SAN DIEGO -- Its awkward to ask a housekeeper nanny or gardener if he or she is in the country legally. Even more so if the person is employed by a third party -- i.e. a homebuilder or landscaping company -- that provides a product or service to you.
I know. Ive asked. Its not fun. It feels rude. Thats probably one reason why most Americans skip the exercise. Besides most people dont have a secret desire to play immigration agent. They just need work done.
So they dont ask and the workers dont tell.
I once asked a prospective housekeeper if she had papers. She gave me a strange look. She wasnt offended. She was shocked. She told me that she was working for more than 200 people in my neighborhood and surrounding areas and that I was the first to ever ask that question.
Thats a question youd think someone like Lou Dobbs would think to ask. Hes a former journalist who spent more than three decades conducting interviews to get facts for stories. But apparently he never asked the legal status of people who worked on his property and provided other services.
A couple of years ago after I criticized him for soiling the immigration debate with dishonesty and demagoguery the former CNN anchor responded by saying that I knew nothing about illegal immigration.
I grant that I dont pretend to be the expert that he does. I guess theres just no substitute for first-hand experience.
A recent report by The Nation headlined American Hypocrite claims that a yearlong investigation found that illegal immigrants helped maintain Dobbs multimillion-dollar estates in New Jersey and Florida and care for the expensive show horses used by his 22-year-old daughter a champion equestrian. The article includes interviews with five undocumented workers including some who met and had brief conversations with Dobbs -- in Spanish no less.
That the workers were not authorized to work in the United States is not in dispute. The only issue is whether Dobbs knew or should have known that the contractors he relied on to provide the necessary labor -- a South Florida landscaping company and a Vermont-based stable -- hired illegal workers.
Dobbs insists that he had no idea he benefited from illegal labor and he calls the article a political assault.
When approached by The Nation neither of the companies used by Dobbs was very forthcoming about whether it made sure its workers were in the country legally. Yet according to the article there is no shortage of illegal immigrants working in either the landscaping or horse grooming industries.
Whats most disturbing about the common practice of individuals using contractors and other third parties to obtain domestic labor is that it provides plausible deniability when the hiring of illegal immigrants comes to light. The same people who have relied on illegal immigrant labor just shrug and insist they had no idea that the workers with whom they often had regular contact had no legal right to be in the country.
Take California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman a Republican who urged a crackdown on those who employ illegal immigrants without disclosing the fact that she fit the profile. Through an employment agency Whitman hired a housekeeper who was an illegal immigrant. Her defenders have tried to shift the blame to the agency ignoring the fact that it was Whitman who hired her paid her and had direct contact with her for nine years -- and yet never raised the issue of legal status.
While on the air Dobbs also painted employers as convenient villains. As the article points out in 2007 he said it was ridiculous that private firms would oppose requirements to verify the immigration status of their contractors employees. In the world according to Lou employers are the bad guys who are too cheap to pay decent wages and thus dissuade Americans who might otherwise be thrilled to take hard and dirty jobs.
Speaking of decent wages one of the workers at the stable that cared for Dobbs horses told The Nation that he earned $500 a week. Not bad. Until you consider that the worker typically logged a 65-hour week which translates into slightly better than minimum wage. He was also never paid overtime despite the fact that the law requires it.
Who are we kidding? Americans arent remotely serious about stopping illegal immigration. They like to complain about it at the water cooler on talk radio at the dinner table -- even on television. Yet they have no qualms about using it for their benefit. They should be ashamed.
ruben@rubennavarrette.com
SAN DIEGO -- Its awkward to ask a housekeeper nanny or gardener if he or she is in the country legally. Even more so if the person is employed by a third party -- i.e. a homebuilder or landscaping company -- that provides a product or service to you.
I know. Ive asked. Its not fun. It feels rude. Thats probably one reason why most Americans skip the exercise. Besides most people dont have a secret desire to play immigration agent. They just need work done.
So they dont ask and the workers dont tell.
I once asked a prospective housekeeper if she had papers. She gave me a strange look. She wasnt offended. She was shocked. She told me that she was working for more than 200 people in my neighborhood and surrounding areas and that I was the first to ever ask that question.
Thats a question youd think someone like Lou Dobbs would think to ask. Hes a former journalist who spent more than three decades conducting interviews to get facts for stories. But apparently he never asked the legal status of people who worked on his property and provided other services.
A couple of years ago after I criticized him for soiling the immigration debate with dishonesty and demagoguery the former CNN anchor responded by saying that I knew nothing about illegal immigration.
I grant that I dont pretend to be the expert that he does. I guess theres just no substitute for first-hand experience.
A recent report by The Nation headlined American Hypocrite claims that a yearlong investigation found that illegal immigrants helped maintain Dobbs multimillion-dollar estates in New Jersey and Florida and care for the expensive show horses used by his 22-year-old daughter a champion equestrian. The article includes interviews with five undocumented workers including some who met and had brief conversations with Dobbs -- in Spanish no less.
That the workers were not authorized to work in the United States is not in dispute. The only issue is whether Dobbs knew or should have known that the contractors he relied on to provide the necessary labor -- a South Florida landscaping company and a Vermont-based stable -- hired illegal workers.
Dobbs insists that he had no idea he benefited from illegal labor and he calls the article a political assault.
When approached by The Nation neither of the companies used by Dobbs was very forthcoming about whether it made sure its workers were in the country legally. Yet according to the article there is no shortage of illegal immigrants working in either the landscaping or horse grooming industries.
Whats most disturbing about the common practice of individuals using contractors and other third parties to obtain domestic labor is that it provides plausible deniability when the hiring of illegal immigrants comes to light. The same people who have relied on illegal immigrant labor just shrug and insist they had no idea that the workers with whom they often had regular contact had no legal right to be in the country.
Take California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman a Republican who urged a crackdown on those who employ illegal immigrants without disclosing the fact that she fit the profile. Through an employment agency Whitman hired a housekeeper who was an illegal immigrant. Her defenders have tried to shift the blame to the agency ignoring the fact that it was Whitman who hired her paid her and had direct contact with her for nine years -- and yet never raised the issue of legal status.
While on the air Dobbs also painted employers as convenient villains. As the article points out in 2007 he said it was ridiculous that private firms would oppose requirements to verify the immigration status of their contractors employees. In the world according to Lou employers are the bad guys who are too cheap to pay decent wages and thus dissuade Americans who might otherwise be thrilled to take hard and dirty jobs.
Speaking of decent wages one of the workers at the stable that cared for Dobbs horses told The Nation that he earned $500 a week. Not bad. Until you consider that the worker typically logged a 65-hour week which translates into slightly better than minimum wage. He was also never paid overtime despite the fact that the law requires it.
Who are we kidding? Americans arent remotely serious about stopping illegal immigration. They like to complain about it at the water cooler on talk radio at the dinner table -- even on television. Yet they have no qualms about using it for their benefit. They should be ashamed.
ruben@rubennavarrette.com
