posted by Joe Polk at 12:36 AM /
I was reading the following article about Verizon probing whether or not their subcontractors were using illegal workers as part of their work crews. One of the more interesting statements made in the article was:
What I want to know is -- what made my fellow residents believe that these people were illegal? Were they asking the crew members for their IDs? What made them call the police on the crew? I really, really hope that people didn't call the cops because of the nationality of the crew members -- because legal and illegal workers can (and do) come from all over the world.
Don't get me wrong -- if they were illegal, then they should be dealt with according to the law. I just hope that no one assumed anything when they called the police.
Link: www.kdka.com/topstories/local_story_152215126.html
"Meanwhile, neighbors in Mt. Lebanon called police about a 13-member work crew, claiming they’re illegal. They also work for a Verizon private contractor."
What I want to know is -- what made my fellow residents believe that these people were illegal? Were they asking the crew members for their IDs? What made them call the police on the crew? I really, really hope that people didn't call the cops because of the nationality of the crew members -- because legal and illegal workers can (and do) come from all over the world.
Don't get me wrong -- if they were illegal, then they should be dealt with according to the law. I just hope that no one assumed anything when they called the police.
Link: www.kdka.com/topstories/local_story_152215126.html
6 Comments:
Agreed. Prejudice is wrong.
<terrible segue alert>
However, nothing of this showed up on the Mt. Lebanon Police Blotter RSS feed, which was recently updated to point to the township's new web site. That's partly because they haven't posted any new blotter content.
and also partly because the feed maintainer wasn't paying attention to the fact that the urls changed out from under him... :>
Speaking of which, have you seen the municipality website? Looks a lot nicer than the old version. In fact, they're offering some feeds of their own, but not one of the Police Blotter (yet).
I'll be more than happy to bow out of volunteer municipal tech services when that day comes, but until then, the Police Blotter feed lives here.
</terrible segue alert>
This may be my most politically incorrect post of all time...but seriously, if you don't do profiling, how the heck are you going to catch illegals? If 95% of all illegal immigrants are Mexicans (and I dont know if that is the actual number or not but it sounds good), would it not make sense to suspect that if you see a group of Mexicans doing day-labor type work that there is a pretty good chance that at least some of the workers are illegal? Or at least the odds are better than if it was a group of caucasian workers?
Not that I would have called the police on the work crew, but lets get real here, profiling is NOT a bad thing in all cases.
The answer to illegal immigration is the make the hiring of an illegal immigrant so punitive to companies that it just doesnt make sense for them to take a chance. Will politicians have the cajones to stand up to big business (places like Dole and Verizon it seems) and tell them that for the betterment of the country we need to curb this ? Personally, I'll pay $.50 more for a head of lettuce if we can institute some kind of program to fix this thing.
"Not that I would have called the police on the work crew, but lets get real here, profiling is NOT a bad thing in all cases."
Except for that crazy United States Constitution getting in the way. It violates both the 5th and 14th Ammendments.
I'm shocked! We're from the west coast and I've never heard of anyone calling the police about illegal immigrant workers. The hispanic workers (legal or illegal) are hard working individuals and they are good at what they do. They are not lazy, they don't complain (at least in english) and their workmanship is amazing.
It sounds like a great idea to punish corporations for employing illegal immigrants, but the government has a few working for them too...guaranteed! As a matter of fact, who cleans the politicians house? Who washes their laundry? Who is taking care of their children? A hispanic person...and that hispanic person is either illegal or the 4 other family members at home are illegal.
Maybe it's me, but I'm curious to find out what other west coast transplants have to say about this issue in regards to the Pittsburgh area.
Not the west coast, but I lived for eight years in Texas, where there are plenty of Mexican immigrants (probably some other miscellaneous hispanics too, but the Mexicans dominate). I agree that whatever else they may be, they're the opposite of lazy. In fact, moving there from Pittsburgh I was shocked at just how hard they worked. For all of the Burgh's hard working blue-collar pride, I had rarely seen any laborers work as hard as the typical Mexican worker down there.
But that's really the point, isn't it? Nobody really believes that they're lazy. They wouldn't be so threatening to everyone if they were lazy. Lou Dobbs isn't squawking about a scourge of unemployed mexicans overrunning our soup kitchens....
However, I think that people are grossly exaggerating the odds that a given latino worker is illegal, as well as the total number of illegal immigrants (see the preposterous claims from the mayor of Hazelton). And the 95% comment above is just another example of innumeracy that's all-too-common in the comments of this and other blogs. The fact that most illegals are Mexican does not imply that most Mexicans are illegal. And how can you tell they're Mexican, anyway? I don't suppose they might have been Puerto Rican, and thus U.S. citizens?
On the issue of the hispanic workers (legal or illegal) how do you think Pittsburgh will be effected? I've heard that Columbus, OH is booming because of immigration into the city (well it's not really due to the immigration, but it all goes hand-in-hand). I'm not sure if everything I've heard is true, but I've also heard that the New Orleans redevelopment has brought in a lot of hispanic workers which will probably bring economic development. The new casino and arena are a fantastic chance for hispanic crews to get some footing in the Pittsburgh market. What do you think?
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