Thread: Tax dollars went to illegal workers who were building N.C. h

Tax dollars went to illegal workers who were building N.C. highways

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... tstory.jsp

STELLA M. HOPKINS AND MITCH WEISS
SHOPKINS@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM MWEISS@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM
Illegal immigrants, using Social Security numbers that are fake, stolen or belong to dead people, have been paid tax dollars to build N.C. roads.
An Observer investigation, involving a small sample of road contractors' 2005 payroll records, found questionable Social Security numbers for one-third of 85 workers.
Illegal workers on N.C. projects might seem self-evident in a state with a booming illegal immigrant population and a growing economy that craves a steady flow of construction workers. But the Observer's findings come amid growing frustration with the flawed immigration system.
Federal law doesn't require employers to verify workers' immigration status or whether their documents are valid. And North Carolina, which pays about $1 billion a year to road contractors, has no policy mandating those firms to do so.
That needs to change, say lawmakers and a top state official.
If it doesn't, "I would cut off the state highway funding dollars," U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., of Charlotte, said when told of the Observer's findings. "Not just North Carolina, for everybody. Somewhere, something has got to change."
Contractors say they have done nothing wrong. Federal immigration law says workers must produce documents that "appear to be genuine" but doesn't require employers to make sure the documents are valid.
Rea Contracting, a major N.C. highway builder and one of two firms the Observer found employing workers who say they are here illegally, says it follows the law and would also comply with any new requirements.
The other firm is Blount-Sanford Construction, a Georgia company that was a subcontractor last year on a Blythe Construction project. A Blount-Sanford executive said the company follows the law and declined to talk further.
Blythe said it's not required by law or contract to check the immigration status of subcontractors' employees.
A Rea official said it's unfair to put the burden of worker verification on businesses.
"Someone else allowed them to get here," said Carey Tate, president of the Charlotte firm. "Now I'm the one who is supposed to find out who entered the country illegally?"
Employers nationwide would be required to verify workers' documents under a House bill passed in December. Verification also is included in measures the Senate is expected to take up when it returns this week.
Meanwhile, critics and public officials say states should be held to a higher standard.
"We're not only dealing with the taxpayers' money, it's a sense that government itself is supposed to set a good standard," said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank advocating controlled immigration. "What kind of standard are we setting when we accept the Social Security numbers of dead people?"
State Sen. Robert Pittenger, a Mecklenburg Republican, plans to introduce legislation next month to deal with the issue.
"If contractors are getting state money, we better be sure they're not hiring illegal immigrants," said Pittenger, who is modeling his proposal on a Georgia law signed last week.
The N.C. Department of Transportation and the Department of Administration, which oversaw $4.7 billion of spending with suppliers last year, say their contracts adequately require companies to follow the law.
But N.C. Controller Robert Powell, who oversees the state's cash flow and accounting, said, "We're held at a bit of a higher standard because we're dealing with tax dollars."
The state, Powell said in response to the Observer's investigation, needs to consider modifying its contracts "so they include a requirement that private vendors do not have people on their payroll who are here illegally."
Observer locates workers
The Observer identified the workers with questionable Social Security numbers by using two private databases and a federal Web site.The investigation found instances of workers using numbers that belong to others or haven't been issued. Using a fake or stolen number can be a felony.
Studies show that construction is a leading employer of illegal immigrants nationwide. In North Carolina, the majority of illegal immigrants are Hispanic. All but one of the workers with questionable numbers had Hispanic names.
The Observer was not able to locate all workers with suspect numbers. Those interviewed worked for Rea on an Interstate 77 widening project and for Blythe's subcontractor, Blount-Sanford, on Independence Boulevard.
Eleven workers said they made up or bought their numbers on the counterfeit market for $30 to $120.
Workers said in interviews they didn't know the rightful owners of the Social Security numbers. They knew the ID was their nine-digit ticket to living and working in the United States. Most said they used the number only to get a job.
"It's just the way things work," said a 45-year-old laborer who worked last year on a Charlotte road project. "You must have one to work."
A 30-year-old carpenter for a road contractor said he came to the U.S. four years ago with his wife and two sons to "get lucky."
The Social Security number he bought appears to be that of an elderly Michigan woman. He doesn't know where the number came from, just that he had to have one to work. He makes more than double what he could back home.
"Sometimes we're scared, like everybody," he said.
"Scared that they may send us back," his wife said, "that they may separate us from our kids."
A Mexican man, who said he is an illegal immigrant and worked last year on an N.C. road crew, uses the Social Security number of a California man who died in 1989.
"My parents were born and lived in a little town in northern California," Sharon Cousins, the man's daughter, told the Observer. "Who would have thought this kind of thing could happen? That's a scary thing, isn't it?"
Firm says it follows law
Rea Contracting says it follows federal immigration law by collecting the required documents when hiring new workers.
"I don't want it sounding like we just take any old thing just to get people on board," said Kristy Blackman, a Rea vice president in charge of human resources. "If it looks reasonable, then we have to accept it."
Tate added: "We do what the law requires."
Like most U.S. employers, Rea doesn't make use of free, federal databases that have access to immigration and Social Security records. Employers can use them to check whether new hires' documents are valid. Companies that choose to use the databases can't discriminate. They must check everyone hired, not just people who are foreign born.
But verification means added work and expense for employers, and the systems are not foolproof. A name and number might be rejected as not matching because of a marital name change, a typo or other innocent problem. A person using someone's full identity -- including name, number and date of birth -- might escape detection.
"If the government comes up with a system that's quick, easy, inexpensive and accurate, we would welcome it," said Kelly Knott, a director with the Associated General Contractors of America, a major industry trade group. "Contractors do not want to hire illegal immigrants."
Some use system checks
The state transportation department awarded $5.2 billion for projects in the last five years, 60 percent of that to 10 contractors, according to state records.All say they comply with federal immigration law by visually examining workers' documents. But three also say they use the federal databases to check documents.
Since 1999, Granite Construction, a California firm, has been using the system that checks immigration and Social Security records. Blythe Construction and S.T. Wooten, an N.C. contractor, use Social Security Administration programs that verify numbers are valid and match the worker.
Two other companies take steps that could identify fake identification.
Atlanta-based APAC, a group of companies that is the state's largest contractor, and Barnhill Contracting say they run criminal background checks.
"We were trying to screen out the undesirables, not so much the illegal immigrants," said Jimmie Hughes, a vice president at Barnhill's Tarboro headquarters. "But through the process, we're screening out the illegal immigrants."
When it comes to subcontractors, Blythe, Rea and at least five others in the top 10 said they don't require them to use verification tools. There can be dozens of subcontractors on large projects, but the state holds the lead contractor responsible for the entire job.
Last week's criminal charges against seven current and former executives of Texas-based IFCO Systems upped the ante for companies. Immigration officials raided the pallet-maker, arresting nearly 1,200 employees nationwide, including 44 in Charlotte.
"If the stakes are going to be that high, we're going to have to have a better (verification) system," said Sandy Whitaker-Pratt, a Blythe spokeswoman.
Gordon Hanson, a University of California economist who has written extensively on immigration, said: "What North Carolina and other states could do is require contractors to submit a list of employees with proof they used one of the federal databases to confirm their workers' Social Security numbers."
"The reality is businesses ... don't want to know," Hanson said. "They need the steady flow of immigrant workers."
Jeff Jordan, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said proving that employers knowingly hired illegal workers is hard because companies claim workers presented valid documents. But Jordan, assistant special agent for North Carolina, said documents are sometimes obviously fake and that there are ways to check, including the free databases.
"The will isn't there," he said.
On Friday, the N.C. transportation department wrote to Rea and Blythe, pointing to the Observer's findings and reminding both companies of the requirement to comply with all laws.
Bill Copeland, Rea's senior vice president, reiterated that the company is already doing that.
Blythe's Whitaker-Pratt told the Observer: "The state wants to ensure all the workers are legal because it's taxpayer money, and I totally agree with that. We are doing everything we can."
Immigrants vital to work force
Rea President Carey Tate notices Hispanics working all around Charlotte -- landscaping, roofing, in restaurants.
"I'm not advocating we hire illegal people," he said. But he added, "Tell me you can do without the Hispanic workers.
"If you packed them all up and shipped them back ... there would be a dire shortage."
The construction industry anticipates a labor shortage. Recruiting already is tough, Tate said, because of low unemployment, competition from other jobs and a perception that construction isn't as prestigious as white-collar careers.
David Grathwohl, a Blount-Sanford field supervisor, said it's difficult to find enough workers for road projects.
"Twenty years ago, your road crews were mostly young whites and blacks," he said. "Now, you can't find them anymore. Nobody wants to work on road crews. It's tough, tough work. So what do you do? ... "You have a contract. You're supposed to bring the project in on time. How are you going to do that without labor?"
"So if you have a Hispanic guy show up, and he has the paperwork, and all you're required to do is look at the documents, what are you going to do?"
"You hire the guy. Are some of them illegal? Probably. But you know what? It's not my responsibility to see if they're legal. I'm following the law."
Migration to the Carolinas
The estimated population of illegal immigrants here has increased nearly 16-fold since 1990.

It is the responsibility of the employer, to find out if the S.S. card if legal, not a fake, and if he values his reputation, he should do a background check!