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This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.

j brown's body

"A Soros-backed animal"
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"Under a broiling Alabama sky a frustrated Robby Robertson, a construction site superintendent, surveys an 84,000 square foot, mostly built recreation center close to the Gulf coast port city of Mobile. The site is eerily quiet. Last month, the $20 million project was on track for on-time completion by November 1. Now Robertson says he is looking at a three-week delay after about half of his workers - scared by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a job site in Florida 230 miles (370 kilometers) away - have stayed away.

Immigration raids on building sites - part of an expanding crackdown by Donald Trump on work sites across the country - are causing major disruptions to the construction industry, according to Reuters interviews. "The threats and the reporting of raids have caused workers to not show up at job sites, just whole crews for fear of a raid," said Jim Tobin, the CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, which has 140,000 members. While immigration enforcement agents have stepped up their raids on other work sites in recent weeks, detaining farmworkers, restaurant staff, meat packers, and day laborers, the construction industry is especially vulnerable to disruptions in the labor supply, according to Reuters interviews and government data.

Reuters interviewed 14 people in construction - CEOs, trade association officials and site supervisors - who said the raids are causing project delays and cost overruns and exacerbating existent shortages of skilled labor. They said it was too early to quantify the scale of the damage in terms of lost labor and revenues."

Link

Notch another win for Trump.
 
Is this the part where you claim we need illegal slaves because Americans don’t want to work in construction?
 
Dysfunctional Donald gets himself in so deep with all his BS.

Immigrant labor has been a boon to the US.

Immigrants are more beneficial to the US than detrimental.

He lied when he said they were only going after criminals.

The immigrants know better. They know when their friends have been hauled away. They know if their friends are hard workers or scofflaws.

It is not possible to arbitrarily set a quota of criminals to arrest per day without having to round up up some innocent workers who are contributing to the economy, Social Security and the revenue.

btw, none of the Congressional budget estimates of skyrocketing federal debt factored in loss of revenue due to deportation of immigrant workers. This effect is going to make the US budget situation worse than projected.
 
Napoleon said:
Is this the part where you claim we need illegal slaves because Americans don’t want to work in construction?
Click to expand...

It the part where I say "give them legality and let them negotiate their own wages?"
 
j brown's body said:
It the part where I say "give them legality and let them negotiate their own wages?"
Click to expand...
Which comes just before the part where someone points out that this will just drive more illegal immigration and lower wages, starting the cycle all over again. And that's before someone wisely points out that rewarding illegal behavior is not generally a positive thing.
 

Ask trade union leaders what they think about cheap illegal immigrant labor.
 
Napoleon said:
Is this the part where you claim we need illegal slaves because Americans don’t want to work in construction?
Click to expand...
Slaves? Were these people not paid for their work?

Surely they made the federal minimum wage.
 
RF667799 said:
Ask trade union leaders what they think about cheap illegal immigrant labor.
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Typical "I don't know what the **** I'm talking about" response. Union leaders are pissed about it. "During the second half of the 20th century, the predominant view among organized labor changed dramatically, favoring both liberal, inclusive immigration policies and the aggressive organization of immigrant workers." Wikipedia

That trend expanded in the 21st century contributing greatly to both Obama's and Biden's elections.
 
NWRatCon said:
Typical "I don't know what the **** I'm talking about" response. Union leaders are pissed about it.
Click to expand...

About cheap, illegal immigrant labor? Yeah, they don't like it. I don't know what put you in full righteous sanctimony mode, and don't really care.

 

If they are legal, they can negotiate their salary.

You'd rather spend billions on concentration camps for them?

That's insane.
 
Peacenik said:
The immigrants know better. They know when their friends have been hauled away. They know if their friends are hard workers or scofflaws.
Click to expand...
Bonus points for "scofflaws." My wife happily branded us that when we were politely told to put our cribbage board away while relaxing at a brewery in Juneau, AK. (Playing games in a brewery is illegal there).
 
RF667799 said:
About cheap, illegal immigrant labor? Yeah, they don't like it. I don't know what put you in full righteous sanctimony mode, and don't really care.
Click to expand...
Facts. Of course you don't care. We already know that's something you don't have.
 
While I don't necessarily condone the raids where the primary driver is to simply pick up undocumented immigrants (as opposed to undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes other than those related to their presence here), I do believe that employers who knowingly hire illegal labor need to pay the price as well. Bid out your price using labor that is legal and pay appropriately and that will cut down on some of the incentives for illegal immigration.
 
NWRatCon said:
Facts. Of course you don't care. We already know that's something you don't have.
Click to expand...

What facts have you introduced about union leaders and their thoughts on cheap, illegal labor?

Anything about what trade union membership might think about cheap, illegal labor?
 
ROFLMAO... No one does that. They try to use immigration to cut the going rate and lower their bids. But, you make an important point: all this immigration theater is inflating the costs of construction "bigly".
 

The employers are pretty much the key. The consumers largely refuse to consider much beyond the price of their tomatoes. That leaves the employers as sole representatives of the demand side of the market for illegal labor.

Granted, some individuals see political benefit in enabling and continuing that demand.
 
NWRatCon said:
ROFLMAO... No one does that. They try to use immigration to cut the going rate and lower their bids. But, you make an important point: all this immigration theater is inflating the costs of construction "bigly".
Click to expand...

No one uses legal labor? That's a remarkable claim.
 
Both sides see political benefit from it. Those that want cheap watermelons and those that want a higher profit margin. And both sides can blame the other for the problem. But nobody really wants to fix it. Once you fix it, watermelons are more expensive and the profit is much smaller. Lose Lose.
 

Legal labor wins though. But of course, the conditions and pay of the labor is not really a concern for those who see an interest in exploitation.
 
A 3 week delay. How will anyone survive this?
 
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