"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/27/'06 11:50AM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/27/'06 11:50AM
4/27/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Illegals case a landmark
- Good riddance to day-labor sites
- Hispanic law students ready to give back
- Gingrich slams immigration plans
- Big boost for US border security
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http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/0427bizmohawk.html
Illegals case a landmark
Court to decide if Mohawk faces RICO charge
By MARILYN GEEWAX
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/27/06
Washington — If a company works closely with labor recruiters to hire and harbor illegal immigrant workers, is it acting as an organized crime syndicate, similar to the Mafia?
Yes, according to an attorney for four current and former workers at Mohawk Industries Inc., a Calhoun-based carpet maker, in an argument made to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The workers say Mohawk's purpose was to drive down wages and that the company should be punished under the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. That federal law, enacted in 1970 to fight organized crime, allows victims to collect triple damages, plus attorney fees.
Mohawk attorney Carter Phillips asked the justices to dismiss the racketeering suit, saying the company never took part in a separate enterprise to violate immigration laws. When the company uses an outside recruiter to find employees, "it's an arm's length deal," he said.
There were indications that some justices sympathized with Mohawk's arguments.
Justice Stephen Breyer questioned whether it would be wise for the court to "RICO-ize vast amounts of commercial activities." Justice Antonin Scalia said he was hesitant to let courts try to read "the minds of corporations" in such cases.
A decision is expected by July.
Business groups are watching closely because if the high court were to rule that outsourcing a service such as recruiting workers can create an illegal "enterprise," a wave of expensive RICO suits might wash over them.
The workers filed their class-action suit in 2004 in a bid to get current and former workers the higher wages they say they were denied because of Mohawk's hiring practices.
More than 4,000 employees
The company, with more than 4,000 employees in northwest Georgia, says it provides workers with competitive wages and benefits.
But so far, Mohawk hasn't been able to shake off the RICO case. Last June, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the company's motion to dismiss the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The Supreme Court's decision potentially could clear the way for many RICO suits to be filed in connection with the use of immigrant workers. The court could rule in a way that imposes much more responsibility on employers, rather than government officials, to stem the flow of illegal labor.
Some supporters of immigrants also fear a ruling against Mohawk. They believe it could force employers to conduct much stricter documentation checks whenever a worker looks or sounds foreign. That could discourage the hiring of all immigrants, including those who are legal.
But supporters of stricter immigration controls hope the court will empower private individuals to use RICO suits against employers in an effort to stop the use of illegal labor. They note that in 1996, Congress amended RICO to include the employment of illegal immigrants as an offense covered by the law.
The workers' case was argued by Howard Foster, a Chicago attorney who pioneered the use of RICO provisions to help workers win back wages. Foster recently won a preliminary settlement of $1.3 million in a case involving back wages for employees of Zirkle Fruit Co., an apple-packing company in Selah, Wash.
The Bush administration, which has been pushing for immigration reform, sides with Foster. Mohawk is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other business organizations that fear getting hit by costly RICO suits.
If the Supreme Court rejects Mohawk's arguments and allows the RICO case to go forward, workers say they will be able to prove that Mohawk, the country's second-largest maker of commercial and residential carpets with $6.6 billion in annual revenue, paid recruiters to go to Texas to seek out illegal workers willing to accept low wages.
They allege that the company worked with the recruiters to violate immigration laws, forge documents and harbor illegals.
As a result, the plaintiffs say, wages remain depressed in the Calhoun area even though the unemployment rate is low. They say they can find out what Mohawk's average wages are only if they move forward with the pretrial discovery process.
Mohawk's use of immigrant labor has transformed Calhoun's demographic profile. The Hispanic population there shot up from nearly nothing in 1990 to an estimated one-sixth of the town's 13,000 residents today.
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/opinion/king/stories/042706.html
Good riddance to day-labor sites
Published on: 04/27/06
The day laborers who gathered daily in clusters along a half-mile stretch of Powder Springs Road in west Marietta have disappeared.
I'm glad they're gone. I'm hoping they don't come back.
That sounds harsh, I know. But long ago I came to the conclusion that unregulated day-labor sites such as this one — about two miles from where I live — are indicative of everything that is wrong with this nation's failed immigration process. They have come to symbolize how the system has functioned so dishonestly; how it has warped our thinking about right and wrong, not just in the legal sense but in what it says about the value we put on hard physical labor and the Latino workers who do that for us.
Ask anyone who lives near one of these sites — in Sandy Springs, in Roswell, in Norcross, in Jonesboro, in Atlanta or anywhere they have sprung up in recent years — if they feel the same way.
When did we decide that people looking for work have a right to loiter in public space? When did we decide that it was OK to exploit them for their cheap labor, help them avoid paying taxes and give them directions to the hospital when they get hurt on the job? What does it say about us that when someone tries to organize these places — making sure the workers aren't being cheated, for instance, and that the employers are insured — the workers and employers often refuse to take advantage of it?
Sometime last week, the men went missing from their usual gathering spots along the worn-out commercial strip of convenience stores, restaurants, laundromats and mechanic shops on Powder Springs Road. It's clear they haven't left the area altogether. They still walk along the side of the road, frequenting the businesses close to where they live. If you go back into the apartment complexes, the men are gathered there — in much smaller numbers — sitting on cars or in the pine islands or on the retaining walls surrounding the parking lots.
They're hoping the construction site foremen or the landscape crew leaders who hire them will turn off the road now to find them, but they don't seem optimistic. When I spoke with some of them Wednesday morning, they blamed the "policia" for cracking down on hiring, but neither Marietta city officials nor the Immigration Customs and Enforcement office of the Department of Homeland Security — the federal agency empowered to enforce immigration law — say they have taken any special action at the Marietta day labor sites in recent weeks.
Speculation is that many of the laborers are convinced they will be arrested for trying to find work now that Georgia has enacted new laws aimed at illegal immigrants and the employers who hire them. The earliest most of those laws take effect is still 14 months away, and even then the hiring laws will not be enforceable for several more years — but those details are probably lost on the day laborers, most of whom don't speak English.
Homeland Security's newfound willingness to conduct raids at large employers who are exploiting illegal immigrant labor — such as the coordinated arrests in 26 states last week that netted nearly 1,200 illegal workers (including about 50 in Atlanta) and seven managers of one company — has also not gone unnoticed.
Additionally, Marietta has a city ordinance that makes it illegal to hire laborers off the street. The law hasn't been enforced for years, but the thinking is that the new state law will push the city to start using it again. That may be what's keeping the foremen and crew chiefs away.
One other part of the Marietta picture is important. A 350-unit apartment complex at the top of the hill just above where the laborers gather is slated for demolition later this year. It is home to hundreds of the men who seek work on the Powder Springs corridor, many of them crowded into the complex's one- and two-bedroom units. Word is that no new leases are being issued and that some of the residents have started to move out.
Is their disappearance from the street permanent? Are they going home or simply relocating elsewhere in metro Atlanta or to another state? It's too soon to answer that.
But if Congress follows up at the federal level with enforcement efforts that complement what state and local officials have done, the days of unregulated day-labor sites like the one in Marietta may be numbered.
That would be a good thing. That they existed at all is a testimony to our failure to deal honestly with this issue for way too long.
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Hispanic law students ready to give back
Work on immigration issues
Melissa Arcila, left, a second-year law student at the University of Georgia, translates Wednesday morning outside Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court for a Spanish speaker as Legal Aid intern and third-year law student Tiffany Carter listens.
Monira Al-Haroun Silk/Staff
Melissa Arcila came to the United States from Colombia as an illegal immigrant when she was 7 years old.
Arcila and her family remained illegal for 10 years until her grandfather's application for American citizenship was approved, paving the way for the rest of her family to become citizens as well.
Arcila now is one of a handful of Hispanic-American law students at the University of Georgia who are ready to give back to the people who struggled in order to give future generations a better life in America.
Arcila chose to pursue a career in criminal law "because I always knew I wanted to work with people less privileged who are on the fringes of society," she said. "Every other social issue comes together there."
After Georgia lawmakers passed strong legislation this year to try to discourage illegal immigration, Arcila and her peers are even more steadfast in both their career choice and their desire to become more involved in Hispanic organizations and issues.
Arcila will be the 2006-07 president of UGA's Hispanic Law Student Association, a group of about 15 Hispanic and non-Hispanic students dedicated to educating the campus and community about legal issues affecting Hispanic people in America and finding ways to assist those in Georgia and in Athens.
"It's definitely an issue that hits home," she said. "(Immigration) issues affect family, friends and many other people we know."
As an acknowledgment to their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who made their lives as Americans possible, Hispanic-American students, especially those who study law, have a responsibility to help new immigrants, Arcila said.
"It would be selfish not to reach back and help those people," said Arcila, who works for the Western Judicial Circuit Public Defender Office assisting Hispanic clients.
The job is more than just work experience while she finishes her law degree, but a part of her mission to empower Hispanic people in Georgia.
At the Hispanic Law Student Association's meeting last week, Arcila, the group's outgoing president, Alana Zorrilla, and other seasoned members called for next year's group to get more involved in the Hispanic community and help Hispanic immigrants understand how Georgia's new immigration law will or won't affect them.
The law, signed earlier this month by Gov. Sonny Perdue, includes requirements that:
Adults seeking some state-administered benefits prove they are in the country legally.
Designated police officers check the immigration status of people they arrest.
Employers be sanctioned if they knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Companies with state contracts verify new employee information.
Many of the law's provisions will not take effect until July 1, 2007.
The law has prompted protests and boycotts all across Georgia.
On Monday, as part of a national movement to encourage immigration reform, Hispanics and their supporters have planned a May Day march in downtown Athens.
The march will begin at 5 p.m. with a rally at Pulaski and West Dougherty streets. Speakers include Arcila, who is also a member of Students for Latino/a Empowerment, Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, and Father Dayro Rico of St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
Organizers timed the march so that participants do not have to skip school or work.
"The message is people should go to work; it's important for people to go to school," Gonzalez said. "It's important also to stand up."
At last week's Hispanic Law Student Association meeting, Arcila asked her peers, especially those who speak Spanish, to help translate for the local Hispanic population, volunteer at the public defender office and organize forums and speaker visits to better educate the public about issues that affect Hispanics.
The group also needs to attract more Hispanic students to the law school, which has about 20 self-identified Hispanic students, said David Schafer, a member of the group.
Hispanic lawyers can influence cases affecting immigrants in a powerful way and can set a precedent for future cases, said Schafer, whose father immigrated from Argentina and whose wife is from Venezuela.
"Your mere presence is powerful, but even more important, your activity is powerful," he said.
That power lies in being able to bridge the knowledge and understanding of Hispanic people, their language, history and culture, he said.
Immigration law brings together Schafer's interest in international politics and the hands-on kind of work involved with being a lawyer, he said.
Schafer's father moved to the United States from Argentina at the age of 20, Schafer said, "(so) I feel like I was born on the border anyway."
Schafer is finishing law school this spring and will be working on immigration law at a Gainesville law firm.
"Every Hispanic lawyer that goes out there has a duty to see what he or she can do to make things better for everybody ... not just Hispanic people," Schafer said.
• Staff writer Todd DeFeo contributed to this report.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 042706-----------------------------------------
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060426-104614-2637r.htm
Gingrich slams immigration plans
By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 27, 2006
Mr. Gingrich said he sympathizes with illegal aliens participating in protests and placed blame for the illegal immigration problem on businesses and the federal government.
"I do not blame someone who leaves poverty to seek prosperity," Mr. Gingrich said during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "They showed up here to work under a social contract and then [the government] tried to change the terms.
"We need to quit lying about who is hiring illegals -- it's Americans," said the Georgia Republican who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2008.
Mr. Gingrich's own immigration reform plan, "Ending the Dishonesty: The Way Forward on Border Control and Patriotic Immigration," calls first for gaining control of America's borders, followed by a worker-visa program.
Mr. Gingrich said private companies such as American Express should run the worker-visa program. Worker cards would include a biometric identification system and require immigrant workers to pay taxes.
"There's zero reason to believe the federal government can run this program," Mr. Gingrich said.
In addition, Mr. Gingrich said a worker-visa program would allow prospective citizens currently obeying immigration laws to come to America immediately.
Mr. Gingrich said he favors the deployment of security fences at points of high traffic flow along the U.S.-Mexico border supplemented by electronic security and surveillance at areas of lower traffic flow.
In the past two weeks, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat and potential presidential candidate in 2008, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have called for increased border security.
Mr. Gingrich conceded he previously fell prey to amnesty compromises during his time in Congress. "I voted for the '86 bill," Mr. Gingrich said. "It sounded fantastic."
The House last year passed an immigration enforcement bill that calls for nearly 700 miles of new fences on the U.S.-Mexico border and requires employers to check Social Security numbers to ensure employees are legal workers.
The Senate is heading in a different direction, with leaders saying they have a general agreement on a broader bill that would create a program for future foreign workers and would legalize many current illegal aliens, offering them a path to citizenship.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4949222.stm
Big boost for US border security
| By James Coomerasamy BBC News, Washington |
 Border control is an issue as part of planned immigration reforms |
The money will come from funds that were due to finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as rebuilding work following Hurricane Katrina.
It will be used to fund measures such as repairing or replacing vehicles used by border patrol agents.
The decision comes as senators are attempting to reach agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill.
Republicans hope it will strengthen political supports for efforts to pass a package of broad immigration reforms.
Right-wingers believe too much emphasis has been placed on plans for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship and not enough on enforcing current laws.
Electoral issue
But Democrats opposed to the amendments argue that the border funding should be on top of, not instead of, the current military allocation.
New York Senator Hillary Clinton said it would "take money from troop pay, body armour and even the joint improvised explosive device defeat fund".
"Now that is a false choice and it is a wrong choice," she added.
So once again, Democrats are attempting to paint Republicans as being weak on national security - a ploy they hope will serve them well in November's mid-term elections.
But for the moment, Republicans have control of Congress and this amendment appears to make a compromise on immigration more likely.--
Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
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