Posted on 07/21/2007 3:54:55 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Illegals hired for $10, state says pay them $40 New York Department of Labor cracks down on village official employing aliens for cash Posted: July 21, 2007
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Mayor George Darden Spring Valley, N.Y., Mayor George Darden won't be facing state civil or criminal charges for hiring illegal aliens to work on an urban revitalization project in his village, but Department of Labor officials informed him yesterday that the $10 an hour he paid 10 men doesn't comply with the state's prevailing wage law and taxpayers will have to pay the illegals the difference of about $30 an hour.
Darden has been under fire this week since the White Plains Journal News reported a village employee from the Department of Public Works Tuesday using a village truck to pick up two day laborers from a popular roadside hiring site and driving them back to Main Street to clean out a building slated for demolition. The village employee said he was "following orders" when he transported the illegal aliens.
Darden now claims to have not known the laborers were illegal and says he was the victim of one of the workers, who, he said, provided what appeared to be legal documentation that would allow him to work in the U.S. and said he had family members interested in working on the project. Darden said the man apparently "picked up a number of other individuals."
The mayor said he had told the workers he would be sending them IRS Form 1099s so they could declare the wages for tax purposes.
That story does not fit all the facts or match what the mayor said earlier in the week.
The man he dealt with, Felix Sandoval, is in the U.S. illegally from Guatemala. He identified Darden as the person who had approached him at the hiring site Sunday and asked him to bring nine other men to the job site the following two days. Sandoval had a business card from Darden in his possession.
When asked on Tuesday why illegal laborers were on the job site, an urban renewal project that has received federal and state funds, Darden replied, "They're working."
"We have 37 different nationalities" in the village, he told the Journal News, "and during the summer, we try to employ everybody."
"I believe that if you keep people busy ... they become better and productive people," he added. "I'm the mayor of all the people in Spring Valley, not Jamaicans and Haitians and Jews ... all the people of Spring Valley, and they're included, and as long as they are here, we're going to try to make sure they're productive."
While Darden said he knew of the laws concerning hiring illegal aliens, the federal government had failed to do anything to stem the flow of their immigration.
"I am hiring people who are citizens of Spring Valley and as long as they are here, we need to find something to do rather than to try and find ways to arrest them," he said. "I'm a family person, and I'm sure they have families here, too. Everybody needs to do things to support their families."
Darden acknowledged paying the men in cash. At a Tuesday news conference, he did not say whether taxes were withheld on their wages.
Now, thanks to New York's prevailing wage law, Sandoval and his fellow illegal aliens will be paid $40 an hour including taxes for their work.
Darden won't face prosecution for violating the state's wage law, said Chris Perham of the Department of Labor.
"This is a first offense and in such cases we explained the laws," Perham said. "After that first chance, we will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
The U.S. Attorney's Office has referred the matter to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hiring illegal aliens violates federal law.
"We don't discuss investigative matters," ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said. "We do take the hiring of illegal aliens serious and take an aggressive approach against workers, employers and businesses."
"I made a mistake one of the head, not the heart," Darden said yesterday. "I gave them my business card. I wouldn't have done that if I knew they were illegal."
No kidding!
Isn’t that the argument against immigration? That if you pay the prevailing wage, then you will find citizens to do the job?
Two interesting things here. Either you really can’t find citizens to do these jobs or the often-repeated statement that people will pay more for citizen laborers is false. Or both.
Can I do this too? There are scads of laws I would like to break, and I promise to obey all the others...
OK, I have these three illegals here right now from Northern Pakistan, and they’ve been doing yard work for me, but they spend so much time out in the shed with the fertilizer and some old cell phones. I only pay them $5 an hour and they don’t complain. In fact, they get picked up in a rather fancy car by some tall guy they call a Sheikh. But now the government is going to make me pay my illegals MORE? And probably provide health insurance now too? All so they can sit around making those fashionable waist-cinches and talking about Allah?? I just don’t think it’s fair. I will draw the line at life insurance for my guys though.
Illegals Hired For $10, State Says Pay Them $40
1. why should they be working at all?
2. why should the state dictate the wages?
“Am I to assume that all state workers are paid $40.00 an hour?”
Maybe not cash per hour, but add in benefits and $40 is about right.
Well...
Do you have any relatives in a union? No?
Are you too stupid or too timid to negotiate your own salary and benefit package?
Then, by all means, get thee down to the nearest local labor hall of the trade of your choice and see if you got the initiation fee. In cash. Dose boyos don't take no checks.
I can’t believe the prevailing wage for cleanup is $40 an hour.
Geez, I’d bet quite a few Americans would take those jobs.
I didn't either. ;) It seems that taxpayers are getting screwed, again! Who said illegals have it bad?
The irony is the taxpayer had nothing to do with this crime but got stuck with the bill. Can a judge just choose anybody he wants to punish?
Yeah, just my thoughts-—this will probably be the first and last time anything like this will happen in White Plains, Spring Valley or anywhere else without the threat of their respective Municipal Buildings being marched on.
MOSTLY because this judge demanded they be paid as overpaid City Workers, ENOUGH of whom are already paid by
overtaxed homeowners. A permanent scenario like this, of course, if just what the Left envisions for America, and probably even some not on the Left. See this as a test case-—they’ll probably try it again. I am telling you, the world is a very different place for people who are tied to Institutions, like State funded Universities, or the Government Teat in some way.
Very true. If it gets any better, I'm going to cross the border and pretend I'm an illegal. lol My Spanish isn't real good, but it's good enough to get by. ;o)
Davis/Bacon?
It’s our own government who is keeping illegals legal here .... we do have a two party system .... liars and whiners ...
Self Deportation of Illegal Aliens
Reset the minimum wage for employees that employers DO NOT validate against the federal register.
1. Have states set a minimum daily wage of $200 per day for each and every employee that is unverified against the federal register.
2. Make the employer liable for all applicable social security, federal and state income taxes, workmans compensation, health insurance, 401(k) and any other withholding or matching funds available to verified employees at the reset minimum wage.
3. Make the reset minimum wage eligible for class action claims against the employer for any and all employees not legally validated.
4. Enable workers to use cell phone video for evidentiary purposes against employers.
5. Sit back and watch the great sucking sound of illegals self deporting themselves back across the border.
Now, who do we hold responsible for the illegal immigration problem in America, the illegals or the government? Once people really wake up from their national sleep walk, they will discover that it is our own government that throws out the bait to the Mexicans and other illegals to come here. I don't blame the illegals anymore; I'd do the same damn thing if I lived in Mexico and the Americans were paying $40.00 per hour for labor and giving me free health care. It is this fat, bloated, self-serving government of ours that is causing the problem.
Hmmm....It seems like they are paying these illegals far more than alledgely is for the pay for jobs tha Americans won’t do. Saw a story about an illegal that was earning about $40 an hour too.
Bush, do the job now. Build the fence and return the illegals and their babies to their own countries. Quit selling your own country out.
“Darden won’t face prosecution for violating the state’s wage law, said Chris Perham of the Department of Labor.
“This is a first offense and in such cases we explained the laws,” Perham said. “After that first chance, we will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Just let the normal peon try that and see how many chances they get.
As for the $40.00/HR...That is absurd. And the illegals should have it all confiscated to pay for there trip back home.
I believe PA did the same on July 1st. And the economists are surprised to see inflation rearing its ugly head...
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