Stordahl and Mrochek, both of San Bernardino, stood at 21st Street and Lincoln Drive on Monday near the Home Depot here, snapping pictures of employers who stopped to pick up laborers, many of whom are Mexican immigrants.
Their plan is to post the photos on the Web site, which features a "Hall of Shame," listing names, phone numbers and other information about businesses that reportedly hire undocumented immigrants.
Mrochek believes a majority of the workers who line the sidewalks here every morning have entered the country illegally, though it would be difficult to know for sure, he said.
He quoted a study conducted by UCLA's Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, which shows that less than 6 percent of day laborers have entered the country with documentation.
"That's strong enough (proof) to have us come out here," he said.
Mrochek is the co-founder of the Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Coalition, which operates the Web site.
I think this is a very useful tool. With widespread dissemination of this resource, more people across the country can register companies they know hire illegal aliens. It will literally be a Hall of Shame. And a good dose of embarressment for employers who break our laws. For instance in Texas, there are already listed three very well-known and popular Mexican food chains: Chipotle, Don Carlos, and Casa Ole. Here's one example of the restaurant reports filed on the website:
I was a waitress for one year, and witnessed false documents and social security numbers being used. The American manager even signed a false name to documents so that he would not be responsible in the event of a raid. The entire kitchen/bus staff consisted of illegals who spoke little to no English, and had no desire to learn it.
Another Texas company, Sunbelt Express, is a trucking company. Read this report, and pay special attention to the last sentence:
This company operates tractor-trailers on routes between Texas and California. They do not have any company trucks, but only lease on owner-operators. They are a team operation, meaning always two men to a truck. They have a fleet of about 50 trucks and 100 drivers. Out of that 100, there are only about 6 American drivers. The rest are all Hispanic, with the exception of one team of Iraqis. Few of them speak any English. Many of the trucks are owned by owner-operators who own multiple trucks. Those owner operators provide drivers for their trucks, and the company puts them through cursory training to qualify them to drive for the company. I was in the office one day when one of the larger owner operators brought in several drivers for the company to hire to drive his trucks. None of them could speak any English. The banter in the office was asking the owner operator if he was sure these guys would not get caught at the state scales and be deported. That has happened with some of the drivers they have hired in the past. When the Iraqi team was hired, their first trip out to California was what is called a dry box load. Their return trip, they hauled hazardous materials, a truck load of paint thinner.
Another Texas example is Pilgrim's Pride, a poultry products company, which has about an 80% illegal alien employment rate. Ironic, considering the name of the company, don't you think?
In California, another trucking company, Carrasco Trucking, has been reported:
Jose Carrasco had asked me several times if the corner check point on I17 in Arizona was open. When I asked him why, he replied that some of his drivers don't have green cards or valid CDL's. This occured when I was an employee of Carrasco trucking taking oversized loads of tires from Long Beach Harbor to Bisbee, AZ.
Lennar Homes, a nationwide home builder, was reported in California:
I was having a home built by Lennar in Hemet California and had to cancel it due to shoddy workmanship done by illegal aliens. The Assistant project manager even admitted it. To quote him, "all builders in California use illegal aliens"
I think that's pretty much common knowledge - it's the same in Texas. All builders use illegal aliens. And the work shows it.
Now, here's a winner! U.S. Immigration hired illegal aliens!
I worked for the Immigration & Naturalization Service for 11 Years. During that time, we came to find out that INS had hired 3 Undocumented Aliens presenting counterfiet Birth Certificates. All 3 were terminated but that just goes to show you how good the background checks the INS provides are.
Amazing. What cahones those illegal aliens had to actually apply for employment with INS! Maybe they figured it's safer to hide in plain sight.
If you browse the companies listed at We Hire Aliens, you'll soon notice that MANY of the jobs are jobs that any qualified American would be glad to have. I saw listings for hospital staff, trucking (a lot!), landscaping, state employees, and tons of restaurant chains like Quizno's, Subway, etc. The wages for Americans in similar jobs are being driven down as a result.
You'll also notice many reports of office managers who process the employment paperwork, knowingly accepting false documents, falsifying the documents themselves, or giving the illegals a few days to get "other phony docs they can use for verification".
With shady employment practices like this, a tool like We Hire Aliens, is unique and with nationwide participation can become a real force for change! Should you feel strongly enough about it, the website lists the employer's contact info and invites you to use one of their pre-written form letters to let the business know that you disapprove of their illegal hiring practices and won't patronize their business.
The hispanic illegal aliens believe that they are being targeted unfairly. I find this absurd! What part of illegal don't you understand?!
Some of the laborers waiting to be picked up Monday said they felt they were being unfairly targeted.
Illegal immigration foes want only to show people with brown skin, said Roberto Arreola, 29, who said he's in the country illegally from Mexico.
"Why don't they go to the Canadian border and harass them?" he said. "Why focus just on the Latinos? There are other illegal immigrants from other countries. My question is why? Because of my appearance?"
Arreola questioned who would work the jobs immigrants perform if all the workers here illegally were deported.
He said he doubts Americans would do the work he does, which often involves landscaping and concrete work, for the wage he's willing to accept. Employers will pay between $10 and $15 an hour for some tasks, he said.
What we used to think of as "cheap labor", isn't really so cheap. Ten to fiteen dollars an hour is nothing to sneeze at - especially if you're an unskilled laborer, college student, or unemployed. You can't tell me that an out-of-work American wouldn't be relieved to get a $15/hour job.
We Hire Aliens has also started a database of jobs with Patriot Companies - businesses that only hire Americans. All in all, this resource can grow to become an incredibly useful tool. I know I have a few solid reports to file, both of companies that knowingly hire illegals, and of companies that only hire Americans. DO your part, and help spread the word.
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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we're going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to kit.jarrell at gmail dot com.
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