April 16, 2004
THE AMERICA OF TOM TANCREDO'S DREAMS:
Work nearly grinds to halt as immigrant-raid rumors circulate (EDWARD HEGSTROM, 4/16/04, Houston Chronicle)
Most days, teams of Latino immigrant workers swarm over the townhouses under construction near Gulfgate, filling the air with the buzz of power tools and orders shouted in Spanish.But the site was nearly silent Thursday. Instead of dozens of workers, there was just a handful, mostly Anglo contractors.
Like dozens of work sites across greater Houston, construction at the Gulfgate site was nearly brought to a standstill because the immigrant workers had fled, likely after hearing rumors of government immigration raids.
"The crews have just scattered, sometimes leaving their tools at the site," said Allen Griffiths, a plumbing contractor who busied himself talking on a two-way radio Thursday. "It's just brought construction to a halt."
Build my house and then get out! Posted by Orrin Judd at April 16, 2004 10:38 AM
Fine with me. The last thing Houston needs is yet another shopping center. The first Gulfgate was a disaster anyhow. The only difference now is that the new developers are getting subsidies in the form of illegal aliens, whose health, education and crime we have to pay for.
Keep up the good work, boys!
Posted by: Derek Copold at April 16, 2004 11:00 AMHell, all we need are rumors of raids and the job will be nearly done.
Posted by: Paul Cella at April 16, 2004 11:08 AMNo, the jobs will never get done. You gonna pick up a hammer or a rake?
Posted by: oj at April 16, 2004 11:16 AMTwo tears in a bucket.
Of course I meant the job of functioning not like a dreamy universal democracy, but like a real country, and caring about her border, her language, her laws, etc.
Posted by: Paul Cella at April 16, 2004 11:22 AMher economy, her decency, her ideals, her traditions, her history...
Posted by: oj at April 16, 2004 11:26 AMIt's not just Gulfgate, but all of Houston's booming construction (and ultimately our economy) that suffers if this persists.
I don't know the answer to the fine philosophical points some of the commenters raise, but I don't think it's blowing up our manual labor market here in the Bayou City.
Posted by: kevin whited at April 16, 2004 11:37 AMYeah, I'll pick up a hammer. Why, if I had a hammer I'd hammer in the morning . . .
Posted by: jefferson park at April 16, 2004 1:54 PMThe jobs will get done. Houston will continue on. The only thing that'll change is that employers will have to learn to pay Americans the legal rate instead of cheating minimum wage and safety laws by using illegals, all the while letting the taxpayer subsidize their health and education benefits. Obviously, prices will go up. That's fine. I'd rather pay up front for what I consume than have it taken away from me in the form of taxes and an increasingly divided culture where I'm made to feel like a foreigner in my own country.
Posted by: Derek Copold at April 16, 2004 3:41 PMThe free market will take care of it OJ. If people need subsidized labor (which is what illegal immigrant labor amounts to) in order to build new homes then they shouldn't be built.
Posted by: Carter at April 16, 2004 5:23 PMCarter:
Why? Aren't homes, jobs, and economic growth worth the subsidies?
Posted by: oj at April 16, 2004 5:31 PMNo, the costs of illegal aliens outweigh any economic benefits. I was under the impressio that you favored immigration for non-economic reasons.
Posted by: Carter at April 16, 2004 8:07 PMOrrin,
Are there many immigrants in New Hampshire? As I understand it, there are only about ten states with substantial immigrant communities. How do the other 40 states get their lawns mowed?
Posted by: Kevin Colwell at April 17, 2004 8:46 PMThat's what we import them for--meat packing, custodial jobs, lawn maintenance, etc.
Posted by: oj at April 17, 2004 9:38 PM