Thread: AL: Immigration bill hurts employers, some say

March 25, 2008

Immigration bill hurts employers, some say

By Kym Klass
kklass@gannett.com


The evils of workers coming across the U.S. border to steal American jobs is a popular issue for legislators, but it won't win Joe McDonald's vote.

McDonald wonders if he could even run his Andalusia cotton gin without the migrant workers who come into the state from Mexico -- he said it's hard to hire local workers for just a season, regardless of the wages.

"The situation we have without the migrants -- it wouldn't matter if we paid $7 or $37 an hour," said McDonald, who has hired migrants for 12 years at Covington Gin Co. Inc., about 90 miles south of Montgomery.

He said it's a job that doesn't appeal to most Alabama workers.

"It's a seasonal job with no benefits," he said. "And we're talking about something that makes a lot of economic difference to our operation."

But some legislators say they can't make an "economic difference" their main concern.

Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, is sponsoring the Immigration Reform Bill, which is being co-sponsored by 26 of the 35-member Senate. Beason is working to crack down on illegal immigration and wants to require that everyone working in Alabama show a state-issued ID to prove legal residency.

"It's really sad that some of these businesses are willing to sacrifice the future of the state 10 to 15 years down the road just so they can make a dollar today," he said. "They've said it over and over again in our meetings that they will hire anybody."

State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said farmers don't want to hire people who break the law, but he said a federal program needs to be in place that allows Alabama the ability to have more legalized workers.

"Anybody that breaks the law, or has broken the law, should be sent back across the border," said Commissioner Ron Sparks.

But he said there needs to be more of an effort to help both employers needing seasonal work and the workers seeking it legally.

Sparks also said he has a problem with a law that places farmers and other employers in charge of policing immigration, saying it is hard to ask businesses to do what the federal government has failed to do.

Under the bill, employers who hire undocumented workers could be fined $500 for a first infraction, $5,000 for the second and a third infraction would result in a $5,000 fine and the loss of your business license.

"Let's not hang this around the neck of the farmer," Sparks said. "We've made this an emotional issue, which is very unfortunate, that we would have politicians that would do this. We have got to have some legalized workers. We don't care where they come from."

About 90 percent of the time, the migrant workers who work for McDonald show a U.S. Social Security card as proof of residency.

"I can't specify to them what they need to show us," he said. "Most times they show us two IDs. They can show you a Social Security card, or a green card, or a driver's license. We have the same responsibility on the migrant workers (as with) the citizens. With the I9 forms and the W4s ... it's the same application process."

Boyd Campbell, an immigration attorney from Montgomery, agrees that Congress needs to give employers enough visas to hire a legal work force.

Campbell served on the Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission which recently released a report on what Alabama can do to address illegal immigration and its consequences.

With the majority of illegal immigrants working in agriculture, and other sizable numbers working in hotels and construction fields, they are a factor in Alabama's strong economy, Campbell said.

"I can tell you ... that if you look at the foreign-born population in Alabama, historically, it's a very tiny number," he said. "It's a wonder to me why people get so angry about this because Hispanics in Alabama represent such a small group of people.

"It seems the angriest people live in parts of the state where there are more Hispanics -- primarily in north Alabama. There are also smaller groups in and around Dothan, Geneva, and Enterprise and then into the Florida Panhandle, but there is a sizable number in Mobile."

But Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, said the state cannot continue to pay for all the problems associated with illegal immigration.

"There's no argument on the other side that can be made to justify us turning our backs on the laws of this land," he said.

Of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., seven million are employed -- about 5 percent of the nation's civilian work force, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

State lawmakers considered more than 1,500 bills relating to immigration last year, ultimately enacting 240 laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. They expect similar levels of interest in immigration legislation this year.

States continue crafting a variety of legislative responses related to immigrants and immigration, according to NCSL. In 2008, legislators have introduced more than 600 bills, addressing the workplace and other policy arenas.

Sparks said it is frustrating for someone to say the state supports illegals and that "we don't care about our school system."

While people are quick to point out what this labor may cost, he said they aren't as quick to recognize what it may save.

"If you think your food prices are high now, and your construction costs are high now ... what happens if we don't have anybody to pick the peaches, to process the chicken, to put in our nursery industry," he said. "What happens if we don't have enough labor?

"Now, me personally, I would prefer a good, hard-working Alabama person. We just don't have enough people. If we had enough people, this would not be an issue with agriculture, building trades, horticulture trades. This would not be an issue with people who need labor."

McDonald appreciates that.

He's not a huge employer, hiring only 14 migrant workers a year for up to 100 days in the fall. But he depends on those he hires. And at his cotton gin operation, he turns out between 500 to 600 bales per day -- or 250,000 pounds. The workers log 12-hour shifts, and work 24 hours a day, seven days a week for about 70 percent of the time they are there.

"We are only depending on the migrant workers on a seasonal basis," McDonald said. "That's where we had problems staffing locals. It's a long season; it's a lot of hours involved. We have seven full-time employees, but the balance of the staff is migrant."

This past year, McDonald sent out 24 W2 forms. The last time he worked with all locals, he mailed out more than 100 forms.

"Our operation hasn't changed," he said. "We just had that much turnover. We could not keep staff. People would work for two hours to two weeks and quit."

While many of the local workers consider it a tough job, the migrant workers he hires do not.

"The migrants will tell you this is an easy job," McDonald said. "It is the same thing day after day. Bale after bale."

While some businesses may benefit from the work of illegal immigrants, Beason said many taxpayers do not. He said they are paying millions of dollars in education, health-care costs and law enforcement because of the influx of illegal immigrants and "it's time for the people of Alabama to stand up and force the Legislature to do the right thing and act on this issue."

But it's not just farmers who don't feel the bill may not be doing the right thing.

Oscar Price, a Birmingham lawyer who has practiced construction law for 25 years, said the legislation would hurt the economy, the state growth and unfairly penalizes employers trying to abide by the law.

Speaking on behalf of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama at a public hearing last week, Price said what the legislation does is add another set of regulations and requirements.

"During our public hearing in Mobile, we heard employer after employer step forward and plead with us to help them get visas so they can hire the workers they need," he said.

Sparks says the answer is not to keep these workers out, but to manage the way they come in.

"I just don't believe we need to move as fast as we're moving at this point in time," he said. "To saddle agriculture producers with another law would not work. We need to secure those borders. We need a system in place that deals with people that come to this country."

Campbell said immigration laws are laws of unintended consequences and immigration is all about politics.

"When given the opportunity, I ask members of Congress and legislators to be very careful when they pass laws that deal with the immigrant population because they could hurt those born and raised in Alabama," he said.

"A sovereign state has a right to protect its borders, and decide who should be admitted and who should not. We should be concerned as a people about whom we admit and under what circumstances."

McDonald wants legislation that works to help him find employees who work. He said with the immigrant workers he hired, there was no absenteeism, and they appreciate the work offered. But he wants these types of workers without breaking any laws.

"We have mutual respect," he said. "This is an opportunity for them. Our seasonal employees are a very important component of our operation. To Covington Gin Company, that's what the issue is all about, having access to a reliable legal labor pool. I'm not for working illegal immigrants."

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/app ... 40309/1001

If it were just a matter of men coming in as temp workers, then going home, it would not be such a huge problem.

It DOES become a problem when they bring their women and start popping out anchor baby after anchor baby, which we are then forced to subsidize. NO MORE!

It will be more cost effective for us as a nation to let these employers close their businesses than to let in more illegal aliens.

How many illegal aliens do you think would come over if ALL incentives were taken away from them?

"It's a wonder to me why people get so angry about this because Hispanics in Alabama represent such a small group of people.

Obviously this person has never been to certain parts of Alabama. I think people in Northern Ala., around the Decatur and Huntsville area would disagree.

Doug Jackson, a Huntsville talk show host, called ICE this morning LIVE on his show and reported the man hiring illegals for his cotton gin business.