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| Promoting awareness of problems and solutions in U.S. immigration policies |
 AMNESTY TRUTH SHEET
The Truth About Amnesty
U.S. Senate
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
The Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration
GAO Testimony
Prospects For Biometric US-VISIT Exit Capability Remain Unclear
CBO Testimony
Budgetary Impact of Current and
Proposed Border Security and Immigration Policies |
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Carpenters' Union Sues Builder for Hiring Illegal Aliens Many Homeowners Are Paying for Substandard Work  March 21, 2008 -- An article that appears in the New Jersey newspaper, Star Ledger, addresses a major issue where illegal immigration is concerned, the hiring practice of unscrupulous employers who hire illegal aliens who are willing to do the work Americans should be doing but are unable to do because the illegal aliens workforce is willing to accept substandard wages, no benefits, and often conditions that are so dangerous as to be illegal. A couple of days ago I wrote a commentary about complaints made by the AFL-CIO about the hiring of aliens from Germany to thwart the efforts of union members who organized a strike against the Redco company of Little Falls, New York that was demanding "give-backs" from the union employees at that company's factory. This time it is the Carpenter's Union that is suing the D. R. Horton Construction Company for hiring illegal aliens and laying off union workers. The allegations are all too familiar, the illegal aliens are working for substandard wages and for no benefits. My heart goes out to the laid-off employees. I support the tactic of their union in suing the Horton Company of Fort Worth, Texas. This is a strategy that I hope will be used throughout the United States to combat unscrupulous employers. As you may know, by now, my dad was a construction worker. He was a plumber. He passed away many years ago in his mid 50's having contracted lung cancer. He was a three pack-a-day smoker who often lit his next Chesterfield Cigarette by holding against the cigarette that was nearly done. This certainly contributed to his disease. However, during the Second World War he was deemed to be "4-F" he had flat feet and a double hernia and was rejected by the military although he made a number of attempts to enlist. Driven by his profound patriotism for America, he decided that his best opportunity to support our nation's war efforts would come by working in the naval shipyards and repair the various warships that had suffered damage in the war, using his skills as a plumber. He worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and traveled to other such shipyards around the country during the Second World War. Those ships were laden with asbestos and I believe that his exposure to asbestos, coupled with his cigarette smoking caused his fatal illness. My dad passed away while I was a college student but I recall many evenings seeing him come home, looking upset because he had been laid off from work and saw the look of concern etched in both his and my mother's eyes. As a construction worker, he was only paid for the hours he worked and being laid off meant that he would receive no paycheck. Those memories are burned in my heart and I understand something that those elitist politicians could never understand, the way that Blue Collar Americans, the backbone of this nation, are getting clobbered by the hiring practices of unscrupulous employers who know that they have virtually nothing to fear where the hiring of illegal aliens is concerned. When President Bush declares that "Illegal aliens do the work Americans aren't doing" he conveniently leaves out the other half of that statement, that they cannot afford to take those jobs any longer because the wages have been slashed. How many workers today are coming home with that same look of despair etched in their faces because they have lost their jobs to illegal aliens? How many homeowners are paying hefty fees for jobs that are substandard at best? Day laborers do not have the skill or experience of tradesmen. It is not even a contest where quality of work is concerned. The greedy employers get to pocket lots of extra money, their customers get substandard work and the American workers are losing their jobs and their ability to provide for their families. I have quoted Homer Hickam a number of times, but as I read the article I have attached below, I thought it would be worth recalling his eloquent words he spoke at the eulogy for the miners of the Sago Mine disaster just over two years ago in West Virginia. He said, "There is no sweat holier than the sweat off a man's brow!" His autobiography of his life of a coal miner's son in West Virginia in the 1950's became a movie, "October Sky." It is a movie all children should see at least once. He wasn't much of an athlete and had no desire to follow his dad's career in the coal mines. Back then, the only way out of the small mining town in which he grew up was to get a football scholarship. While in high school, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik. This sparked a flame in his heart that caused him to build model rockets. Ultimately he wins a scholarship by winning a science fair and goes on to become an engineer for NASA and work on the Space Shuttle. Today there are still Americans who trudge off to work in coal mines and steel foundries. There are Americans who drive garbage trucks and like my dad, work on constructions sites. These Americans do back-breaking, dirty and dangerous jobs each and every day. Americans will still do any job provided that they can support themselves and their families when they get their paychecks. Americans are not lazy or soft. The politicians who exhibit such contempt for those hard working Americans should hang their heads in shame. They should also be made to pay for their contempt of hard working Americans with their own jobs! Any politician who refuses to support the American worker should be in need of a new jobs themselves. There is another issue, however that also needs to be addressed, the way that unions have made some really terrible decisions where illegal immigration is concerned. When labor unions allow illegal aliens to join the unions and then lobby the legislatures on behalf of those illegal aliens, they encourage more illegal immigration and undercut their long-time members. The labor unions must get back to basics and adopt a policy that prohibits illegal aliens from joining the unions and then getting representation. The leaders of too many unions only care about how many members they have and how much union dues they receive. This short-sighted perspective is not in the best interest of those hard working people who have the lawful right to work in the United States. As I said in my previous commentary, those union leaders cannot have it both ways. The members of the various unions around the United States must stand united in the demand that only those individuals who are entitled to work in the United States should be permitted to join labor unions. Each and every union must then respect the picket lines of all other unions. We the People must also make our demands known to our elected representatives in Congress, in the United States Senate and in government on all levels. When politicians claim they are opposed to NAFTA and other such treaties and trade agreements claim they want to bring jobs back to the United States from overseas, We the People should demand to know who they want to have do those jobs! Simply bringing jobs back to the United States to have illegal aliens take those jobs is worthless. The "Economic Stimulus" checks will be going out soon. I am underwhelmed! The trick is not to simply give Americans and resident aliens a one-time check for about a thousand dollars, but to create an environment that rewards hard work and creates new good-paying jobs. The fact is that the massive number of illegal aliens who are currently present in our country, with more arriving daily, hammers so many aspects of our nation. It hammers national security and criminal justice. It hammers the economy and the environment. It hammers education and health care. No politician who claims to be concerned about those critical issues and others like them, can be serious about effectively solving these challenges to our survival and well being without addressing the immigration component of those issues. The illegal aliens who work in our country in violation of law not only displace American workers, but send money out of the country, enriching the economies of their native countries while doing serious harm to our country's economy. Last year an estimated 45 billion dollars was wired from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean. Many billions more were wired to other countries around the world. Additionally, money was smuggled out of the United States by illegal aliens. Hospitals were forced to close because illegal aliens were using the emergency rooms as their primary health care provider. These hospitals are no longer available to care for patients in their communities. Patients who suffer heart attacks and strokes, become injured in accidents or become the victims of violent crime are having to be driven greater distances and often find themselves in overcrowded waiting rooms once they finally get to the hospital. A recent news article stated that often heart attack victims are waiting nearly an hour after they arrive at the hospital because their is a lack of doctors and nurses. There are now more gang members in the United States than sworn police officers and many of these gang members are illegal aliens. The presence of 20 million illegal and undocumented aliens represents a huge threat to national security. The true identities of these aliens is unknown and unknowable. Our government is uncertain as to their nationalities, their criminal histories or their affiliations with criminal terrorist or criminal organizations. This at a time of war against terrorists who have repeatedly demonstrated contempt for human lives- our human lives. Additionally, the neighborhoods in which illegal aliens live create huge "haystacks" in which the criminals and terrorists hide. The various businesses that spring up in support of that illegal aliens population is helpful for the dishwasher or day laborer who wants to send money home, make a phone call to his family in his home country or do other such routine chores. For a criminal or a terrorist, those facilities are absolutely essential. The organizations who purport to be "Pro-Immigrant" are, in reality, just the opposite! It is an established fact that the reason that illegal aliens can be exploited is because they are vulnerable. They are terribly mistreated and those who mistreat and exploit them know that they can get away with it because of the vulnerability of the illegal aliens. Yet you will never see any "Pro-Immigrant" organization protesting the dehumanizing conditions under which illegal aliens live and work! You will never see these "Pro-Immigrant" organizations speak out against the crimes committed criminal aliens against true immigrants. The outrage is that often decent people legally immigrate to the United States, having done whatever the law requires, and then they find to their horror that the same criminals they feared back home have joined them in their communities here in the United States. This applies to virtually every immigrant community irrespective of ethnicity or nationality. Where are the "Pro-Immigrant" organizations when this happens? The difference between and illegal alien and an immigrant is the equivalent of the difference between a burglar and a house guest. If a sensible person found a burglar in his home, I don't think his first thought would be to prepare him a meal and offer him (her) a job. The issue of illegal immigration is not a Conservative issue nor is it a Liberal Issue: Illegal immigration is an American issue that should be of great concern to all Americans irrespective of political party affiliation! We the People must demand our unions truly represent the best interests of hard working Americans and lawful immigrants and that our government does the same. Democracy is not a spectator sport! Lead, follow or get out of the way!
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