Thread: (Illegal) Immigrants do Jobs Americans Won't Do, Contractor

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2006 ... /101030042

Immigrants do jobs Americans won't do, contractor says

Brady McCombs, (Bio) bmccombs@greeleytrib.com
January 3, 2006

While the immigration battle rages in Colorado and beyond, Glenwood Springs contractor Mark Gould frames the issue in simple terms: He couldn't make it without immigrant workers.

Teens fresh out of high school disdain the ditch-digging, $14-an-hour jobs that form the backbone of Gould's excavating business -- something Latino immigrants line up for.

"The young American male doesn't want to work that hard," Gould said. "We raised our children in this electronic world. They say, 'I should be able to make a living ... with a computer, not cleaning toilets.' "

Gould suspects many of his workers are in the country illegally, although he said he checks their documentation before hiring them.

"If it looks good, we hire them," he said. "We don't have the skill to tell" if the documents are forged.

He used to call in Social Security numbers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE), which would either verify them or establish if the numbers belonged to someone else. The agency no longer provides that service, Gould said.

No one knows exactly how many illegal immigrants live in Colorado, but their main contribution is clear: filling low-wage, labor-intensive jobs. In addition, they strengthen local economies by spending a good portion of that money on rent, houses, groceries, clothes and entertainment, and they bolster Social Security coffers by paying in to a system they won't draw from.

According to a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center study, illegal immigrants accounted for 4.3 percent of workers in the U.S., including 19 percent of farm workers, 17 percent of cleaning-service workers, 12 percent of construction workers and 11 percent of food preparers.

Those figures seem far too low to Gould, who only has to look at the rooftops across Colorado for his view.

ROLE FOR IMMIGRANT LABOR

Pinpointing a monetary value for the net contribution of illegal immigrants -- that takes into account their contribution to the labor force as well as their impacts on schools, health care and criminal justice -- has proven difficult for economists and researchers.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has made an attempt, though. A 2000 study found that immigrants contributed about $14 billion annually, or 1.8 percent, to the $11 trillion U.S. gross domestic product.

Since the bank published that study, researchers have found minimal evidence to support the claim that immigrant workers displace native workers, which could increase their contribution to as high as 4 percent of the GDP, said Pia Orrenius, senior economist in the research department of bank. Orrenius spent the 2004-05 academic year as senior economic adviser for the Bush Administration on labor, health and immigration issues.

Orrenius said illegal immigrants are more fiscally beneficial to the economy than legal immigrants because they pay most of the same taxes yet don't have access to as many public services. In addition, she said illegal immigrant labor keeps the costs of goods and services down, which benefits the consumer.

The study found that immigrants contributed to the economic growth in the U.S. by taking jobs in labor-scarce regions and filling jobs native workers often shun. According to the research, immigrant workers filled four out of every 10 job openings in the 1990s, when unemployment hit record lows.

Rutilio Martinez, assistant professor of finance in the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, agrees with the bank research. He said with the exception a handful of small communities in Texas, California and Arizona, illegal immigrants usually contribute more than they cost. He believes the same is true in Greeley and in Colorado.

In Weld County, illegal immigrants help drive the agriculture industry by topping onions and hoeing weeds in the fields for minimum wage. More work in meat- and produce-packing plants. In both Weld and the mountains, thousands work in construction.

Simply put, UNC's Martinez said illegal immigrants wouldn't come if jobs didn't await them.

"They can be starving to death, but if they are not hired, they won't come," Martinez said.

Penny Gonzales-Soto, an immigration attorney with Catholic Charities Northern in Greeley, said hopelessness drives illegal immigrants to pay human smugglers -- coyotes -- from $2,500-$5,000 to cross the border.

"The majority of our families are coming from incredibly poor areas," Gonzales-Soto said. "Because if they could make it, they would stay in their country. It's out of desperation, trying to take care of your family and survive."

About 92 percent of illegal immigrant men and 56 percent of illegal immigrant women work, according to the Pew Hispanic Center study.

Whether they take jobs from natives remains up for debate. Orrenius said she's found little evidence to support that. Martinez said the displacement might occur in some low-end construction jobs, but not in agriculture or restaurant jobs.

Mick Ireland, a Pitkin County Commissioner since 1993, said he's seen wages drop in the past decade as illegal immigrants fill service jobs in the mountains.

"A lot of the construction contractors complain, if they do things legally, they'll be underbid," Ireland said.

Ireland doesn't buy the argument that young U.S. residents won't work in the construction and service industries. He believes the mountain economy would keep running without the illegal immigrant work force.

"We have a desire for cheap labor, but that isn't the same as a need," Ireland said.

Weld District Attorney Ken Buck, who lobbied for an ICE office in Greeley to send home illegal immigrant criminals, said the principles of supply-and-demand will continue to bring illegal immigrants across the border.

"Clearly, there is a role in this country for immigrant labor and that's something the country has become accustomed to over the last few decades," Buck said.

'They can't send it all home'

Gonzales-Soto said most families come with plans of making enough money to return to Mexico, El Salvador or Guatemala and open family businesses.

Those plans often change, though, when women give birth to children who become U.S. citizens. The children grow up here, become accustomed to the language and culture and don't want to return to places that are like foreign countries to them.

As families plant their roots here, they begin spending money in the community. Even with some of it being sent home to families in their native countries by way of remittances, they still contribute to the local economy.

"They can't send it all home because they still have to live," Gonzales-Soto said.

Martinez said if illegal immigrants returned home, schools would have to lay off teachers, local businesses would lose money and pockets of the city would be left empty.

Immigrants (both legal and illegal) send approximately 10 percent of their pay to their families in their native countries, according to a 2004 study conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank. That 10 percent -- about $150-$250 a month -- can represent up to 80 percent of household incomes in Latin America.

In 2004, immigrants in Colorado sent home $544 million. A Migration Policy Institute study estimated the total remittances for 2005 from the U.S. to Mexico alone will be $17 billion.

Luis Polar has seen the buying power that illegal immigrants bring with them.

In September 2001, Polar started a Spanish-language newspaper, La Misión, to serve the growing Latino population in the mountain area around Glenwood Springs. Today, the monthly newspaper reaches 20,000-30,000 readers between Aspen, Avon and Parachute.

Polar, a native of Puerto Rico who moved to the U.S. in 1989, said the influx of immigrants -- many illegal, some legal -- in the past decade has helped the economy in Glenwood Springs. La Misión has grown from eight to 36 pages and ad sales have tripled, he said.

He said businesses in Glenwood Springs are selling more cars, food and products. It's helped English-language businesses grow and newer Spanish-language businesses start up. Many of the La Misión's ads are from English-language businesses translated into Spanish, Polar said.

"Little by little, the commercial community has seen that the Hispanic community has the possibility of generating sales for them," Polar said.

Other Spanish-language newspapers have found similar success. La Tribuna in Greeley has exceeded sales expectations by about 30 percent and increased circulation from 10,000 in Greeley to nearly 14,000 throughout northern Colorado since it first published last January. Such publications naturally attract advertising from businesses targeting the Latino community.

"There is a big network of businesses that are specifically serving the immigrant community," said Polar, the only paid employee at La Misión.

Last year, Latino businessmen and women formed Club Rotario to encourage and support Latino businesses in the Roaring Fork Valley. The thousands of illegal immigrants who have come to the valley in the past decade have contributed to the growing Latino buying power that have made clubs like this and businesses like La Misión possible, Polar said.

Immigrant labor part of economy

The U.S. isn't the only country in the world that depends on immigrant labor. Like the U.S., Martinez said governments in France, Germany, Spain and Belgium hesitate to stop the flow because it would hurt the economy and some of its wealthiest, most powerful residents.

"If the government really wanted, they could solve it overnight," Martinez said. "But they must go after big employers, and the little businesses would follow."

Cutting off the flow of illegal immigrants also would cut into Social Security coffers.

The 1986 Immigration Reform Act made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. So, when an illegal immigrant enters the country, he or she must obtain a fake Social Security card -- which they can buy on the black market for $50-$250 -- to get a job.

These same workers who pay into Social Security will never draw out their share because the Social Security administration will eventually find the fraud. The money then gets placed into a special fund that adds to Social Security's coffers, Orrenius said.

Back in Glenwood Springs, Gould said a the area's 3.2 percent unemployment rate makes immigrant labor, legal or not, essential to the workforce.

"There is no unemployment in this valley," Gould said. "If you ship those ... (illegal immigrants) away, there would be an awful lot of hurting businesses. It's hypocritical for any business hiring Hispanics to say they can do without illegals."

I worked for a paving/grading firm in Concord California while in my late 30s..... just doing the work Americans won't do.

The firm's owner was a World War 2 vet who would not hire illegals. We had a couple Hispanics on the crew but they were Americans. Regular folk. Just like the rest of us. None of us gave them a second thought!!!! No La Raza stuff from them and they despised the illegals, also, since they kept wages down.

Yeah, firms with illegals could underbid us. We lost job after job until the firm finally went out of business.

Another aspect of the invasion is the harm it causes very small-time entreprenuers. Knew a guy with a family. Lost his job at the cannery in Modesto California. Couldn't find anything other than minimum wage jobs and even those were tough to get what with the 25% or so unemployment rate in the central valley.

So, he started a small janitorial service cleaning offices, homes, whatever needed cleaning. As he quickly discovered a multitude of illegals were competing for the jobs. He had trouble matching the low low bids of the illegals, in part due to the illegals staying with kin who were citizens or using anchor babies to obtain public assistance for section 8 housing, MediCal, all the freebies that, for some reason, were not available to him despite his living below the poverty wage level.

What a racket!!!!!

Now, if the BIG corporations had to compete with corporations owned and operated by illegals the government would spare no cost to eliminate that threat to "fair competition." But, let the little folks suffer.... well, that just proves that all is fine in America and things are as they should be.

Perhaps I should do that. I have a degree plus I'm license by the AZ state board and I don't even make 14 dollars an hour. Unfortunately we don't have the union out here which would benefit me as well. The company I work for is a major Bush supporter and really does well screwing the little guy who does all the work making the CEOs rich (which I might add involves cleaning toilets once in awhile).

While the immigration battle rages in Colorado and beyond, Glenwood Springs contractor Mark Gould frames the issue in simple terms: He couldn't make it without immigrant workers.

I've been saying this a long time. Employers who cannot survive by employing legal residents should not be in business. I have no sympathy for this SOB. It's our government who puts any kind of business first over its citizens. Even if the business is not legitimate. Any business employing illegal immigrants is not legit in my mind.

The people should not hire that contractor and his illegals.

Once he finds out no one wants him, he may quit hiring those people.

As for American's not doing "those kind of jobs", what a bunch of crap, just look at the jobs coal miners do, plus others.

And if it's true that kids won't do those jobs, because they are used to staying in the house, playing games or surfing the net.....their parents should make them do something.

I have read where kids cannot find part time work at resorts, due to the illegals....so there has to be some kids that will work.

I want them to say that Jobs Americans won't do. To the Family's of the 12 Miners that Died in WV. Mining one of the Dirtiest, most hazardous jobs. God be with those Family's

"I have read where kids cannot find part time work at resorts, due to the illegals....so there has to be some kids that will work."

My mother has gone to Sun Valley Idaho for summer vacations off-and-on over the years. She mentioned awhile back that she has noticed that she hasn't seen the college kids filling the summer jobs up there as she had seen in the past. Now, she declared all she sees are Hispanics.

Having lived in California since 1957 (along with me) and having spent many years in a Central Valley small farm town AND having been married to a farmer since 1977 she has developed the ability to detect illegals as many of us have. Once, Sun Valley Idaho was illegal-free but no longer.

For those who defend the illegals and make statements such as "The illegals are doing the jobs those lazy college kids used to do but will not anymore," well....... where do they get their data, their information? What study or research are they referring to? What personal experience are they drawing upon? Do they know one or two college kids who don't need or want summer work? Do the pro-illegal idiots extrapolate from one or two observations then apply it to ALL college kids?

In California I saw a multitude of adults working in fast food joints, along with plenty of illegals. Here in Nebraska, where the illegals are growing in number but haven't drowned the state yet, MANY high school and college kids work in burger joints etc. and most that I talk to are helping to pay college costs or saving for further education past high school. If the illegal flood isn't stopped it's only a matter of time until those jobs are no longer available to youth.