By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
She is a Denver-area businesswoman, who has always obeyed the law regarding immigrant workers. She still does it by the book. That’s why she laid off 20 long-time employees at the first of the year when their Social Security numbers didn’t match federal records.
Now, those ex-workers have been hired by competitors, and she’s gone through more than 150 workers trying to replace them.
This lady, who asked that her name not be printed, measures the lack of comprehensive immigration reform in a revolving door of untrained, under-motivated, unreliable people who can’t do the job she needs them to do.
But hey, they’re American citizens.
“I think what irritates me the most is that every person I had to lay off was an asset to this country,” said the woman, who had dutifully checked two forms of identification on each of the workers she let go. “They were all family orientated. There were a few DUI’s in the group, but nothing more serious. They came here to make a better life for their families.”
Instead, she said, she saw “220 years of experience walk out the door” with the 20 fired workers. They have all gone from having health insurance and workman’s compensation to having no benefits, she said. They have all gone from paying taxes on their incomes and non-matching Social Security numbers to collecting cash under the table.
The businesswoman can’t figure out who came out ahead. Certainly not the workers. Certainly not her. Certainly not the American taxpayer.
“I have seen more felons come through my door since immigration reform,” she said.
Those felons weren’t illegal immigrants as some would have you believe. American ex-cons represent the labor pool she has had to dip into to find replacements for her undocumented workers.
Many of those ex-cons didn’t last.
“They didn’t care about the job or getting ahead,” she said. “I’ve had policemen come in here looking for people for parole violations because this was their last known work address.”
A human resources director at another local company hadn’t had that kind of turnover. But following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audit that found five “unauthorized aliens” on her payroll, she, too, has been reduced to scouring half-way houses. “That,” she said, “is where you can find people to work for the wages.”
Like the first woman, the human resources director didn’t want her name publicized. She tried to play by the rules.
“We used a company to do background checks that included a Social Security check on everyone we hired,” the human resources director said. “We now do ‘E Verify.’”
That electronic ID program operates through the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. In the past two months, the human resources director has hired a dozen workers without a single disqualification.
The woman who had to fire 20 long-time workers has gone to the government’s Basic Pilot program to match new employees’ Social Security numbers with names. Of the 150-plus that she’s screened, 24 didn’t match.
The trouble for both women is that better identification has resulted in worse business. “The people I terminated were some of the best employees we ever had,” said the human resources director.
Even good replacements cost time and money to train. That’s why the human resources director hopes Congress will pass an immigration bill that includes a way for the folks she fired to become legal.
Her counterpart, who is going through employees by the dozens, could not agree more.
She feels the folks she had to fire “are good contributors to this society” who “are not taking jobs from Americans.”
“They need to do something for them,” the woman said.
The proverbial “they” – the powers-that-be - obviously need to do something.
Businesses shouldn’t get hurt playing by the rules. That is what’s happening. Sure, enforcement weeds out undocumented workers. But employers suffer productivity and staffing problems. Meanwhile, the illegal immigrants don’t go home.
“All ICE wanted was for us to fire people,” said the human resources director. “But ICE didn’t do anything to them.”
Rather, they just sank deeper into an underground economy, contributing less in taxes than they did before.
Until Congress passes realistic immigration reform, the cycle of counter-productivity will continue.
“It’s a broken process,” said the human resources director. “Definitely.”
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
11 users commented in " Without Immigration Reform, ID Rules Hurt Business "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe work, regardless of the industry, carries a wage and benefit value/cost. Surely, Rep. Tancredo and some of his vigilantes would be happy to step in and take these jobs — or provide the names of qualified, willing U.S. citizens if they are otherwise too occupied to help the lady.
Better identification has resulted in less business? and we are meant to care about this? She should pay her employees more and then she will get a better employee. What is the purpose of the column? To undermine the wage of the American worker? For a long time people with a “progressive” bend have been complaining that it is the fault of business that makes it so attractive for illegal immigration to thrive in our country, FOR PURELY PROFIT MOTIVATIONS. Now that there is a crack down on busines, all I hear is whining from people with your persuasion. Once the herd is thinned, all businesses will be on a competive playing field with respect to price. Until then there will be some pain and to be sure some businesses will pay the price by playing by the rules. Others will cheat and lose when they get caught. Will this increase price on the consumer? Yes. Will this raise wages for American workers? Yes. What do you care about? A decent wage for American workers or perpetuating a system that allows employers to pay slave labor for decreased prices on goods and services? Honestly Jim, it sounds like the latter. Which appears to go against all that you stand for.
LHKMAN,
It is not the duty of Tancredo or anybody else to provide this woman with LEGAL able bodied employees. She is either paying too low a wage or does not have the capacity to hire, train and keep the lower echelons (so called by her and Jim) of society that she appears to run into now that we are merely enforcing the laws that have been on our books for decades. Any other industrialized country in the world has immigration laws with respect to employment, much more stringent than ours in most cases. Why shouldn’t we? If she is unable to earn a profit within the constraints of the minimum wage laws (AND ABOVE) then perhaps she should look for a new line of work. Somebody else will move in to fill the void, I am certain about that.
….and the once we go through the pains of enforcing labor laws with respect to immigration, we can approve more work visas for PEOPLE trying to better themselves by coming to America to fill the void left by the enforcement. What good does hiding our head in the sand do?
Also, whose “non matching” social security
numbers are they using. And on the flip
side how many personal exemptions have
they claimed. When you claim 7 or 8
personal exemptions you don’t pay with
holding only FICA, not a bad deal. And
for those whose Socials are illegally used
they get a nice letter from the IRS asking
them to PROVE it wasn’t them who earned
the income. Nice. The fraud needs to
stop.
If you fill in the blanks and read between the lines of the second H.R. administrator interview by Jim we could surmise that she actually said.. “…we scour half way houses because…that is where you can find people to work for the (insert: sh.tty and ridiculously low) wage (insert: that we pay)”. Poor, poor H.R director. Happy, happy business owner.
I hate to be over kill on this subject. But perhaps the reason that the illegal immigrants that these businesses are hiring are so loyal may be that they become indentured servants/slaves of a sort. They may be afraid to complain about or leave a poor work environment with low wages for fear that the company down the street may be tougher on following the laws of our country with respect to documentation. They may fear filing legitimate complaints against businesses that don’t follow OSHA regulations for fear of reprisal against their status in this country. There is no doubt that something needs to be done with the people that are here currently. But we need to discourage others from coming who are not following the proper channels of entering our country for the purposes of work. Ultimately, we are talking about human beings with families here, so I believe that we need to start from scratch by granting those that are here amnesty and then get tough on the documentation side of things. Complaining businesses that have profited from cheating the system and are now suffering should not be the reason that we change our immigration policy.
The businesswoman said “there were a few Dui’s in the group, but nothing more serious”.
A DUI ISN’T SERIOUS? My granddaugher was broadsided by a drunk driver in her college state 3 years ago, the car was totaled and she was taken to the hospital with internal injuries, in excruiciating pain. She still has an ulceration in her stomach from this accident, and from time to time it flares up and is very, very painful and she coughs up blood. It looks like this injury will be with her for life. She was 19 at the time of the accident. Of course the drunk didn’t have insurance.
If “a few” of the businesswoman’s employees had DUI’s could we assume a few is 3 or more?
That would be one-sixth of the 20. And if there are at least 2 who don’t get caught for DUI for every one that does, could that mean almost half of the 20 have been driving drunk?
And how did the ones who were caught get out of jail, did they have a phony driver’s license? And I’ll bet they didn’t have insurance either? Where was ICE then?
We’ve come to the point in our culture
where political correctness determines
which crimes are actually pursued and
punished and which aren’t. Those crimes
which carry the correct social/p.c.
stigma are ardently enforced drinking
and driving is right up there with
murder (though the statute has become
a cash cow for local municipalities as
the vast majority of citations go to
drivers who are withing the former
reasonable bac limits) and those
which break other laws deemed racist or
unkind are ignored. The result is chaos.
The system likes to target complient
citizens who actually pay fines and
show up for court while it lets uninsured
illegals who aren’t in the system drive
drunk. It makes a mockery of our system
of laws. The most popular being those
easiest to enforce, most lucritive and
with the lowest overhead to administer.
Recently a business owner friend of mine
had a floor safe stolen from his business
The crook used the business’s hand cart
to wheel the safe through the snow to
an apartment located behind the business.
When the police arrived he informed them
that the perpetrator left tracks right
to his apartment. The police weren’t
interested. They said “We don’t do that”
we have five other cases to “investigate”
this morning. “Here’s a police report
for your insurance have a nice day”
Are they really that busy and how does
this attitude affect the criminal mind
knowing NOTHING will be done.
We need to enforce ALL laws. Not just
the one’s we agree with.
Illegal immigration and providing low-wage and/or seasonal workers for business are… uh, SHOULD BE … separate issues.
Durf786,
Agreed. The low wage and/or seasonal workers should obtain “work visas” and go through the proper channels of immigration.
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