OWNED!!
Posted on 09/07/2006 9:06:20 AM PDT by Dane
Colorado's new immigration laws are starting to cause a stir among businessmen in the valley. For contractor Mark Gould one bill in particular could mean the loss of about a quarter of his workforce.
Since House Bill 1343 took effect Aug. 7, Gould is now required to certify that he has no illegal workers on his payroll. The law applies to contractors working on projects for cities, counties, school districts and other governmental agencies.
According to the law, new workers must be checked through a Pilot Program, which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security. The program links employers to an online database that checks names against Social Security numbers to determine if the number is valid.
"We've been told (the database) is only 80 percent correct," Gould said.
Gould Construction employs about 100 people, many of them unskilled laborers, many of them Hispanic immigrants. About half his contracts are with local governments.
Although Gould said his company checks people's documents as a condition of employment to make sure they are legal immigrants, it's a matter of simple math to realize that many of them are probably living in this country illegally.
According to Denver's Bell Policy Center, in 2004 there were 435,000 foreign born immigrants in the state. Gould estimates there are about 250,000 who are here illegally.
"As you walk down the street one of every two immigrants is illegal," he said. "This is not rocket science."
He has already seen the fallout from the bill.
Currently the company has 10 openings, and only three people have applied. Hispanics are not applying, Gould said.
"If you listen to (congressman and anti-illegal immigration advocate) Tom Tancredo, he wants to send 250,000 people back home. Congressman Tancredo says employers are employing illegals when there are legal workers standing in line," Gould said.
If Tancredo, R-Colo., has his way - and HB 1343 could go a long way to making that happen - businesses like Gould's, hotels in Aspen and Vail, landscapers around the valley and others would be hard put to find employees.
Gould pays $14 an hour as starting pay. At that rate, a worker who puts in the usual 50 hour week and who makes time-and-a-half in overtime will get $770 a week. That's good pay for unskilled labor, but still Gould would be hamstrung without Hispanics applying for those positions.
American kids are finishing high school and going on to skilled jobs.
"Kids are trained on computers, they don't want to dig a ditch," Gould said.
"What's going to happen to our economy if those workers go home? It would mean the loss of about a quarter of the excavators, laborers, masons, concrete workers, landscapers, roofers, drywallers and insulators in the valley," he said.
"So far business has been silent, they're assuming no politician would hurt the economy to make their constituency happy, but that's just what they've done."
Gould, representing the Colorado Contractor's Association, was part of a round-table discussion with Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs Monday, Aug. 28. The secretary was there to gather comments about President Bush's proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, including a guest worker program.
Businesses are also keeping their heads down and not speaking out about the new immigration laws because they're fearful they'll attract the attention of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Gould said.
Another Glenwood Springs contractor and former state representative, Gregg Rippy, agrees HB 1343 is flawed, although it will have less effect on his business. Rippy's government contracts account for about 35 percent of his business.
What the law is likely to do is drive contractors away from government projects and exclusively into the private sector, he said.
"You look at the level of work in the valley and why would you bid a city job when there is plenty of private work," he said.
That will also mean higher bids from contractors bidding on government contracts and higher construction costs. Contractors who do bid on government jobs will build in the cost of going through the process mandated by HB 1343.
Colorado should have waited for federal legislation to be put in place before passing its own immigration reform law, Gould said.
Any immigration reform should include a provision for a guest worker program that would allow employers to go to Mexico, for example, to choose workers and check their medical background and whether or not they have a criminal record. Most importantly, Gould said, foreign workers need to have biometric identification that contains individual and unforgeable markers such as fingerprints or eye scans.
Gould is now in the process of applying for 15 H2B temporary work visas for his employees. But this avenue of filling the need for unskilled workers is hampered by the U.S. State Department, which grants only 33,000 such visas annually for the entire country.
"We have 7 million workers in the construction industry in the U.S., and we project we'll need 180,000 new workers annually for the next 10 years - that's 1.8 million," Gould said. "That's just our industry, not hospitality or tourism. This economy would be toast if we lost (immigrant) workers."
Ah. I see.
You are "promoting the democrat party notion of restricting supply."
Now this thread is getting buchanan silly, next thing you know, you will be saying inhaling diesel fumes in a confined space is not dangerous(ala buchanan).
If the borders were secure, this wouldn't be an issue.
I work in construction all over the country and there are many contractors that feel like this guy.
Uh I ain't the one promoting a restirction of the supply of labor(ala labor unions, democrat party, etc.etc).
You are.
BTW, Reagan economics were also called "supply economics" for a reason.
OWNED!!
TOUCHE' BUMP!
Like someone living on credit cards, illegal immigration (in the form of cheap wages) has been popular everywhere it crops up until the bills start coming due. Hopefully, people have learned this time around that it's better to pay 25-50-100% more in labor costs rather than experience what many communities throughout the US are finally beginning to confront.
Yawwwwnnnn. That is so six months ago.
As the lending bubble unwinds, American construction workers will find jobs harder to come by. Who do you suppose they will look at in order to limit supply to American workers for those limited jobs available?
Sounds like he should raise his pay rate.
Yep.
Your obsession with Buchanan is REALLY unhealthy. Perhaps you should consider seeking a professional mental health practitioner to resolve this issue.
No no no, You don't understand PEOPLE are either entertained couch potatoes or the Laboring Class. No one who has Nice toys has them because they work for them. Get it right. /senate
This is a clue, DANE. People on Free Republic do not accept Marxist economic stereo types as being connected to reality in any way let alone a valid way.
But, you are. You admitted that you do not favor open borders so that anyone in the world can enter and work.
That's a restriction on the supply of labor.
Between ourselves and subcontractors working for us we expect project payrolls to go up by thousands of workers over the next year just to handle two to four year projects just now being awarded. Construction trade work in commercial is ramping up, not down.
Yeah, Buchanan is an idiot... but, geez, what's your beef? Did he run over your cat?
"We've been told (the database) is only 80 percent correct," Gould said.
If (for example) law-abiding citizens were being denied CCW permits because of errors in the background check database, and the government tried to shurg and say "well, it's only 80% accurate and you just have to deal with it), there would be a dozen 1000+-post flame threads on this forum.
Although Gould said his company checks people's documents as a condition of employment to make sure they are legal immigrants, it's a matter of simple math to realize that many of them are probably living in this country illegally.
This "simple math" argument is equivalent to declaring (for example) that because such-and-such a percentage of the male population commit rape, a large male gathering such as a Promise Keepers rally probably contains X number of rapists.
where he talks about checking documents, he isn't exaggerating. to complete the I-9 required for a legal hire you are required to accept a driver's license and a SS card. To not accept those, you are subject to a civil rights complaint for discrimination. And actually, the SS Admin says that the largest number of complaints filed are for just that, failing to accept documentation.
Additionally, the issues of forged or fraudulant documents aside, many illegals show up with one or both that are actually valid, but improperly issued.
So, if you submit someone to these verification services that ICE of the SSA are running, you can't fire them if they come back not listed. You may only make demands for further documents....and then you are on the bubble.
So what...You built your business based on the labor of the criminal element...It's time to downsize and work legally...Even if it cuts into your profits...You're lucky you're not in jail...You would be if I had my way...
Well I am an expert on the construction business, my father raised us by hanging drywall and my husband works in the residential homebuilding business. And yes he works in the heat,we live in Georgia. Up until about 10 years ago, there were very few illegals on job sites. Gee, I wonder how all those houses were built? Metro Atlanta is really big, ya know. Before we moved to Georgia, we lived in Hilton Head where my husband was a framer, where it's really hot and humid, and he'd have to be out in the baking sun all day. And guess what, ALL OF THE CONTRUCTION CREWS ON HILTON HEAD WERE OWNED AND OPERATED BY AMERICANS until DelWebb started to develop Sun City Hilton Head. It was DelWebb who contracted out of state and brought tons of illegals, who have yet to leave. The lovely illegals have ruined the outer neighborhoods. A good friend of mine literally lost all of her hair from the stress of trying to deal with a pro-illegal advocate, while trying to enforce their homeowners association rules. Thousands and thousands of dollars the homeowners had to pay to fight this women and her friends. I was just visiting them this summer, her neighborhood has turned into a slum. Back to construction, they are driving the small contractors out of business, I have 2 very good friends that are now looking for new careers because they can't bid as low as the Mexicans who share housing and expenses, both made a decent middle class livng until Georgia became saturated with illegals. Try living in the real world with the rest of us whose quality of life is being destroyed.
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