Thread: Doing Jobs Americans Don't Want to Do

Last night about 11pm we came home from the fireworks display in Houston. There are some homes being built behind us and may of them had just had appliances put in them. As we drove down the street by these new homes I saw two Hispanic males duck into a window of one of the homes. I suspected these two scumbags were going to try to make off with some new appliances. So I immediately called the Sheriff's Department while we kept an eye on the two thieves.

Within 2 minutes the Sheriff's Department was all over the place eventually catching these two in the act. Of course they had no ID's and spoke no English so I would rather suspect (as the police did) that they were just your every day, run of the mill, ILLEGALS here in Houston to do jobs that Americans don't want to do.

The Sheriff's Department was very grateful since theft at construction projects in Houston is such a huge problem. Hopefully Houston will be minus 2 illegals today. I hope their ILLEGAL friends think twice before coming into our community to steal.

good for you bigtex ..... send the corruption back south of the border... onesies and twosies if we have too

That is great bigtex--the capture of these two could lead to a ring--they would need fences to sell the items.

Great work!

WTG . Salute . Right as Rice on making the call

Good work. We have alot of break ins on construction sites where tools and other items are being stolen. On monday mornings the police get lots of those calls.

bigtex You are the man good work

I lived in Tomball Tx

I have been calling our state's Contractor's board on jobsites where it appears that various laws are being broken. It takes a little analyzing. I examine the appearance of the jobsite; usually unregistered contractors have the cheapest, run down vehicles and old, cheap tools. I look for a Builders's registration number, permits on the building or other signs such as business cards. If I don't see any of that I guess they are unlicensed and call the Builder's board; I now have a more direct number. They will usually get there the same day on a morning notification. When they arrive they can check for other things such as Comp. coverage or certain tax payments. They can slap big fines up to thousands of dollars.

It's pretty safe; the contractor doesn't know who ratted on them. One does have to make sure the facts reported to the state are accurate because you don't want them to start ignoring your complaints. Wednesday I saw some potential illegal aliens working just two houses down from me; the contractor does have a legitimate company which is registered (checked the database) and they do have workers comp coverage (made a phone call) so I did not make a report. The state does not really check on immigration status---but they can check a lot of other things. So it takes some discretion. I am trying to go after the day labor center....

Construction is often a dirty, sneaky business and lots of immigrant groups soon turn to construction jobs to make quick money. Lots of times, even if they are in the country legally, they still don't give a hoot about the laws. But the states will bust 'em if they catch them.

Now that the cities and counties in South Florida are strapped for cash they are now coming down on people who do not pull building permits and the use of illegal contractors. This as well as no construction jobs is causing many to self deport. As I have mentioned before they are actually going to police officer asking them to contact immigration as they are illegal and want to go home. I have heard this from many police departments and officers. Many pay smugglers thousands to come here and expect us to pay to send them back.

I guess the illegals should feel fortunate that it wasn't Joe Horn who caught them stealing from neighborhood houses.

Originally Posted by Captainron

I have been calling our state's Contractor's board on jobsites where it appears that various laws are being broken. It takes a little analyzing. I examine the appearance of the jobsite; usually unregistered contractors have the cheapest, run down vehicles and old, cheap tools. I look for a Builders's registration number, permits on the building or other signs such as business cards. If I don't see any of that I guess they are unlicensed and call the Builder's board; I now have a more direct number. They will usually get there the same day on a morning notification. When they arrive they can check for other things such as Comp. coverage or certain tax payments. They can slap big fines up to thousands of dollars.

It's pretty safe; the contractor doesn't know who ratted on them. One does have to make sure the facts reported to the state are accurate because you don't want them to start ignoring your complaints. Wednesday I saw some potential illegal aliens working just two houses down from me; the contractor does have a legitimate company which is registered (checked the database) and they do have workers comp coverage (made a phone call) so I did not make a report. The state does not really check on immigration status---but they can check a lot of other things. So it takes some discretion. I am trying to go after the day labor center....

Construction is often a dirty, sneaky business and lots of immigrant groups soon turn to construction jobs to make quick money. Lots of times, even if they are in the country legally, they still don't give a hoot about the laws. But the states will bust 'em if they catch them.

Here in Oklahoma you don't have to be licensed in almost any of the building trades except electrical and plumbing. Sure wish they did though as this would probably keep a lot of the riff-raff from being able to contract and drive the price down further. A lot of the builders have no qualms about holding out comp for contractors if the price is cheap enough.

Funny you say that about business cards, I had a guy ask me for one the other day and I realized that I didn't have any nor have I had the need for any in the last ten years. Things are tight now, not near as many starts as there have been, so it looks like I'm gonna have to get some made if I want to stay busy.