Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/113371
final word | by Tom Jackson TJackson@randallreilly.com Long overdue, immigration reform will be good for construction I t was encouraging to hear during the state of the union address that President Obama is going to attempt to tackle the immigration problem this year. Even more encouraging is the fact that the hard heads in the Republican party are not going to reflexively oppose a new immigration bill. Of course what President Obama is proposing sounds a lot like the immigration bill��former President George W. Bush presented to Congress in his second term ��� a bill that was killed by hard liners in the Republican Party and more than a few Democrats, including then-Senator Obama. But let���s let snarling dogs lie. Be grateful that the government at least acts like they���re serious this time. An improved immigration situation will be good for construction. The heavy/civil guys won���t notice as much as the landscaping and residential construction markets, where undocumented workers tend to proliferate. But landscaping and homebuilding contractors have been plagued for years by competition from undocumented workers who don���t pay taxes, and avoid getting insurance, worker���s comp, bonding or licenses. By dodging these regulatory requirements they can underbid legitimate contractors by 20 to 40 percent. Of course there���s no telling how many of these south-of-the-border contractors will turn tail and head back across the border once they see how expensive it is to comply with the all-American tradition of massive government regulation. But I���ll suspect they���ll learn to deal with it. Immigration inevitably turns political and therein lies some danger. The federal government came up with a perfectly reasonable system called e-Verify about a decade ago, to help employers find out if job applicants were legitimate or in this country illegally. E-verify is used by many businesses and contractors and yet the U.S. Chamber of Commerce blocked it from becoming a legal requirement. So the knives may come out yet. Lobbyists may make another mess of this immigration debate. And if they do, the construction contractor, the entrepreneur who���s trying to start a small business and follow the rules, the person who gets in a car wreck with an undocumented and uninsured worker, the people who pay the emergency room bills of the undocumented workers, all of you will be the worse for it. What we need now is real-politic, not the usual left-right, tit-fortat, political score settling and talk show finger pointing we���ve had in the past. We need reality, not ideology. There are only three choices. We can reform the system. We can leave it as it is, with a law-breaking workforce undercutting wages or living exploited in the shadows, or we can drive all of them ��� their wives and their children ��� back across the border at bayonet point. It���s your problem, Congress, you created it. Now fix it. EW Immigration inevitably turns political and therein lies some danger. 82 March 2013 | EquipmentWorld.com EW0313_Final Word.indd 82 2/25/13 12:00 PM