NYT,pg1: Here Illegally, Working Hard and Paying Taxes

Here Illegally, Working Hard and Paying Taxes
By EDUARDO PORTER
Published: June 19, 2006

....In contrast to the typical image of an illegal immigrant — paid in cash, working under the table for small-scale labor contractors on a California farm or a suburban construction site — a majority now work for mainstream companies, not fly-by-night operators, and are hired and paid like any other American worker....

***

More than half of the estimated seven million immigrants toiling illegally in the United States get a regular paycheck every week or two, experts say. At the end of the year they receive a W-2 form. Come April 15, many file income tax returns using special ID numbers issued by the Internal Revenue Service so foreigners can pay taxes. Some even get a refund check in the mail.

And they are now present in low-skilled jobs across the country. Illegal immigrants account for 12 percent of workers in food preparation occupations, for instance, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center. In total, they account for an estimated one in 20 workers in the United States.

The building maintenance industry — a highly competitive business where the company with the lowest labor costs tends to win the contract — has welcomed them with open arms. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, more than a quarter of a million illegal immigrants are janitors, 350,000 are maids and housekeepers and 300,000 are groundskeepers.

The janitorial industry has been transformed in recent years as a handful of companies have consolidated by taking over hundreds of small local operators. That activity has gone hand-in-hand with the steady advance of immigrants, legal and illegal — almost all of them Hispanic — who have been drawn into what was once an overwhelmingly American-born work force....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/business/19illegals.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

up and went home. TANK!! TANK I SAY!! KER_FLUSH!!

of my job being described as stated in the patently dishonest article posted. "And they are now present in low-skilled jobs across the country." I install sheetrock, and frame commercial buildings. I'm home now on umemployment, but I can show you several jobs on any given day where people breaking immigration laws are working and doing my job. Think it's not a skilled job? Take yourself to a construction site and see just how "simple" it is to do. I take pride in my work, and because of my skill, I can build the framework and install sheetrock for buildings that are intricate in nature, and require precise numbers to bring together. A statement of fact, because I have had occasion to experience it myself, is that when I return from layoff, that it, when there is enough work available that the contractors will need my skills, part of it will be spent making work that was done too hastily by inexperienced workers acceptable for finish work. That was precisely the work I was doing the day of my layoff. I will re-iterate that benevolence toward a group of people(people who break immigration law) at the expense of another group(working-class Americans)shouldn't make one feel good. I wish people would stop using my livelihood as a stepping stone for their misplaced benevolent nature. My adamant opinion only. Thanks.
quickesst

good luck to you!

immigration authorities to protect your job prospects.

the issue is the long term problems the lack of a policy and enforcement is going to cause down the line if this continues..

and it is 11,000,000 illegals by any 'conservative' estimate

that I don't believe is discussed is this. I am watching a documentary on HDNet concerning illegal immigration in Arizona. One segment related the negative affects on the ranchers, some of whom are fifth generation families, having to sell their livestock, and or completely alter the way they have ran their ranches for generations. Seems the massive influx of people willfully breaking the law to gain access to this country are leaving behind huge amounts of trash and personal belongings on the ranches. The livestock are eating the trash, plastic and such, then after suffering for as long as three days or so, they die from the resultant blockage. Just another sane, logical reason for some kind of organization concerning our borders. There is way too much focus on certain aspects of the issue and not enough on the situation as a whole. As far as my feelings? None vehemently personal toward the people involved, but unfortunately, quite strong concerning the profiteers and those who wantonly use my livelihood as a tool to further their short-sided, misplaced benevolence. Thanks.
quickesst

at all. They either can't see beyond one particular industry- or post some hyped up (and often ridiculous) stories or go off half cocked with some :shock: "It's illegal!" type arguments- and they miss the root causes of migration.

Here's a fact- the vast majority of immigrants are here to stay. That's how is, so people better get used to it. There aren't going to be massive sweeps and deportations, although there'll be some actions taken for "show." We're not going to make felons out of 11 million people.

If you want to deal with the root causes, then you have to look toward NAFTA and the WTO, which are responsible for impovershing countries everywhere- including the US, to benefit of Wall Street and the corporatists. Those are the people stealing your livelihood- not the immigrants.

Improve conditions in people's home countries- enact and enforce anti-trust, enforce labor laws here and abroad, and you remove one of the biggest root causes of the problem.

But you see- most Americans either don't know or don't want that. They prefer their cheap shoddy goods from Walmart- and having their offices cleaned, their produce picked -their fast food slop prepared and their homes landscaped at below a living or sometimes even a minimum wage.

As long as those conditions prevail- all the complaining, scapegoating and stupid "finger in the dyke" policies aren't going to make one bit of difference.

the US simply does nothing, the easy access across the Arizona ranchers land continues, along with the trash, and dead livestock. Also, what a lot of people don't understand is that desperate people do desperate things, so the people who have residences along the open border bear the brunt of the human wave, along with the destruction of their livelihood. Not through any malice or aforethought, but through desperation. Once again, a compromise not perfect with any view of the issue is necessary. One that addresses all issues, from the eleven to twenty million already here, the corporations who's immorality exploits the workers here illegally, to the porous, and destructive open borders. Not hard to understand at all. To do nothing is to sit idly while our society deteriorates into third world status, with the exception of those who in the corporate world, who, having to accept some sort of change will gladly, and legally pay minimum wage. The misplaced benevolence of the amnesty advocates only aid their cause. Again, the only course left is for Americans to accept lowered wages in order to compete with the new citizens or guest workers. I have never seen a group of people more eager to complete the total erasure of the middle class. I suppose in order to understand, I would have to be able to think in such a tit for tat way, but I just cannot gain any satisfaction in, and I repeat again, showing benevolence to one group at the expense of another. A fact that is impossible for the amnesty/open border people to avoid. Thanks.
quickesst

That's one of more far fetched things I've ever heard.

You seem to be blaming your situation on other people- and not looking toward the systemic changes that are- as I said- the root source of the the problem.

And frankly- I think your "misplaced benevolence" framwork is just shorthand for "fear of the other." Worse, I think it keeps you from focusing on the larger issues.

The reality is- the people already here aren't going anywhere in substantial numbers- and if you want to slow the rate of increase in immigration, then the way to do that is by enacting policies that encourage people to stay where they are. That means not dumping subsidized industrial agriculture products into Mexico and Central America- ruining people's livelihoods- and that means repealing the NAFTA provisions that keep urban Mexicans from organizing and so forth.

In the years after NAFTA, Mexican manufacturing workers saw their real wages fall by more than 20 percent. Today, workers in the country's vast export manufacturing sector, the maquiladora factories, earn from one-fourth to half of their previous wages. That doesn't even provide the very basic necessities for a family. Many of these workers eventually choose the hardships and uncertainties of crossing the border over the certainty of long hours in unhealthy conditions for below-subsistence wages.

What would you do?

Now, you can also crack down on hiring- in other words- go after the corporations, subcontractors and businesses who hire undocumented workers- but neither the Republicans OR the Democrats have shown any particular interest in doing that. I certain sectors of the economy, that might be an excellent good idea- and you could argue that construction might be one of those, although as the housing market falls, there'll be a lot of smaller contractors living off of pretty slender margins.

In other areas of the economy- like agriculture- you're still going to need sheap labor. That's a fact- and not a new one, either.

I've lived in agricultural areas my whole life, and people who live in cities keep telling me that my parishioners' jobs "need" to be displaced by unodocumented workers for some reason. Apparently, people in cities believe they have a right to cheap lettuce and cheap meat. Well, you have no such right. You have a right to food grown at price that pays workers a fair wage. It's ahrd work, it ought to be fairly compensated. Would that make your meat more expensive? Maybe, but it would lift all wages if the lowest rung of wages were fair. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Me, as much as possible I buy produce grown locally on family farms that treat workers fairly. I don't buy meat at all because the meat industry is so corrupt and treats workers so badly. If I can do it (I'm not rich) others can do.

Agriculture has no more right to underpay workers than any other industry.