The effective date for the mandatory use of E-Verify by federalcontractors and subcontractors has been delayed again.
U.S. Immigrationand Customs Enforcement, who administers the system with HomelandSecurity, announced that the date has been pushed back to June 30, 2009.
Former President Bush first signed an executive order in November2008, requiring companies that have contracts with the federalgovernment to run new employees through E-Verify. It was originally setto go into effect on Jan. 19, but he agreed to delay the effective dateto Feb. 20, pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
The Obama Administration delayed the effective date for a secondtime at the end of January, moving the date to May 21. Today’s orderextends that delay for another six weeks to June 30.
NumbersUSA received a number of “outside” comments from people who disagreed with Roy Beck’s quotein a front-page New York Times article on April 9. The following wasparticularly interesting. I verified that the writer owns a smallinsurance company in Houston, Texas. I am changing his name to Mr.Gallagher in order to protect his anonymity.
My friend has been in the US for 18 years, having arrived with hismother, two brothers and a sister at the age of 10. He went to schooland completed high school and now he does stone work, i.e. he putsflagstone around swimming pools, builds fireplaces, creates stoneentryways and wine cellars for very expensive homes. He works for $75cash a day when there’s work. No health insurance, no sick pay, novacation, no unemployment, no workers comp, just $75 per day.
He is not complaining. He spends all of his earnings buyingthings to live, therefore paying sales taxes thus supporting the localand Texas state budget. He rents an apartment, therefore payingproperty taxes, which in Texas helps pay for the schooling he received.He’s not complaining. He used to have a landscaping job for many yearswhere they took out ! taxes. He paid federal income taxes and paid intothe social security fund and Medicare fund. He did not complain.
So if you need a job or know anybody that does, please come ondown to Texas where we have lots of jobs I am sure you would bequalified for. Don’t worry about my friend, he can always find a job.Employer’s love him since he goes to work, takes the pay he’s offereddoes his job and doesn’t complain. I hope you and your friends willenjoy your new job. Just don’t complain.
Yes, Mr. Gallagher, there are countless Americans that need jobslike the one your friend has. The unemployment rate in the Houston areawas 6.4 percent as this February. Last February, it was 4.3 percent.There are many thousands of people who need jobs when the unemploymentrate is at 6.4 percent.
Mountedpolice were called out to control the crowd of thousands seeking 65full-time jobs (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times/Redux)
For example, in New York City, in November, 2006, at the height of thesubprime loan/Wall Street boom, the official unemployment rate in thecity was 4.5 percent. Early that month, Mars Inc., the candymanufacturer that makes M&Ms, was opening a retail store inManhattan. The company put out a help-wanted ad offering 65 full-timejobs at $10.75 an hour, and about 135 part-time jobs. The New York Timesreported that,“Several thousand people — mostly young, black andHispanic — had shown up to apply for fewer than 200 positions, only 65of them full-time jobs.”
Making $10.75 per hour may sound like a lot of money to people in manyareas of the United States, but in New York City the cost of living isvery high, and that is not sufficient even to live with dignity as asingle adult, much less for a family. That wage rate works out to about$21,000 per year, and the poverty line for a family of four is $26,000per year in New York City. A recent credible study said that itrequires an income of $100,000 per year to be middle class in New YorkCity.
This was for jobs to work in a candy store. A candy store! Notjobs at a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant, or jobs at a militarycontractor. It was a heartbreaking and soul-crushing view of thedesperation that exists just under the surface of the United Stateseconomy. If it was that bad when the official unemployment rate was 4.5percent, imagine how bad it is now that the unemployment rate is 8.2percent in the New York area. This episode is one major data pointtowards proving the proposition that the official unemployment rate is inaccurate and deceptively low.So I suspect that a 6.3 percent official unemployment rate in theHouston area indicates a serious situation – something even worse thanwhat existed in New York in 2006 when the official unemployment ratewas 4.5 percent.
Several thousand people were desperate for those 65 full-timejobs at $10.75 per hour. “Many had arranged for baby sitters, traveledfrom other boroughs and New Jersey, and lined up as early as 1 a.m.,only to be told eventually that there were no more jobs being offeredthat day. … Jose Muñoz, 19, of Queens, stood in line and lost out on aday’s pay as a driver’s helper for United Parcel Service. A part-timeemployee, he makes $8 an hour, he said, and hoped for a Mars positionbecause “this was a full-time job.”
Mr. Gallagher, $10.75 per hour works out to $86 per day, and yourfriend makes $75 per day. But your friend works “off the books.” So hemakes $75 and pays no income, social security, or medicare taxes. Sohis $75 is actually better than earning $86 before taxes. Additionally,the cost of living in Texas is lower than the cost of living in NewYork City. The New Yorkers should indeed be interested in an after-taxincome of $75 per day in an area with a lower cost of living.
There are no benefits (such as health insurance) to yourfriend’s job, while I presume there were benefits to the 65 full-timejobs at the candy store. However, the standard reply that we alwayshear from the amnesty lobby is, “If undocumented workers were madelegal, they will have the bargaining power to get those benefits.” Soaccording to the amnesty lobby’s own words, those legal workers in NewYork and all over the country could get benefits if they had yourillegal alien friend’s job.
The M&M Mars incident shows that we do have thousands of legalworkers in the New York area, thousands in the Houston area, andprobably millions around the United States, who are not even in theofficial unemployment statistics and need decent jobs. If there aresuch jobs unfilled in the Houston area, then it is probably becauseemployers are not reaching out sufficiently to the unemployed in theirown city, and failing that, they could reach out to unemployedAmericans in other cities. There is no need to bring in people fromforeign countries to fill these jobs. So thank you, Mr. Gallagher, forletting us know about the jobs in Texas.
CHARLES BREITERMAN is a Lawyer and Research Analyst for NumbersUSA