A Letter To The Publisher

Joe,

In the past, we've had discussions relating to illegal immigration and its impact on our economy. Well, as you know, I operate three small businesses and I have the need on occassion to solicit the services of local contractors and sub-contractors. I also have a small group of employees. I thought I would share with you some observations I've recently made relating to how the workforce is changing. Wait until you read this.

About seven months ago I built a spec house in the Delmar area. Being a project much larger than the renovation of a kitchen or bathroom, I put each phase of it out to bid. For the purposes of this letter, I'll use the framing bid as an example. I got three bids from different framing contractors. Two from contractors who were obviously American, and one from a company owned by a man obviously of Hispanic descent. One of the "American" owned companies gave a bid of $7.25 per sq. ft., the other "American" owned company gave a bid of $6.75 per sq. ft. The "Hispanic" owned company gave me a bid of $4.00 per sq. ft. These were labor prices only. After checking the history of the company and verifying license, insurance, and immigration status, the low bidder framed a 2000 sq, ft. house for $8000.00. The quality was outstanding.

About two months ago, I put an ad in The Guide to hire a laborer. Due to the fact that most construction companies are laying people off in huge numbers, I was inundated with calls. I interviewed as many as I could within the limited amount of time I could commit. The applicants were American and those who were obviously immigrants from Spanish speaking countries. Now this is something that I found extremely interesting. Those who were of Hispanic descent spoke so little English that I could barely communicate......barely. Not enough to work with on a daily basis but enough to understand that they had no carpentry skills (through broken english and many, many hand gestures) but wanted to earn $15.00 and $16.00 per hour....to start. They drove up in vehicles with tags from Missouri, Texas, and North Carolina, yet had no drivers license. I could see trouble for me on the horizon if I were to hire any of them since, by their own admission, they were here illegally. At that rate of pay I could hire a 25 year old with a license and a little carpentry experience - enough to get by and learn as they go. I found it noteworthy that "immigrant labor" was getting expensive.

Last week I got several bids on two seperate items I needed to have done - siding and carpet. I received 2 bids for siding on a small house (labor only) from an American crew and an Hispanic crew. The Hispanic crew came in at $2800.00. The American crew came in at $1300.00. I received three bids for carpeting an entire 4 bedroom house - one from each of the following :

Value One Carpet labor and material - $2900.00
Discount Carpet labor and material - $2300.00
An Hispanic crew labor only - $2400.00

I then had some conversation with some friends of mine in the construction business who stated that they too have noticed that Hispanic workers have been requiring more and more money. The thought is that they are becoming "Americanized". I'm not one to discriminate against someone for any reason but I'm not hiring an illegal and I'm not paying more for something than I must. In the past seven months I've seen a shift in the workforce (as it relates to illegal immigrants) that I believe is unsustainable. The idea that illegal immigrants provide cheap labor is fast becoming history. If illegal immigrants continue this trend of asking for more than they're worth, no one will hire them. But they're already here. They will not go back to their countries because our country will hand them free food, education for their children, and medical care. At this point at least some of them are working but that will not be the case for long if they continue to try to get top dollar for unskilled labor. We haven't even begun to see the full impact of illegal and unchecked immigration if these trends continue. The costs of unpaid medical bills will be passed on to those who pay until even fewer people can afford health insurance. (I don't even want to hear about socialized medecine - the govt. can't even run the veterans hospitals it has) If this continues, we will have massive increases in the numbers of people drawing on public assistance. This increase will result in the need to increase taxes on those of us who do work every day.....until we're ALL out of money. Those of us who work hard to provide a good life for their families will have less. Those who have worked hard their whole lives and are now on fixed incomes will have less. Those who are able - yet refuse to work will have what they've always had - more than they deserve. For those who come here illegally with no money in their pockets - it will be like Christmas all year long. Fel iz Navidad!

Bob Harris