Thread: De Fede Foreign Workers Head Home

Next employer on the list is Gulf Stream Race Track and Casino. They have Canadians they brought down on E visas. Canadian building codes and the ones in Florida are much different. You are looking at snow storms compared to hurricanes.

http://cbs4.com/iteam/iteam.foreign.wor ... 54492.html

Mar 9, 2009 5:29 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: CYVSA's Foreign Workers Head Home
Reporting Jim DeFede
MIAMI (CBS4) ―

In November 2007, the Sheraton Bal Harbour was demolished. In its place comes the promise of a grander vision for South Florida's skyline, the St. Regis Resort, a trio of oceanside glass towers.

At the same time CYVSA International was asking the state of Florida and the U.S. Department of Labor for permission under the H2B visa program to bring in foreign sheet metal workers to install the heating and air conditioning ducts at the St. Regis Hotel in Bal Harbour, the company quietly received permission from the U.S. State Department to bring in additional workers under a completely different visa program.

"They actually came in through what they call an E Visa," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis revealed last week during a town hall meeting in Miami.

What is an E visa?

According to state department's website, E Visas are reserved for "persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics."

Certain executives and managers of multi-national corporations could also qualify for E visas, as could others who, in the words of the state department "possess highly specialized skills essential to the efficient operation of the firm. Ordinary skilled or unskilled workers do not qualify."

According to sources familiar with CYVSA's application to the State Department, the company claimed the workers they were bringing in were so highly skilled and advanced that they could not possibly do the job at the St. Regis without them.

As further incentive for the visas, the company promised that these highly skilled Mexican workers would in turn, train 60 to 90 American workers at the job site, passing along their unique knowledge.

So how did it work out? Last week, the CBS4 News interviewed three of the local workers who had been hired by CYVSA to work alongside the workers they brought up from Mexico.

They asked that we hide their faces because they were afraid the company wouldn't hire them again in the future.

"During the time that I was working there, which was a month a half, they did exactly what any sheet metal worker does in this country. Exactly the same, no more, no less," said one of the local workers, who, like the others, asked that his name not be used for fear the company wouldn't hire him in the future. "Special equipment? On the contrary. Their tools are obsolete. There were tools they learned about here. They didn't know about these tools. The tools we use here are much more practical than the ones they use."

The other CYVSA employees we interviewed agreed, saying that contrary to the claims made in CYVSA's application for the visas, there was no special machinery the workers needed to use. Finally, they laughed at the idea that the foreign workers were training the local workers how to install the ducts and vents.

"On the contrary," one of the workers said. "The Mexicans don't even work with plans. The plans don't exist for them, over there you don't work by the blueprint."

Unlike H2B visas, there is no requirement under the E visa that individuals be paid the same as Americans. And the reason is simple, since the individuals being brought in under E visas possess such highly valued skills, the assumption is that they would be making more than American workers.

In this case, we know the Mexican workers were being paid half of what the American workers were paid and that they were being forced to work overtime.

Last week we went to CYVSA's office in Pembroke Pines hoping to get some answers but were asked to leave,

But we are not the only ones asking questions. The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department have all launched reviews of CYVSA's various visa applications

CBS4 News has learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken the lead role in trying to determine if CYVSA lied on its applications.

That investigation may now be more complicated.

On Thursday, the last of the Mexican workers loaded their luggage into cars and headed to the airport for the long flight home.

The developer of the St Regis project, Jorge Perez, is having some well publicized financial troubles and work on the site is being scaled back. It's not clear when – or if – the Mexican sheet metal workers will return.

For now they find themselves like their American brethren, out of work and wondering what the future holds.

Thanks for the update Swatchick. I hope the feds and ICE still investigate this, even though the foreign workers supposedly have left. Man, this story just ticks me off.

"On the contrary," one of the workers said. "The Mexicans don't even work with plans. The plans don't exist for them, over there you don't work by the blueprint."

Florida is the hurricane capitol of the country, and the Southern Building Code is one of the strictest in the country, after Homestead and Miami were hit by Hurricane Andrew. And who rebuilt after Andrew? Mexicans and other illegals, of course, just like they swarmed into New Orleans after Katrina.
For the majority, these people are illiterate, even in their own language, and we want to have them build homes to withstand hurricane force winds when they don't understand a word the job foreman tells them in Inglese.[/quote]

According to sources familiar with CYVSA's application to the State Department, the company claimed the workers they were bringing in were so highly skilled and advanced that they could not possibly do the job at the St. Regis without them.

The State Dept. needs to be investigated for overlooking the facts. They realize that there are apprenticeships within the unions that produce journeymen of all trades. We need to know who at the State Dept signed off on the request for those visas, visas that are obviously being abused.

Vortex wrote

And who rebuilt after Andrew? Mexicans and other illegals, of course, just like they swarmed into New Orleans after Katrina.

I don't know where you got that idea, Vortex, but back in 92, during the rebuilding process, of which I was right in the middle of as a Journeyman Carpenter in Miami, there were nothing but Americans as far as I could determine. They all came in for the work from other states, including contractors as well. I won't say there weren't any ILLEGAL ALIENS in Cutler Ridge and Country Walk at the time, but if there were, there were far fewer of them than today. If shody work was performed after the hurricane, it was at the direction of the contractors who are always looking for a way to cut corners..that's par for today's standard, even thought it stinks.

I was a Carpenter Foreman for a company that built the United Artists Theater at the Falls Mall in 1994 in south Miami and later in 1995 was hired as a Carpenter Forman to expand that mall. I had a crew that consisited of Americans as well as Mexicans. Back in those days, the Mexicans had a different attitude. The guys I worked with actually strived to learn English from the rest of us. They had a good work ethic, but not all. Some had a real nasty attitude. But today, having been removed from the construction industry for 10 years now, I guess the illegals are of a different brand than when I had worked with them.

Thanks Swatchick for the update. I emailed Jim Defede and thanked him for this story.

Rockfish wrote:

The State Dept. needs to be investigated for overlooking the facts. They realize that there are apprenticeships within the unions that produce journeymen of all trades. We need to know who at the State Dept signed off on the request for those visas, visas that are obviously being abused.

Whoa, hold the horses, Rockfish. What you're asking for is personal accountability. Please don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen because we need to keep you in the fight.

Something not quite right here. An E visa has nothing to do with people of extraordinary ability in any area of expertise. E visas are treaty visas and do not allow the individual a path to residency.

Very worrying that the government official does not even know what visas are what.

How can you expect a system to work at all when the people running it do not even understand what they are talking about.

The athletes and people of exceptional ability use the O or P visa programs.

Originally Posted by MW

Rockfish wrote:

The State Dept. needs to be investigated for overlooking the facts. They realize that there are apprenticeships within the unions that produce journeymen of all trades. We need to know who at the State Dept signed off on the request for those visas, visas that are obviously being abused.

Whoa, hold the horses, Rockfish. What you're asking for is personal accountability. Please don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen because we need to keep you in the fight.

Thanks for the reminder, MW..I emailed Jim DeFede this morning and pointed out that there wouldn't be anything better than to see a story that demands the accountability from the State Dept..told him there would be more people who would appreciate that than he may ever know. No, I'm not holding my breath, but if enough people hear about this story and get POed about it, it just may launch an investigation. I read somewhere this story has already gained the attention of the obama admin, or were my eyes lying to me?

Rockfish: I posted an article about this getting the attention of the federal government.