Opinion: Could illegal immigrants build the U.S.-Mexico border fence?
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The Hispanic Journal asks, can fences be built without undocumented laborers? The not-so-shocking conclusion:
The irony is not lost on businesses that have come to rely heavily on foreign-born and Hispanic workers to fill vacancies left by a shrinking domestic labor pool. ‘Is it possible to construct a wall without undocumented workers?’ asked Perry Vaughn, executive director of the Rio Grande Valley Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. ‘It’s probably borderline impossible to be honest with you.’ In recent years, the construction industry has seen a dramatic increase in undocumented foreign-born Hispanic workers, according to a Pew Hispanic report published in 2007. Based on information collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, the report also found that foreign-born workers held one in five construction jobs in 2006.
Is this good news for immigrants and fuel for immigration reform activists? Maybe not. The real-estate slump means the construction business itself has been crumbling, so those skilled workers, American citizens or not, are probably hurting as well. Business Intelligence points out that for construction companies — especially small ones — it’s far cheaper to hire ‘independent contractors’ than it is to deal with full-time employees with salaries and healthcare.
Scott Morrisey owns Red Line Walls Systems, a commercial drywall and metal-stud installer in Leominster, Mass. ‘Our company has prided itself on its ability to provide good jobs at good wages and a generous benefits package,’ he said. But that policy comes with a price. Morrisey estimates that providing those benefits, plus paying Social Security, Medicare, and workman’s compensation and unemployment insurance adds 48 cents to every dollar of a contract bid.
Could the border wall itself become part of the fight over American jobs and immigrant laborers’ rights? It may not be ironic, but it’s apt.