Illegal Immigrants Paying the Price for Wall Street

With the new immigration law signed into law in Arizona debate has raged on both sides. As a construction manager who has worked Arizona and Texas as well as other places I have gained a perspective on the issue. As is the case with many political issues the focus has been put on a result rather than the cause. The illegal immigrants were not a problem to many Arizonans a few years back when they were having houses they couldn't afford built.

With the housing crisis the developers were cast as victims of the mortgage meltdown. Focus in the mortgage meltdown and immigration has not been directed at the corporations that created these problems. Illegals wouldn't have come to America if there were not jobs waiting. Though they have made it into many forms of industry, construction and development was and still is the perfect scenario for employment of illegals.

To use the tired argument from big business that they didn't know what was going on just doesn't fly. For the upper management to say they didn't know what they were doing is completely irresponsible. Anybody that has stepped onto a housing tract or apartment complex being built in the last ten years was well aware of illegal labor.

The argument was that the illegals wanted jobs that Americans didn't want. This argument had a slant to it in that pay dropped to the level of illegals which turned legal Americans away from the trades. Housing was booming which should have built a prosperous American workforce. Instead it moved them out of the industry or into management.

The ones like me that moved into management felt like things were getting better as a clipboard and a pencil replaced manual labor. Bonuses for the success of illegal labor paid managers and company officers well. Management insulated themselves through the common practice of layering contractors leaving the developer not responsible for who was working on the job sites.

Those who framed the plan that left illegal labor as the only option used attorneys to build contracts that kept them out of the equation. The fast money that was realized did not have the legacy costs to the companies that legal employees would have had. Insurance costs were also reduced as illegals did not turn in injuries out of fear. The rights and benefits of legal workers would have cut into the profits of those who were setting the world on fire.

Over the years I grew to like the illegals that worked on my jobs. They worked hard because they were expendable which made projects move fast. The illegals were also less problematic than the Americans who wouldn't do anything they were told to. It is hard for me to find problem with those who were and are trying to make a better life and willing to risk themselves for it.

Immigration raids were few as they would stop the money train that was run by respectable corporations with suites in sports stadiums. For a year I was on a subdivision in Casa Grande, Arizona that was surrounded by subdivisions by all the major homebuilders represented on Wall Street. Despite a major border patrol station a few miles away we were never raided. In fact we had Border Patrol agents buying houses in these subdivisions. In one instance a Border Patrol agent came for a walk on his house in uniform. When the illegals started jumping fences he shouted in Spanish for them to come back and finish his house as he was not going to get them.

So now we have an economic crash and the illegals are a problem, and nobody seems to want the immigrants to take benefits that Americans are fighting over. This would not have happened if the developers would have played by the rules and budgeted to pay Americans decent wages and benefits. Instead they have taken the money and run like the bankers and left the U.S. government to pay the tab. And the residents of Arizona who happily bought houses they couldn't afford knowing illegal labor built them now have a problem that the party is over.