Posted on 04/29/2006 10:26:09 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BURBANK – Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio, but instead of corralling some buddies he rented a truck and hired day laborers outside the local Home Depot. The two Guatemalan men finished the job in an hour and a half, hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, for less than $40.
It was first time James hired day laborers but it won't be his last.
“Absolutely satisfied,” said James, 31.
The No. 1 employers of day laborers, many of whom are illegal immigrants, are homeowners – not construction contractors, not professional landscapers.
“Day labor is not a niche market,” said Abel Valenzuela, a UCLA professor and one of three authors of the first national day labor study, which was released in January. “It's now entering different aspects of the national mainstream economy.”
Forty-nine percent of day labor employers are homeowners, according to 2,660 laborers interviewed for the study. Contractors were second, at 43 percent. The study also found that three quarters of day laborers were illegal immigrants and most were from Latin America.
Homeowners like the men who call themselves “jornaleros” because they make up a flexible labor pool with no red tape and no overhead. And they'll do backbreaking jobs much cheaper than regular contractors.
Day laborers like homeowners, too. Shady contractors routinely stiff them. Not homeowners – the workers know where they live.
“And in houses, they give us food, water and soda,” said Herminio Velazquez, 48, one of the men who worked at James's condo.
While some homeowners are uncomfortable hiring people who likely have no work documents, they often don't believe they are doing wrong.
That position is rejected by anti-illegal immigration activists.
“They know they are hiring illegal aliens and breaking the law,” said Joseph Turner, who is trying to force San Bernardino to outlaw taxpayer-funded day labor centers. “They are contributing to the illegal immigration problem.”
Agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement occasionally arrest day laborers, but they almost never go after homeowner employers. Their priorities are national security work sites such as seaports and the networks that smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.
“We need to stop unlawful employment,” said agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice. “But working day laborers sites is not an efficient way to use finite resources.”
The federal debate on immigration reform has been on either criminalizing illegal immigrants – a proposal that has stirred widespread protest demonstrations – or giving them temporary work visas that might eventually lead to citizenship. Though Senate leaders promise progress, legislation may not pass in this election year.
David Peters, a 37-year-old salesman, is bothered by illegal immigration and believes he's part of the problem, but he says it isn't always possible to hire people with work papers.
He hired day laborers over several months while remodeling his Hermosa Beach house. One man tiled a floor and installed a granite countertop for $1,000, jobs that Peters estimated would cost $5,000 if he used the Yellow Pages.
“I know if they didn't have a job, they wouldn't be here,” said Peters. “But we all shop at Target and Wal-Mart, and all their stuff is made overseas with cheap labor.”
Maxine Colby started hiring day laborers after her husband died six years ago because she needed somebody to clear brush, pull weeds, trim trees and wash windows. She pays them $11 an hour and serves them a hot lunch.
“They have been fantastic,” said the 78-year-old Malibu resident. “I speak a little Spanish, and they speak a little English, and we have a good time.”
She doesn't ask about immigration status or worry about breaking the law.
“This is a system that works for most people,” she said. “If lawmakers can't figure out how to fix it, I certainly can't.”
Do you think these idiots know that illegals make up a third of all the violent offenders in California prisons?
I think that means there is a lot higher change an illegal will cut that throat and take the rest of you money after the piano is moved.
Soon the Illegals will be able to sue you for injuries. You will have to pay their FICA and Medicare.
Suddenly they won't be such a good deal.
Since they have publicly confessed to hiring illegal immigrants, how do we turn them in?
This statement could have applied just as well to slavery. Worked well, for most people.
Well, first find a government official who cares...
There, does that put a better perspective on it? This guy James sucks.
It seems like it is cheap labor but the hidden cost of the illegals will destroy this country.
What more needs to be said? This guy doesn't care about shipping manufacturing jobs off to China, so long as he gets a cheap hair blower; and he doesn't care about putting his local contractor out of work, either. This guy Peters sucks, too.
Here, another sentence fixed for historical perspective. Why do these people not realize that they are undermining our nation?
They should have their homes confiscated, sold, and the money collected should be used to secure the borders.
Or...we could bring the poorest people in Africa over here and give them room and board and maybe a dollar a day wages if they agree to take care of all of our household chores.
....they would be doing the jobs that the current illegal aliens aren't willing to do...at the wages some are willing to offer. We would have the current illegal aliens protesting against the new illegal aliens.
Opposing those new arrivals would be anti black the same way opposing illegal Latino immigrants is "anti Latino".
That's a good question:
To prove that they have been in the country for any length of time the illegals will have to tell who they worked for, when and how much they made and since it was cash you would be hard pressed to say otherwise. To make restitution the illegals will have to pay back payroll taxes (both halves)on every dime they earned. And either the IRS can come after the employers for their share of the employment taxes or the illegals can sue you.
And you had better believe that there are legions of lawyers itching to stick it to Gringos that hired the illegals under the table.
And the gardeners in my neighborhood are charging $100 plus a month.
Correct answer.
>>>It seems like it is cheap labor but the hidden cost of the illegals will destroy this country.<<<
Well you know it, and I know it, but I talk to people every day (including my mother) who simply cannot fathom that "free" medical care and "free" housing and "free" services, are not actually free.
(That is until the Ministry of Magic perfects its inquiries into creating food and shelter out of thin air. They say they're only a decade away...)
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