May 3, 2006
SO MUCH FOR THE WIFE'S DREAM THAT OUR SON WOULD GET ONE OF THOSE GREAT DEMOLITION JOBS:
Illegals making it in Massachusetts: Immigrants flock to Hub’s roadside hiring sites (Casey Ross, May 4, 2006, Boston Herald)
A growing shadow work force of illegal immigrants, many of them soliciting daily jobs at unregulated street-corner bazaars, is illicitly fueling the Massachusetts economy in plain view of law enforcement authorities who have failed to launch any kind of crackdown.A Herald surveillance of hiring sites in Somerville, Chelsea and Allston found that immigrant workers - many of them admittedly illegal - are being trucked to work sites in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, often to labor in hazardous jobs such as demolition, painting and general construction. [...]
Despite the argument, one thing is clear: Day laborer sites across Massachusetts are commonplace, unmonitored and unregulated.
At one site along McGrath-O’Brien Highway in Somerville, a Herald reporter watched 50 laborers congregate daily on three recent mornings to seek work.Between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., the workers got into trucks and vans whose license plates were traced to general contractors, cleaning companies, house painters, flooring installers and others.
Interviews with numerous day laborers revealed that many are undocumented and that most rarely know their work destinations before a contractor’s van arrives to pick them up for the day.
“Some don’t speak English and they don’t have their papers,” said one 22-year-old laborer at the site who only gave a first name of Adilson. “The contractors sometimes don’t pay, but what can we do?”
We need to legalize and regularize immigration just to protect these poor guys.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2006 11:59 PM
Unloop.
Posted by: oj at May 4, 2006 8:32 AM"hazardous jobs such as demolition, painting and general construction"
Doesn't get any more dangerous than painting. Once, while doing general construction, I hit my thumb with the hammer.
Posted by: AllenS at May 4, 2006 8:39 AMThere is your problem right there, Allen. Try painting with a brush rather than a hammer. Or hire an immigrant to show you how.
Posted by: Peter B at May 4, 2006 9:23 AMYou're right OJ. They do need protection. I have known illegals who are treated basically like slaves by various International House of Pancakes restaurants. Forced to work two and sometimes three shifts with no overtime and getting docked for ridiculous made-up infractions so their Anglo supervisor can skim money off their paychecks. Disgusting. And that doesn't even touch how farmworkers have historically been treated.
Regulate, document and let 'em in with the same rights in the workplace that citizens get. We need these people, but they are not our slaves. These protestors are marching for the right to an unregulated dangerous workplace where they are treated like dogs.
Posted by: Palmcroft at May 4, 2006 12:21 PMNo, they aren't. They're marching for exactly the amnesty and legalization you mention.
Posted by: oj at May 4, 2006 12:32 PMThey want amnesty without regulation. They want the same two-tier solution Reagan gave them, new arrivals being illegal. They're selling out the 8-10-12 year olds who will be crossing-over in a few years' time and becoming little better than slaves.
Posted by: Palmcroft at May 4, 2006 12:37 PMNo, they don't. They'd be fine with passing out green cards at the border along with obtaining ID. But a new round of amnesty every twenty years will serve the same purpose.
Posted by: oj at May 4, 2006 12:42 PM