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Illegal workers did not keep home prices low and I have seen first hand their shoddy workmanship. All the other jobs you mentioned were done by Americans for a fair wage before millions of cheap illegals flooded our border.
Dunno where you live or lived, but I'm guessing it wasn't Texas, and certainly not Houston. It doesn't take fine craftsmanship to build tract homes. I'm not defending the practice, just reporting on what I saw.
Just goes to prove that those who support illegals actually are supporting slave labor and are supporting the owners of those companies that hire illegals getting rich off that slave labor.
Is this a joke? What a dirtbag - he worked them 15 hours a day for six to seven days. No way would he get away with that using Americans due to federal minimum wage laws and other employment laws and regulations. I cannot believe he was so stupid to publicly disclose his horrible working conditions.
I actually feel bad for the illegals being treated like slaves. No one deserves this treatment, especially in our so-called advanced country in 2017.
Grrrrrrr.
It depends. If they worked those hours & schedule because they wanted the money (I'm assuming they were paid some kind of differential incentive pay for what was overtime), because they wanted to make a bunch of money & go home - then it's kinda OK. Somewhat dangerous, in that tired workers make mistakes, & construction mistakes can be killers.
The laws & all those other worker protections - 1. It's Texas, which has never taken Federal labor, environmental, energy regulation, OSHA, safety & on & on @ all seriously. The W governorship asked EPA repeatedly to allow the Texas EPA to take all the critical measurements of air/water/soil/environmental pollution - & was always rebuffed. 2. Trump's storming the throne in WADC gives cover to the people who say that undocumented immigrants are the issue. & as Trump also targeted labor unions, Federal agencies like Air Traffic Controllers (ah, that takes me back, it does), so all the existing environmental & worker protections for all workers in the US are under threat in WADC & nationally. It's just a question of how much resistance there will be within the bureaucracy itself & how much resistance there will be outside of the Federal government.
Dunno where you live or lived, but I'm guessing it wasn't Texas, and certainly not Houston. It doesn't take fine craftsmanship to build tract homes. I'm not defending the practice, just reporting on what I saw.
I live in So. Calif. and illegals have flooded the construction industry here. A track of homes across from me was built with illegal labor and the workmanship was so shoddy that many of those who bought them up and deserted them. The prices of the homes were not lower compared to homes that were built by Americans either.
Living in Texas for 48 years, including 30 as an adult.
Practicing real estate law in Houston for 12 years, where I represented developers, contractors and subcontractors, real estate agents, and mortgage companies, and operated a branch office of a title company, where I personally closed over 150 commercial transactions. I know sticks and bricks.
Comparison of new house sales in Houston compared with Columbia, St.Louis, and Kansas City, Missouri. There's less of a differential than there used to be (which I put down to additional illegal workers in Missouri, quite frankly), and I can't quote precise figures because frankly, it's not my business any more, but it's real.
Deep personal and business ties to various immigrant communities in Houston (Indian, Chinese, Farsi, as well as Hispanic).
It might have changed since I moved to Missouri, but evidence on the ground led me to conclude that there was a dramatic difference in residential housing construction cost between Texas and almost anywhere else in the US. The cost savings were passed on to the consumer thanks to competition which, in any kind of decent economic environment, is voracious-- in Houston, anyway.
Did you factor in the $113 billion a year that illegals cost us in social costs which are passed onto the taxpayer by these builders and everyone else who hires illegal aliens? Suddenly those houses aren't so cheap, are they?
Did you factor in the $113 billion a year that illegals cost us in social costs which are passed onto the taxpayer by these builders and everyone else who hires illegal aliens? Suddenly those houses aren't so cheap, are they?
My guess is that $113 billion isn't counted or even thought about much because it is hidden. Now if everyone were to actually get a bill in the mail once a month for this "service"you'd probably see a different attitude.
I guess all of the skilled illegals must be in Texas. I have seen the quality of their workmanship here, and it has just added to the list of reasons not to hire them.
We need workers. We need immigrants. The Federal government for decades (both under Dems and Reps) put in place an under-the-counter immigration policy. The feds allowed companies to employ illegal immigrants, allowed illegal immigrants to stay here.
This shoot from the hip attitude of Send Them Back and Build a Wall, is simply STUPID.
Solving the immigration crisis is going to take brains, not brawn. It's a mess, but that's where we are. It's solvable ONLY IF people including politicians agree what's best for the US. And that is NOT kicking everyone out.
Living in Texas for 48 years, including 30 as an adult.
Practicing real estate law in Houston for 12 years, where I represented developers, contractors and subcontractors, real estate agents, and mortgage companies, and operated a branch office of a title company, where I personally closed over 150 commercial transactions. I know sticks and bricks.
Comparison of new house sales in Houston compared with Columbia, St.Louis, and Kansas City, Missouri. There's less of a differential than there used to be (which I put down to additional illegal workers in Missouri, quite frankly), and I can't quote precise figures because frankly, it's not my business any more, but it's real.
Deep personal and business ties to various immigrant communities in Houston (Indian, Chinese, Farsi, as well as Hispanic).
It might have changed since I moved to Missouri, but evidence on the ground led me to conclude that there was a dramatic difference in residential housing construction cost between Texas and almost anywhere else in the US. The cost savings were passed on to the consumer thanks to competition which, in any kind of decent economic environment, is voracious-- in Houston, anyway.
So do you have evidence that the cost saving is passed on to the consumer? The guy that built my house only used legals and I didn't pay anymore for my house than if I used the guy rumored to employ illegals. I know what was used to build my house because I was on the site daily.
Is this a joke? What a dirtbag - he worked them 15 hours a day for six to seven days. No way would he get away with that using Americans due to federal minimum wage laws and other employment laws and regulations. I cannot believe he was so stupid to publicly disclose his horrible working conditions.
I actually feel bad for the illegals being treated like slaves. No one deserves this treatment, especially in our so-called advanced country in 2017.
Grrrrrrr.
And, if they are injured, they can go to the hospital emergency room and pass that cost on to the taxpayer through a loophole in Medicaid. I watched them replace people in manufacturing here also because they won't/can't make complaints about health and safety or fair labor practices. They generally are not paid overtime as I have seen cases on this.
The supposed sympathizers aren't, they are selfish people who exploit illegals to put more money in their own pockets while having the taxpayers pick up the financial shortfall of the illegal aliens.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldglory
The only thing these greedy employers pass on to us is the enormous social costs of their illegal workers to the tune of $113 billion a year.
Yes, we subsidize the employer so he can put extra money in his pocket. It is like giving the billions to them directly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Lee
Just goes to prove that those who support illegals actually are supporting slave labor and are supporting the owners of those companies that hire illegals getting rich off that slave labor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southwest88
It depends. If they worked those hours & schedule because they wanted the money (I'm assuming they were paid some kind of differential incentive pay for what was overtime), because they wanted to make a bunch of money & go home - then it's kinda OK. Somewhat dangerous, in that tired workers make mistakes, & construction mistakes can be killers.
The laws & all those other worker protections - 1. It's Texas, which has never taken Federal labor, environmental, energy regulation, OSHA, safety & on & on @ all seriously. The W governorship asked EPA repeatedly to allow the Texas EPA to take all the critical measurements of air/water/soil/environmental pollution - & was always rebuffed. 2. Trump's storming the throne in WADC gives cover to the people who say that undocumented immigrants are the issue. & as Trump also targeted labor unions, Federal agencies like Air Traffic Controllers (ah, that takes me back, it does), so all the existing environmental & worker protections for all workers in the US are under threat in WADC & nationally. It's just a question of how much resistance there will be within the bureaucracy itself & how much resistance there will be outside of the Federal government.
No breaking immigration law and employment law (they have no right to work in the US) is NEVER OK. My bet is that they don't get overtime. While the money goes home, the illegal often stays anchoring themselves with babies. In 2016, $26 billion was sent into Mexico by Mexicans in the USA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldglory
I live in So. Calif. and illegals have flooded the construction industry here. A track of homes across from me was built with illegal labor and the workmanship was so shoddy that many of those who bought them up and deserted them. The prices of the homes were not lower compared to homes that were built by Americans either.
We have a major hailstorm and crews of illegal aliens came in or were hired locally. Very poor workmanship, my friend asked for "citizens only" and had to do some looking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dothetwist
We need workers. We need immigrants. The Federal government for decades (both under Dems and Reps) put in place an under-the-counter immigration policy. The feds allowed companies to employ illegal immigrants, allowed illegal immigrants to stay here.
This shoot from the hip attitude of Send Them Back and Build a Wall, is simply STUPID.
Solving the immigration crisis is going to take brains, not brawn. It's a mess, but that's where we are. It's solvable ONLY IF people including politicians agree what's best for the US. And that is NOT kicking everyone out.
Slowly chipping away at the illegal alien population, most will break additional laws and be deported at that time.
We do not need them, and if we do, we can increase the numbers for legal immigration. The issue is that many legal immigrants are also using welfare benefits thus having the taxpayers subsidize these people. The employers need to provide a wage to cover the expenses of their employees and stop robbing taxpayers in order to put more money in their own pockets.
We have a mall-type thing going in here. I see rather than using local labor, TX companies have come in to do the work. I plan to inquire about this. I have seen, since they busted a roofing company in Kansas city and gave jail and fines to, that a few of the TX plates were replaced by plates from nearly communities.
They must do the workplace raids and highly publicize them while giving jail time and heavy fines to the employers.
We know that TX has sympathizers. You have those that rent to them and take advantage of them in all kinds of ways, and they are going to have a fit over having to possibly have that cash cow taken from them. Just look up "immigration lawyers" and you'll see there is a lot of money to be made right there. Many ways to exploit an illegal alien and they won't give this up easily, so they will tent to stretch the truth.
So do you have evidence that the cost saving is passed on to the consumer? The guy that built my house only used legals and I didn't pay anymore for my house than if I used the guy rumored to employ illegals. I know what was used to build my house because I was on the site daily.
How do you know every laborer was legal? Every residential contractor uses subcontractors...many of which have subcontractors themselves. While the subs your builder used were likely legal, the laborers they hired were almost assuredly not 100% legal.
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