After Katrina Horton rolled into Louisiana and bought up every available lot to build a house on, literally thousands of them. Then the Mexicans began showing up. We had some Mexicans working here prior to that but they seemed to be a little higher caliber. This new group doesn’t speak English. And now when you walk across the jobsites you see tons of empty beer bottles. THAT ALONE would be grounds for getting rid of a subcontractor. Allowing employees to drink on the job is just plain stupid and most dangereous.
I’ve had real problems working around them because they are unable to speak to us. This is actually a safety concern. If one was about to be crushed by a piece of heavy equipment we couldn’t even yell out a warning. I have been through some of the O.S.H.A. training courses and I know I remember it being a requirement that “there be a competent foreman for each crew.” Being competent would include speaking English here as far as I’m concerned.
I also have tons of problems with them destroying work we’ve done. They just either don’t care or don’t know not to run over piping in a foundation with a Bobcat. So we end up breaking concrete in houses after someone has already moved in. It’s a sad state.
Border Patrol now makes regular stops in all the Horton subdivisions around here. And now when I need to communicate with someone who only speaks Spanish I have the cell phone number to the Border Patrol agent who covers this area. He’s always happy to stop by and translate. And if they are here illegally then whatever problem I was having with them is solved immediatley.
On the other side of the coin I don’t see any locals looking around for jobs. Maybe they all aquired higher education and took those high paying white collar jobs. But somehow I doubt it.
The problem is our fault for not securring the borders. Maybe we can build a moat and fill it with alligators. But then they’d show up wearing new alligator boots. We allow companies to get away with hiring these people “on the side” and not withholding workmans comp and taxes. So how can a legitimate contractor compete with that? His labor will cost 30 percent more at least.
In stead of charging a fine for a company hiring illegals I say order them to cease doing business. Take away their license, close them down, and seize then sell their assets. The money from the sale can go to hiring new border patrol agents. If you make the penalty stiff enough and enforce it I guarantee you no one would hire anyone who is here illegally no matter what language they spoke.