:

Population: 17,397,161

Foreign-born population: 3,212,955

Source: Federation for American Immigration Reform, fairus.org, Migration Policy Institute, migrationpolicy.org, The Pew Hispanic Center

HOW TO HELP

To volunteer or make donations of coffee, bread or water to the Iglesia Bautista church, call Pastor Jody Davis, (772) 834-5084 or Angel Izquierdo at (772) 283-4400.


Comments



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"Last year and this year are the worst years we've had. I'm hoping the business will pick up," the landscaper said. "The government is trying to make it so tough on us — it's a $3,000 fine for me if they catch us with any illegals. Unfortunately, you have to (hire laborers) in this business — landscaping and work such as this."

The laborers are cheaper for the employer because he pays them lower wages and doesn't have to pay workers' compensation insurance, Social Security or other benefits for them, or a fee to a day labor agency, the landscaper said. Employers, however, are subject to civil and criminal penalties and can be fined up to $11,000 per illegal immigrant by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents if they are caught.

Can't these idiots figure out that if there wasn't so damn many of these illegals that will work for substandard wages that there would be plenty of work for Americans at a living wage?????? [/quote]

In Jacaltenango, a small town surrounded by the Sierra Madre mountains, Hernandez made about 40 Guatemalan quetzals a day as a carpenter, the equivalent of $5. The money wasn't enough to sustain his wife and two children in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.

Okay, so you have a guy living in poverty and unable to make a decent living for himself. So WHAT does he do???? He gets married and has TWO CHILDREN!!!!!!

What on EARTH gets into these people's heads??? Don't they see that, if they're living in poverty, they can't find work that pays decent wages, and they can't provide for themselves....that having children is STUPID???????

How do you knock sense into these people?????????

So, their answer is to crash into the U.S., illegally, and prey on our compassion. Poor poor souls, children to feed. Well, I say ENOUGH!! I don't feel sorry for them. They have no right having children they can't afford to sustain, and then come here and expect we Americans to take care of their children. Their children get free health care, free education, free meals.....GEEZ!!!!!!! I don't have any children. YOU KNOW WHY??? Because I didn't feel I could afford to give them the kind of life I wanted to.

This just makes me SO ANGRY!!! Their stories of "families to support" just doesn't cut it with me anymore. DON'T HAVE FAMILIES YOU CAN'T SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What on EARTH gets into these people's heads???

MAGGOT'S!!

The comments made by readers on this "news" story are almost completely AGAINST illegal aliens being in our country! They almost always are. You'd think our politicians would get it by now.