Finally!!!  Some States have grown some balls to do something for a change. 

The Attorney General of Pennsylvania has started arresting employers who are hiring illegal aliens.  I can't tell you how many times I've shaken my head in anger and frustration over employers thumbing their noses at the law to gain an unfair advantage.  It's about time someone started to do something.

I was an employer in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.  I was required to have employee's fill out I-9 forms to prove their citizenship.  I was required to make copies of their citizenship proof and keep it in their personnel file.  I was required to have employee's fill out W-4 forms and to withdraw federal and state taxes along with social security and medicare taxes, which I matched.  I was required to pay workers compensation insurance on my employees and provide proof of that insurance to anyone who asked for it.  I was also required to pay federal and state unemployment insurance on my workers.  And in Pennsylvania, I was required to call the compliance department and register my employees so if they owed child support it could be collected from their paychecks.

These requirements are a burden to new and small businesses but they are a cost of doing business.  When my businesses were doing well, we offered our employee's health insurance.  It would have been nice to have been able to offer them paid sick days, holidays, and vacations, but we never got that big that we could afford it.  We wanted the best people to do the job at hand and we were willing to give them, from profit, things that would make them feel valued and secure so that they would grow along with us. 

Employee turnover is very costly to businesses.  It's a balancing act to keep good employees. That is what is so insidious about employing illegal workers. There is a ripple effect in the whole balance of business and the economy. 

If a company hires illegals, they are most likely payed at a lower rate than regular citizens.  If the employer is paying taxes, it's at a lower percentage rate.  They can now charge what legitimate employers are charging for their product or service and making a greater profit, or they can undercut prices of legitimate businesses cutting into the legitimate business's profits and even their ability to stay in business.  Legitimate businesses are forced to cut corners to compete and profit.  Add to this mix companies moving to foreign countries for cheaper labor and taking advantage of unfair trade agreements or treaties and we have created this culture of fear in the workplace. 

Everyone is asking what happened to our middle class.  Why are people experiencing such a decline in income?  Why have our Unions lost their edge at the bargaining table?  Why has their been such a surge in unfair labor practices?  It is the culture of fear in the workplace.  If the workers don't submit to the will of the employer the employer finds someone who will submit, either out of the country, or imported from without.  People are afraid.  People are afraid of losing their jobs, their ability to provide for their families, to keep a roof over their head, to have decent food or any food in their stomachs.  And, they are submitting to those unreasonable demands out of that fear.  Giving more in time, wages, and taxes.

It sickens me to hear our leaders tell us that we need illegal workers to do the jobs that Americans won't do.  Through my life I have watched other peoples children.  I have scrubbed peoples floors and cleaned their toilets.  I have built their homes and I have prepared their meals.  I AM AN AMERICAN!  There wasn't anything I wouldn't have done to support myself and my family.  But I wouldn't have done it for nothing.

It is a slap in the face to every American worker to tell us there are things we won't do.  I turn a pointed finger back at our politicians, our business leaders, and corporate America and ask--What are YOU doing to and for the American worker?

Arrest every employer of illegals and fine them heavily.  Start enforcing the laws that protect America and it's legal workers.  Restore fair competition and balance to America's workplaces.

tags: illegal immigration  work  jobs  politics  

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