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Sunday, September 10, 2006
Two watchdog groups moving into the Triad will go after employers of illegal immigrants


By Richard Craver
JOURNAL REPORTER

The Minuteman movement is expanding to the Triad, and its leaders are pledging to shine their watchdog spotlight on employers that hire undocumented workers.

Whether the spotlight proves glaring or dim here will depend largely on the resources dedicated to the hunt for illegal workers, and on public reaction to their efforts, immigration officials said.

The Minuteman Project and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Inc., which are not affiliated with each other, are best known for their controversial monitoring of the U.S.-Mexico border for illegal-immigrant crossings. The Minuteman Project is planning a chapter in High Point; Minuteman Civil Defense is establishing a Greensboro chapter.

The groups said that targeting employers of illegal workers is aimed at reducing the job incentive for both employers and workers and spurring public demand for the enforcement of immigration laws.

"We've been saying for years that North Carolina would be hit by the next tsunami of illegal workers in the country, and it's happening now," said Jim Gilchrist, the founder of Minuteman Project and a retired accountant from Laguna Hills, Calif.

Businesses play an important and sometimes unintentional role in the surge in illegal immigration. Some employers break the law by knowingly hiring workers who aren't here illegally; others follow the law, but unknowingly hire illegal workers who have used false documents.

"There are unscrupulous employers and workers who are counting on American indifference to the illegal labor," Gilchrist said.

The main requirements for an immigrant to land a job in the United States are a valid driver's license or Social Security number, and an employment-authorization card obtained through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Gilchrist said that the ease of access to a North Carolina driver's license is a major reason for the illegal-worker problem in the state.

"All employers are required by federal law to verify the people that they hire have employment authorization to work in the U.S.," said Penni Bradshaw, a member of the law firm of Constangy, Brooks and Smith of Winston-Salem.

"If they can verify those criteria, then the employer can send in a form with that information, which basically fulfills their obligation under federal law," Bradshaw said.

Gayle Anderson, the president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, said that many members have received advice from legal counsel "stressing they can't question what looks like to be reasonable documentation."

"There is great concern in the hospitality and construction industries about the ramifications of finding enough workers should many Hispanic workers leave the country," Anderson said.

Immigration officials stress that the undocumented-worker problem is not limited to Latin American countries.

In 2005, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, conducted raids of companies operating at Piedmont Triad International Airport and Smith Reynolds Airport. The raids netted 36 arrests of illegal immigrants from at least 10 countries - Sudan, Chile, Peru, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Venezuela, Mexico, Laos, Great Britain and New Zealand,

Those arrested were charged with administrative violations of immigration law, in particular using counterfeit documents to obtain a job.

But the immigration officials said that the main focus on illegal workers has been on Hispanics because of their proximity to the United States.

There were about 600,000 Hispanic residents in the state in 2004, according to a study released in January by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study found that 45 percent of Hispanic residents are here illegally. Many experts believe that the actual amount is higher.

The Minuteman groups have a combined 10,500 members in 13 states, including Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, New York and Wisconsin. Each Minuteman Project chapter typically has at least 12 members.

"This is not a border-state issue anymore," Gilchrist said.

The cost of being caught with illegal workers can be high for businesses. Jamie Zuieback, an ICE spokeswoman, said that companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants can be criminally prosecuted and face up to an $11,000 fine for each worker.

The Minuteman Project held a rally in Greensboro in May that drew 40 people. The rally also attracted protesters who referred to the group as racist and consider its methods as harassment.

Illegal immigration has become an emotional and politicized issue in sections of the local Hispanic community, said Maria Sanchez-Boudy, a diversity consultant for Latin Connections of Colfax. The Minuteman groups have legal Hispanic immigrants as members, proponents and opponents said.

"The Minuteman groups likely realize that it's futile to watch an entire border," Sanchez-Boudy said. "So now they're taking a more proactive approach by targeting the jobs that the undocumented immigrants are wanting.

"I'm sure their efforts will at least make things uncomfortable, and perhaps even create a ripple of fear among undocumented workers."

Steve Eichler, the executive director of the Minuteman Project, said that the group does background checks on its members "to make sure they are not part of a racist group or have committed a felony."

"Since they are going to be our voice and face in their community, we tend to disqualify more candidates than we accept," Eichler said.

The groups said they don't plan to stake out employers or be in-your-face confrontational at sites where day laborers are hired in the Triad, although some Minuteman Project chapters have adopted that tactic, according to an article in the Aug. 21 issue of BusinessWeek.

They said that their main tool is a tip line for ICE concerning illegal activities involving undocumented workers.

But Gilchrist was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying, "If we can take one big employer down - handcuffs, federal prison terms, their property seized - we will make a great step forward toward having our laws enforced."

"We do our best to keep federal immigration officials aware of illegal activity," Gilchrist said. "To limit their enforcement resources is to make a mockery out of our legal and justice systems."

Michael Chertoff, the U.S. secretary of homeland security, said in April that ICE would heightened its focus on "punishing knowing and reckless employers of illegal aliens ... rather than relying on the old tactic of administrative fines as sanctions." According to the BusinessWeek article, ICE has made 445 criminal arrests of employers and labor contractors through July compared with 176 for 2005.

But Minuteman and federal immigration officials acknowledge that employers involved with national security and public safety get the most focus. Which means the odds are slim that Triad employers with illegal laborers in other industries will face a raid from ICE.

"We have to prioritize our efforts and resources," said Marc Rimondi, a spokesman for ICE. "While we're interested in any person or employer that's flagrantly violating the law, we don't have the resources to go after every illegal alien that works at a construction site or a hospitality business."

Eichler, the executive director of Minuteman Project, said that the group focuses on companies and subcontractors in their use of illegal immigrants no matter their country of origin.

Grover Shugart Jr., the president of Shugart Enterprises LLC, a homebuilder in Winston-Salem, said that he is not concerned about the Minuteman spotlight, although it could be a factor for some subcontractors.

"It may make some employers check more extensively into potential workers' backgrounds and turn away more that they are uncertain about," Shugart said.

Sheriff Bill Schatzman of Forsyth County said he gets calls "from people wanting me to round up all the undocumented people in Forsyth County I can find and lock them up."

"But we don't have enough deputies, not enough jail space and not enough prosecutors," Schatzman said. "There's just bigger fish to catch of people committing more serious crimes.

"We just want any group that plans to raise the profile on illegal labor to do so in a legal manner and through the proper authorities," he said.

Reagan Sugg, who is running the Greensboro chapter for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said that he is not anti-immigration or anti-employer. He said he admires immigrants' work ethic after growing up picking tobacco with legal immigrants in Eastern North Carolina.

Sugg said that he is tired of illegal immigrants taking jobs away from legal residents. He's also concerned about the strain that illegal immigrants are placing on the Triad's health-care, educational and law-enforcement systems.

The UNC researchers found that Hispanics added $9.2 billion to North Carolina's economy in 2004. But there was a net cost to the state of $61 million, or $102 for each Hispanic resident, for schools, health care and prisons to accommodate the rapidly growing immigrant population.

"We're trying to bring this issue to the forefront of the consciousness of Triad residents, to put pressure on Congress, the president and the state legislature to tighten our borders," Sugg said.

"We've got housewives, mothers, construction workers, health-care workers, attorneys and government workers supporting us.

"They realize if we don't act now to curtail illegal immigration, we're not going to be able to stop it in the future because the left wants cheap votes and the right wants cheap labor," he said.

• Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.