Black Citizens and Illegal Immigration

My job as an attorney advocate for the American immigration reform movement has allowed me to work with black reform activists across the nation.  In Maryland below the political establishment level, the views of Prince George's black voters on immigration are consistently similar to my own. This recent letter to the editor published in the Washington Post expresses the importance of defending the privileges of citizenship:

'Jobs Americans Won't Do'?

Tuesday, November 6, 2007; A18

"I strongly disagree with Henry Gekonde's comments in "I'll Say 'Hola' if You'll Say 'Hello' " asserting that "illegal immigrants are here to do many of the jobs that Americans won't do. [Close to Home, Nov. 4].

"With 18 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 earning no income in 2006, there are many legal residents who are willing to work but have been displaced by these interlopers. For instance, many black men would be willing to take the construction jobs being given to illegal immigrants, but contractors do not want to pay legal wages of about $27 an hour.

"On the matter of assimilation, illegal immigrants arrive here in droves to work for dollars instead of pesos; thus, they should learn English. And as a member of the "get-tough crowd," I think Mr. Gekonde fails to realize that the treatment of illegal immigrants is neither slavery nor segregation, because illegal immigrants made a conscious decision to break the law when they came to the United States. Finally, when Americans continue to neglect the issue of assimilating ex-offenders returning to society, why should anyone entertain an argument about assimilating another country's citizens?

CARLA JENKINS, Washington"

Comments

[Karen Long]

I had a problem with this article in the post and several other articles about people not wanting to work. $27/hr is allot of money for unskilled labor. Most of the people who get these kind of wages are skilled carpenters. $10-$15 per is fair wages for entry level carpenter helpers. However, this article and others in the post constistently show that there are people in this country who simply do not want to work. Is it not better to take a job, any job at any wage when you have no job? I have worked low paying jobs and crap jobs to pay for school. It was stepping stone.

I have repeatedly tried to hire black and white men to do odd jobs for me. I found one fellow from Mexico who brought his entire family including the 3 and 5 year olds. The five old helped me dig post holes. The work ethic in this country is the problem not just the illegal immigration.
I am very torn on this issue as I see many lazy people in this country and many hard working people who want a better in other countries. One thing that really galls me about the men in the post articles is that if you ask any farmer what their hourly wage comes too (when you consider they work 14 hr days and their children work as well) you find rate per hr is pretty low.

I don't think illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans. I think those who are jobless and unskilled just don't want to do the hard work to get ahead...not considering there is a percentage of skilled and skilled workers who from time to time get laid off. This people hustle and find ways to make to ends meet till they get a new job.

As for the issue of what to do with the illegal immigrants that are currently here I would like to hear Mike's plan in detail. Alot of politians spout alot of stuff but none has given the detaills on how to make it work.

[Mike Hethmon]

Karen, I think the letter writer means that the $27/hr figure is the total employer compensation cost: wages, benefits, and employer contributions to FICA, Social Security, and workmen's compensation, that a Maryland employer offering a typical laborers wage of $15/hour pays out. When you hire a "Mexican family" as day labor to build your fence, you undercut that wage.

The public issue is not whether an individual is "lazy," but whether our laws respecting the privileges of citizenship are respected. I've been to a lot of dictatorships of various stripes. All of them like to blame "lazy" workers on their troubles.

If we don't need to respect immigration and labor laws when foreigners have better personal qualities that our fellow citizens, why should we respect the laws that protect your rights as a woman?

Here is where you and I respectfully disagree: For me, a free labor market protects workers and employers alike, and promotes general economic efficiency and prosperity. Hiring illegals to improve your property by shifting the true cost of supporting that "hardworking Mexican family" -- (I assume a code word for illegal aliens and not a racial stereotype on your part)-- onto your taxpaying neighbors is cheating, exploitation, and the opposite of a free market. And the world has too examples of poor, brutal societies where everyone behaves as you suggest.

As for my plan to reform American immigration law bit by bit, please start by taking a look at the 7 Steps to Reform in my Congressional testimony. Click on the link on my immigration page on my website, www.mikehethmon.com.

The central concept is "attrition by enforcement": By enforcing our laws against illegal employment, preventing illegal aliens from accessing public benefits, renting houses, obtaining drivers licenses, etc., illegal aliens and their US exploiters will decide that breaking the law doesn't pay. Then they will pack up and go home. We can focus ICE and local law enforcement on detaining and removing criminal aliens.

We also need a comprehensive reform of our legal immigration system. I have no problem with admitting aliens to work where true labor shortages exist. But the only way to prove a labor shortage is through Americanization: Employers who recruit foreign labor - skilled or unskilled - must need them so badly that they will agree to hire any minimally qualified US citizen that applies, and will also agree to pay for the public services, education, medical insurance, etc., that would otherwise be subsidized by taxpayer funds.

Karen, I appreciate your comment. Please keep posting!

[Karen Long]

To reply to Mike's comments- On hiring someone from Mexico, I did not undercut the US wages. In fact I paid well above minimum wage...15-17/hr and I a gave his kids a few dollars for helping out. In fact, if we worked the day and took no breaks I added an extra $20 or so. I paid by check. So I expect he will pay his taxes. I do not see how this undercuts the free market. Several weeks ago I hired three women (one a young girl) to help with cleaning and other work..the kinds of stuff I hired the Mexican family to do. I paid the following- 15 to the older woman, ( This was actually a little less than I paid the guy form Mexico) 12 to a young lady and $7per hr to the young girl. They were all paid by check so I expect them to pay their taxes accordingly. All were of European heritage. You seem very biased on heritage and race. Did this undercut the freemarket? Or is that only based on the hertiage of the person I hired? This is well above minimum wage and is meant to include all taxes and benefits. I pay $20 for skilled labor.

I never stated I support hiring people of illegal status. I stated I am torn on the issue and troubled.

As for the guy from Mexico, he has a taxpayer ID, a drivers license, and his children are US citizens. I met him when he came with an electrican I hired. He left a note on my car stating he was available for work on the weekends. I was reluctant to call till the next day I noticed he had mowed my yard. I did not say he was illegal... that you assumed. "Hard wording Mexican" family is not a term I used. The statement you made "I assume a code word for illegal aliens and not a racial stereotype on your part)" is inflammabatory and distracts from the real issues... which are the following...

1) What is the best way to handle the illegal people that are here that best supports are economy, reduces hardship to US children of illegal residents and provides a chance for all hard working people to get ahead? I don't think there is one good solution and I am looking for leaders who are willing to not to be popular but make the hard decisions based on facts not on a lot of the assumptions that seem to be on your website. I want to see numbers with references. If a politican states illegal immigrants increase crime, I want to see the numbers, not anedotes.

2) I want to make a statement on race. There is only ... Human. The current so-called racial divides we have were a social/polical construct that have evoled and shifted with the political trends. They have no scientific basis. There are some 1500-1800 variants of the human race and plus many combinations. How a person chooses to identify or not identify with both their genetic and ethnic hertiage is up them and should not be dictated by government intrusion or unscientific groupings.

3)Several months ago there was an article in the Post detailing how a 20 something man had washed out of high school and was in a GED program. He was paid $250/week to go to class and to work 12hrs/wk at a community center signing people in. (This is over $20/hr.) The young man complained, whinned and couldn't even keep his head up while the teacher was explaing long divison. There are many graduate students who would love to get paid this much. These kind of "entitlement" programs need to end. I don't have a problem helping someone get their GED ( I tutored for free, GED students at the Md women's prison), I have a problem with people who are too lazy to take advantage of the opportunities afforded them and are not willing to start at the bottom and work their way up.

Bottom line, I am uncomfortable with assumptions you make, you do not show how I undercut my neighbors and I think you need to reevaluate your approach to the problem. I am not saying attrition is not the answer, I am saying that the approach doesn't seem to be backed by facts.

[Mike Hethmon]

Karen,
Let me respond to some of the facts in your post, then mention some of the key solutions as you requested.

Unless you contracted with a bona fide independent contractor, you are required to pay the employer's share and to withhold the employee's share of taxes due, even for day labor.

A person who has a "tax ID" (ITIN)is by law ineligible for a social security number. All authorized alien workers have social security numbers. It is against IRS rules to use an ITIN for anything except filing taxes. When you saw the worker's tax ID, by law you received notice that it was unlawful to employ him, as an employee or as a contractor.

By using an illegal alien worker, not deducting taxes or social security, not completing an I-9 form, and accepting an ITIN, you violated at least half a dozen immigration and employment laws.

Even open borders advocates and analysts agree that this kind of disregard for the rules has harmed wages and working conditions of US workers, especially the lowest paid ones.

Compensation rates for both unskilled and many semi-skilled occupations have declined significantly in real terms over the last 25 years.

You are confusing minimum wage with a free market wage. A head of household making $15/hr is still living in poverty in Maryland, and his or her family is dependent on taxpayer-subsidized social services. The fact that you did hire illegals shows you are willing to undercut the true market labor rate. Again, I ask why should your neighbors subsidize the cost of your fence? In civic and economic terms, being a scofflaw is the most damaging kind of laziness.

Illegal alien labor doesn't support our economy, it just makes it less efficient and ultimately less competitive. Looking at our own history, it was the Confederacy that opted for an economy based on exploited labor and inefficient farming rather than one based on healthy competition through innovation. We can never succeed in the global economy by competing on the basis of lower cost labor- that is a race to the bottom in which the middle class will be the losers.

No advanced industrial democracy DEPENDS on cheap imported labor, only dictatorships like Saudi Arabia.

In 2007 27% of federal prisoners were illegal aliens imprisoned for felonies. That does not include the far greater illegal alien population detained for immigration violations or misdemeanors. The highest estimates of the US illegal alien population are around 7%.

Solutions--The best way to handle the illegal aliens already here and their children is NOT amnesty and is NOT the toleration of a permanent underclass. Both have been tried, utterly failed and made the crisis far worse than it was back in 1986.

The children of illegal aliens who have grown up in this country can return home with their parents. Working as an expatriate, Lori and I met many families from this and many other nations who were forced to "go home" after many years abroad. In the global economy, this has always been the normal practice.

Even when attempted on a limited local or state level, attrition through enforcement works quickly and inexpensively to thin out the existing illegal population and deter new arrivals. This has been reported in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Arizona, all states where I have helped to draft the laws that are provoking these mass departures. Their economies are are still performing well.

Tightening border security will help. Reforming our dysfunctional legal immigration system to give preferences to persons most likely to flourish and assimilate rapidly will certainly help.

But ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT is the essential first step for reform in the national interest.

[Karen Long]

For the record, to my knowledge the person I hired was not illegally here and it was not to build a fence... it was planting plants and other odd jobs. I did not ask to see documenation and he probably had a SS# as he had a regular job and had insurance so I do not know what taxpayer services you think he got. I did not ask to see documentation for him or the "white" people I hired. He told me he paid taxes and I assume he had a taxpayer ID meaning...SS#...my fault for not being clearer. Stop making assumptions!!! I find it strange you did not question the legality of the women I hired of European hertiage. You only addressed this one person which I have not seen in over a year. You did not address the others I hired, including a hard working white family (youngboy, father and aunt) I hired several years ago to mow my grass and do some cleaning.. (Actually the mother of this family was a scofflow to the system and was very lazy) As far I am concerned these people were independent contractors. What you are suggesting is that anyone who hires someone to babysit, housesit, mow grass or to help out once in awhile must do a ton a paperwork. This stiffles the economy.

Again, I do not have a fence. I have also hired my neighbors as independent contractors to feed my pets when I am away and to help out once in awhile. As far a I know you can contract with someone on an intimitment basis. As far as being a bona fide contractor...what does that mean? For $25 you can get a class c construction license where you can do simple jobs. The guy from Mexico had a license. If you are an independent farm worker in PG county you are not required to have any license.

I have not broken any laws and I not a scofflaw.

You do make a point on the exploitation. I met a farmer and asked if he had any labor I could hire for the day. He said he had some guys from Mexico and he would hire them out at $100 a day. I asked if they were legal and how much they were paid. He said they were legal and that he provided them room and board but would not tell me how much he paid them. This was a local church going person. This made me feel very uneasy as I got the feeling he did not pay them very much. I never got back with him.

$10-$15 per hr is reseasonable wages for entry level individuals. Yes, you can't support a family easily on this. You then go to school get trained, get skills to get a higher paying job...before starting a family!

I do know people who live in this area who have given up alot of costly material items and can live on remarkedly low income. They are very well educated, but have chosen a simpler life...so income is not the complete solution.

I have actually met more US citizens who scam the system for taxpayer sevices than foreigners.

As for the exploitation under the Confederacy...you forget the exploitation of children and women in the Northern factories, the exploitation of Applacian people's land and the miners, the Native Americans...it goes on...don't blame the South!

If you want to solve this problem you need to address your biases and stop making assumptions. I agree we have to get a handle on illegal immigration and not further encourage it. However, even if you solve the illegal immigration problem today you will still have the problem of people who do not want to work to get ahead.

I appreciate you putting numbers addressing the illegal aliens in the penal system. In the future, can you provide primary references for these? I wish all politicians would do this as it is very easy to get statistics to say you anything want.

I am very glad you are running for congress. I do support your view on pork. As a scientist, earmarking reseach projects that are not vetted by the scientific community greatly harms and stifles research. I am glad you are going after this.

Though we disagree on various issues, I am looking for leaders who don't neccessarily agree with me but who have integrity, who don't play loose with facts, look at the entire picture, are willing to make unpopular decisions, and are non partisan. I don't want sound bites, I want people who are smart enough to tackle complex problems, make tough decisions, and live with consequences.

[Mike Hethmon]

Karen-- Thanks for the great posts. Debate is the mother's milk of good government.

I never meant to suggest you personally are a scofflaw, and your additional facts show this to be the case.

I support requiring national use of the efficient federal online work authorization system "E-Verify for all noncitizens." (The online SSN verification system has the same function for US citizen workers. Using E-Verify curtails unauthorized alien employment with a minimum of bureaucracy. It takes about the same effort needed for a merchant to charge a credit card and verify approval, and with recent improvements has a reliability factor of nearly 97%. With a universal system, your legitimate concerns about profiling based on appearance go away.

Every state law I've written that incorporated E-Verify also gives the employer a "safe harbor" against liability for mistakes or identity fraud. On January 1st, Arizona became the first state to require statewide E-Verify use coupled with the employer safe harbor.

I'm glad you agree that earmarks and pork spending are a big problem. Reform in this area is needed before we can realistically expect to control our deficit spending.

Don't get me wrong, in general I support generous funding for federal civilian and military research, but funds must be awarded through a competitive grant process, not patronage from members of Congress. At a minimum, grant programs need to have a hearing before Congressional authorization committees, and be subject to an open vote.

The grant award and procurement process needs to be as open to public inspection as possible, with only narrow exceptions for national security reasons. What do you think of my 10-point pledge? These are reform rules that would cost nothing to implement, and would significantly deter waste in federal spending.

The federal government is facing a serious shortage of fully qualified procurement professionals, due to retirement and other reasons. Many of the contractor scandals in Iraq were exacerbated by lack of vigorous procurement oversight. I will work to ensure that contracting officers-- essentially taxpayer watchdog civil servants-- receive needed training and support.

[Karen Long]

I am a member of the DoD acquisition workforce and I have been working as part of the government's Tech Team for over 10 years. I cannot speak for the government but only for myself. The expenditure of any funds for any reason, including security, that are not vetted in the most open and peer reviewed manner possible should be outlawed. On the DD 1000 program every penny is reviewed, and to my knowledge all awards were done on competitive merit.

There is no reason for pork. If a company is awarded a project solely at the direction of congress, how is the contract monitored? What if the government COTR has problems with performance? BTW we do get training. I am not a contracting officer so I cannot in the slightest way provide direction to contractors or obligate the government in any way, even verbably. It is very strict and for good reason.

It is disheartening to see members of congress flout the FARs (federal aquisition requlations). They may be burdensome, but they were put there to avoid the situation we now have in Iraq.

I support your 10 point plege.

[David]

Karen, I read the posts you made and found myself wondering why you seem to expect Mr. Hethmon should provide you with references and links to his information sources regarding prisons while you made a few blanket statements without such information or qualifications, such as "I have actually met more US citizens who scam the system for taxpayer sevices than foreigners". Please share your qualifications that would make your views on this mattter any more insightful than any other layman.

You repeatedly insisted that Mr. Hethmon quit making assumptions where you made several. You said yourself that you assumed the Mexican laboror you hired had a Federal Tax ID number. If you plan on claiming that you're hiring people legally then please follow the laws that the rest of us are expected to follow. It would seem prudent since you claim that people are lazy.

I was also not surprised that you would choose to accuse Mr. Hethmon of racism in your indirect way. This is a typical argument in my opinion. The fact is that you brought up the race of the parties you had hired and that Mr. Hethmon was simply replying to your comments.

It's commmon knowledge that most of our current illegal immigration problems are from peoples coming from Mexico and countries in South America. If you don't agree with that statement you must have been living on the moon for the last several years, in which case I offer my apologies. Welcome home, and by the way the polar ice caps are melting.

Seriously, there are obviously illegals of all stripes who should be dealt with equally. I think you should get your argument straight before you bring it to the masses.

[Mike Hethmon]

David, thanks for the backup re my motives in opposing illegal immigration, but don't be too hard on Karen. After all, I'm the candidate, and should be fielding the hardball Qs, which the voters have every right to ask.

To me, where immigrants come from is not nearly as significant as the huge numbers of new entrants. Mexico is of concern because we share a land border AND (unlike Canada)it has a deliberate policy of unlawfully exporting large numbers of its poor to the US, while leaving the Mexican oligarchs to rampage through what should really be a prosperous neighboring nation.

[Karen]

David,
I concur with what you said... what I said was anecdotal and based only on my experiences. I thought I made that clear...It is all I have at the moment.

However, people running for leadership need to base their policies on solid vetted facts. Yes, I do hold leaders to a higher standard. I have seen numbers both support and refute Mike's claims.

On race, I was responding to the original letter writer. I felt it was a poor letter. It was part of a larger number of Post articles, and the letter writter ignored the social issues brought up in the articles. There is no scientific basis for race. We are one of the least diverse lifeforms on the planet. Pretty sobering.