Progress Pond

Americans Violate the Law and Call "Them" Illegal? ©

Betsy L Angert


Recently, an article appeared in my world.  The title, “Center seeks justice for Katrina’s migrant workers.”  This informative essay was published in a periodical I regularly receive, The Southern Poverty Law Center news.  This piece stimulated much thought.  Citizens of this country want to eliminate illegal immigration.  They are boisterous and belligerent when discussing this topic.  The blame-game is rampant; “it is anyone but me that is responsible for this problem.”  However, this paper reveals it is not.

We talk of “illegal aliens”; however, I wonder.  Might we instead discuss “illegal Americans?”
In October 2005, after the Katrina storm, thousands of immigrant workers were hired.  They were asked to help with the emergency clean up.  For the most part, they were immigrants. These people, new to this country, sweated while they worked.  They removed debris; they worked long hours, and they were told that they would be rewarded/paid.  

The job was a challenge, the conditions unclean and often unhealthy.  Nevertheless, these migrants who were willing to actually do these tasks worked hard.  They were helping to heal the New Orleans region. Two formidable American companies had hired them, Belfor USA Group Incorporated and LVI Environmental Services of New Orleans, Incorporated.  Yet, they did not pay these immigrants fully for all of the work they had done.

Immigrant Justice Project (IJP) discovered this and on February 2, 2006, filed two class action lawsuits. However, J.J. Rosenbaum, Attorney, working with the Southern Poverty Law Canter’s Immigrant Justice Project cautioned, “Lawsuits alone won’t stop the widespread exploitation of workers that’s going on in New Orleans.” People must.

It seemed people were. The Department of Labor, on December 1, 2005, declared in a press release “five Spanish-speaking investigators had been dispatched to the Gulf region.”  They were dispatched to interview the workers and establish that they were being treated fairly.  By law, this agency is required to “protect workers involved in the reconstruction process;” however, they did not.

IJP lawyers interviewed many a migrant, and all repeated the same mantra; no one had spoken to them of their working conditions.  No surprise.  This saga is only one of many.

While there are numerous groups flocking to the states in mass, America is focusing on Mexican migration.  The native born are most disturbed by those that arrive from just south of the border.  The attention is wanted and not.  It is desirable when one is known as a “hard worker.” Employers want an industrious soul.  However, if you are acknowledged only for your work and not as a person, even that compliment feels as a slight.  When laborers go without pay, after toiling all day, they realize that the flattering remark is not. When supposed kindness is ultimately cruel, it is not welcome.

Nevertheless, this is the experience of many Mexicans.  They are all too familiar with what is, though they rarely discuss it.  The same is true for other settlers. Rumanians, Russians, Poles, Czechs, and Irish arriving here without papers, also have tales to tell. Sikhs, Phillipinos, Koreans, and Indians come to this country as well. America, while thought to be the land of opportunity, is all too often, the nation of abuse.  Exploitation is abundant. In virtually every region of this country, new immigrants, want to work.  However, they are mistreated; few escape harm.

In this exposé, I will work to provide perspective.  I will offer only a few snippets of information; the exposure I present will be minimal.  I write to invite exploration.  My wish is to advance awareness.  I am asking readers to be conscientious.  I appeal to your sense of humanity.  Please look more closely, what happens in our neighborhoods, yours, mine, and ours?  I encourage individuals to speak with strangers, to discover what is, and to ponder.  Only then do I advocate you act.

In February 2006 another spoke. Gary Younge, writing for the Guardian, offered, “Where someone’s pocket change can feed another’s family for a week.”  Mr. Younge states, “Migrant workers do the jobs that Americans will not do, but they are vulnerable to bigots and big business.”  

Writer Younge, so eloquently described what is not an elegant experience.  This author described in detail the daily ritual of many migrant workers.  Throughout the nation, early each morning, thousands of men and woman gather, and wait.  They hope to be chosen.  In New York, they stand in the cold.  In California, Louisiana, Florida, and other large metropolises, they congregate on city corners.

Day laborers with numerous skills, and some still learning, wait for work.  This practice  poses a threat to these immigrants.  While their work is vital to the American economy, being out in the open leaves them vulnerable.  For those who have entered the country illegally, there are greater burdens.   The xenophobic have easy access to these individuals.  The opportunists do as well.  Since these new settlers feel that they have no rights, they often do not speak of the unspeakable.  Thus, the wrath of those that do not wish these migrants well is always just around the bend.

Life in America is a challenge for these newcomers.  Through quotes, the journalist Gary Younge shares the their experience.

“On a bad week you can get nothing,” explains Victor Singh, who left his village near Amritsar, in India, five years ago and has not had a full-time job since. “Winter time is always slow. In the summer you can sometimes work four days a week.”

Standing outside her tarpaulin home in a makeshift town of tents in New Orleans’s City Park, Mercedes Sanchez cries as she recalls leaving her four daughters in Mexico. “You can have a lot of love for your children but it cannot fill their stomachs,” she says. “In Mexico, I made 200 pesos (£11) a week. I can make that in two hours here;” But only on those days when she can find work, which have been few recently.

Simon, who was not paid for several weeks’ work, is now reconsidering his decision to leave his three children behind in Mexico. “You make more money but you pay more for rent and everything else,” he says. “Sometimes I think it’s not worth the sacrifice of leaving your family. It’s not what you think it’s going to be.”

Gary Younge addresses more; he reflects upon the results of a recent report from the University of California.  According to this source, every morning, 117,600 laborers find employment while congregating on the street corners of America.  They huddle in mass and hope that a business owner or individual will drive by, see them, and connect.  They long to be hired.

Homeowners employ forty-nine percent of these men and women. That is to say, nearly half of those that support the current system are not businesspersons; they are individuals.  Law-abiding American citizens are seeking cheap labor to do what they themselves consider menials tasks.  “Illegals” are employed to do domestic work or gardening.

Day laborers regularly, and religiously search for full-time employment opportunities.  However, the “vast majority, 83 percent, relies on day-labor work as their sole source of income. Seventy percent search for work five or more days a week.”  They are a hardy bunch and can we truly deny this.  These émigrés risked life and limb just to come to America.  Many that do find jobs find more than one.  Why?

Daily workers are paid poorly. The median hourly wage is $10, and as we have learned, what is promised, is all to frequently, not given. These positions are not certain, stable, or secure.  Therefore, income is inconsistent.  In July and August 2004, the average monthly take-home pay was $700.

When we consider the higher costs for rent and food in neighborhoods where day laborers can be accommodated, we know that this amount is paltrier than it may seem initially.

Contractors hire just over 40% to do construction work or landscaping. Nationwide, almost two-thirds are Hispanic and approximately twenty-five percent are from Central America.

The University of California, Los Angeles report goes on to address employer abuse.

* Day laborers regularly suffer employer abuse. Almost half of all day laborers experienced at least one instance of wage theft in the two months prior to being surveyed. In addition, 44 percent were denied food/water or breaks while on the job.

  • Workplace injuries are common. One-in-five day laborers has suffered a work-related injury. More than half of those who were injured in the past year did not receive medical care. More than two-thirds of injured day laborers have lost time from work.
  • Merchants and police often unfairly target day laborers while they seek work. Almost one-fifth (19 percent) of all day laborers have been subjected to insults by merchants, and 15 percent have been refused services by local businesses. Day laborers also report being insulted (16 percent), arrested (9 percent) and cited (11 percent) by police while they search for employment.

Those that come to the States frequently find themselves in lines, looking for work. Life is not as they expected.  Émigrés do not find the streets of America paved in gold, nor do they experience opportunity is plentiful.  Immigrants quickly discover they are at risk.

The offenders are not only those the liberals love to slam, corporate employers.  They are all of US, the native-born and naturalized citizens.  Individuals living in the good old USA are frequently those that abuse.  The government is not squeaky clean; they are expected to serve and protect; yet, they too are willing to exploit this labor force.

In the news and on blogs we are flooded with stories that blame businesses for illegal immigration; corporations do not copiously scrutinize employee records.  Most, place the onus on the migrants.  If only they did not come to this country, life would be good.  People forget that their own parents, grand, or great traveled from afar.  The one group that “we” never find fault with is, us, we, the people of the United States.  We engage in actions that have created an imperfect union.

Yes, it is true bigger businesses are on the battering bandwagon.  They too, do as was done by government officials, large federally funded companies, and individual homeowners.  .  [Reminder almost fifty percent of those living in the States illegally are hired by homeowners!] Please review this New York Times article, Wal-Mart to Pay U.S. $11 Million In Lawsuit on Immigrant Workers, By Steven Greenhouse, March 19, 2005.

Wal-mart was required to pay $11 million fine after a federal Grand Jury investigation found them guilty of hiring those witout papers.  Of course, they did nothing wrong.  Yes, it is true, this mega-monopoly was illegally employing more than 100 undocumented employees to clean more than 700 of its national stores.  However, corporate executives knew nothing of the practice.  The bigwigs blame sub-contractors, just as the average citizen and small business owners place the onus on conglomerates.  Actually, each of these considers the immigrants themselves culpable.

Thus, I ask again, who is “illegal”, “aliens” or Americans.

Betsy L. Angert Be-Think

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