Thread: Immigration law could impact city's rebuilding

Immigration law could impact city's rebuilding
Many Hispanics are leaving area ahead of the legislation going into effect, creating a possible construction labor shortage
By Patrick Rupinski
Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 11:36 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | On Wednesday morning, Dorothy McDade called a Hispanic immigrant she hadn't seen for a while to see how he was doing.

The immigrant answered and said he had moved to Texas, said McDade, who works in the Hispanic ministry at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. The man is among a growing number of Hispanics leaving Alabama.

Some Hispanics left after the April 27 tornado rendered them homeless. But a potentially larger exodus of Hispanics began after the Alabama Legislature passed a law in June that bans hiring people who are in the country illegally.

"I am surprised by how many have already left," McDade said, adding that she thinks more Hispanics will go before the law takes effect on Sept. 1.

There is no solid number on how many Hispanics have left the Tuscaloosa area in the past few weeks, but there is anecdotal evidence of their departure — fewer people at Holy Spirit's Spanish Mass on Sunday afternoons, more Hispanics talking about leaving and more inquiries from Hispanics to church workers like McDade, asking what they should do .

Most of the Hispanics immigrants, whether they came here legally or illegally, came to find work, she said.

"They work hard and take jobs others won't," McDade said.

As they leave, it is possible that a worker shortage could develop in some industries that employ large numbers of Hispanics.

"It will cause a labor shortage, particularly in construction and in fields dominated by Latino immigrants," said Michael Innis-Jimenez, an assistant professor of American studies at the University of Alabama, who specializes in Latino and labor issues.

And that shortage might manifest itself most as reconstruction in tornado-ravaged neighborhoods gets under way in earnest later this year and in 2012.

Jimmy Latham, CEO of WAR Construction in Tuscaloosa and president of the Alabama Association of General Contractors, said the rebuilding in Tuscaloosa will be most noticeable by January and February 2012, and that's when people here might see the impact of the new law.

"Statewide, what we think will happen is that the (work) crew sizes will get smaller and prices will go up," said Latham, whose association represents contractors doing industrial, commercial and infrastructure projects.

The smaller crews could result in projects taking longer to complete, he said.

As for the higher prices, fewer available workers will result in more competition to hire the needed crews.

Even before the immigration bill passed, the state construction industry faced a growing worker shortage that is expected to get worse as the economy improves, Latham said. That's why the association has been running TV advertisements urging people to consider careers in the building trades.

The immigration law could make the shortage of construction workers even more acute, he said.

The Alabama Association of General Contractors took the position that any immigration reform laws should be done at the national level to put all states on equal footing, he said.

"If there are illegal immigrants working in Alabama, they most likely will go to another state" with friendlier laws toward immigrants, Latham said.

Alabama is one of several states that have enacted laws targeting illegal immigrants within the last year. The state's law, however, is viewed as the toughest in the nation. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama filed suit in federal court, seeking to have Alabama's law declared unconstitutional.

How the courts rule could determine what happens in September.

Blake Corder, president of the Home Builders Association of Tuscaloosa, said he believes the law, as it stands now, will have a major impact on the members, who handle residential building and remodeling.

"Through the years, we have relied on immigrant workers to meet our needs," he said.

He said builders will follow the new law, but it will create an extra checkpoint in verifying their workers' status.

It also could impact smaller subcontractors who hire workers as they need them the most.

In addition to construction, many Hispanics in Alabama have taken jobs on farms and in food-related industries.

Innis-Jimenez said Georgia, whose new immigration law went into effect this month, already is experiencing a shortage of workers to harvest crops.

He said a similar situation is apt to develop in Alabama. In West Alabama, it might affect the catfish and poultry industries, which employ many Hispanics.

Jobs in those industries often are not taken by Americans, he said, and if the processing plants were to raise pay to be attractive to American workers, they would have to raise their prices and likely would lose customers.

Innis-Jimenez noted supermarket chains constantly are looking at their costs to stay competitive. If chickens or catfish from Alabama cost them more, they will buy them elsewhere.

It's possible some chicken processing plants will close or relocate to states where there is a more welcoming attitude to immigrants, he said.

With the law taking effect in a little more than six weeks, Innis-Jimenez said the uncertainty will cause more immigrants to leave.

"In Alabama, the feeling I have is that anybody with ties to other states will go there if work is available. When people live in fear of getting fired or deported, they will just go somewhere else to work," he said.

"The undocumented (immigrants) will go where they are welcomed. More troubling is what will the law do to the law-abiding citizen and people with green cards" (which allow immigrants to legally work in the U.S.)

"We don't have a national ID. Rather than police proving you are an undocumented immigrant, you will have to have someone prove you are here legally," he said.

When asked how police will handle the new law, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson said: "If the law takes effect on Sept. 1 as it is now, we will have no options other than to enforce it."

Anderson said police will not stop people walking down the street or going about their business. But if police come in contact with someone during a traffic stop or other violation, they will be required to ask for valid identification, such as a driver's license.

Those without identification are supposed to be held until their legal status can be verified, he said.

"We have not been told what to do with an individual if we cannot determine if they are here legally," Anderson said.
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Facts
Alabama immigration law

The state's new immigration law takes effect Sept. 1. Here are some highlights:

What it does: It empowers police to detain suspected illegal immigrants who are stopped for another reason; requires businesses and schools to verify workers and students are in the country legally; makes it a crime to knowingly transport or shelter illegal immigrants.

Employers' responsibilities
All Alabama employers must enroll by April 1, 2012, and then use E-Verify, a free, federal Internet-based program that verifies a potential worker is a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant. Businesses that receive state contracts, grants or incentives must enroll by Jan. 1, 2012. Employers with fewer than 25 employees and without Internet access can ask the Alabama Department of Homeland Security to run free E-Verify checks.

Penalties: For a first violation, courts can order termination of an illegally employed worker; terminate the employer's state contracts; place the employer on three years of probation; and can suspend the business' license for as many as 10 days. For a second violation, the business license for the location where the violation occurred can be permanently revoked. For a third violation, all business licenses of the employer in the state can be permanently revoked.

Taxes: Wages paid to illegal immigrants cannot be deducted as a business expense by employers. The penalty for claiming such wages is 10 times the deduction claimed.

Discrimination: The law makes it illegal for a employer to fire or refuse to hire either a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant while knowingly retaining or hiring an illegal immigrant. Courts may award compensatory and punitive damages.

Source: Tanner & Guin LLC

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Go Alabama! More jobs for Americans and LEGAL residents!