Immigration raids yield jobs for legal workers

[DainBramaged]

December 2006, they rounded up nearly 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants that made up about 10% of the labor force at the plants.
But the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents did not cripple the company or the plants. In fact, they were back up and running at full staff within months by replacing those removed with a significant number of native-born Americans, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

That was the most extreme example of what has become an increasingly common result of the raids: "They were very beneficial to American workers," according to Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain.

"Whenever there's an immigration raid, you find white, black and legal immigrant labor lining up to do those jobs that Americans will supposedly not do," said Swain, who teaches law and political science. Exactly who is filling the jobs has varied, depending on the populations surrounding the plants:

•Out West, one of the Swift plants raided by ICE, had a workforce that was about 90% Hispanic — both legal and illegal — before the raids. The lost workers were replaced mostly with white Americans and U.S.-born Hispanics, according to the CIS.

<snip>She said wages did not plummet in recent decades because of immigrants undercutting Americans, but because employers took advantage of the immigrant population fearful of seeking help from authorities.

"If you've got a segment of the workforce that's afraid to speak out against violations of their labor rights, then that drags down wages and working conditions for all workers," Singley said.<snip>

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-09-13-plants_N.htm

[BuyingThyme]

1. Duh.

[anonymous171]

2. Good to hear. nt

[haele]

3. So, it's either wages or plant conditions that drive hiring undocumented

workers -

Maintaining heavy equipment to run to maximum productivity does require a lot of money and quite a bit of down-time (which is also money). And union workers or citizens/documented workers do know that even in a "Right to Work" state, they still have an enforcible right to safe work conditions.

Haele

[DainBramaged]

4. What saddens me is how these corporations take advantage of the workers,

and the workers wind up jobless, and usually returned to their homeland, while the fucking companies, who KNOW they are undocumented, claim innocence and get away with the practice nationwide.

[TxRider]

5. Didn't Obama just end those raids?

I thought I heard a blip on the news about it.

[surrealAmerican]

6. They've changed tactics from arresting employees to ...

... auditing employers. The effect is the same, but without the risk of "sweeping up" and detaining citizens and legal residents who may not be able to prove their status easily.

[Beacho]

7. They need to jail the employers or their agents that hire illegals

Then there would be no need for these inhumane raids and detaining families in federal facilities.

P.S. by 'agents' I mean the H.R. departments or those in charge of hiring, much like cashiers getting busted for selling to minors.

[DCKit]

10. They actually have "agents".

I spoke to some Hondurans in the Shenandoah valley a while back and they told me they are, in fact, recruited in their home country to come work in poultry and meat processing factories.

I wasn't tactless enough to ask if they'd come with visas, but does it really matter when local unemployment is >5% and local people are applying for these same jobs?

[DainBramaged]

11. They need to go after the corporations

Then maybe this will stop

[TxRider]

8. Ahh good, more effective anyway

The only downside is employers cannot always tell fake ID's.

We've had laws to fine employers in Texas for years, never enforced though. Well unless you ruffle the wrong political feathers that is.

[TCJ70]

9. I thought Americans wouldn't do those jobs? n/t