Thread: ALIPAC: Hispanic impact on N.C. economy: $9 billion?

By Veronica Gonzalez
Staff Writer The Wilmington Star
veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com

Jesus Macedo’s Wilmington landscaping business produced about $250,000 in revenue last year.

The Mexican native who became a U.S. citizen four years ago paid thousands in taxes and expects to shell out more as his company, Hispanics Landscaping, blossoms.

“This is a good country,� said Macedo, who went from working as a migrant laborer to owning a company in the nearly 20 years he’s lived here. “There is an opportunity for everyone.�

A new report concludes that Hispanics contribute about $9 billion to the state’s economy through purchases, taxes and labor. The report’s authors say it is the most comprehensive study of the economic impact of the Hispanic population in North Carolina.

The report, released Tuesday at the 2006 Economic Forecast Forum in Durham, was done by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with funding from the N.C. Bankers Association.

“We have an additional tool to discuss the migratory phenomenon,� said Guido Arochi, community affairs coordinator for the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh. “For the first time, we have a study that reflects reality.�
John Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, said the overall message of the report is that “Hispanics are very important to the economic output of the North Carolina industry – both in terms of construction and the labor-cost savings.�

Here are some other findings:

POPULATION: It’s a young population between the ages of 18 and 44 living mainly in metropolitan areas of the state. Because they’re young, they are starting families – accounting for 14.4 percent of the state’s births in 2004.

DOCUMENTATION: About 45 percent are here undocumented.

SPENDING: While Hispanics have incredible spending power, a lot of their money is being spent outside the counties they live in and outside the state. That’s because they can’t find the products and services they want locally. Hispanics had an estimated after-tax income of about $8.3 billion in 2004.

EMPLOYMENT: Hispanics typically work in construction, retail, manufacturing, agriculture – the lowest-paid jobs. For example, 42.2 percent of Hispanics work in construction, the report says.

“If it wasn’t for the Hispanic community, we wouldn’t build houses,� said Tony Carrara, vice president of operations at Wilmington-based Stevens Building Co. “That’s how important they are to our industry. They’re still not above doing the laboring work. They work steady. They’re conscientious.�

He added that many of them are employed by subcontractors.
William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC based in Raleigh, said industries are profiting from illegal immigration.
“The banks and construction industries are trying to make money from slave labor,� he said.

He said he’s happy the report was released because now he knows which sectors of the labor market to target. Next week, his organization is going to post fliers at construction sites on how to report undocumented immigrants.

“Banks are giving loans to illegal immigrants to buy houses,� he said. “Furthermore, they’re using their political influence to have the taxpayers cover those loans.�

But others say that while there is a demand for labor, Hispanics will be there to fill the jobs.

“The cost savings they’re giving us so we can eat lettuce, tomatoes, onions at low prices – it’s because of the work they do,� said Fernando Trulin, Hispanic/Latino programs coordinator for Brunswick Community College.


http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs ... 04001/1004

thanks William- for being the voice of reason in that otherwise proillegal article-
and one day soon - they will end the article with a quote from you- not from some immigration attorney or latino activist-

“If it wasn’t for the Hispanic community, we wouldn’t build houses,�

So houses built in NC before 1985 or so just magically appeared?

And, THIS was PLASTERED on the FRONT PAGE Of the WINSTON PAPER THIS AM. BIG HEADLINES. DISGUSTING.

Bootsie,

Was it this same article from Wilmington?

W

I'm not sure. It was this thread:

https://www.alipac.us/ftopict-14874.html

Looks like the same MANURE is being spread by different reporters.

Lou Dobbs did a short segment on this last night. Below is transcript:


DOBBS: Tonight, stunning new evidence on this nation's illegal alien crisis and its impact on our middle class. A new study shows illegal immigration is depressing wages by some $2 billion in North Carolina alone. This new evidence suggesting illegal aliens are now taking desirable jobs from our middle class workforce.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The impact of Hispanics in North Carolina is noticeable but not measured until now. Seventy-six percent of Hispanics who have moved to the state since 1995 are illegal aliens according to a new study by the University of North Carolina. Five of the top seven occupations for Hispanics in North Carolina were in construction in 2004, 29 percent of the jobs held by Hispanic workers, and wages fell. JOHN KASARDA, UNIV. OF NORTH CAROLINA: From 2004, the construction industry without the Hispanic labor if they paid the wages of non-Hispanics, assuming there's a labor substitution effect of non-Hispanics, would have been almost $1 billion higher.

TUCKER: Among the studies other findings, the influx of illegals did create 90,000 new jobs, while suppressing overall wage growth by $2 billion statewide. Additional costs in 2004 included education, $476 million; health care, $299 million; and law enforcement, $51 million; for an additional $817 million in the budget.

Increasingly, state politicians nationwide are beginning to realize the cost of illegal immigration in their states.