Stan Marek can’t find men to hire. The work is there; an abundance of it as the housing market continues rebounding from the last recession. Marek told Fox News his construction company could easily add 600 positions to meet construction demand. But, as Marek notes, “there’s just not anybody you can hire out there…there’s work out there if we could find those people.”
Marek’s is a common story in the construction industry: a deep housing market, but a shallow labor pool. According to business owners like Marek, many of these positions disappeared with last decade’s recession. Yet, as the demand for new construction recovered, the number of skilled laborers did not. Houses now take longer to build because crews are smaller, and new construction costs have soared as labor rates have increased to reflect the new supply and demand curve. For example, Bloomberg notes the cxcost of framing a 3,000 square foot house has nearly doubled in less than a year due to lack of skilled migrant labor. This adds thousands of dollars to the cost of new construction that home buyers are forced to pay.
According to Fox News, the National Association of Home Builders notes that labor shortages are affecting more than half of the nation’s developers; a problem even more acute in the country’s hotter housing markets. One reason is many of the skilled laborers impacted by the recession left the industry in pursuit of new opportunities, or returned back to their home country. More recently, however, another factor impacting construction labor has arisen: President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Migrant labor is the life force of American construction. And, the crackdowns on both illegal and legal immigration — such as the RAISE Act being pushed by Trump and Sens. Tom Cotton and David Purdue — are making matters worse for the construction industry. Proponents of stricter immigration controls for legal migrants (especially those who could begin to fill the broad labor shortages in construction) argue they simply are protecting American jobs. The continued shortage, however, is clear evidence this is simply not the case; the jobs are there, but red-blooded American citizens are not filling them.
Traditionally we think of immigration “costs” in terms of strains on social welfare, hospital systems, and schools. While this is a legitimate metric, it is increasingly important also to look at the hidden costs of trying to address America’s immigration system with enhanced restrictions. This is not to say, as I have written before, that border security is no longer a crucial objective; it is, and to his credit, Trump has done a laudable job ending the capricious messaging of the Obama administration on illegal immigration, especially across our southern border. Regardless of whether Trump’s wall is ever built, his reversal of nearly a decade of Obama’s feckless immigration policies has already made a difference.
The issue at hand is how we move forward with immigration policies that protect America’s interests, while not shooting ourselves in the foot to accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, the tribalism impacting not just our nation, but Congress as well, has made such nuanced approaches nearly impossible. Democrats put all their eggs in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals basket, reducing their effectiveness to negotiate with Republicans on other and related issues.
Meanwhile, Republicans respond to pressure from constituents that any compromise on immigration is tantamount to going back to the Obama days, by refusing to do anything other than voice support for stronger and stronger restrictions.
A solution that is best for America lies somewhere in between the nonsensical notion of “Sanctuary Cities” (or states) and completely shutting off the avenue for foreign-based labor — in other words, immigration reform that provides adequate funding for border protection and maintains enforcement of America’s immigration laws, but also creates better and easier ways to lawfully enter the country for work. In many respects, the traditional “costs” of immigration are felt only in the abstract, and in some cases, are exaggerated altogether. The hidden costs, however, such as increases in products and services, like construction, which rely heavily on lower-cost labor, are felt immediately and daily by citizens who must shoulder the costs of dwindling migrant labor burdening businesses.
Perhaps ever higher consumer costs are something Americans are willing to bear for tightening immigration restrictions. The point is that Republicans and Democrats should work together on solutions, like adults, where such a scenario is avoided altogether. Doing so, however, would require dropping the heated campaign rhetoric, and performing the job many of us sent them to Congress to accomplish.
Bob Barr is a former federal prosecutor and a former Congressman. He represented Georgia’s 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. HERE
Sheriff: ICE stages morning roundup of undocumented immigrants
Agents with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency made an early morning sweep Monday in Glynn County, arresting as many as two dozen undocumented immigrants, according to Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump.
The arrival of ICE agents here caused a stir throughout the county, particularly among working-class immigrants, documented or otherwise. Those working in construction, landscaping, painting and other blue collar jobs reported numerous no-shows among immigrant workers who feared being deported.
The News received several such calls from employers and concerned residents Monday.
Jump confirmed that ICE agents out of Savannah used the sheriff’s office parking lot off U.S. Highway 341 as a staging ground for the operation. No deputies with the sheriff’s office took part in the operation, Jump said. ICE officials contacted him in advance about the federal agency’s desire to use the sheriff’s office compound as a staging ground, he added.
Jump said the ICE agents arrived before dawn and the operation was complete before 8 a.m. Those taken into custody were returned to ICE facilities in Savannah, Jump said
“They did let me know that they were in town, but none of our resources were needed or used,” Jump said. “But they did stage in our parking lot. I don’t know who they arrested, but everyone they picked up, they took back to Savannah.
“It was over 20 (people) and not less than 30 (people). They started around 5 a.m. and they were done by 7:30 a.m.,” the sheriff said.
Glynn County Police Chief John Powell said he knew nothing of the ICE operation. ICE is an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“If they are doing a roundup, we are not aware of it,” Powell said. “They have no obligation to tell what they’re doing. We’ve had several news outlets contact us, but we are unaware of any action.”
A man identifying himself as ICE’s agent-in-charge in Savannah could not comment further, referring all questions to ICE’s regional offices in Atlanta. Bryan Cox, regional communications director for ICE, said any action targeting undocumented immigrants that may have taken place in Glynn County would not be considered beyond the agency’s normal day-to-day enforcement activities. Here.
Chairman of state Immigration Board calls Decatur suit ‘frivolous,’ says board will be fair
The chairman of the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board says the city of Decatur’s lawsuit against the board is “frivolous,” and promised the board would treat the city fairly.
The board is handling a complaint filed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who contends the city is violating a state law that forbids sanctuary cities. The city is not a sanctuary city, however, and city leaders have flatly rejected calls from residents to adopt this status.
What Cagle was referring to was the city’s decision put in writing a longstanding policy regarding cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The city said it does not detain immigrants without a valid warrant from ICE and never has. Officers who violate the policy could face disciplinary action. The city says its policy is not in violation of state law.
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle: “I will not give up on enforcing the law to keep our citizens safe,” he said. “Law enforcement agencies at every level of government should work together to make sure that criminal illegal aliens who commit serious crimes are arrested, convicted, deported, and never allowed back inside our nation’s borders.”
AJC
April, 4, 2018
Lawmaker: New version of Georgia immigration bill could come next year
The sweeping immigration enforcement measure backed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle stalled in Georgia’s House when lawmakers raced to consider other priorities on the final day of the legislative session, House Majority Whip Christian Coomer said Wednesday.
But it’s possible, according to the Cartersville Republican, that a new version of the bill will surface next year.
Senate Bill 452 would have required prosecutors to determine whether people facing sentencing in Georgia’s courts are in the country illegally and to notify federal authorities when they are.
SB 452 also would have required defendants to be brought before a judge, even if the court has a “bond schedule” allowing them to be released on their own recognizance as soon as they are brought to a local jail. Atlanta is the only Georgia city following such a system. It was adopted after reports by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets of poor people sitting in jail for weeks or months because they could not afford to post bonds for crimes like begging for money or urinating in public.
“We ran out of time before we had finished all the bills that were worthwhile,” Coomer said in an email…. More here.
An unhappy pro-enforcement immigration activist reflects on the 2018 General Assembly
D.A. King
When the 2018 General Assembly ended last week, pro-enforcement immigration activists and supporters of official English had no reason to celebrate. By my memory, along with 2012, this was one of only two years since 2006 that no legislation was passed to address the fact that Georgia has more illegal aliens than Arizona. “Historic” indeed.
A look back:
Constitutional official English ballot question: Failed.
“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that English is the official language of the State of Georgia?”
Despite polling that shows a bipartisan 76% of Georgians favor amending the state constitution to make English the official language of government, voters will not be allowed (again) to decide on the above proposed ballot question in November.
Conservative hero Sen. Josh McKoon’s official English bill, SR587 had a healthy list of co-sponsors and was passed out of the Senate Rules Committee. But it never saw a floor vote.
Smart – and obvious – election year GOP tactics would have been to roll out the legislation, push a floor vote and make it clear all summer that the Democrat “party of the people” would not allow voters to decide on the popular ballot question. But as IAG reported, it seems that at least two Republicans would have been exposed in the process too. No floor vote occurred.
Creating a separate tier of driving and ID credentials for illegal aliens with work permits: Failed
Current administration policy is that “non-citizens without lawful status” are issued the same drivers licenses and official ID Cards as legal immigrants and guest workers with valid, temporary visas. Unlike a growing list of other states (California, Michigan, South Carolina…) that offer options, Georgia has only one tier of these credentials. Georgia’s are issued so as to be accepted as federal ID and are used to access federal buildings, U.S military bases and as valid TSA ID to board airliners.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is quite clear on the status of the illegals with DACA individuals as well as non-DACA illegal aliens with work permits, but the Department of Drivers Services is quietly using the 2005 REAL ID Act language that allows (but does not require) states to issue credentials to these illegal aliens.
McKoon’s well-written remedy, SB 417, died in the Senate Public Safety Committee when two Republicans joined the Democrats in a “no” vote. Later, with only Dalton’s Republican Sen. Chuck Payne voting “no”, the same committee passed out the same language which had been inserted into a House bill. That’s where the new HB258 stopped.
It never came out of Senate Rules. This, despite the fact that an almost identical bill sailed through the GOP senate in 2016 with a 37-17 vote.
The full Senate had a third opportunity to change to driving and ID documents issued to illegal aliens with a floor amendment to the distracted driving bill on Day 39, again offered by McKoon. As IAG reported, that effort failed with eighteen Republicans voting “no” with the Democrats or not voting.
Note: If any reader will kindly point this writer to a mention of any of the above conservative issues in the Republican gubernatorial campaigns, I will happily wash your car.
Graphic as seen on the anti-borders GALEO Inc. Facebook page
SB452 -Requiring that captured criminal illegal aliens be reported to federal immigration authorities and tracking the immigration status and number of non-citizens in the state prison system: Failed
SB452 was widely regarded as a centerpiece, check-the-illegal-immigration-box for Lt. Governor Casey Cagle’s campaign for governor. The immigration enforcement bill died in the final hours of session when Republican Speaker David Ralston refused to call it up for a floor vote.
This writer left the Gold Dome about 3:00 PM on Day 40 after being assured by multiple senior and connected members of House leadership that the legislation would pass on a party line vote and that it was a topic of great importance.
Frantic “Dreamer” members of corporate-funded anti-borders groups literally ran around the third floor of the Capitol desperately begging young Republican lawmakers to vote “no” on reducing the population of criminal illegal aliens in Georgia. They had even scrawled in four-foot tall chalk letters “KILL SB 452” on the sidewalk at the bottom of the Capitol Street entrance.
It should be noted that the scouts for the new Amazon headquarters were in the city that day when readers try to understand how and why a Republican state legislature kills a bill aimed solely at criminal illegal aliens…in an election year.
And it should be long remembered.
D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society Here.
AAAJ graphic as seen on the anti-borders GALEO facebook page. AAAJ sponsors
No more bargaining. No deals. No apologies. Enforce the law.
AnnCoulter is right!
#DeportTheDreamersFirst.
We abandon the premise that the Goodlatte bill or any other legislative amnesty scheme is a viable or realistic alternative to real enforcement.
We have tossed the unworkable fantasy that there can be a deal in Washington to trade renewable legalization for DACA recipients and nationwide E-Verify, a border barrier, ending visa overstays and greater interior enforcement, including work place enforcement and immigration reduction.While the concept sounds “reasonable” for panel discussions, it is nevertheless clearly never going to happen and we believe if such a deal were struck, it would not be honored. This thinking is fine for inside the beltway discussion. but out here on the ground it is obvious unrealistic policy. The lessons learned from 1986 are not forgotten here.
This decision was along time in coming and was cemented while we watched “dreamers” scream about their “rights” while marching in American streets for the last several years and in the Georgia State Captiol over the last three months against any enforcement, even for criminal illegal aliens while employed by the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby. See the defeat of Georgia’s SB452.
We hope the leaders of the pro-enforcement effort in Washington D.C. will recognize that illegal aliens – especially “dreamers” are never going to stop pushing for unlimited amnesties. We also hope that Republican leadership will wake up to the fact that unless the GOP can out-Dem the Democrats on immigration, illegal aliens — including the “dreamers” — are never going to vote Republican (See: 1986 amnesty and voter patterns).
We take the position that illegal aliens should be deported as they are discovered or captured.
Ann Coulter was right. The most effective concept is: #DeportTheDreamersFirst.
We hope President Trump will abandon any ideas of helping “dreamers” and honor his campaign promises.
Jamie Rangle is an illegal alien and DACA recipient who succesfully lobbied against passage of multiple pro-enforcement bills in the just-ended 2018 Republican-ruled Georgia General Assembly. Photo: Georgia Ethics Commission, lobbyist registration.
GOP Rep. Regrets ‘Nazi’ Claims, But Defends Gutting Immigration Enforcement Plan
Breitbart
March 27, 2018
Neil Munro
“This isn’t Nazi Germany,” he said March 27. “That was probably a little strong … the term was definitely probably a little far.”
On March 20, Clark said he opposed an immigration-reform bill requiring non-citizens to carry documents about their visas status, adding “This isn’t Nazi Germany — we are not asking people to carry their papers around on them at all times.” Clark is the vice chairman of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
The immigration-reform bill is backed by Cagle, who is running in the GOP’s gubernatorial primary. A March 27 statement from Cagle’s spokesman praised the original bill:
As it passed the Senate, the Ensuring Necessary Deportations (END) Act is one of the strongest measures ever proposed to keep criminal illegal aliens off our streets. The Senate crafted a common-sense bill preventing criminal illegal aliens from slipping through the cracks and committing further crimes in our society. I’m hopeful members of the House will stand up for their constituents and allow our law enforcement officers to fulfill their oath of office by upholding the law.
The Cagle-backed bill — Senate Bill 452 — says police shall notify local, state and federal officials when they arrest an illegal immigrant. The bill faces a deadline of Thursday when the assembly’s annual session ends.
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But Clark and his allies took out the word “shall” out of the bill and inserted “may” at the behest of business lobbies. That change allows local business groups and ethnic lobbies to pressure police chiefs to minimize the reporting and deportation of the many illegal-immigrant workers in Georgia who hold down Americans’ wages.
That “may” change is needed, Clark said, because some legal immigrants may be caught up because they do not speak English even though they are citizens. For example, he said, the new foreign wives of soldiers stationed in his district at Robins Air Force Base, may be caught by the process. “How is a law-enforcement supposed to know the [new citizens] are not required to have paperwork?”
“I want to have an immigration policy that punishes the illegal immigrants without infringing on the rights of those who are lawful residents and US citizens,” he said.
Federal law requires new legal residents to carry their documents, responded D.A. King, an immigration reformer in Georgia. The required documents can be effortlessly carried as photocopies in pocketbooks or as images in cell phones, said King, who created the pro-American Dustin Inman Society in memory of Dustin Inman, a Georgian killed by an illegal-immigrant driver.
Rep. Clark also changed the Cagle-backed bill to remove a requirement that courts tell federal officials when they have convicted an illegal of any crime in the state. Clark’s amended version now says judges shall only report felony crimes. That change will reduce the deportation of wage-lowering illegals who commit non-felony crimes, such as drunk-driving.
“There was a lot of concerns there with municipal county judges — this is coming from them … that it would cause crowding in jails” when people are detained for minor offenses, such as playing music too loud from autos, Clark said.
“This does not have anything to do with jail overcrowding because the person is already in prison,” responded King. The Cagle-backed law requires local officials to notify federal officials 72 hours before releasing illegals from jail, he said, so “it does not entail any extra time.”
Clark “does not want to talk about [the impact of illegals on] wages or jobs or for Americans, including legal immigrants,” said King, adding:
He does not care about that. He did what he did because he was told to by the people who are in charge in Georgia — the business people [and the]corporate-funded anti-enforcement groups. When we see a Republican talk about ‘Nazi Germany,’ it is not difficult to see where it coming from.
When Breitbart News asked Clark about the impact of illegal and legal immigration on Americans’ wages, Clark responded “I do have to run” and ended the interview.
The state’s Hispanic population is now more than 850,000, up from roughly 30,000 in 1992. Many of the newcomers work in low-wage, low-tech blue-collar jobs, so helping company owners cuts costs and avoid investment in labor-saving machinery.
The mostly poor immigrant population is also shifting the state towards the Democratic Party while helping to lower wages state-wide and also drive up housing prices for young Americans. Here.
